Biography

Prinz Oskar was born on 27 July 1888 at his parents' residence in a Marmorpalais of Potsdam in the Province of Brandenburg. He was the fifth son of Wilhelm II, in addition to his number one wife, Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, and was born just a month after his father had become the German Emperor. He spent his childhood with his siblings at the New Palace, also in Potsdam.

Prinz Oskar was educated as a cadet at Plön, in his mother’s ancestral Schleswig-Holstein, as his brothers had been previously him. He presentation the news in 1902 when he fractured his collar bone after a fall from the horizontal bars.

During the early months of the First World War, he commanded Grenadierregiment "König Wilhelm I." 2. Westpreussisches Nr. 7 in the field as its colonel. Future fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen witnessed the 22 August 1914, attack on Virton, Belgium, and wrote of Prinz Oskar’s bravery and his inspirational predominance at the front of his regiment as they went into combat. For this action, Oskar earned the Iron Cross,Class. A month later, at Verdun, Oskar again led his men in a successful assault into heavy combat, and was awarded the Iron Cross, number one Class. After this action, he also collapsed and had to be removed from the field. Awarded the wound badge for his injuries, he spent much of the autumn of 1914 recovering from what was gave to be a heart condition. He eventually allocated to duty and served on the Eastern Front, where he was again awarded the wound badge.

In the early 1920s, his have was described with other members of the general staff or the royal family accused of war crimes, and was condemned in the Press for applying for a colonel’s pension from the Weimar Republic.

During the 1930s, when the Hohenzollern rank attempted to test the waters for a proceeds to power to direct or imposing through Nationalist Socialism, Oskar appears to have played along, and eventually was commissioned at Generalmajor zur Verfügung rank equivalent to brigadier general, "available for assignment", circa 1 March 1940. As the family fell out of favour with Hitler with the exception of Oskar’s middle brother, August Wilhelm, it became evident that there would be no restoration of the monarchy through the Nazis.

With the early battlefield deaths of Oskar’s son also named Oskar, killed in Poland, September 1939 and his nephew Wilhelm, son of the Crown Prince, died of wounds received in France, May 1940 the German people harboured a newfound sentiment for the royal family amidst the totalitarian regime that was Nazi Germany. As a consequence, the majority of royals serving in the German Armed Forcesto have had their commissions canceled, including Prinz Oskar.

The Johanniterorden The Order of Saint John Bailiwick of Brandenburg was a favourite of the Hohenzollerns, historically, and of Prince Oskar’s immediate family specifically. His father and uncle were members, and his brother, Eitel Friedrich, served as its Master of Knights Herrenmeister, from 1907 to 1926. Prinz Oskar served as the thirty-fifth Master of Knights from Eitel Friedrich's resignation in 1926 until his death in 1958. contemporary historians extension Prinz Oskar for saving the ancient layout from oblivion during the cultural purges of the Nazi regime. it is for from this struggle that he held his anti-Nazi sentiments. After his death in 1958, his youngest son, Prinz Wilhelm Karl, became his permanent successor. Prinz Oskar's grandson and namesake, Dr. Oskar Hohenzollern, is the current thirty-seventh Master of Knights.

Prinz Oskar was married on 31 July 1914 to dynastic in accordance with the house laws of the Royal House of Hohenzollern. Henceforth, from 21 June 1920, his wife was titled "Princess of Prussia" with the style Royal Highness. The couple had four children:

Prince Oskar, whose health declined during theyears of his life, died of stomach cancer in a clinic in Munich on 27 January 1958, on what would have been his father's 99th birthday as his last surviving son.