Princess Antonia of Luxembourg

Antoinette Roberte Sophie Wilhelmine (7 October 1899 – 31 July 1954), commonly referred to as Antonia, was the last Crown Princess of Bavaria before World War II. By birth, she was a member of the Luxembourgish House of Nassau-Weilburg as the child of Guillaume IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Infanta Marie Anne of Portugal. Antonia was a survivor of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Family


Born at Schloss Hohenburg, at Lenggries in Upper Bavaria, Antonia was the fourth daughter of Guillaume IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, who reigned between 1905 and 1912, and Marie Anne, a princess of the Portuguese House of Braganza.

She was the younger sister of two successive grand duchesses: Marie-Adélaïde and Charlotte. In the family she was called "Toni".

Marriage and children
Antonia became the second wife of Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria. The two were engaged on 26 August 1918. At the time, Rupprecht was Generalfeldmarschall in the Imperial German army, and had successfully commanded the German Sixth Army at the Battle of Lorraine.

This led to criticism of the close ties between the Luxembourgish Grand Ducal Family and the royalty of the German Empire at a time when Luxembourg was occupied by Germany. This added to the pressure already on Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde, who was forced to abdicate on 10 January 1919. Despite the abdication of her elder sister, and the overthrow of the Kingdom of Bavaria in favour of a republic, the two were married on 7 April 1921 at Schloss Hohenburg.

Antonia and Rupprecht had six children:
 * Prince Heinrich Franz Wilhelm of Bavaria (28 March 1922–14 February 1958) he married Anne Marie de Lustrac on 31 July 1951.
 * Princess Irmingard Marie Josefa of Bavaria (29 May 1923–23 October 2010) she married Prince Ludwig of Bavaria on 20 July 1950. They have three children.
 * Princess Editha Marie Gabrielle Anna of Bavaria (16 September 1924 – 4 May 2013) married Tito Tomasso Maria Brunetti on 12 November 1946. They had three daughters. She remarried Professor Gustav Christian Schimert on 29 December 1959. They have three sons.
 * Princess Hilda Hildegard Marie Gabriele of Bavaria (24 March 1926 – 5 May 2002) married Juan Bradstock Lockett de Loayza on 12 February 1949. They had four children.
 * Princess Gabriele Adelgunde Marie Theresia Antonia of Bavaria (10 May 1927 – 19 April 2019) married Karl Emmanuel Herzog von Croÿ, later 14th Duke of Croÿ on 17 June 1953. They have three children.
 * Princess Sophie Marie Therese of Bavaria (born 1935) married Jean, 12th Duke of Arenberg on 18 January 1955. They have five children.

Later life
As opponents of the Nazi regime, Antonia and Rupprecht were forced into exile in the Kingdom of Italy in 1939. From there, they moved to the Kingdom of Hungary. When Germany occupied Hungary in October 1944, Antonia and her children were captured, while Rupprecht, still in Italy, evaded arrest. They were imprisoned at Sachsenhausen. In early April 1945, they were moved to Dachau concentration camp. Although liberated that same month, the imprisonment greatly impaired Antonia's health; the ordeal led to her vow never to return to German soil, and she died nine years later, at Lenzerheide, Graubünden, Switzerland.