Count Luitpold of Castell-Castell

Count Luitpold Alfred Friedrich Karl of Castell-Castell was a German jurist, staff officer in the German Army during World War II and a member of the extended Danish Royal Family through his marriage to Princess Alexandrine-Louise of Denmark. He was a Count of Castell-Castell and a member of the Comital House of Castell-Castell.

Family

Luitpold was born on November 14, 1904, in Langenzell, Wiesenbach, Grand Duchy of Baden and was the eldest child and son of Generalmajor Otto Friedrich Graf zu Castell-Castell, aide-de-camp to the King of Bavaria, and his wife, Serene Highness Amélie Caroline Ludwiga Gabriele Prinzessin zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg.

Luitpold's engagement to Princess Alexandrine-Louise of Denmark, third child and daughter of Prince Harald of Denmark and his wife Princess Helena Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was announced on August 24, 1936, by special permission of Alexandrine-Louise's uncle Christian X of Denmark. Until the announcement, Alexandrine-Louise had been frequently mentioned as a possible queen consort to Edward VIII. The couple met for the first time in Berlin during the 1936 Summer Olympics. Following their first meeting, Luitpold and Alexandrine-Louise spent nearly every day together. Before her departure from Berlin, Luitpold proposed marriage and Alexandrine-Louise accepted. At the time of their engagement announcement, Luitpold was a law student residing in Munich.
Luitpold and Alexandrine-Louise were married on January 22, 1937, at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen, Kingdom of Denmark. Footage of the wedding on nitrate film is preserved by the Danish Film Institute in their bunker archive for nitrate film at Store Dyrehave in Hillerød. According to the film archivist Karin Bonde Johansen regarding the scenes captured by the film, "the atmosphere looks cheerful and wild looking, but unfortunately there is no audio to the footage."
Luitpold and Alexandrine-Louise had three children:

Countess Amélie Alexandrine Helene Caroline Mathilde Pauline of Castell-Castell ; m. Hochburg September 3, 1965 September 5, 1965, Oscar Ritter von Miller zu Aichholz
Countess Thyra Antonie Marie-Therese Feodora Agnes of Castell-Castell ; m. Copenhagen November 3, 1961, Karl Moritz Moes
Count Otto Luitpold Gustav Friedrich Christian Harald Carl Castell-Castell

Luitpold, among other things a Knight of Honour of the Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg) and recipient of the Grand Cross of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog, was a First Lieutenant in the German Army during World War II. He was severely wounded as a flight passenger when the Ju 52 he was on, during a courier flight from Belgrade to Athens, crashed due to ice on the wings on 28 October 1941. He died on 6 November 1941 in the Kriegslazarett 1/602 in Bankya near Sofia at the age of 36. Luitpold was interred at Bankya, and reinterred in the Castell-Castell family plot at the cemetery in Hochburg.