The Württemberg family

Descendants of the Sun King

Philipp Alexander Maria Ernst, Duke of Württemberg, was born in 1838 as the son of Alexander Württemberg and Marie Christine Orleans. But dark clouds would soon be gathering on the horizon.

Philip's mother is the daughter of King Louis Philippe of France, also known as the "Citizen King". Louis Philippe is the last French ruler with the title of king and comes to power in 1830 through a bourgeois-liberal revolution that topples the reactionary regime of the Bourbons.

A liberal beacon of hope at the beginning of his reign, he fails due to scandals and corruption cases. He supports the reactionary policy of the Austrian State Chancellor Prince Metternich. Since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, it has been his declared goal to restore the supremacy and privileges of the nobility.

Just six months after Philip's birth, his mother dies. Since his grandfather Louis Philippe is a direct descendant of Louis XIV, the Sun King, he is brought to the French court and educated at the court of his grandfather and his wife, Queen Marie Amélie.

Although the House of Württemberg and his father are Protestant, Philip is baptised Catholic. The February Revolution of 1848 forces the family of the French king to flee to exile in England, where they are taken in by Queen Victoria, but Philip returns to his father in Bayreuth.

Duke Philipp actually wants to marry Princess Sophie of Bavaria, the youngest sister of the famous "Sisi", Empress Elisabeth of Austria, but Sophie gives him the cold shoulder. Phillip then marries the Austrian Archduchess Maria Theresa.

For the couple, who have six children, Munich’s master builder Arnold Zenetti and architect Heinrich Adam build Palais Württemberg on Vienna's Ringstrasse. However, Phillip and his family only live there for five years, after which time it is sold and, after being renovated, reopened in 1873 as the Hotel Imperial on the occasion of the World's Fair in Vienna.

From now on, the Württemberg family reside at Palais Strudelhof when in the capital. The Strudelhofstiege, located directly next to the palace, is made world-famous by the novel of the same name by Heimito von Doderer.

In Altmünster, Philipp gives architect Heinrich Adam another commission: he is to build a summer residence for his wife. From the late 1870s, the family spend the summers at Traunsee in their newly built castle in the style of the French Neo-Renaissance, the reason being that Duke Philipp owns a hunting ground in Hinterstoder close by.

At the end of the 19th century, the throne of the Kingdom of Württemberg is vacant, as the son of King Wilhelm II has died in infancy. The throne then falls to Duke Philip, but he cedes it to his eldest son Duke Albrecht due to his old age.

After the sale of Palais Strudelhof, the Württembergs reside in the Kronprinzenpalast in Stuttgart from 1905. Philipp dies there in 1917, in the middle of the First World War, and a few years later the dynasty of the Kingdom of Württemberg comes to an end with the abolition of the monarchy.