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Prince Franz Josef of Hohenzollern

1926–1996

Born
15 Mar 1926, Umkirch
Country of birth
Germany
Died
13 May 1996, Sigmaringen
facts
9
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Umkirch

    Birth, Umkirch

  2. Died · Sigmaringen

    Death, Sigmaringen

What was it like?

The world around Umkirch, 1926: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Prince was born the same year as Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Marilyn Monroe, and Fidel Castro.

Born the same year

  • Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

    French official and politician (1926–2020)

  • Marilyn Monroe

    American actress and model (1926–1962)

  • Fidel Castro

    Cuban politician, author and revolutionary (1926–2016)

  • Harper Lee

    American novelist (1926–2016)

  • Alfredo Di Stéfano

    Argentine-Spanish association football player (1926–2014)

  • Elizabeth II

    Queen of the United Kingdom from 1952 to 2022 (1926–2022)

Fashion

Straw Hats for Working Men

In the mid-1920s, the straw hat became increasingly popular among working-class men for Sunday wear, replacing the traditional cap.

End of the Corset Era

The traditional corset went completely out of fashion in the 1920s, replaced by a straight silhouette that did not emphasize the waist.

Music

Popular singing and songs

Singing was a popular pastime, with groups like the Comedian Harmonists rising to fame and children frequently singing songs like Three Chinese with the Double Bass.

Improvised jazz instruments

Early jazz bands often lacked professional equipment, so they created rhythm using everyday objects like bells, tin cans, brooms, jugs, and automobile horns.

Getting around

Travelers could ride in 4th class

Until 1928, travelers could ride in the 4th class, which was the cheapest option, though it offered few wooden benches and forced most passengers to stand.

Rural goods transport by horse carriages

Despite the growth of automobiles and trucks, horse-drawn carriages remained the dominant method for transporting goods in rural areas.

Daily life

Manual Housework and Modern Kitchens

Working-class households often lacked running warm water, requiring labor-intensive dishwashing using two basins, soda instead of soap, and drying by hand. In contrast, revolutionary designs like the Frankfurt kitchen introduced gas or electric stoves and hot water heaters to modernize and rationalize housework.

Modern Apartments with Running Water

New public housing apartments offered improved living conditions with central heating, built-in kitchens, and private bathrooms featuring hot and cold running water. Such modern units were rare and highly sought after, with some families waiting years on urgent priority lists to secure them.

Food

Daily shopping and dishwashing routines

Because food could not be kept fresh without refrigerators, working-class housewives shopped daily for small amounts, spending at least an hour each day comparing prices. Dishes were washed in two basins pulled from under the kitchen table, using soda instead of soap and drying them with care, as there was no running warm water.

Around 1919–1924

Survival diets and rural sourcing

During times of severe inflation and food shortages, families often relied on potatoes and legumes, as meat, eggs, and butter became luxury items that disappeared from many tables. Many city dwellers engaged in so-called hamster trips to the countryside to obtain food directly from farmers when supplies in shops were scarce.

Prices and wages
Around 1923–1923

Daily wages during hyperinflation

During the hyperinflation of 1923, money lost value so quickly that workers were paid daily instead of weekly and had to spend their wages immediately. Some workers had to carry their pay home in baskets or wheelbarrows.

Around 1932–1932

Worker family budget in 1932

In 1932, a worker in a Berlin transformer factory took home 109.56 Reichsmarks monthly. After paying for rent and household supplies, the family had only 38 Pfennigs per person per day for food and drink.

Work

Memorable Factory Work Facts

Factory tasks often relied on team piecework where productivity quotas were strictly enforced, and breakfast breaks were sometimes staggered so machines would not stop running. Workers in textile factories sometimes operated a neighboring worker's machine during their own designated break times to ensure continuous output.

The Reality of the Working Day

Although an eight-hour day was a major victory in 1918, it was frequently violated; some workers reported days starting at 7:00 a.m. and ending at 5:00 p.m., while others worked until 7:30 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. Shifts were common, and factory work often continued on Saturdays, with some employees working every other Saturday.

News and letters

Rapid newspaper delivery in Berlin

In the 1920s, Berliners were amazed to receive morning newspapers like the Vossische Zeitung just four hours after publication, thanks to rapid transport by cars from airports.

Berlin pneumatic tube mail system

Berlin used a pneumatic tube system (Rohrpost) with speeds up to 50 km/h to rapidly transport urgent documents like telegrams across the city through 255 kilometers of tubes.

During their lifetime

  1. 1933

    Car ownership grew slowly between 1933 and 1938

    Motorization remained limited in the 1930s, as the number of cars grew from 0.5 million in 1933 to 1.3 million in 1938, yet there were still only 19 cars for every 1,000 inhabitants.

  2. 1961

    Berlin Wall separates nation in 1961

    The construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 ended free movement from East Germany and created a death strip that separated families for decades.

  3. 1992

    Record asylum applications in 1992

    In 1992, the number of asylum seekers in the Federal Republic reached a record high of over 438,000, following the collapse of the Eastern bloc.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.