1 On the biography of Princess Alexandra zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg: Princess Alexandra Luise Olga Viktoria zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg was born on 1 September 1878 as the fourth child of Duchess Marie (daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia) and Duke Alfred (son of Queen Victoria of Great Britain) of Edinburgh in Coburg. She spent most of her childhood and youth in England and Malta, where her father was stationed from 1886 to 1889 as commander of the British Navy, and in the Duchy of Saxony-Coburg-Gotha, which Alfred ruled from 1893 onwards. Alexandra met her cousin of the 3rd degree and later husband, Hereditary Prince Ernst II of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1863-1950) at an early age on the occasion of his many journeys to England. At the age of 15, she caught his eye especially, and after a fierce advertising campaign with her mother Marie, Ernst received permission to become engaged in 1895. In 1896 the wedding finally took place in Coburg. Alexandra moved with her husband to Langenburg, where he began to prepare for his role as heir to the family estate. Soon the first son Gottfried was born, followed by Marie Melita, Alexandra and Irma and Alfred, who died shortly after his birth. But the plans of the young family changed when in 1899 and 1900 Alexandra's brother Alfred and her father died shortly after each other. Ernst took over the regency in the duchy Saxony-Coburg-Gotha for the still minor heir to the throne Duke Eduard von Albany, so that the new centre of life lay for some years in the Thuringian residences. even after the end of the regency 1905 the hereditary princess stayed with her children except in Langenburg from time to time in Coburg at the court of her mother, while Ernst was often absent because of his political ambitions. Alexandra also undertook numerous journeys, above all to southern France, where her mother owned a country estate near Nice, as well as to Romania, to her sister Queen Mary and to Switzerland. In 1913 at the latest, when Ernst II inherited his father as prince, Langenburg Castle finally became the main residence of the family. Nevertheless, during the First World War, the new prince was again absent for a longer period of time. Due to his leading functions in voluntary nursing, he spent most of his time on the Eastern Front. Alexandra took advantage of this time by also being involved in war care and from 1914 to (at least) 1917 she worked as an assistant nurse in the war hospital in Coburg herself.After the war and the political upheavals in Germany, Ernst withdrew largely into private life, so that his wife was now also able to fully fulfil her role as Princess on the Langburg estates, only interrupted by occasional journeys. Princess Alexandra died on 16 April 1942 in the Deaconess Hospital in Schwäbisch Hall and was buried in Langenburg. 2 On the estate and its treatment: The estate of Princess Alexandra consists mainly of correspondence and contains only very few 'fact files', which largely corresponds to her rather withdrawn role at the side of her husband, who is much more active publicly and organizationally. The documents were probably handed over to the Hohenlohe Central Archives in the 1960s and 70s and roughly sorted there. In the process, it was possible to fall back on Alexandra's own disciplinary measures, which enclosed old envelopes with inscriptions in the sense of a file title with part of the written material. The current distortion was also based on these original file titles, but the depth of development went far beyond this. Hardly any transformations had to be carried out, and only a slight mixing with files of other provenance was found, so that few documents were to be removed. However, numerous fascicles were added to the collection, which were found during the processing of other langenburg estates - in particular those of the husband Ernst II and the daughters Alexandra and Irma - and La 143 Nachlass Fürstin Alexandra, which was arranged and recorded in December 2004 by archivist Thomas Kreutzer as part of a project sponsored by the Kulturstiftung Baden-Württemberg. It comprises 2.4 linear metres. Files and volumes in 107 units with a running time of [ca. 1880]-1942.Neuenstein, in April 2005Thomas Kreutzer 3. further materials:: La 102 Fürstliche HofverwaltungLa 95 Domänenkanzlei LangenburgLa 142 Nachlass Fürst Ernst II. 4. Note: This online finding aid lacks some title records of archival records from the 20th century which are not yet fully accessible. In the Hohenlohe Central Archives there is a complete finding aid book, which also contains the not yet freely accessible archive units.Neuenstein, September 2005Dr. Schiffer
