Alfonso Maximiliano Victorio Eugenio Alejandro María Pablo de la Santísima Trinidad y Todos los Santos, Prinz zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (28 May 1924 – 21 December 2003) was a Spanish businessman known for his promotion of the Spanish resorts of Marbella and the Costa del Sol. He also founded the Marbella Club Hotel.
Background
He was born in Madrid as the eldest son of Prince Maximilian Egon zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1897–1968) and his wife, María de la Piedad de Yturbe y von Scholtz-Hermensdorff, Marquesa de Belvís de las Navas (1892–1990). She was known as Piedita and was the daughter of Don Manuel Adrián de Yturbe y del Villar (Mexican ambassador to St. Petersburg, Vienna, Paris and Madrid) and María de la Trinidad von Scholtz-Hermensdorff y Caravaca, Marquesa de Belvís de las Navas.
On his father's side, Alfonso came from an ancient German House of Hohenlohe which traced its history to the 12th century and whose members were reigning Princes of the Holy Roman Empire in Württemberg until Napoleon I's invasion. He descended from a younger, Catholic line that had inherited properties in Bohemia during the 19th century. His mother Piedad was Marquesa de Belvís de las Navas and a grand-daughter of Don Francisco-María de Yturbe, Mexican Minister of Finance, who was of Basque origin. King Alfonso XIII of Spain was his godfather at a christening in the royal palace.
Alfonso had five siblings – Maria Francesca (known as Pimpinella, his eldest sister, Marquesa de Belvís de las Navas), Christian, Elisabeth, Max Emanuel and Beatrice (known as Teñu).
The hereditary wealth of the Hohenlohe family was depleted in the 20th century. His mother lost estates in the Mexican Revolution, and after the fall of the Third Reich, properties in Germany and Czechoslovakia disappeared behind the Iron Curtain.
Early life
thumb|left|Rothenhaus Castle (Červený Hrádek), Czech Republic
Alfonso was educated by private tutors in Bohemia and Spain, learning fluent German, Spanish, French and English. His father owned Rothenhaus Castle (today Červený Hrádek Castle in Jirkov, Czech Republic) where he tried to prevent the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Hitler in 1938 through diplomatic negotiations with the British government. In August 1938, the British mediator in the dispute between Germany and Czechoslovakia over the Sudetenland, Lord Runciman, met the leader of the Sudeten German Party (SdP), Konrad Henlein, at Rothenhaus Castle − to no avail. During World War II, Prince Max Egon of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, without having an official function, tried several times in vain to prevent a further escalation of the war in Europe, to contribute to an agreement with Great Britain in the summer of 1940 and from 1942 he repeatedly conspired with diplomats of the Allies with the aim of removing Hitler from power. After World War II, Prince Max Egon was expropriated by the communist government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
Alfonso then moved with his parents to Spain. There he discovered the idyllic fishing village Marbella on a trip and decided to buy land there in 1947. He sold plots to various rich and powerful friends, including the Rothschild and Thyssen families and Ferdinand von Bismarck. In 1954 he created the Marbella Club, the Costa del Sols first luxury hotel, attracting many celebrities of the time to the former fishing village.
Marriages and issue
- He married his first wife HSH Princess Ira zu Fürstenberg on 17 September 1955 (civil) and 21 September 1955 (religious) in Venice, Italy; and the couple were divorced in 1960, annulled in 1969. They had two sons: Prince Christoph "Kiko" von Hohenlohe (1956–2006) and Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1959–).
- He married his second wife Jocelyn Lane on 3 May 1973, in Marbella, with whom he had a daughter Princess Arriana Theresa (b. 1975).
- He married Marilys Healing (1941–2000) on 15 February 1991, in Vaduz.
- With former model Heidi Balzer he also has extramarital daughter, Désirée, Countess d'Ursel (b. 1980).
Death
Alfonso died in Marbella on 21 December 2003, at the age of 79.