Michael Benedikt (born Michael Benedikt Georg Jobst Carl Alexander Bernhart Claus Friedrich on 15 November 1946 in Weimar, Germany) is the regning
Grand Duke of Saxony and
Prince of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach-Altenburg, having succeeded his father Karl August II on 14 October 1988. He hails from the House of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach-Altenburg.
Born in Weimar during the World War, while his father had been under house arrest by the Syndicalists, being a reigning German monarch and a general officer in the German Army, Michael Benedikt von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (Altenburg was added to his father’s realm in 1985, after the passing of the last Duke of Saxe-Altenburg) had a most uneventful life for a German heir, having a short career in the military and diplomacy, he devoted himself to the preservation and progress of Weimar, taking a passion in the city’s artwork and archives, including those of Schiller and Goethe. His first marriage with Baroness Christina von Amsberg ended in divorce before he married Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, a scion of a minor line of the Romanovs, giving him one daughter, Leonie, born in 1986. Michael was one month shy of his 42nd birthday when he succeeded to the Grand Duchy of Saxony.
Since, Michael Benedikt kept a low profile in the somehow colorful landscape of German monarchs, devoting himself to the progression and preservation of his beloved city of Weimar, taking a passion in embellishing Weimar’s museums and collections and preserving the archives of Schiller and Goethe. Nevertheless, the Grand Duke also became a figurehead for Progressives, having abandoned most of the etiquette and ceremonies that defined his court, considering that as “historical carnaval”, preferring to live the life of an average man. As such, as he had no male heir in a Grand Duchy formerly organized by Salic Law, he made his daughter Leonie as the heir to the monarchy, encouraging her nevertheless to pursue a career in journalism; upon Michael’s death, the throne of the Grand Duchy of Saxony would’ve gone to his first cousin, Prince Wilhelm Ernst.
On another side, Michael Benedikt is also, according to the Dutch monarchists (known as Orangists), the heir to the Dutch throne, after the assassination of the entire House of Orange-Nassau in Indonesia in 1945, being the great-great-grandson of Princess Sophie of the Netherlands ; from 1890 to 1909, Michael’s grandfather Wilhelm Ernst had been next in line to Queen Wilhelmina. Grand Duke Carl August II had pursued the claim, the issue of his stepping in the throne was even raised during the negotiations for Dutch Anschluss in the 1950s before the negotiations broke down. Unlike his father, Grand Duke Michael never actively pursued his claim in the Netherlands, never officially endorsing it while in private commenting that “the Dutchs are happy with their republic, and I’m content with Weimar”. Nevertheless, his supporters in the Netherlands refer to him as “Michaël I”, forming a fringe movement like the French Legitimists and Bonapartists or the Spanish Carlists.