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Duke Carl Alexander of Württemberg

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Father Odo, O.S.B.
Born12 March 1896
Stuttgart, German Empire
Died27 December 1964(1964-12-27) (aged 68)
Altshausen, West Germany
Burial
Abbey of St. Martin, Weingarten, Württemberg
Names
Carl Alexander
HouseHouse of Württemberg
FatherAlbrecht, Duke of Württemberg
MotherArchduchess Margarete Sophie of Austria
ReligionRoman Catholicism
OccupationBenedictine monk

Carl Alexander Herzog von Württemberg (later Father Odo) (12 March 1896 – 27 December 1964) was a member of the House of Württemberg who became a Benedictine monk.[1] During the Nazi and post-Nazi era, he provided aid to refugees, Jews, and prisoners of war and was reported to Nazi authorities for these activities. He acted as an informant of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and spied on Wallis Simpson, the lover and later wife of the former British king Edward VIII.[2]

Life

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Carl Alexander of Württemberg (in the middle) with his brothers and sisters in 1903

Carl Alexander was the third son of Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg and his wife, Archduchess Margarete Sophie of Austria. He also had four younger sisters. He was taught at home and attended high school after 1914.

Like many members of ruling houses, Duke Carl Alexander nominally entered the army while still a child. On 12 March 1906, the nine-year old Carl Alexander was named a Leutnant in Infanterie-Regiment Alt-Württemberg (3. Württembergisches) Nr. 121 of the Württemberg contingent of the Prussian Army.[3] On 22 August 1914, shortly after the start of World War I, he entered active service in the regiment and saw action on the Western Front and in Italy.[4] He was promoted to Oberleutnant on 24 December 1914.[5] On 6 June 1916, while serving on the staff of the 4th Army, he was promoted to Hauptmann.[6]

Carl Alexander resigned from the army at the rank of Hauptmann (captain) following the German Revolution of 1918–1919, and within a few months became a postulant at the Abbey of St. Martin in Beuron. He entered the novitiate in 1920 as "Brother Odo", taking vows in February 1921. His father succeeded King Wilhelm II, a distant cousin, as head of the House of Württemberg in October of that same year. Brother Odo was ordained a priest in 1926. In the summer of 1930, Father Odo was sent to the Abbey of St. Martin, in Weingarten, not far from Castle Altshausen. He held several offices in the monastery and was active with different Catholic youth organizations. Because of his position and his family's conservative Catholic values, he was involved in opposition to National Socialism as early as 1933 and was interrogated by the Gestapo several times.

He left the abbey and traveled to Württemberg in 1934. The Nazis expelled Father Odo from Germany in 1936, and he took refuge in monasteries in Switzerland and Italy. In Switzerland, he founded International Catholic Refugees and traveled through Europe.

Emigration to the United States

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In 1940, after the Swiss government informed him that they could not guarantee his safety, Father Odo decided to emigrate to the United States. Before leaving, he destroyed his personal papers, so his activities could not be traced in detail. From 1941 Father Odo lived in Washington, D. C., continuing his work with refugees and enabling Jews to emigrate from Germany and its conquered territories. From 1943 onward, he was involved in the pastoral care of Germans in American prisoner of war camps. He told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the Duchess of Windsor had been sleeping with Joachim von Ribbentrop when he was the German ambassador in London (1936–1938).[7]

The historian and archivist of the House of Württemberg, Eberhard Fritz, believes that Claus von Stauffenberg's opposition to Adolf Hitler may have been partly motivated by his relationship with the House of Württemberg (Stauffenberg's father was the last Oberhofmarschall of the Kingdom of Württemberg). Stauffenberg was personally acquainted with Father Odo and was well aware of pockets of resistance against the Nazis.[8]

After the end of World War II, Father Odo founded the Central European Rehabilitation Association (CERA), with the aim of providing war-torn Central Europe with food, clothing, medicine, and other necessities. In 1949, after CERA had fulfilled its function and was dissolved, Father Odo returned to the abbey of St. Bartholomew in Germany. He left the monastery in 1952 because of a heart condition, returning to his family castle in Altshausen. There he spent the last years of his life and was a refounder of the Yellow Hussars of Altshausen.[9]

Father Odo was briefly interviewed and mentioned in the 1959 biography of his aunt Queen Mary of Teck by the British biographer James Pope-Hennessy.[10]

According to his wishes, Father Odo was buried in the cemetery of the Abbey of St. Martin at Weingarten, Württemberg.

Ancestry

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Decorations and awards

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Notes

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  1. ^ "Herzog" in German means "Duke".
  2. ^ "Wallis Simpson, the Nazi minister, the telltale monk and an FBI plot". the Guardian. 2002-06-29. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
  3. ^ Königlich Württembergisches Militär-Verordnungsblatt: Personal-Nachrichten, 1906 No. 7, Stuttgart 12 March 1906, p. 25
  4. ^ Militär-Wochenblatt, 1914 No. 122, 15 September 1914, p. 2613
  5. ^ Militär-Wochenblatt, 1914 No. 187/188, 29 December 1914, p. 4095
  6. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1916 No. 29, 8 June 1916, p. 317
  7. ^ Evans, Rob; Hencke, David (29 June 2002), "Wallis Simpson, the Nazi minister, the telltale monk and an FBI plot", The Guardian, London, retrieved 2 May 2010
  8. ^ Fritz, Eberhard (2007). "Das Haus Württemberg und der Nationalsozialismus: Motive des Widerstands gegen Hitler und seine Bewegung" [The House of Württemberg and National Socialism: Motives for opposition to Hitler and his movement]. In Dowe, Christopher (ed.). Adel und Nationalsozialismus im deutschen Südwesten [Nobility and National Socialism in the German southwest]. Stuttgarter Symposion (in German). Vol. 1. Stuttgart. pp. 132–162.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ The Bürgergarde, a mounted militia, had been founded in 1748 and disbanded in 1812; a re-enactors' organization with the same name was created in 1960.
  10. ^ Vickers, H. (ed.). The quest for Queen Mary. Hodder & Stoughton, 2018.
  11. ^ a b Kriegsministerium (Hrsg.): Rangliste der Königlich Preußischen Armee und des XIII. (Königlich Württembergischen) Armeekorps für 1914, E.S. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin, 1914, p. 1168
  12. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1918 No. 8, 25 February 1918, p. 54
  13. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1915 No. 5, 21 January 1915, p. 43
  14. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1915 No. 37, 22 June 1915, p. 323
  15. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1916 No. 58, 16 October 1916, p. 611
  16. ^ Militär-Wochenblatt, 1915 No. 104, 10 June 1915, p. 2503
  17. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1916 No. 7, 11 February 1916, p. 82
  18. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1917 No. 44, 10 October 1917, p. 351
  19. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1915 No. 14, 6 March 1915, p. 149
  20. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1916 No. 73, 11 December 1916, p. 784
  21. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1915 No. 45, 23 July 1915, p. 391
  22. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1915 No. 39, 24 June 1915, p. 335
  23. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1917 No. 35, 13 August 1917, p. 285
  24. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1915 No. 45, 23 July 1915, p. 391
  25. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1916 No. 19, 14 April 1916, p. 200
  26. ^ Personal-Nachrichten, 1916 No. 19, 14 April 1916, p. 200
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  • Photographed with Philipp Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg and Prince Albrecht Eugen in 1951, one of the rare photographs available.
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