Franz von Bayern

Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria Herzog von Bayern (born 14 July 1933), commonly known by the courtesy titleDuke of Bavaria, is the head of the House of Wittelsbach, the former ruling family of the Kingdom of Bavaria. His great-grandfather King Ludwig III was the last ruling monarch of Bavaria, being deposed in 1918.

Franz was born in Munich. During the Second World War, the Wittelsbachs were anti-Nazi.^[1] The family initially left Nazi Germany for the Kingdom of Hungary but were eventually arrested following Operation Panzerfaust in 1944. Franz, who was only 11 at the time, spent time in several Nazi concentration camps, including Sachsenhausen, then Flossenbürg and finally Dachau.^[1]

After the war, Franz was a student at LMU Munich and became a collector of modern art. Franz succeeded as head of the House of Wittelsbach, and as pretender to the defunct Bavarian throne, on the death of his father in 1996. He lives at Nymphenburg Palace in Munich and Berg Palace.^[2]

In the Jacobite succession, Franz is heir to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which he does not pursue.^[3] He was an 11th cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.

Franz was born on 14 July 1933 in Munich, as the third child and elder son of Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria, and his first wife, Countess Maria (Marita) Draskovich of Trakostjan, member of the House of Drašković, an old Croatian noble family. As Maria's family did not belong to the small circle of reigning or former reigning families, his parents' marriage was initially considered morganatic. But, on 18 May 1949, when Franz was 15, his grandfather Crown Prince Rupprecht recognised the marriage of Franz's parents as dynastic, and Franz became a successor to the headship of the house.

The Wittelsbach dynasty were opposed to the Nazi regime in Germany. The former Crown Prince Rupprecht earned Hitler's enmity by opposing the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. In 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler's rise to power, he sent his son Albrecht to President Paul von Hindenburg with a protest letter strongly objecting to the appointment of governors at the head of the federal states and thus the de facto abolition of German federalism. In July 1934, Prince Albrecht emigrated to Hungary with his family. From 1935 to 1939 the family returned to Bavaria and lived in seclusion in Kreuth, but former crown prince Rupprecht emigrated to Italy in 1939 and his son Albrecht and his family moved back to Budapest, where they stayed in a rented apartment in the Castle Quarter. They often visited Princess Marita's Hungarian and Croatian relatives in the countryside. The children received private lessons after a visit to the German school failed after a few weeks because it was dominated by Nazi supporters.^[4]

In March 1944, Nazi Germanyoccupied Hungary, and on 6 October 1944 the entire family, including the 11-year-old Franz, were arrested by the Gestapo. They were sent to a series of Nazi concentration camps, including Oranienburg, Flossenbürg and Dachau. As special prisoners, they were allowed to stay together and were locked in separate buildings. Franz remembers that they only received one slice of bread, often moldy, per person per day as food. Badly hit by hunger and disease, the family barely survived.^[5] At the end of April 1945, they were liberated by the United States Third Army.^[6]

After the war, Franz received his secondary education at the Benedictine Abbey of Ettal. He then studied business management at LMU Munich and the University of Zurich. With his father and a sister, he took part in the ship tours organized by King Paul of Greece and Queen Frederica in 1954 and 1956, which became known as the "Cruise of the Kings" and were attended by over 100 royals from all over Europe.^[7]

フランツは現代美術に情熱を傾け、現代ドイツ美術の収集を始めた。彼は、ヨーゼフ・ボイス、ゲオルク・バゼリッツ、ブリンキー・パレルモの初期作品や、ヨルグ・イメンドルフ、ジグマー・ポルケなどの多くの現代ドイツ人画家の作品を含む自身の重要な美術コレクションを、数十年にわたり設立に尽力したミュンヘンのピナコテーク・デア・モデルネ^{[ 8 ]}とミュンヘン州立版画コレクションに永久貸与した。彼はアルテ・ピナコテーク振興協会の会長、ミュンヘン美術館協会の共同創設者兼副会長、グリプトテークおよびバイエルン州立古代美術コレクションの友の会および支援者協会の理事、ミュンヘン・エジプトコレクション友の会の名誉会長を務めている。 2009年、彼は20世紀および21世紀の美術作品を収蔵する膨大な個人蔵書をミュンヘンの中央美術史研究所に寄贈した。

ニューヨーク市の美術界における人脈の広さ、美術に対する深い理解、国際的な人脈、そしてナチス時代の運命のおかげで、フランツ・フォン・バイエルンは、多くのユダヤ系移民が中心となっていたニューヨーク近代美術館の国際評議会に選出された最初のドイツ人となった。^{[ 1 ]}彼に続いて、他のドイツ人が諮問委員会に選出された。彼は最終的に国際評議会の議長を16年間務め、1980年代には美術館の会長であるブランシェット・ロックフェラーと緊密に協力してコレクションを拡大した。^{[ 9 ]}ジャスパー・ジョーンズ、ロバート・ラウシェンバーグ、アンディ・ウォーホル、ダン・フレイヴィンといったアメリカ人アーティストとの友情にもかかわらず、彼は個人的には主に現代ドイツ美術を収集していた。「アメリカ美術は常に私の経済力の一歩先を行っていた」^{[ 10 ]}

2003年、長年にわたる支援活動が認められ、彼はワシントンの美術館フィリップス・コレクションからダンカン・フィリップス賞を授与された最初のヨーロッパ人となった。この賞は1999年以来、美術館を支援するコレクターや寄付者に贈られている。

The respective head of the House of Wittelsbach appoints the board of directors of the foundation Wittelsbach Compensation Fund, into which most of the possessions from the former Wittelsbach House Property Fund were transferred in 1923, including art treasures and collections (in particular the art collection of King Ludwig I, today mostly in the museums Alte Pinakothek and Neue Pinakothek and in the Glyptothek in Munich), the Secret House Archives (today a department of the Bavarian State Archives) and the former royal palaces of Berg, Hohenschwangau (including the Museum of the Bavarian Kings), Berchtesgaden as well as Grünau hunting lodge. He also appoints one of the board members of the Wittelsbach State Foundation for Art and Science, into which the Wittelsbach art treasures acquired before 1800 were brought in in 1923. Since then, this foundation has owned a large part of the holdings of the Munich museums. The former Bavarian Royal Family receives around 14 million Euros in payments annually from the proceeds of the Wittelsbach Compensation Fund. The respective head of the family decides on their distribution and use.^[11]

As head of the House of Wittelsbach, Franz is also Grand Master of the Wittelsbach House Orders, the Order of Saint George, the Order of St. Hubert and the Order of Theresa. Furthermore, he is president of the Bavarian Order Provinces of the Knights' Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

In addition to modern art and contemporary music, Franz' interest lies in the sciences, where he supported the development and expansion of the Bavarian research landscape. He was a member of the board of trustees of LMU Munich, the Technical University of Munich, the Munich School of Philosophy, the Deutsches Museum and the Institute for Bavarian History. As a patron, he heads numerous other organizations, such as the Bavarian Sports Shooting Association.^[12]

There is traditionally a close connection between the House of Wittelsbach and the Roman Catholic Church, especially with the respective Archbishop of Munich, but also with various orders such as the Benedictines and Franciscans. Franz worked voluntarily for many years in the management of the Catholic Academy in Bavaria. He expanded its relationships through contacts with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria and the Jewish communities in Bavaria. In 2007 he institutionalized this network as co-founder of the Nymphenburg Talks, a platform for intercultural and interfaith dialogue that also includes Muslim representatives.^[12]

Franz maintained the tradition founded by his father of holding a large annual reception with a sit-down dinner at Nymphenburg Palace where he lives in a side-wing (the second pavilion to the right of the central pavilion is his residence, including a privat garden within the palace park). Around 1,500 mostly changing guests from state politics, municipalities, churches and sciences, art and medicine as well as friends and relatives are invited.^[13] He also invites smaller groups of changing guests to Berchtesgaden Palace to discuss specific topics that are important to him.

His 80th birthday party, in 2013, was held at the Schleissheim Palace near Munich. The party was attended by 2,500 guests,^[14] including the then-incumbent Minister-President of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer.^[15]

Franz has had a life partner since 1980, Thomas Greinwald, although they have never married.^[16] In August 2011, the duke appeared at Prince George Frederick of Prussia's wedding, accompanied by Greinwald and his first cousin once removed – and future heir – Prince Ludwig. He and Greinwald first appeared publicly as a couple in Munich in 2023.^[17] The heir presumptive to the headship of the House of Wittelsbach is his brother Max Emanuel Herzog in Bayern. Because Max has five daughters but no sons, he is followed in the Bavarian line of succession by his and Franz's first cousin (second cousin in the male line) Prince Luitpold, and in the next generation by the latter's son Ludwig (born 1982).^[18][19]

フランツはスチュアート家の末裔である。 1701年の王位継承法がなければ、フランツはスチュアート朝のイングランド、スコットランド、アイルランドの王位継承者になっていただろう。^{[ 3 ]}しかし、フランツのスポークスマンは、これは純粋に「仮説上の問題」であり、「彼には関係のない完全にイギリスの問題」であり、彼が追求する主張ではないことを明確にしている。^{[ 3 ]}フランツは回顧録の中で、イギリス王位継承権の主張を「魅力的な歴史的珍事」と表現しており、両親が一度も言及したことのないスコットランド旅行で初めて耳にしたという。両親は、フランツが学生時代にスコットランドへ旅行させた。王立スチュアート協会では、かつてジャコバイトが行ったように、彼の父を称えて「海の向こうの王」^{[ 20 ]}に乾杯が捧げられた。^{[ 21 ]}フランツは次のように回想している。「当時ウェールズ公だったチャールズはミュンヘンによく来ていて、私たちはよくそのことでからかわれた。彼はとても機知に富んだ返答をした。」1987年にチャールズがニンフェンブルク宮殿でフランツを訪ねたとき、記者たちはフランツの英国王位継承権について尋ねた。彼は冗談めかして、この主張はおそらく自分の主張よりも優れているだろうと答えた。^{[ 22 ] [ 23 ]}

フランツの弟マックス・エマヌエルはバイエルンとヤコバイトの王位継承権の推定相続人だが、彼の死後、二つの継承系統は分かれることになる。これは、サリカ法によればバイエルンの王位継承権は男系のみで継承されるのに対し、イギリスの継承法ではヤコバイトの継承権は女系にも継承されるためである。つまり、マックス・エマヌエルの死後、彼の長女であるリヒテンシュタイン公女ゾフィーがこの継承権の相続人となり、続いて彼女の長男であるリヒテンシュタイン公ヨーゼフ・ヴェンツェルが父に次いでリヒテンシュタイン王位継承順位第2位となる。彼は他国を統治する最初のヤコバイトの僭称者ではないが、1688年の老僭称者以来、イギリスの地で生まれた最初の人物となる（1995年、ロンドン生まれ）。^{[ 24 ]}

• 1918年以降のバイエルンにおける君主制
• ジャコバイトの継承

• アーダルベルト、プリンツ・フォン・バイエルン。Die Wittelsbacher: Geschichte unserer Familie。ミュンヘン: プレステル、1979 年。