Dorothea von Salviati


Dorothea von Salviati was the wife of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, the eldest son of Crown Prince Wilhelm, the eldest son and heir of the last German Emperor, Wilhelm II.
Born Dorothea von Salviati in Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, on 10 September 1907, her parents were Alexander Hermann Heinrich August von :de:Salviati |Salviati and Helene "Ella" Crasemann. Her maternal grandfather was the famous Hamburg parliamentarian Gustav August Rudolph Crasemann.

Marriage and children

While students at Bonn, Dorothea and Prince Wilhelm fell in love with each other. However, the prince's paternal grandfather, Wilhelm II, did not approve of the marriage between a member of the minor nobility and an heir to the German Throne. At the time, the former Kaiser still believed in the possibility of a Hohenzollern restoration, and he would not permit his grandson to make an unequal marriage. Wilhelm II told his grandson: "Remember, there is every possible form of horse. We are thoroughbreds, however, and when we conclude a marriage such as with Fräulein von Salviati, it produces mongrels, and that cannot be allowed to happen."
However, Wilhelm was determined to marry Dorothea. He renounced any rights to the succession for himself and his future children in 1933. Wilhelm and Dorothea married on 3 June 1933 in Bonn. They had two daughters who, in 1940, were accepted by the ex-Emperor as dynastic members of the House of Hohenzollern and each recognised as a Princess of Prussia with the style Royal Highness.
After her husband's death on 26 May 1940 during the invasion of France, she led a quiet life and died in Bad Godesberg, Bonn on 7 May 1972.