| Gottfried | |
| Succession: | Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg |
| Reign: | 11 December 1950 – 11 May 1960 |
| Reign-Type: | Tenure |
| Predecessor: | Ernst II |
| Successor: | Kraft |
| Full Name: | German: Gottfried Hermann Alfred Paul Maximilian Viktor |
| House: | Hohenlohe-Langenburg |
| Father: | Ernst II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg |
| Mother: | Alexandra of Edinburgh |
| Birth Date: | 24 March 1897 |
| Birth Place: | Langenburg, German Empire |
| Death Place: | Langenburg, West Germany |
Gottfried, 8th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (German: Gottfried Hermann Alfred Paul Maximilian Viktor Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg; 24 March 189711 May 1960) was the only surviving son of Ernst II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.
At the death of his father in 1950, Gottfried inherited the title of Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.[1]
Gottfried was born at Langenburg, Kingdom of Württemberg, the first child of Ernst II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1863–1950, son of Hermann, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Leopoldine of Baden) and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh (1878–1942, daughter of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia). Through his maternal grandparents, he was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria and of Tsar Alexander II.
On 1 May 1937, he joined the Nazi Party the same day as his mother, with the membership number of 4023070.[2] [3] He served as an army officer in World War II, becoming severely injured at the Russian front. He was dismissed from the army after the abortive attempt on Adolf Hitler's life on 20 July 1944.
Gottfried was briefly engaged during 1927–28 to Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, the widow of Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt. That engagement was however repudiated. On 3 December 1930, Gottfried became engaged to Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark. Margarita was the daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and his wife, Princess Alice of Battenberg. Gottfried and Margarita were second cousins once removed through Queen Victoria and third cousins through Nicholas I of Russia. Margarita's younger brother Prince Philip in 1947 married Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Gottfried's second cousin, King George VI. Elizabeth succeeded her father to the throne of the United Kingdom as Queen Elizabeth II.
Gottfried and Margarita had a generally harmonious marriage. They had six children, six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren:
Their four elder children were all born at Schwäbisch Hall, while the two youngest boys, twins, were born in Langenburg.[5]
After World War II, he was appointed as district administrator (Landrat) of Crailsheim.[6] Gottfried became an advocate for West German business interests, which included securing land leases in Liberia.[7]
On 11 May 1960, Gottfried died at Langenburg Castle after a long illness. He is buried on the castle grounds.
Prince Gottfried's personal papers (including family correspondence and photographs) are preserved in the Hohenlohe-Langenburg family archive (Nachlass Fürst Gottfried, HZAN La 145), which is in the Hohenlohe Central Archive (Hohenlohe-Zentralarchiv Neuenstein) in Neuenstein Castle in the town of Neuenstein, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.[8]
. Ernst . Klee . Ernst Klee . Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945 . Frankfurt am Main . S. Fischer Verlag . 2007 . 261 . 978-3-10-039326-5 .
. Petropoulos . Jonathan . Jonathan Petropoulos . Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany . New York . Oxford University Press . 2006 . 382 .