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Duke Adolf Friedrich I Albrecht Heinrich zu Mecklenburg is a German former colonial official in Africa, renowned explorer and, since 1919, the first Duke of the United Baltic Duchy, a Baltic German-dominated Oststaat ("Eastern State") in the former Russian Baltic governorates closely aligned to the German Empire. Known as an avid sportsman & cosmopolitan traveller, Duke Adolf is without a doubt one of the most popular monarchs within the German bloc and respected by his people and foreign representatives alike.
The duke's political convictions continue to remain a mystery for many of his citizens; while initially cooperating with reactionary elements within the Duchy throughout the 1920s to safeguard the old aristocratic order, Adolf Friedrich recently threw his support behind the more progressive-minded liberals of Paul Schiemann in an effort to thoroughly modernize the country, which still suffers from the same byzantine administrative structures it possessed several centuries ago.
Adolf Friedrich is the second cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the brother of Prince Heinrich of Mecklenburg, husband of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands until his death in 1934, the half-brother of the deceased Grand Duke of Mecklenburg Friedrich Franz III and the influential rightist colonial politician Johann Albrecht von Mecklenburg, and the uncle of the current Grand Duke of both Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Friedrich Franz IV.
History[]
Early Life[]
Born in Schwerin, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Adolf Friedrich was born as the third child of Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II (1842–1883) and his third wife Princess Marie Caroline of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1850-1922). He went to school in Dresden, Saxony, and afterwards joined the Prussian Guards Cuirassiers, one of the most prestigious elite forces in the entire Empire. After a riding accident in 1898, he however had to quit active military service and was mostly confined to ceremonial positions from there on, most prominently Rittmeister of various Prussian cavalry squadrons.
Already after his Abitur in 1894, with only 21 years of age, the young duke went on his first journey. Fascinated by the exotic stories of the Orient, he traversed the route Jerusalem-Damascus on horseback, passed the Taurus Mountains into Anatolia, where he visited major cities such as Ankara and Constantinople, and then returned back to Germany via Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary. Combined, he covered a distance of more than 2500 kilometres by horse during this trip. In the following years, Adolf Friedrich also made trips to Ceylon and German East Africa.
Exploring Africa[]
From 1907–1908, Adolf Friedrich led a scientific research expedition in the region of the Great Rift Valley and traversed across Africa from east to west. In 1908 he was awarded the Eduard Vogel Medal of the Association of Geography of Leipzig. Also, in German East Africa, an active volcano was named in his honor "Adolf-Friedrich-Kegel" (Adolf-Friedrich volcano).
From 1910–1911, he led an expedition to Lake Chad and the northern rivers of the Congo up until the Nile in British Sudan. Adolf Friedrich and his companions explored the then little-known primeval forest region of the Congo tributaries and the basin of Lake Chad. Individual groups extended their explorations to the Bahr el Ghazal near the upper Nile, while others travelled to southern Cameroon and the islands of the Gulf of Guinea. Vom Kongo zum Niger und Nil ("From the Congo to the Niger and the Nile"), a two-volume work based on the 1910–1911 expeditions, has an excellent reputation today for its detail and images. The insects from his expeditions can be found in the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin and Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, two of Europe's most prestigious Natural History Museums.
From 1912–1914, Adolf Friedrich was the governor of Togoland in German West Africa and German Consul for French Dahomey & British Gold Coast. When Togo was conquered by British troops during the early weeks of the Weltkrieg, Adolf Friedrich was on vacation in Mecklenburg and thus not present when he was dismissed as governor of the colony.
During the Weltkrieg[]
During World War I, Adolf Friedrich fought in the armies of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. In early 1916, he was sent to Ottoman Mosul as part of the German-Persian military mission. However, soon conflicts emerged with Ottoman and Persian authorities who feared that Germany wanted to expand its influence into Persia and establish a Persian colony after the war. Following that, Adolf Friedrich was dismissed in June and returned to Germany.
In 1918, he was suggested as future king of Finland, with the support of several German politicians, Finnish diplomats and even Gustaf V of Sweden. However, in the end he declined and Erich Ludendorff, the most influential person in Germany at the time, did not have interest in appointing him king as he wanted to expand Prussian influence in Northern Europe.
However, later that year, he was again suggested to become monarch of another German puppet state: the United Baltic Duchy, a Baltic German-dominated duchy in the former Russian Baltic governorates. Adolf Friedrich agreed, and thus became its Duke in November 1918, which he remains until this day. He is known as a political compromiser, seeking cooperation with conservative and progressive forces alike. However, the fact that he has no male heirs despite of his considerable age is something that bothers many Baltic Germans, as they fear that Germany will increase its grip on their small, but traditional home country once the duke passes away.
Personal life[]
Parents[]
Adolf Friedrich is the 10th child of Friedrich Franz II (1823-1883), Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and his third wife Princess Marie von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1850-1922). Friedrich Franz, known as a womanizer, was already 50 when Friedrich Adolf was born and died only 10 years later. He grew up on Castle Raben Steinfeld in Western Mecklenburg, where he established close personal ties with his mother and his brother Heinrich (1876-1934), who would later become Prince Consort of the Netherlands and husband of Queen Wilhelmina. His father however, who resided in Schwerin, did not came in contact with his very young son often.
Marriages[]
On 24 April 1917, Adolf married Princess Victoria Feodora of Reuß-Gera (1889-1918), the oldest daughter of Heinrich XXVII of Reuß-Gera. She died one day after the birth of their only daughter, Princess Woizlawa Feodora, in December 1918 in Rostock. Adolf was on a visit in Riga at that time and thus was not present at the birth of his first child and the death of his wife. Adolf has since stayed unmarried, a fact that has worried many people in the duchy and in Germany, as the succession laws are not entirely clear.
Children[]
Adolf Friedrich's only child is his beloved daughter Princess Woizlawa Feodora of Mecklenburg (born 1918), currently 17 years old. The young lady has grown up in the United Baltic Duchy and is fluent in Estonian and Latvian as well as the Baltic German dialect, very much to the delight of the ducal population, no matter the ethnicity.
Personal interests[]
In his youth, Adolf Friedrich was a huge horse-riding enthusiast, winning several competitions in the 1890s. In 1898, he fell from his horse and was trampled by other horses, fracturing his skull, leading Wilhelm II to personally forbid him from further engagement in this kind of sports. Instead, he became interested in auto racing. Other hobbies include hunting in the untouched forests of Livonia, tennis and non-competitive horse-riding. Friedrich Adolf is known for supporting youth sports programs in the United Baltic Duchy and even has written several books about this topic.
He also still enjoys occasional trips to exotic countries. In the 1920s, he visited the German colonies in Africa multiple times. On his 60th birthday in 1933, he caused much uproar in European media when he traversed the route Reval - Riga - Vilnius - Minsk - Kiev - Kamianets Podilskyi - Lublin - Warsaw - Posen - Berlin - Schwerin by horse, capturing his adventures in a book to capture the beauty of the German Oststaaten. The book was published in 1934 under the name Die Schönheit des Deutschen Ostens ("The Beauty of the German East", published as "The Beauty of Eastern Europe" outside of German-speaking countries) and was critically acclaimed throughout the German and European public.
Works[]
- Treibt Sport! Ein Weck- und Mahnruf an Deutschlands Jugend, 1908.
- Ins innerste Afrika: Bericht über den Verlauf der wissenschaftlichen Zentral-Afrika-Expedition 1907/08, 1909
- Im Hinterlande von Deutsch-Ostafrika, 1910.
- Quer durch den Kongostaat, 1910.
- Vom Kongo zum Niger und Nil, Berichte der deutschen Zentralafrika-Expedition 1910/11, 1912
- Leibesertüchtigung: Eine Perspektive für die baltische Jugend, 1925
- Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Deutschen Zentral-Afrika-Expedition unter Führung Herzog Adolf Friedrichs, 1927
- Die Schönheit des Deutschen Ostens, 1934