HOHENLOHE-SCHILLINGSFÜRST, FAMILY. – Of this noble family, the principal representatives in the 19th century are the two brothers Chlodwig and Gustav Adolf. CHLODWIG, German statesman, born on 31 March 1819 at Rotenburg on the Fulda, died on 6 July 1901 at Ragaz (Switzerland). A descendant of the ruling princes of the Holy Roman Empire, mediatized in 1806, he became a member of the Bavarian Reichsrat in 1846. Having entered the diplomatic service of the central authorities in Frankfurt in 1848, after the failure of the Paulskirche Assembly he became a supporter of Prussia’s hegemonic policy in Germany.
President of the Bavarian ministry from 1866 to 1870, and of liberal tendencies, he strove by every means to prevent the definition of papal infallibility: on 9 Apr. 1869 he therefore sent to all the representatives of Bavaria at the European courts a circular, drafted by Döllinger, (v.), in which he set forth the necessity that the powers with Catholic subjects should make a collective démarche to the Holy See against the proposed definition of infallibility, adducing as the reason the alteration it would produce in relations between the State and the Church. H.-S.’s dispatch had
no sequel. A member of the Reichstag in 1871, Prince H.-S. supported the policy of the Kulturkampf. Ambassador in Paris from 1874 to 1885, and subsequently Imperial lieutenant in Alsace-Lorraine until 1894, that year he succeeded General Caprivi as Chancellor of the Empire. In this high office he unsuccessfully attempted to oppose William II’s personal policy and, having found every attempt to persuade the Emperor to follow his advice fruitless, resigned on 17 Oct. 1900.
GUSTAV ADOLF, cardinal, born on 26 Feb. 1823 at Rotenburg, on the Fulda, died on 30 Oct. 1896 in Rome. After studying law at Bonn and theology at Breslau and Munich, he went to Rome in 1846 and entered the Ecclesiastical Academy. Ordained a priest in Jan. 1849 at Gaeta, where he had followed Pius IX, he was highly esteemed by the Pontiff, who appointed him privy chamberlain and his almoner.
Nominated titular bishop of Edessa in 1857, H. was destined for the administration of some important diocese in Germany, but attempts to entrust him with the archbishoprics of Breslau, Cologne, or Freiburg were unsuccessful. Created cardinal in the Consistory of 22 June 1866, at the First Vatican Council he was opposed to the dogma of papal infallibility. Designated by Bismarck in 1872 as German ambassador to the Holy See, he did not become so because of Pius IX’s opposition. Through his attitude favorable to Germany and Italy, on various occasions he caused no little harm to the Holy See and incurred the hostility of the Pontiff and the Curia, losing all influence and prestige in the higher ecclesiastical circles.