The life of Prince Waldemar of Prussia

Out of all of Queen Victorias grandsons, Prince Waldemar certainly sounds like he would have been a delight to know. Join me as I look at his short, yet mischievous, life.

Prince Waldemar of Prussia was born on 10th February 1868 at Crown Prince’s Palace in Berlin. He was the sixth child of Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia and his wife, Crown Princess Victoria. Soon after, he was christened with the names Joachim Friedrich Ernst Waldemar, although known as ‘Waldie’ by his family. The Princes birth came just twenty months after the death of his one year old brother, Prince Sigismund. Despite being born during a time of grief, Waldemar soon took Sigismunds place as his mother’s favourite child.

From a young age, Waldemar proved to be much like his maternal grandparents, whose wedding anniversary he had been born on. Like Queen Victoria had been as a child, Waldie was known to be fun loving and mischievous by nature; while he also had a passion for animals and science just like Albert. On one occasion, while visiting Queen Victoria at Osborne House, he released his pet crocodile named ‘Bob’ into the Queens Sitting room. Although at first she didn’t notice, when she did, Victoria let out a large scream, alarming everyone nearby until the crocodile had been safely returned to its cage. As with any child pranking their grandparents, Waldemar found the Queens reaction highly amusing!

Through years of homeschooling, Waldemar was showing much promise and a positive future was expected for the Prince. However, in March 1879, Waldemar and his siblings were rehearsing a play when he began complaining of a sore throat. Soon after, he was diagnosed with diphtheria, the dreaded disease that had killed Princesses Alice and Marie of Hesse just four months earlier. With Friedrich away, Victoria was left to treat her sons illness alone. Taking every precaution possible, Waldemar health and the potential spread seemed under control but just as he seemed to be getting better, things took a tragic turn. At 9pm on 26th March, doctors called Victoria to her son’s room. His symptoms had become increasingly worse and little could be done to save him. Waldemar died about three hours later on 27th March, aged just 11.

Victoria was understandably in shock and devastated by his death so didn’t attend his funeral, which was held the following day. Despite this, one of her nightgowns was placed over his body, with one of Friedrich’s handkerchiefs laid over his face. He was buried near Sigismund at Friedenskirche in Potsdam but the two were later moved to the Kaiser Friedrich Mausoleum following the death of their father in 1888.

I hope you have enjoyed today’s blog. Please feel free to leave any questions in the comments section below or message me on Instagram and I will do my best to help. You can also support my research by visiting and subscribing to my Ko-fi page. Don’t forget, you can also subscribe to by blog for email updates about new blogs! Thank you again, Shannon x

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