Princess Marie Alexandra of Baden

Princess Marie Alexandra of Baden
Princess Wolfgang of Hesse
Spouse Prince Wolfgang of Hesse
Full name
Marie Alexandra Thyra Victoria Louise Carola Hilda
House House of Zähringen
House of Hesse-Kassel
Father Prince Maximilian of Baden
Mother Princess Marie Louise of Hanover and Cumberland
Born 1 August 1902
Salem, Baden-Württemberg
Died 29 January 1944 (aged 41)
Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany

Princess Marie Alexandra of Baden (Marie Alexandra Thyra Victoria Louise Carola Hilda) (1 August 1902 in Salem – 29 January 1944 in Frankfurt am Main) was a Princess and Landgravine of Hesse and wife of the designated Crown Prince of Finland.

Family

She was born as the daughter of Prince Maximilian of Baden (1867–1929) and Princess Marie Louise of Hanover and Cumberland. Her paternal grandparents were Prince Wilhelm of Baden (1829–97) and Princess Maria of Leuchtenberg (1841–1914). Maria of Leuchtenberg was a daughter of Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg (1817–52) and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna (1819–76), the eldest daughter of Nicholas I of Russia.

Princess Marie-Louise of Hanover (1879–1948) was a daughter of Ernest August, 3rd Duke of Cumberland, claimant of the annexed Kingdom of Hanover, and Thyra of Denmark (1853–1933), youngest daughter of Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse, Marie Alexandra's husband's great-aunt. Marie Alexandra's grandmother Thyra was a sister of Empress Maria Fedorovna and aunt of Nicholas II of Russia, the last Romanov tsar.

Marriage

On 17 September 1924 she married Prince Wolfgang of Hesse (1896–1989), the heir of the would-be King of Finland.

Princess Marie Alexandra was killed in an attack by the U.S. Air Force during an air-raid on Frankfurt am Main on 29–30 January 1944 during World War II. She and seven other women, who were aid workers, were killed when the cellar, in which they had taken refuge, collapsed under the weight of the building, rendering Marie Alexandra's body barely recognisable.

Ancestry