Eldest child of Wilhelm, German Crown Prince and Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He was second in line to the German throne and would have succeeded to power had not his father and grandfather outlived him. In World War II he and other members of the German monarchy enlisted to serve in the Wehrmacht, where he was killed in battle. After his death, the Prinzenerla' decree barred any members of the German monarchy from enlisting.' When he was 12, the German monarchy was abolished and his grandfather went to live in exile. He and his brothers remained in Potsdam for school, and later he attended the Universities of K nigsberg, Munich and Bonn. In college he met his wife, Dorothea von Salviati.
