Prince Sigismund
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Wilhelm Viktor Karl August Heinrich Sigismund von Hohenzollern (Russian: Сигизмунд на Викискладе, White Ruthenian: Жыгімонт or Żygimont, born in Kiel, Germany on November, 27 1896) is the current Head of White Ruthenian Security Services . He is also Second son of the first king of White Ruthenia Genrikh, brother of the current king Vladimir and nephew to the German Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Biography
Second son of then Prince Heinrich of Prussia and Princess Irene von Hessen und bei Rhein, Sigismund was born in Kiel where his father was serving in the Kaiserliche Marine. As his father was quite overshadowed by his Imperial brother, Prince Waldemar grew up in a relative distance from the German court, just as a simple German Prince. As both his parents were grandchildren of Queen Victoria of Great Britain, Sigismund's older brother Waldemar and younger one Heinrich (who would die of it at 4) were both haemophiliac. Sigismund was the only healthy of Prince Heinrich' sons and as such, was more considered than his brother by German officials. Everything changed for the little Prince in 1921: after a vote by the newly elected Parliament of White Ruthenia, his father Heinrich was proclaimed as King Genrikh of White Ruthenia. From one day to the next, the family moved to Minsk, where his ill brother Waldemar was prefered to him to be the first Crown Prince of White Ruthenia. Native prominent citizens were afraid of the strength and readiness of Prince Sigismund, who was above all candidate of the German occupation authorities, who viewed him as a more valuable king to help German exploitation of the country.
Upset by such a choice, Sigismund broke with his father, even threatening to exile himself to Costa Rica. Even if he stayed in the White Ruthenian court, he would rather criticize his father's liberal rule and approach the nationalist opposition, such as the local Orthodox Church, which had already ties with Russian foreign services, and other political opponents. When Waldemar became king of White Ruthenia in 1929 under the name of Vladimir, the childless and haemophiliac king recognized that he was far too weak to assume all of his royal prerogatives: as such, he called for his brother Sigismund to became head of the almighty National Security Services. In this position, Sigismund, who had become the heir apparent to his brother, proved very effective, zealous in the hunt to leftist terrorists and staging an unformal alliance with the most extremist and integrist groups within the country. One of the true rulers of the little kingdom, Sigismund is however considered as some sort of dismal enigma by the Mitteleuropa services: if he is an effective statesman and a staunch German nationalist, he proved to be a tireless plotter, ready for an alliance with pro-Russian groups and is rumoured to be linked to assassination plots against King Vladmir. In spite of all his faults, Prince Sigismund will anyway become, one day or another, succeed his ill-fated brother.
Family
Waldemar married Princess Charlotte Agnes of Saxe-Altenburg, daughter of Ernst II, Duke of Sachsen-Altenburg (born March, 4 1899), in July, 11 1919 in Hemmelrack. She became Princess Charlotta of White Ruthenia after her stepfather's coronation in 1921. They had two children together:
- HRH Princess Barbara Irene Adelheid Viktoria Elisabeth Bathildis of White Ruthenia (born August, 2 1920)
- HRH Prince Alfred Friedrich Ernst Heinrich Conrad of White Ruthenia (born August, 17 1924)
