Their Highnesses Duke Borwin, his younger son Duke Michael and uncle Duke Carl Gregor were in Sigmaringen today to pay their respects at the funeral of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hohenzollern, Head of the Princely House of Hohenzollern who died on 16 September.
The Grand Ducal House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and the Princely House of Hohenzollern have a close relationship as it was the late Prince Friedrich Wilhelm’s mother, born Princess Margarete of Saxony, who in 1945 had invited the homeless grand ducal family to Sigmaringen following the destruction of two of their homes during World War II, with the subsequent partition of Germany into East and West making a return to Mecklenburg impossible. Family ties were further strengthened in 1946 with the marriage of the late Duke Georg Alexander to Archduchess Ilona of Austria, a first cousin of the late Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, while in 1965 Duke Carl Gregor was married to Princess Maria Margarethe of Hohenzollern, another first cousin of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm. Both the late Duke Georg Alexander and his brother Duke Carl Gregor received the highest rank of the Princely House Order of Hohenzollern, the Honour Cross 1st Class.