Georg Albrecht, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth-Kulmbach


Georg Albrecht of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, was a German prince and member of the House of Hohenzollern.
He was the eighth of the nine children of Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, by his wife, Marie of Prussia. He was last child of his parents who survived into adulthood; his younger brother Frederick William, born in 1620, lived only one day.

Life

Georg Albrecht's older brother, Hereditary Margrave Erdmann August, died in 1651, four years before the death of their father. However, despite the fact he was the only surviving son of his father, he couldn't inherit Bayreuth, because the late prince left a son, Christian Ernst who replaced him in the line of succession.
When Margrave Christian died in 1655, his grandson Christian Ernst succeeded him. But, because he was too young to reign, Georg Albrecht acted as regent for his nephew until 1664, when Christian Ernst assumed the full government of Bayreuth.
When his father died, Georg Albrecht received Kulmbach as appanage, but never ruled over this land. His title of Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth-Kulmbach was only nominal.

Succession of Bayreuth

When the only surviving son of his nephew Christian Ernst died without surviving male issue in 1726, Georg Albrecht's eldest grandson, Georg Frederick Karl inherited Bayreuth. But the son and successor of Georg Frederick Karl, Frederick, also died without male descendants in 1763, and the youngest Georg Albrecht's grandson, Frederick Christian, became the last Margrave of the Younger line of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.

Marriages and children

In Bayreuth on 10 December 1651, Georg Albrecht married firstly Marie Elisabeth, daughter of Philip, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. They had six children:
  1. Christian Philip.
  2. Sophie Amalie.
  3. George Frederick.
  4. Erdmann Philip.
  5. Christian Heinrich.
  6. Charles August.
In Colditz on 11 November 1665, Georg Albrecht married secondly Sophie Marie of Solms-Baruth-Wildenfels, Dowager Countess of Schönburg-Lichtenstein. They had one son:
  1. George Albert, acquired Oberkotzau by purchase in 1698. He married in Alt-Kinsberg on 7 May 1699 to Regina Magdalena Lutz, daughter of an administrator in Oberkotzau. This marriage was morganatic and the issue born of them was barren of the succession of Bayreuth. Regina was created Frau von Kotzau in 1701. Their descendants, the Freiherren von Kotzau were extinct in the male line in 1976.