Leo Löwenstein

Carl Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (30 September 1966 – 24 April 2010), better known by his racing alias Leonhard "Leo" Löwenstein, was a German prince and endurance race driver participating in the VLN.^[1][2]

Career

Löwenstein drove his first race 2006 in the ADAC "Chevy" Egons 500 in the Nordschleife GP in a Porsche 911 at the Nürburgring.^[3]

Death

During the third round of the VLN-long-distance championship of 2010, his Aston Martin V8 Vantage overturned and hit a guardrail and the rear of his car went up in flames. He couldn't be extricated from the wreck and despite instant rescue efforts, he died at the accident scene of smoke inhalation.^[4]

He is the seventh person to have died during the German Endurance Championship since 1977.^[5]

His funeral took place on 30 April 2010 at the family vault at the Engelberg Monastery in Großheubach.^[6] The burial was preceded by a funeral service at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Kleinheubach.

Personal life

Löwenstein was the eldest son and heir to Alois-Konstantin, 9th Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, who became Hereditary Prince in 1990 upon the death of his grandfather. He was a great-great-great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria through descent from her eldest daughter, the German Empress Friedrich (although as heir to the Roman Catholic branch of the Princely House of Lowenstein he may have been barred by the Act of Settlement from eligibility for succession to the British throne).

He married Stephanie Sophie Marie Coletta von Brenken (born 1970) in a civil ceremony on 16 May 1998 at Kleinheubach Castle, and in a religious ceremony on 8 August 1998 at Erpernburg Castle.^[7] The couple had four children:

• HSH Princess Augustina Sophia Carolina Dominique Anastasia Rosa Kiliana Margarethe Maria, born 8 July 1999 in Oslo,
• HSH Hereditary Prince Nicodemus Hieronymus Alois Georg Hubertus Mario Hugo Eusebius Maria, born 2 August 2001 in Oslo,
• HSH Prince Laurentius Christophorus Alois Georg Andreas Benedictus Carl Hubertus Fatima Maria, born 13 February 2006 in Frankfurt,
• HSH Princess Kiliane Olympia Anastasia Rosa Pilar Philippa Josefine Magdalena Maria, born 23 May 2008 in Frankfurt.

Löwenstein and his family lived in the village of Laudenbach am Main in Bavaria, where they ran a vineyard.^[8]

His aunt, Princess Marie Christine of Prussia, was killed in an auto accident in 1966, four months before his birth.

Ancestry

See also

• List of Nürburgring fatal accidents

References