History today

I watched a recent documentary on the Duchal and found it fascinating. 

THE DUCAL FAMILY

TWO CENTURIES – FIVE DUKES: THE DUCAL HOUSE OF RATIBOR AND CORVEY

The Ducal House of Ratibor and Corvey was founded in 1840 by a decree of the King of Prussia. It goes back to the old Frankish princely family, Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, making it a branch of the whole House of Hohenlohe. The starting point was the testament of the Landgrave of Hesse, Viktor Amadeus Rotenburg who, in 1825, bequeathed his non-Hesse possessions to his nephew, Prince Viktor of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst. At the same time, he ordered the creation of a new family in the form of the ‘Ratibor und Corvey'schen Familienfideikommiß’ (Ratibor and Corvey entailed family estate). After the death of the landgrave in 1834, the Silesian Duchy of Ratibor and the Westphalian Corvey principality came to the Princely House of Hohenlohe whose hereditary Prince Viktor was named the first Duke of Ratibor and Prince of Corvey by the King of Prussia in 1840. This was the birth of today's family.

In the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire, the Dukes of Ratibor played a leading role in politics, the economy and culture. After the end of the monarchy in 1918, the family devoted itself primarily to managing their agricultural and forestry businesses in the Upper Silesian Ratibor and Corvey in Westphalia. The preservation and maintenance of the castle grounds were also given a central role, such as the family seat, Schloss Rauden, with its vast landscaped park, the Stadtschloss Ratibor (City Palace) which housed the headquarters of the ducal possessions and, finally, Schloss Corvey which was primarily used by the family as a summer residence.

After the Second World War, the Silesian estates of the family fell to the Polish state. After the collapse of the Third Reich, the family fled to Westphalia where they took up permanent residence in Corvey and installed the central administration of the remaining ducal possessions. After the death of his father, Duke Viktor III, his 25-year old son, Franz Albrecht, took over the fortunes of the family business in 1945. In the turbulent post-war years, Duke Franz Albrecht not only built a modern, forward-looking economic enterprise, but also created a cultural centre in Westphalia, which today extends far beyond its borders. This he managed, largely with the help of numerous public institutions, by means of extensive and important monument renovation measures (from an historic architecture perspective); this primarily included the castle, the church and the princely library. The museum and the Corveyer Musikwochen (Corvey Music Weeks) owe their existence to him, too.

Today his son, Viktor, as the 5th Duke of Ratibor and Prince of Corvey, manages the fortunes of the family company with its buildings and businesses, thus ensuring its survival well into the 21st century.