The order of the mourners for the final farewell to the deceased, at the funeral of Prince Richard of S-W-B, tells the order of succession:
+ The succeeding now-reigning (“ Fürst”) Prince Gustav escorted the chief mourner and widow of the deceased, Princess Benedikte;
+ The heir to the princedom, Berhardt of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, was escorted by the consort (Carina) of the Fürst (aka Gustav, the reigning prince);
+ The heir to the heir, Wenzel Max, Hereditary Prince (Erbprinz) of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, followed behind, with his own mother Katharina von Podewils-Dürniz (Bernhardt & Katharina have since divorced).
This is the best picture I could find of that - middle of this page:
https://www.billedbladet....-benedikte-knuget-af-sorgThe young man next to Benedikte in this photo is her grandson, though, is not Wenzel. It’s Count Richard von Pfeil and Klein-Ellguth, son of Princess Alexandra of S-W-B. Count Richard seems to never have left his grandmother’s side at the funeral services.
Prince Robin, Richard’s younger brother, is sometimes misidentified as Gustav’s heir; however, Robin married in contravention to the House laws - the ones that prevented Gustav from keeping the stuff if he married in contravention to House Laws. I note that Prince Robin couldn’t be bothered to show up at his brother’s funeral. I’ve gotten tired of correcting Wiki on the topic - I think Robin has a publicist who keep changing it back. His first marriage was to someone who was proclaimed to have been part of Swedish nobility (“af”) but that’s a little murky. His second wife, Marie-Christine Heftler-Louiche (
https://www.thepeerage.com/p6459.htm) is most assuredly not of equal birth - who cares about the other parts, it’s an unequal marriage.
Wenzel is 23 years old now, will be 24 soon, so it’s perfectly reasonable to expect him to marry and have children. However, if he doesn’t, after Wenzel is Prince Otto Ludwig of Sayn Wittgentein Berleberg, married to a Barroness von Cramm, the parents of Princess Lilly who was married to The Prince of Schuamberg-Lippe. However, their eldest son is not married to a noble woman and so their youngest son, Prince Maximillian, wold be the next heir
Someday we’ll find out but I’ll probably be gone by then myself, so some of you young-uns while have to use a Ouija board to tell me.
When Wenzel takes over for Gustav, it will re-unite the two branches of San-Wittgenstein, of which the Berleberg is the senior line. It will bring together two really strong land holdings and a virtual empire, one of the largest land holdings in post-war Germany. Part of the reason it wasn’t de-nazified and forfeited was the same will that Gustav’s grandfather put into play, which was an instrument for tax savings (generation skipping) rather than anything else. it’s the House laws that block Gustav from marrying either of his fiancé’s - well, he could have married either of them but then the money goes away so... Anyway, the very large, very quiet wealth that this represents is based largely in forestry and natural resources. It is, in the words of my great grandfather, “a packet”.
The Getty photos of the funeral - leaving the church - show Carina openly sobbing - covering her face with her hands, handkerchief. She was genuinely distraught.
