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Bernhard, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen

Bernhard (IV)
Prince of Saxe-Meiningen
Head of the House of Saxe-Meiningen
Tenure 6 January 1946 – 4 October 1984
Predecessor Prince Georg
Successor Prince Konrad
Born (1901-06-30)30 June 1901
Köln, Germany
Died 4 October 1984(1984-10-04) (aged 83)
Bad Krozingen, Germany
Spouse Margot Grössler
Baroness Vera Schäffer of Bernstein
Issue Feodora Prinzessin von Sachsen-Meiningen
Frederick Ernest Prinz von Sachsen-Meiningen
Princess Eleonore
Prince Konrad
Princess Almut
Full name
Bernhard Friedrich Julius Heinrich
House Saxe-Meiningen
Father Prince Frederick Johann of Saxe-Meiningen
Mother Princess Adelaide of Lippe
Full name
Bernhard Friedrich Julius Heinrich

Bernhard, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen (German: Bernhard, Prinz von Sachsen-Meiningen; 30 June 1901 – 4 October 1984) was the head of the House of Saxe-Meiningen from 1946 until his death.

Bernhard was born in Köln the third son of Prince Frederick Johann of Saxe-Meiningen and Countess Adelaide of Lippe-Biesterfeld. His father was the second son of Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and his mother a daughter of Count Ernst of Lippe-Biesterfeld.

After the death of his older brother Prince Georg in 1946 his nephew Prince Frederick Alfred renounced his succession rights and so Bernhard succeeded to the headship of the house of Saxe-Meiningen and the nominal title of Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (as Bernhard IV).

As his first marriage was morganatic his second son Prince Frederick Konrad succeeded him as head of the ducal house following his death in Bad Krozingen.

Bernhard and his first wife were declared guilty of a Nazi conspiracy against Austria in 1933; he was sentenced to six weeks in prison, while she was placed under house arrest. After intervention of the German envoy, he was released from prison, upon which they escaped to Italy. Three weeks later he was arrested while trying to return to his castle of Pitzelstaetten

Bernhard was married morganatically to Margot Grössler (1911–1998), a merchant's daughter from Breslau (today: Wrocław) in Eichenhof im Riesengebirge on 25 April 1931. This union ended in divorce on 10 June 1947. They had two children, both of whom had no succession rights:


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