Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, was a German prince and military officer in both the Austrian army and in the cavalry of the Grand Duchy of Hesse.
Background
Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Ludwig Georg Alfred Alexander of Solms-Braunfels was born in Neustrelitz. He was one of the thirteen children born to Princess Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz during the course of three marriages, his father being her second husband, Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Solms-Braunfels. Although he was the landless, younger son of a younger son of a minor German prince whose realm had been mediatized in 1806, his 1834 marriage to Luise Auguste Stephanie Beyrich was considered below his princely station and had to be conducted morganatically.
In 1837 his mother became queen consort of Hanover and shortly before her death in 1841, his step-father, King Ernest Augustus I, a member of the British royal family, succeeded in pressuring him to make a monetary arrangement with his wife and children for a de facto royal annulment.
Career
As Commissioner General of the Adelsverein, he spearheaded the establishment of colonies of German immigrants in Prince Solms named New Braunfels, in honor of his homeland. Luise and the three children—Marie (born 1835, married Wilhelm Bähr), Karl Louis (1837-1918, married Wilhelmine Gantenhammer), and Melanie (born 1840, married Karl Heil)—were ennobled in the Grand Duchy of Hesse under the name von Schönau on 25 March 1841. The family was further ennobled in 1912 with the surname von Schönau de Solos.
Prince Solms married Maria Josephine Sophie, widow of Prince Franz of Salm-Salm and a princess of Lowenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, on 3 December 1845.
The union produced five children: Prince Ludwig (1847–1900), Princess Eulalia (1851–1922), Princess Marie (1852–1882), Princess Sophie (1853–1869) and Prince Alexander (1855–1926). He was the well-educated and well-connected handsome prince of wealth and privilege who sought adventure and looked for new worlds to explore.
In 1841, he became Captain in the cavalry in the Imperial Army of Austria. lieutenant was during his service with the cavalry that Carl read books about and became interested in joining the Adelsverein, zealously campaigning for its success.
Prince Solms was the motivating force, as the 1844 Commissioner General of the Adelsverein, for the first colony of German emigrants to He arrived on soil in July 1844, making an exploratory tour of as advisor to the Adelsverein, who owned the rights to the Fisher-Miller Land Grant.
Subsequently, on behalf of the Adelsverein, Carl purchased an additional 1,300 acres (53 km2) on the Guadalupe River, where he established the colony of New Braunfels, His vision cleared the path for John O. Meusebach to follow in 1845 as the organizer, negotiator and political force needed for community-building structure in the "New Germany". After returning to Germany, he left the Austrian army and became a colonel in the cavalry of the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1846. He was able to rejoin the Austrian army in 1850, becoming a brigadier in 1859 with command of dragoons on Lake Constance.
He took part in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War.
He retired as a Feldmarschallleutnants (Lieutenant General) in 1868 to his residence at the estate of Rheingrafenstein near Kreuznach on the Nahe River. Prince Solms died on 13 November 1875 and is interred in the city cemetery of Bad Kreuznach.