Franz, Duke of Bavaria

Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria, Duke of Bavaria (born 14 July 1933), 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 until being deposed in 1918.

Franz was born in Munich. During the Second World War, the Wittelsbachs were anti-Nazi. The family initially left Nazi Germany for Hungary but were eventually arrested when Germany invaded the country in 1944. Franz was 11 at the time. He spent time in several Nazi concentration camps, including Sachsenhausen, then Flossenbürg and finally Dachau.

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

Birth
Franz was born on 14 July 1933 in Munich, the son of Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria, and his morganatic wife, Countess Maria Draskovich of Trakostjan of the House of Drašković, a Croatian noble family. 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 prince of Bavaria and entered the line of succession after his father.

The Wittelsbach dynasty were opposed to the Nazi regime in Germany, and in 1939, Franz's father took his family to Hungary. They lived in Budapest for four years before moving to their Castle at Sárvár in late 1943. In March 1944, Nazi Germany occupied Hungary, and on 6 October 1944 the entire family, including the 11-year-old Franz, were arrested. They were sent to a series of Nazi concentration camps, including Oranienburg and Dachau. At the end of April 1945, they were liberated by the United States Third Army.

Education
After the war, Franz received his secondary education at the Benedictine Abbey of Ettal. He then studied business management at the University of Munich and in Zurich. Franz developed a passion for collecting modern art. Items from his private collection are on permanent loan to the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. He is also an honorary trustee of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

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

In 2016, he became the donor of the project of restoration of the Statue of St. John of Nepomuk in Divina, Slovakia, realised under auspices of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Slovakia. The project was honoured by patronage of Norodom Sihamoni, the king of Cambodia and Simeon II, the last tsar of Bulgaria. The project was completed in the year 2017.

In June 2021, Franz appeared alongside his longtime partner, Thomas Greinwald, in an official portrait by Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf. He is the first head of a European royal dynasty to publicly acknowledge his same-sex partner.

Succession rights
Franz has never married. The heir presumptive to the headship of the House of Wittelsbach is his brother Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria. Because Max has five daughters but no sons, he is followed in the 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 Prince Ludwig Heinrich of Bavaria (b. 1982).

Link to the Stuarts
Franz is a direct descendant of the House of Stuart. Were it not for the Act of Settlement 1701, Franz would be the successor to the British and Irish crowns of the Stuart kings. His spokesman has, however, made it clear that this is a purely 'hypothetical' issue and not a claim that Franz pursues.

Titles and styles


Born as a non dynastic descendant of the the House of Wittelsbach, at birth Franz was simply styled Franz Prinz von Bayern, Prinz von Bayern being his last name, without the right to a royal title (Prince of Bavaria). He became His Royal Highness Prince Franz of Bavaria on 18 May 1949 when his parents marriage was recognised as dynastic, and His Royal Highness the Hereditary Prince of Bavaria when his father became head of the House of Wittelsbach in 1955.

As head of House of Wittelsbach, Franz is formally styled as His Royal Highness the Duke of Bavaria, of Franconia and in Swabia, Count Palatine of the Rhine.

Honours

 * 🇩🇪 Germany: Commander's cross (Großes Verdienstkreuz) of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
 * Vatican: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre
 * Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Protector Bailiff Knight Grand Cross of Obedience of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, 1st Class
 * Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit
 * 🇷🇴 Romania: Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit
 * House of Habsburg: Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, 1960