Prince Rüdiger of Saxony, Duke of Saxony, Margrave of Meissen (German: Rüdiger Prinz von Sachsen, Herzog zu Sachsen, Markgraf von Meißen Polish: Rydygier książę Saski; born 23 December 1953) is a disputed head of the Royal House of Saxony, and the only agnatic great grandson of the last King of Saxony, Frederick Augustus III.

Prince Rüdiger Karl Ernst Timo Aldi was born in Mülheim, the only son of Prince Timo of Saxony (1923–1983) and his first wife Margrit Lucas (1932–1957), the daughter of Carl Lucas, a butcher, and his wife Hildegard Stube. Prince Rüdiger's parents were married in Muelheim on 7 August 1952 in what was reported at the time as a "fairytale wedding" between a prince and a butcher's daughter. However, as Lucas was a commoner the marriage was considered morganatic.

Prince Rüdiger had a difficult childhood. His father Prince Timo, who became addicted to morphine after sustaining serious injuries during an autumn 1945 a bombing raid on Dresden, had a number of failed jobs behind. When Rüdiger was aged just 18 months old he was taken by his penniless mother to her father's home in Muelheim. The marriage proved difficult and Rüdiger's mother was in process of divorcing Prince Timo when she found out she was pregnant, later giving birth to a daughter Princess Iris of Saxony (b. 1955).

Having failed to pay child support for his wife and two children, shortly before her death in 1957 the family of Rüdiger's mother had Prince Timo placed under legal guardianship by the courts, meaning that following the death of their mother the children were placed in the care of their maternal grandparents, Rüdiger and his sister's paternal family, grandfather Prince Ernst Heinrich the youngest son of King Frederick Augustus III, and uncles Prince Dedo (1922-2009) and Prince Gero (1925-2003) had emigrated to the Republic of Ireland following the loss of their vast properties in Saxony which became part of communist East Germany.

The widowed Prince Timo's difficulties continued as after residing for a time in homeless shelters and dwellings to escape his creditors, the guardianship court had him admitted into a mental hospital in 1958. He was then treated by psychiatrists for the next seven years until 15 December 1965 when the ruling placing him under legal guardianship was lifted.

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