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Duke Carl Alexander of Württemberg

Father Odo
Wuerttemberg children 1903 Brandseph.jpg
Carl Alexander of Württemberg (in the middle) with his brothers and sisters in 1903
Born 12 March 1896
Stuttgart
Died 27 December 1964(1964-12-27) (aged 68)
Altshausen
Burial Abbey of St. Martin, Weingarten, Württemberg
Full name
Carl Alexander
House House of Württemberg
Father Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg
Mother Archduchess Margarete Sophie of Austria
Religion Roman Catholicism
Occupation Benedictine monk
Full name
Carl Alexander

Carl Alexander Herzog von Württemberg (Father Odo OSB) (12 March 1896 – 27 December 1964) was a member of the House of Württemberg who became a Benedictine monk. ("Herzog von Württemberg" is German for "Duke of Württemberg".) During, and following, the Nazi era he provided aid to refugees, Jews, and prisoners of war, and was reported for these activities to the Nazi rulers of Germany.

Carl Alexander was the third (and youngest) of the sons of Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg and his wife, Archduchess Margarete Sophie of Austria. He also had four younger sisters. He was taught at home, and attended high school after 1914.

In World War I he fought on the Western Front and in Italy. Following the German Revolution of 1918–1919 he resigned, as captain, from active military service, and within a few months became a postulant at the Abbey of St. Martin in Beuron. He entered the novitiate in 1920 as "Brother Odo", taking vows in February 1921. His father succeeded a distant cousin as head of the House of Württemberg in October of that same year. Brother Odo was ordained a priest in 1926. In the summer of 1930, Father Odo was sent to the Abbey of St. Martin, in Weingarten, not far from Castle Altshausen. He held several offices in the monastery, and was active with Catholic youth organizations. In this position, and based also on his family's conservative Catholicism, he was involved in opposition to National Socialism as early as 1933, and was interrogated by the Gestapo several times.

He left the abbey and traveled to Württemberg in 1934. The Nazis expelled Father Odo from Germany in 1936, and he took refuge in monasteries in Switzerland and Italy. In Switzerland, he founded International Catholic Refugees and traveled through Europe.


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