ChristianLudwig DukeofMecklenburg

German duke, as the second son of the last reigning Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Friedrich Franz IV. Following the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, his father abdicated on 14 November 1918. After finishing school, in the autumn of 1935, Christian Ludwig went as a recruit in the cavalry regiment 14 in Ludwigslust, with whom he was drafted in 1939 into World War II. In 1944, he was dismissed because of a decree as being a member of a former ruling house of the armed forces. When the war ended, Ludwigslust was first occupied by the British, but soon was transferred to the Soviet occupation, so that Christian Ludwig initially went with his family to Glücksburg Castle in Schleswig-Holstein. But he soon returned to Ludwigslust to take care of the family property and was taken prisoner by the Soviet military authorities. After imprisonment he was flown to Moscow, where he was sentenced in the Lubyanka prison to be imprisoned for 25 years. In 1953, he was released after the intervention of Konrad Adenauer for German POWs in the Soviet Union and came back to Christmas 1953 with his family in Glücksburg. On 5 July 1954 in Glücksburg, Christian Ludwig married in a civil wedding Princess Barbara of Prussia, daughter of Prince Sigismund of Prussia. They married in a religious ceremony on 11 July 1954. They had two daughters. He died on 18 July 1996, aged 83, in Gut Hemmelmark, Germany. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less