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Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia

1887–1949

Born
29 Jan 1887, Potsdam
Country of birth
German Empire, today Germany
Died
25 Mar 1949, Stuttgart
facts
9
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

  • Birth29 Jan 1887, PotsdamProbable1 source
  • Death25 Mar 1949, StuttgartProbable1 source
  • ParentWilhelm IIConfirmed1 source
  • ParentAugusta Victoria of Schleswig-HolsteinConfirmed1 source
  • Titlemember of the Reichstag of the Weimar RepublicConfirmed1 competing claim1 source
  • Titlemember of the Reichstag of Nazi GermanyConfirmed1 competing claim1 source

A life in time

  1. Born · Potsdam

    Birth, Potsdam

  2. Died · Stuttgart

    Death, Stuttgart

What was it like?

The world around Potsdam, 1887: 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 around the same time as Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Charlie Chaplin.

Known for

Titles held

  • member of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic
  • member of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany
Born around the same time

  • Martin Heidegger

    1889 · German philosopher (1889–1976)

  • Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

    1886 · German architect (1886–1969)

  • Charlie Chaplin

    1889 · English actor and filmmaker (1889–1977)

  • Boris Pasternak

    1890 · Russian writer (1890–1960)

  • Jean Cocteau

    1889 · French writer and film director (1889–1963)

  • Niels Bohr

    1885 · Danish physicist (1885–1962)

Fashion

Distinctive vests signaled marital status in Betzingen

In Betzingen, married men wore black velvet vests, while unmarried men wore red cloth vests with twelve silver buttons. Bachelors also traditionally displayed a red handkerchief from their pocket when searching for a bride.

Rural and urban wedding attire customs

In rural areas, brides traditionally wore black dresses that could be reused for other festive occasions, while white wedding dresses became popular in cities late in the century. Brides traditionally wore a white veil with a myrtle wreath as a symbol of virginity.

Music

Costs for attending local festival banquets

Citizens often paid an entry fee of 20 to 30 Pfennig to attend local festive banquets, which featured patriotic music, choral performances, and speeches.

Diverse musical repertoires in cities

Musical life was diverse, blending folk music and rustic dances with military band repertoires that featured marches, operetta tunes, and original works.

Getting around

City carriage travel rates

Local carriage travel in cities like Barmen and Elberfeld was common, with a non-stop ride costing 50 Pfennig for up to two people, or 1 Mark for a half-hour ride.

Steamship travel on the Weser River

By the late 19th century, steamships on the Weser river were a popular tourist attraction, with the upstream journey from Hamelin to Münden taking 15 hours and 30 minutes, and the downstream journey taking 8 hours and 29 minutes.

Daily life

Access to running water varied by class

Working-class homes often lacked running water, requiring water to be heated in cooking pots, while wealthier, modern homes featured hot-water heaters and running water in the kitchen and bathroom.

Compulsory primary education was six hours daily

Children attended primary school for six hours daily, often sitting four to a bench; primary education became free of charge in 1891.

Food

Meat was a luxury for working families

In working-class households, meat—often cheap sausage or ground meat—was a luxury, frequently reserved for Sunday meals, and sometimes stretched with breadcrumbs to make meat-like dishes like fake rabbit. Men, seen as the primary providers, often received the largest portions of meat, while wives and children ate significantly less.

Simple breakfasts and rare egg treats

Breakfast typically consisted of brown rye bread and a watery brew of coffee and barley, as milk and sugar were considered expensive luxuries. Eggs were an extremely rare delight, and one worker noted that it was amazingly rare for him to even get one.

Prices and wages
Around 1891–1891

Weekly earnings for working-class families

Manual workers commonly earned around 12 to 15 marks per week, while some skilled industrial workers like lathe operators could earn 20 to 30 marks weekly.

Around 1890–1900

Prices of furniture and staples

Furniture was affordable compared to food; a simple chair cost about 3.75 marks and a matching table was 8.75 marks. In contrast, butter was expensive, costing about 1 mark per pound or up to 1.86 marks per kilogram.

Work

Extremely long working hours

Working days were grueling, often lasting 14 to 18 hours, especially for retail clerks and agricultural workers during the harvest season.

Monotonous diet of peas

Farm worker Franz Rehbein recalled that while working at a brickyard for 20 marks a week, his daily diet consisted almost entirely of peas, which left him feeling nauseous for years.

During their lifetime

  1. 1910

    Life expectancy rose to 47 years by 1910

    By 1910, advancements in medicine, hygiene, and infrastructure, such as improved water and sewage systems, increased the average life expectancy to 47 years, compared to 37 years in 1871.

  2. 1914

    Ten percent of households accessed electricity by 1914

    By 1914, approximately ten percent of German households had access to electricity, transforming daily life through new lighting and urban infrastructure.

  3. 1918

    Women gained suffrage in 1918 Weimar reforms

    Following the 1918 proclamation of the Weimar Republic, a new democratic system was established that enfranchised women and mandated an eight-hour workday for laborers.

  4. 1923

    Currency restabilization fueled economic recovery by 1927

    Following the restabilization of the currency in late 1923, Germany secured 800 million gold marks in foreign loans by 1927, which helped industrial production return to 1913 levels.

  5. 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.

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.