Albrecht von Urach

He was the third son of Wilhelm Karl, Duke of Urach (1864–1928), a German general in the First World War who was briefly chosen as king of Lithuania. His mother was Amalie (1865–1912), daughter of Karl-Theodor, Duke in Bavaria. The Urach family are a morganatic branch of the royal family that ruled the Kingdom of Württemberg until 1918. They lived in Stuttgart and at Lichtenstein Castle, and paid frequent visits to Monaco before 1914.[http://jahrbuch.annaberg.de/jahrbuch/2000/Annaberg%20Nr.8%20Kap10.pdf Von Cube Essay, 2000]

His father's mother was Princess Florestine of Monaco (1833–98), and so he was named after her nephew Prince Albert I of Monaco. His father was next but one in line to Monaco's throne up to the 1911 Monégasque Revolution, as Albert I had no legitimate grandchildren. Even before the First World War, France could not tolerate a possible U-boat base so close to Toulon, and preferred a descent from Albert's son Prince Louis, who had had a career in the French army for many years. Louis therefore adopted his natural daughter, Charlotte, to ensure a pro-French succession, and Monaco signed a concessive treaty with France in July 1918. Though he was the third Von Urach son, according to the Chicago Daily Tribune Prince Albrecht was in Paris in March 1930, unsuccessfully trying to persuade the French Foreign Office to accept him as the respectable and legitimate heir of Prince Louis after the recent divorce of Louis' daughter and son-in-law.Chicago Daily Tribune, March 29, 1930 (now the Chicago Tribune)

Following the German defeat in 1918, Albrecht studied art in Stuttgart under Arnold Waldschmidt and Christian Landenberger, and then in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in 1927–30, while living on the Île de la Cité, developing an expressionist style.{{Cite web |url=http://archiv-baumeister.org/index.php?menuid=82#urach |title=Zeitgenossen Willi Baumeisters: Künstler und Architekten – www.willi-baumeister.com |access-date=2007-11-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811171635/http://archiv-baumeister.org/index.php?menuid=82#urach |archive-date=2011-08-11 |url-status=dead }} He then exhibited in 1930-32 at the Leicester and Redfern galleries in London, Galerie Bonaparte in Paris and at Blomquist in Oslo, but could not make a living from painting with the start of the Great Depression, and took up freelance photography. His artistic friends included Willi Baumeister and Fernand Léger. His signature on his paintings was usually "AvU".[https://archive.today/20120714151854/http://new.artnet.com/artist/650252/albrecht-von-urach.html Artnet reference page] His artistic output resumed in the 1950s.

In April 1934 he was living in Venice, renting a flat from Alma Mahler,PENN STATE UNIVERSITY, Mahler-Werfel Papers, fol. 1261 and by chance photographed the first unpublicized meeting of Mussolini and Hitler, which was followed by a public rally in the Piazza San Marco.Peck C. ed. Mariga and her friends (Hannon Press, Dublin 1997) p. 7. {{ISBN|0-9516472-5-3}} Albrecht turned this scoop into a permanent position as a journalist based in Tokyo from September 1934, covering the Chinese-Japanese war and also the Nomonhan incident for several German newspapers.Dinardo K. Lili St Cyr (Back Stage Books, New York 2007) pp. 10–11. {{ISBN|978-0-8230-8889-8}} To become a journalist he was required to join the Nazi party in 1934.Propagandisten im Krieg. By Peter Longerich. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1999, p. 161 By chance the German military attaché and then ambassador in Tokyo, Eugen Ott, had served under his father in 1914–18, and their regular drinking friend was Richard Sorge, the famous Red Army spy.Prange G. Target Tokyo (McGraw Hill, New York 1984) pp. 101, 168, 196. {{ISBN|0-07-050677-9}}Matthews O., "An Impeccable Spy"; Bloomsbury 2020 p. 417 (index) {{ISBN|978-1-4088-5781-6}}

In early 1939 he returned to Europe and was posted to Rome as the Foreign Office liaison between the German and Italian Press, and made friends with Count Ciano. A supporter in the Foreign Office was Ernst von Weizsäcker, whose family had worked with Albrecht's family in the past. In 1940 he brought neutral American and Italian journalists to report on the invasion of Norway, and then in 1941 during the invasion of Russia.{{Citation needed|date=December 2007}} Following the Tripartite Pact between Germany, Japan and Italy signed in September 1940, he was sent on a secret mission to Japan in May and June 1941 to persuade the Japanese to attack the British in Asia; ostensibly the mission was for the co-operation of the German and Japanese press services.Prange G. op. cit. pp. 344–348. In April 1941 Yosuke Matsuoka agreed a neutrality pact between Japan and Russia. Failed in his mission, he returned to the Trans-Siberian Railway shortly before Russia was invaded. Ciano's diary of 10 March 1942 mentions German pessimism about the war in Russia, and that Prince "Alberto von Urago" had visited Rome, making "bitter-sweet" comments about Japan, and hinting at the need for an Axis peace with Britain. "Urach also said that the liquidation of Russia still appears to be a very hard task". 11 March: "The Duce was indignant about Urach's declarations".Muggeridge M. ed. Ciano's Diary (Heinemann, London 1947), pp. 444–445.

Seen in Berlin as an expert on East Asia, he spent much of 1939–43 writing about Japan's rapid technological advancements since the mid 19th century. The 1943 booklet "The secret of Japan's strength" is his best known, selling 800,000 copies, and is of particular interest insofar as someone with a partial dislike for Japan should glorify its martial spirit. Anxious to leave Germany, which was now facing defeat, in early 1944 he succeeded in being appointed press attaché at the German Embassy in Bern, with the rank of Unterkonsul. His children Manuela and Peter were born in Bern. Here he is said to have assisted a group smuggling capital out of Switzerland to the USA via "Banque Charles" in Monaco, where his second cousin Louis II reigned.Abramovici P. Un rocher bien occupé (Editions du Seuil, Paris 2001) pp. 301–304. {{ISBN|2-02-037211-8}} However, the Swiss Kriminalpolizei files reveal that they had him under surveillance in 1944–45, and found after several months that he was not the well-connected clandestine financier that they had been led to believe.Swiss Federal Archives files published in 2010: E2001D#1000/1553#1079* (Von Urach, Albrecht, Prinz, Presseattaché, 1944–1945); E2001E#1967/113#9065* (Von Urach, Prinz Albrecht, 1903, Bern); E4320B#1973/17#671* (Von Urach, Albrecht, 1903, 1944–1957)

In May 1945, as the Embassy no longer represented a state, all the German Embassy staff was expelled to the French-controlled part of Germany, and he was interned for questioning until 1946. He was interviewed twice in October 1945 by OSS officers, who concluded that: "He has been cooperative, and his information is considered reliable. He is not an automatic internee and is of no further CI interest".National Archives and Records Administration; files CI-IIR/27 and CI-FIR/38, declassified 1978. The OSS wartime chief in Bern had been Allen Dulles.

In 1946–1948 von Urach was charged by a German court for creating and broadcasting propaganda in the National-Socialist style, and for membership of the Nazi party (see Denazification). He apologized and there was no sanction.[http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/japan.htm Calvin webpages] His superiors were prosecuted in the Ministries Trial in 1948. In 1947–1967 he resumed his career as an artist and freelance journalist.

He was appointed chief press attaché at Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany, in 1953–1967, where his elder brother Wilhelm was a director. This suited his ability in languages and he travelled widely. He is jointly credited with encouraging the design of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mercedes-fans.de/magazin/classic/die-alpenfahrt-wie-aus-einem-fotoauftrag-eine-einmalige-beziehung-zu-einem-auto-wurde-david-douglas-duncan-mercedes-und-der-300-sl.9670|title=Die Alpenfahrt und mehr: Wie aus einem Fotoauftrag eine einmalige Beziehung zu einem Auto wurde: David Douglas Duncan, Mercedes und der 300 SL – Classic}} He then suffered a stroke in 1967 and was buried at Waldenburg in 1969.

In July 1931 in Oslo he married Rosemary Blackadder (1901–1975), a Scottish journalist and artist, daughter of John Blackadder and wife Anna Wilson, and this morganatic marriage made him ineligible to be Duke (Herzog) of Urach. They had a daughter Marie-Gabrielle, a.k.a. "Mariga", who married Desmond Guinness. Rosemary returned alone to Britain in 1938.

In 1943 he remarried to Ute Waldschmidt (1922–1984), daughter of Arnold Waldschmidt and his wife Olga Schwartz, and they had two children, Peter (1944–1977), and Manuela (1945–2017) who later married Sergei von Cube. They divorced in 1960.

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|1= 1. Prince Albrecht of Urach

|2= 2. Mindaugas II of Lithuania

|3= 3. Duchess Amalie in Bavaria

|4= 4. Wilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach

|5= 5. Princess Florestine of Monaco

|6= 6. Duke Karl-Theodor in Bavaria

|7= 7. Princess Sophie of Saxony

|8= 8. Duke Wilhelm of Württemberg

|9= 9. Baroness Wilhelmine of Tunderfeldt-Rhodis

|10= 10. Florestan I, Prince of Monaco

|11= 11. Maria Caroline Gibert de Lametz

|12= 12. Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria

|13= 13. Princess Ludovika of Bavaria

|14= 14. John of Saxony

|15= 15. Amalie Auguste of Bavaria

|16= 16. Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg

|17= 17. Friederike Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt

|18= 18. Karl-August Rhodis, Baron of Thunderfeldt

|19= 19. Therese, Baroness of Canstatt

|20= 20. Honoré IV, Prince of Monaco

|21= 21. Louise d'Aumont Mazarin

|22= 22. Charles-Thomas Gibert de Lametz

|23= 23. Marie-Françoise Le Gras de Vaubercey

|24= 24. Duke Pius August in Bavaria

|25= 25. Princess Amélie Louise of Arenberg

|26= 26. Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria

|27= 27. Caroline of Baden

|28= 28. Maximilian, Crown Prince of Saxony

|29= 29. Princess Caroline of Parma

|30= 30. Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria (= 26)

|31= 31. Caroline of Baden (= 27)

}}

German National Library (DNB) author ref. http://d-nb.info/gnd/126970335

• Ostasien: Kampf um das kommende Grossreich (Steiniger, Berlin, 1940)
• Det Gula livsrummet. Malmö, 1941. (Swedish edition of the above book)
• Das Geheimnis japanischer Kraft (Berlin, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1943); see link [http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/japan.htm]
• Japans schöpferische Aussenpolitik (1944).

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Category:1903 births

Category:1969 deaths

Category:German artists

Category:Diplomats for Germany

Category:German orientalists

Category:German expatriates in Japan

Category:German expatriates in France

Category:German expatriates in Italy

Albrecht Of Urach, Prince

Category:German Roman Catholics

Category:Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière

Category:People from the Kingdom of Württemberg

Category:German male non-fiction writers