On 7 March 1914, appointed by the Great Powers of Europe, his father William was created Prince of Albania. After his father became Prince, he held the title of Hereditary Prince of Albania. With Albania in a state of civil war since July 1914, Greece occupying the south of the country, the great powers at war with one another, the regime collapsed, and so all of his family left the country on 3 September 1914 originally heading to Venice. Despite leaving Albania his father insisted that he remained head of state. In the spring of 1924, the Albanian parliament debated the form of government and Milto Tutulani, a senator, appointed Prince William, his son Carol Victor or a Briton as a monarch. During the Second World War, Carol Victor served as an officer in the German army in Romania, and in the autumn of 1941 there was speculation that the Germans, who had occupied Kingdom of Serbia, including the Kosovo with Albanian majority, would use him to rally Albanians to the German cause. This worried Mussolini's Foreign Minister, Count Ciano, to such extent that in November 1941, he accused the Germans of aiming to construct a new Albanian state led by Prince Carol Victor, which would be anti-Italian and whose militia would take oath directly to Hitler. There appeared to be little truth to Ciano's fears, and the Germans reassured him they had no such ambition for the prince. At the time of second/third Battle of Cassino he belonged to the 44th Infantry Division. On the death of his father, on 18 April 1945 at Predeal, near Sinaia, in Romania, he succeeded as Head of the Princely House of Albania and Sovereign Grand Master of the Order of the Black Eagle although he made no public claim to the throne of Albania. Less than a year his father's death, both his uncles William Frederick and Victor, former German ambassador to Sweden died. Also in 1945, his uncle Günther, Sophie's brother, was expropriated without compensation and interned at Rügen island. His sister, Princess Marie Eleonore of Albania died in a communist internment camp at Miercurea Ciuc, Romania, on 29 September 1956, without issue. In 1952, Carol Victor wrote a bibliographical survey of his ancestor the German explorer, ethnologist and naturalist Maximilian of Wied. Later he wrote "Maximilian Prinz zu Wied, sein Leben und seine Reisen" in Maximilian Prinz zu Wied, unveröffentliche Bilder und Handschriften zur Völkerkunde Brasiliens, Josef Röder and Hermann Trimborn, pages 13 – 25. In 1960, Carol Victor left the Munich society "Freunde des Balletts", of which he was president since its foundation in 1956. The following year he published the book: "Königinnen des Balletts: Zweihundert Jahre europäisches Ballett".
Marriage
On 8 September 1966, whilst living in New York City, Carol Victor married the English-born widow Eileen de Coppet, whose first husband had been Captain André de Coppet. They had no children; de Coppet was in her forties when the marriage occurred. Carol Victor and Eileen lived later in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London. Carol Victor died seven years later without issue in Munich. He was buried at Neuwied. His widow lived on until 1985.
Titles and styles
19 May 1913 – 7 March 1914: His Serene Highness Prince Carol Victor of Wied
7 March 1914 – 8 December 1973: His Highness The Hereditary Prince of Albania
