Biography of Regina Prinzessin von Sachsen-Meiningen

Regina of Saxe-Meiningen (born 6 January 1925 in Würzburg; died 3 February 2010 in Pöcking) was a member of the House of Saxe-Meiningen, a social worker and the wife of Otto von Habsburg. Her life connected Thuringian and Franconian origins, the afterlife of European dynasties and a long family life in Bavaria.

Würzburg and Heldburg

Regina Helene Elisabeth Margarete was born to Georg of Saxe-Meiningen and Klara-Marie von Korff genannt Schmising-Kerssenbrock. Her family was connected with Veste Heldburg in southern Thuringia. The Nazi period, the war and the postwar years also struck this family hard: her father died in Soviet captivity in 1946.

Social work

Regina worked as a social worker. Sources describe that activity less often than her marriage and her membership in old European houses, but it belongs to her own life story. Her adult life took place in a period when aristocratic titles were mainly family and name history.

Marriage to Otto von Habsburg

On 10 May 1951 Regina married Otto von Habsburg in Nancy. He was the eldest son of the last Austrian emperor, Karl I, and Empress Zita. The marriage drew public attention because Otto was linked for many people with the end of the Habsburg monarchy and with European exile history. Regina and Otto had seven children.

Pöcking

The family later lived in Pöcking on Lake Starnberg. Regina remained much more reserved in public than her husband, who appeared as a writer, European politician and speaker. Her name therefore often appears beside his; nevertheless, her origin, family ties and role in the private setting of the Habsburg-Lorraine family were parts of this history in their own right.

Burial

Regina of Saxe-Meiningen died in Pöcking on 3 February 2010. She was 85 years old. After an initial family burial at Veste Heldburg, her coffin was transferred in 2011 to the Imperial Crypt in Vienna, while her heart remained in Heldburg.