Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden


Frederick I was the sovereign Grand Duke of Baden, reigning from 1856 to 1907.

Life

Frederick was born in Karlsruhe on 9 September 1826. He was the third son of Grand Duke Leopold and of his wife, Grand Duchess Sophie, who was born Princess of Sweden, daughter of King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden.
He became the heir presumptive to the Grand Duchy upon the death of his father in 1852 and the accession of his brother as Grand Duke Louis II. Due to his brother's mental ill-health, he was regent ad interim of Baden in 1852–1855, and took the title of Grand Duke in 1856. His brother, Louis II, died in 1858. He was considered a relatively liberal supporter of a constitutional monarchy. During his reign the option of civil marriages was introduced in Baden as well as direct elections to the Lower House of the Parliament of Baden in 1904.
In 1856, he married Princess Louise, daughter of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife, Augusta of Saxe-Weimar. The couple had three children.
The Grand Duke had a pivotal role in the history of the Zionist movement. In 1896 the Grand Duke met Theodor Herzl via their mutual acquaintance the reverend William Hechler, and helped Herzl in obtaining an audience with his nephew, Wilhelm II, German Emperor. After some persuasion on the part of the Grand Duke, the Emperor accepted the appeal for an audience. It took place in Palestine on 2 November 1898, during the Kaiser's visit to inaugurate the Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem.
Frederick I was present at the proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles in 1871, as he was the only son-in-law of the Emperor and one of the reigning sovereigns of Germany. He died at his summer residence at the island of Mainau in southern Germany on 28 September 1907. Today, Mainau is owned by the Lennart Bernadotte Foundation, created by Frederick's great-grandson Count Lennart Bernadotte,.

Issue

Titles and styles

;German honours
;Foreign honours

Ancestry

Footnotes