| Consort: | yes |
| Pauline of Waldeck and Pyrmont | |
| Full Name: | German: Pauline Emma Auguste Hermine |
| Reign: | 28 September 189021 January 1919 |
| Succession: | Princess consort of Bentheim and Steinfurt |
| House: | Waldeck and Pyrmont |
| Issue: | Prince Eberwyn Victor Adolf, Prince of Bentheim and Steinfurt Prince Karl Georg Princess Elisabeth Princess Viktoria Princess Emma Prince Alexis Rainer Prince Friedrich |
| Birth Date: | 19 October 1855 |
| Birth Place: | Arolsen, Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont |
| Death Place: | Castle Wittgenstein, Bad Laasphe, German Reich |
| Father: | George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont |
| Mother: | Princess Helena of Nassau |
Pauline of Waldeck and Pyrmont (Pauline Emma Auguste Hermine; 19 October 18553 July 1925) was a member of the House of Waldeck and Pyrmont and a Princess of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Through her marriage to Alexis, Prince of Bentheim and Steinfurt, Pauline was also a member of the Princely House of Bentheim and Steinfurt and Princess consort of Bentheim and Steinfurt from 28 September 1890 to 21 January 1919.
Pauline was born in Arolsen, Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont on 19 October 1855 and was the second-eldest child and daughter of George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont and his first wife Princess Helena of Nassau. Pauline was an elder sister of Marie, Crown Princess of Württemberg, Emma, Queen of the Netherlands, Helena, Duchess of Albany, Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, and Elisabeth, Princess of Erbach-Schönberg.
Together with her sisters Emma and Elena, she was one of the candidates to marry King William III of the Netherlands. In the summer of 1878, she arrived in Arolsen to choose one of them. Pauline was already in love with Crown Prince Alexis of Bentheim and Steinfurt and she refused to marry the monarch. Her sister Emma became queen of the Netherlands.
Shortly before her 26th birthday, she married the 35-year-old Alexis on May 7, 1881 in Arolsen.[1] The family received the title of princes in 1817. During the mediatization of 1806, the lands of their county were included in the Grand Duchy of Berg and, later, in the Kingdom of Prussia . However, the head of the family remained a member of the House of Lords of the Landtags of Prussia and Württemberg.
Pauline married Alexis, Hereditary Prince of Bentheim and Steinfurt, fourth child and eldest son of Ludwig Wilhelm, Prince of Bentheim and Steinfurt and his wife Landgravine Bertha of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld, on 7 May 1881 in Arolsen, Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont, the newlyweds settled in Bentheim Castle. Pauline and Alexis had eight children:
∞ 1906–1914 Pauline Langenfeld (1884–1970)
∞ 1918–1919 Ellen Bischoff-Korthaus (1894–1936), who later remarried Adolf II, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe
∞ 1920 Anne-Louise Husser (1891–1951)
∞ 1920 Princess Stephanie of Schaumburg-Lippe (1899–1925)
∞ 1931 Princess Rosa Helene of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (1901–1963)
∞ 1914 Princess Margarete of Schönaich-Carolath (1888–1980)