Berthold, Margrave of Baden

Berthold Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst August Heinrich Karl, Margrave of Baden (24 February 1906 – 27 October 1963) was the head of the House of Baden, which had reigned over the Grand Duchy of Baden until 1918, from 1929 until his death.

Early life
Margrave Berthold was born in Karlsruhe, Baden the only son and younger child of Prince Maximilian of Baden and his wife Princess Marie Louise of Hanover. Margrave Berthold was close to his maternal grandparents Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover and Princess Thyra of Denmark and spent a lot of time with them in Gmunden, Austria where.

Margrave's Berthold's birth secured the succession for another generation, as only his father and the heir to the throne Hereditary Grand Duke Frederick, whose marriage to Princess Hilda of Nassau was childless, were in line to the throne of Baden before then. Due to the impending succession issue which his birth averted, it had been discussed that succession rights and the title prince of Baden could be granted to Count Friedrich von Rhen, the morganatic son of Prince Karl of Baden which was a solution that had previously been used in the House of Baden in 1817 to allow Berthold's ancestor Grand Duke Leopold to subsequently take the throne.

In October 1918, Margrave Berthold's father Prince Max became the Imperial German Chancellor before resigning a month later following the German Empire's defeat in the First World War. The reign of the House of Baden also came to an end as Grand Duke Fredrick II was forced to abdicate. From 1919 Margrave Berthold studied under the German educator Kurt Hahn who with Berthold's father founded the Schloss Salem School in 1920. After graduating from the school in 1926 he went on to further his education at the universities of Freiburg, Oxford and Grenoble, where he studied economics and languages.

Margrave of Baden
In 1927, for inheritance purposes the childless Grand Duke Frederick II and his wife Grand Duchess Hilda legally adopted Berthold so he could inherit the assets of the House of Baden which otherwise would have passed to the Republic of Baden. In 1928 Grand Duke Fredrick II died and was succeeded as head of the House of Baden by Berthold's father Prince Max who himself died the following year at which point Berthold became head of the House of Baden and managed the family estates.

He served in the German Army during the Second World War as a lieutenant in a cavalry regiment until he was seriously wounded in 1940 in France.

Berthold died on 27 October 1963, aged 57, in Spaichingen. He was succeeded as head of house by his son Max.

Marriage and children
Berthold married his second cousin Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark, daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, on 17 August 1931 in Baden-Baden. Via his marriage, he was the brother-in-law of Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh from November 1947. His bride was also his second cousin, through Christian IX of Denmark.

The couple had the following children:
 * Princess Margarita Alice Thyra Viktoria Marie Louise Scholastica (Salem, 14 July 1932 – London, 15 January 2013), married, civilly, in Salem on 5 June 1957 and religiously on 6 June 1957 Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia, and had issue; divorced in 1981.
 * Prince Max Andreas Friedrich Gustav Ernst August Bernhard (3 July 1933 - 29 December 2022), married civilly on 23 September 1966 at Salem and religiously on 30 September 1966 at Persenbeug Castle, Austria, Archduchess Valerie of Austria, and has four children.
 * Prince Ludwig Wilhelm Georg Ernst Christoph (b. Karlsruhe, 16 March 1937), married civilly in Salem on 21 September 1967 and religiously in Wald, Lower Austria, on 21 October 1967 Princess Anna Maria (Marianne) Henrietta Eleonora Gobertina of Auersperg-Breunner] (b. Zseliz, Hungary, today Želiezovce, Slovakia, 15 December 1943), and has three children: