Mecklenburg-Strelitz
(1813-1871)
The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a member state of the German Confederation from 1815 to 1866. It consisted of two detached parts, the duchy of Strelitz to the East of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and the principality of Ratzeburg in the West. Mecklenburg-Strelitz attempted to stay neutral during the war of 1866 until Bismarck pressured the Grand Duke by threatening occupation; shortly afterward, they joined Prussia. A military convention was signed 9 November 1868 and a further convention was concluded in December 1872. A strange anomaly existed, called the Grand Ducal Military Department in Neustrelitz, which provided a quasi-War Ministry that gave the Grand Duke some sense of sovereignty. After the Austro-Prussian War, it became a member state of the North German Confederation in 1867. Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a member state of the German Empire in 1871.
Adolph VI, the Grand Duke, was the cousin of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Friedrich-Franz. Adolph, a 35-year-old bachelor, mysteriously killed himself several months before the end of the war (Feb 1918) when his long-term love affair with Mafalda Salvatini was discovered. She was an Italian opera singer, with whom he had two illegitimate sons. Or at least that is the old story. She was married in 1908 and the claim was that her two sons were illegitimate. That is currently contested by some biographers. Adolf died in 1918 and she married again in1933. The next in line, Duke Karl-Michael, hated Germany, lived in Russia, and served in the Army of the Tsar. He became a naturalized Russian citizen. In March, 1917 Karl-Michael was arrested and made to appear before the Russian parliament. He fled to the southernmost provinces of Russia. So, when the war ended there was no Grand Duke; therefore, the cousin (Fredrick Franz IV of Mecklenburg Schwerin, the regent) abdicated for both Mecklenburg Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Karl-Michael renounced his claim in a letter in 1914 but it did not get delivered until 1919 due to the Russian revolution. Eventually, Karl-Michael adopted his nephew Georg, Count of Carlow who was the morganatic son of his older brother Duke George Alexander of Mecklenburg(1859–1909) on 11 September 1928 and confirmed in the courts of Malchin on 5 October 1928 as heir and the line lives on.
The form of government was a monarchy limited by a representation of estates, and like Mecklenburg-Schwerin, there was no parliament. Mecklenburg-Strelitz maintained feudal serfdom in a way very similar to Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
The population was 108,000 residents in 1914 of which 97 percent was Protestant. The capital was Neustrelitz. The grand duchy was a total of 2,930 km². The small military contingent was concentrated in Second Battalion Großherzoglich Mecklenburgisches Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 89 and a battery of artillery.