Alfred zu Salm-Salm


Alfred Ferdinand Stephan Maria Fürst zu Salm-Salm was a nobleman in the Kingdom of Prussia and a member of the Prussian House of Lords.

Early life

Alfred zu Salm-Salm was born on 13 March 1846 at Anholt Castle. He was sixth of eleven children of Alfred Konstantin, 5th Prince of Salm-Salm and Princess Auguste Adelheid Emanuele Constanze von Croÿ. Among his siblings was elder brother, Prince Leopold zu Salm-Salm, who married Princess Eleonore of Croÿ.
His paternal grandparents were Florentin, 4th Prince of Salm-Salm and Flaminia di Rossi. His paternal uncle was Prince Felix of Salm-Salm, who was killed in action during the Franco-Prussian War and had morganatically married an American woman named Agnes Leclerc Joy in 1862. His maternal grandparents were Prince Ferdinand Victor Philippe of Croÿ and Princess Constance Anne Louise de Croÿ-Solre.

Career

In 1863, at the age of 17, Alfred joined the 14th Imperial and Royal Dragoon Regiment. As a Lieutenant and First lieutenant, he fought in the German-Danish War in 1864 and in Bohemia in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866. He received numerous war decorations and rose to the military rank of Rittmeister. After leaving the army, he lived at in Rhede.
Upon the death of his elder brother, a widower who died without issue on 16 February 1908, he became the titular seventh Prince of Salm-Salm, which had been mediatised since 1813, and well as Lord of Anholt, becoming a hereditary member of the Prussian House of Lords and the Parliament of the Province of Westphalia.

Salm-Salm archives

Beginning in the early 1880s, Alfred devoted himself to the House of Salm-Salm's extensive archives. In May 1898, he became the first founder of the. From 1912 to 1913, he commissioned the construction of a new building for the Salm-Salm Archives. He also succeeded in transferring the archives of the Wildgraves, the Rhinegraves, the Counts, and the Princes of Salm-Horstmar and the Princes of Salm-Kyrburg to the joint archives of the Princes of Salm-Salm and Salm-Horstmar in Anholt.

Personal life

On 18 October 1869 in Vienna, Prince Alfred married Countess Rosa Margaretha Karolina Isabella von Lützow, a daughter of Franz von Lützow, Count of Tuppau and Sachsengrün and Henriette Seymour. Her brothers were the diplomats Count Francis von Lützow and Count Heinrich von Lützow. Together, they were the parents of three sons and five daughters, including:
Prince Alfred died at Anholt on 20 April 1923. As his eldest son predeceased him, he was succeeded by his grandson, Nikolaus Leopold, as the 8th Prince of Salm-Salm. His widow died on 5 February 1927 at Borohrádek.

Descendants

Through his eldest son Emanuel, he was a grandfather of Princess Isabelle of Salm-Salm, considered the longest lived royal European centenarian, Princess Rosemary of Salm-Salm, and, his heir, Nikolaus Leopold, 8th Prince of Salm-Salm.