# Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia
**Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia** was the name borne by two Hohenzollern princes: August Wilhelm (1722–1758), a younger brother of [Frederick the Great](https://www.edgepedia.org/frederick-the-great) whose son became King Frederick William II of Prussia, and August Wilhelm (1887–1949), a fourth son of Kaiser Wilhelm II who became a prominent Nazi speaker and SA-[Obergruppenführer](https://www.edgepedia.org/obergruppenfuhrer) under the nickname "Auwi".[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/August_Wilhelm) • [2](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/preussen%20august%20wilhelm%20von/00/542)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| 18th-century prince | Born in Berlin, second son of King Frederick William I; brother of Frederick the Great; founder of the present (as of the early 20th century) reigning line of the Hohenzollerns[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/August_Wilhelm) |
| Military rank (1722–1758) | Generalmajor of cavalry 1741, Generalleutnant 1745, General of Infantry 1756[3](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118505106.html) |
| Kolin aftermath | Appointed in 1757 commander of the Army of Kolin, showed a lack of military ability in the retreat from Bohemia, was deprived of his command, and retired to Oranienburg[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/August_Wilhelm) |
| Succession | As Frederick the Great died without issue, the son of August Wilhelm succeeded as King Frederick William II[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/August_Wilhelm) |
| 20th-century prince | Born 29 January 1887 in Potsdam, fourth son of Wilhelm II; died 25 March 1949 in Stuttgart[2](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/preussen%20august%20wilhelm%20von/00/542) |
| Nazi career | Joined the NSDAP on 1 April 1930 with the honorarily granted low membership number 24; joined the SA on 4 June 1931 and rose to SA-Obergruppenführer[4](https://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/nstopo/strnam/Begriff_659.html) • [5](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz1576.html) |
## August Wilhelm (1722–1758)
August Wilhelm was born in Berlin, the second son of King Frederick William I of Prussia, and a younger brother of Frederick the Great.[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/August_Wilhelm) The Tagesspiegel report on the first biography of the prince gives 1722 as his birth year and notes that his first name referenced the Saxon king in Dresden.[6](https://www.tagesspiegel.de/potsdam/potsdam-kultur/der-versager-urania-vortrag-uber-prinz-august-wilhelm-7708333.html) The Neue Deutsche Biographie entry by Karl Otmar Freiherr von Aretin, a German historian, prints his birth date as 9 August 1714, which conflicts with the 1722 date given by the other sources.[3](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118505106.html)
**Military career.** He entered the army early and was appointed Generalmajor of cavalry in 1741, Generalleutnant in 1745, and General of Infantry in 1756.[3](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118505106.html) He took part successfully in the [Silesian Wars](https://www.edgepedia.org/silesian-wars) and married Luise Amalie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1742; the marriage produced three children.[6](https://www.tagesspiegel.de/potsdam/potsdam-kultur/der-versager-urania-vortrag-uber-prinz-august-wilhelm-7708333.html)
**The retreat from Bohemia.** After the lost Battle of Kolin in the [Seven Years' War](https://www.edgepedia.org/seven-years-war), Frederick assigned his brother the task of leading the defeated army out of Bohemia.[7](https://www.fr.de/kultur/literatur/verfemte-prinz-11654110.html) Appointed commander of the Army of Kolin in 1757, August Wilhelm revealed such a lack of military ability in conducting the retreat that he was deprived of his command, whereupon he retired permanently to his castle at Oranienburg.[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/August_Wilhelm) The family account held that he broke under Frederick's reproaches and died soon after of a broken heart.[7](https://www.fr.de/kultur/literatur/verfemte-prinz-11654110.html) He died on 12 June 1758.[3](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118505106.html)
**The Relation.** In the well-known *Relation über den Feldzug von 1757*, August Wilhelm brought an accusation against Frederick that at first damaged the commander's reputation; the accusation was disproved by the publication in 1887 of the *Politische Korrespondenz Friedrichs des Grossen*.[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/August_Wilhelm) Eva Ziebura, a Berlin private scholar, later argued that the loss of troops after Kolin was hardly August Wilhelm's failure but the result of a communicative disaster that Frederick himself had caused, and that the royal role left no room for brotherly rehabilitation.[7](https://www.fr.de/kultur/literatur/verfemte-prinz-11654110.html)
**Reputation and historiography.** The NDB describes him as a benevolent, very amiable man, tenderly loved by his younger brothers Heinrich and [Ferdinand](https://www.edgepedia.org/ferdinand), who never forgave the king his brother's early death; part of the animosity in writings from Heinrich's circle traces to this source.[3](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118505106.html) Nineteenth-century German historians such as Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886) and Bernhard Erdmannsdörffer (1833–1901) treated August largely as a negative comparator to Frederick William I and Frederick II, dismissing him as a political failure or as morally corrupt.[8](https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid%3Acb7df46e-ab52-4f27-a084-41d7fab5b54e/files/mf06bc93555af2e068d069eeb060ef672) Eva Ziebura's *August Wilhelm. Prinz von Preußen* (Stapp Verlag, Berlin, 2006, 281 pages) was, 248 years after his death, the first biography of the prince.[6](https://www.tagesspiegel.de/potsdam/potsdam-kultur/der-versager-urania-vortrag-uber-prinz-august-wilhelm-7708333.html)
## August Wilhelm (1887–1949)
August Wilhelm Heinrich Günther Viktor was born on 29 January 1887 in Potsdam as the fourth son of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria.[2](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/preussen%20august%20wilhelm%20von/00/542) Like his five brothers he was educated at the cadet institute in Plön, then studied political science; his attempt to become a pupil of the painter [Max Liebermann](https://www.edgepedia.org/max-liebermann) prompted personal intervention by the Empress.[2](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/preussen%20august%20wilhelm%20von/00/542) He completed a doctorate in law, entered the Prussian administrative service, and served briefly as a *Landrat* (district administrator) before the First World War.[2](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/preussen%20august%20wilhelm%20von/00/542) In the war he first served in rear-area (Etappe) duty and worked in the civil administration in 1917–1918.[4](https://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/nstopo/strnam/Begriff_659.html)
**Path into National Socialism.** After the fall of the Hohenzollern monarchy he worked briefly as a bank volunteer, entered politics, and was widely regarded as a putative royal candidate of the *Stahlhelm* paramilitary league.[2](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/preussen%20august%20wilhelm%20von/00/542) He joined the NSDAP on 1 April 1930, receiving the low membership number 24 honorarily because the "Prince Auwi" was of strategic importance for the party's acceptance among conservative-monarchist circles.[4](https://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/nstopo/strnam/Begriff_659.html) He joined the SA on 4 June 1931, became a Standartenführer in November 1931, and headed the SA advertising service.[4](https://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/nstopo/strnam/Begriff_659.html) He eventually held the rank of SA-Obergruppenführer and served as an NS party speaker and Prussian Staatsrat.[5](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz1576.html)
**Political role.** He sat in the Prussian Landtag in 1932, was appointed Prussian Staatsrat on 22 July 1933, and served as a member of the Reichstag for constituency 4 (Potsdam I).[4](https://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/nstopo/strnam/Begriff_659.html) After the seizure of power was complete and following the so-called Röhm affair he was politically sidelined, and in 1942 he received a speaking ban after disparaging remarks about Goebbels.[4](https://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/nstopo/strnam/Begriff_659.html) The historian David Motadel, Associate Professor of History at the [London School of Economics](https://www.edgepedia.org/london-school-of-economics), describes him as a committed Nazi and high-ranking SA leader.[9](https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/03/26/what-do-the-hohenzollerns-deserve/) A review in *Die Zeit* of Lothar Machtan's 2006 book *Der Kaisersohn bei Hitler* records how the prince and SA leader helped win the German high nobility over to National Socialism; in early January 1933 Rudolf Heß thanked him for his tireless fight in the movement's ranks.[10](https://www.zeit.de/2006/26/P-Machtan/komplettansicht)
**Postwar.** The sources disagree on his arrest date: the Westphalian street-name database records his arrest by US troops on 7 April 1945,[4](https://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/nstopo/strnam/Begriff_659.html) while the DeWiki article states he was arrested by American troops on 8 May 1945 and held at the Flak barracks in [Ludwigsburg](https://www.edgepedia.org/ludwigsburg). He fell seriously ill and died of lung cancer in a [Stuttgart](https://www.edgepedia.org/stuttgart) hospital on 25 March 1949, and was buried at Langenburg in the cemetery of the Princes of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.[2](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/preussen%20august%20wilhelm%20von/00/542)
## References
1. [August Wilhelm, The New International Encyclopædia, Wikisource](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/August_Wilhelm)
2. [August Wilhelm von Preußen, Munzinger Biographie](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/preussen%20august%20wilhelm%20von/00/542)
3. [Karl Otmar Freiherr von Aretin, "August Wilhelm", Neue Deutsche Biographie 1 (1953), S. 447 f., Deutsche Biographie](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118505106.html)
4. [Preußen, von, August Wilhelm, Datenbank der Straßenbenennungen 1933–1945, Westfälische Geschichte (LWL)](https://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/nstopo/strnam/Begriff_659.html)
5. [Preußen, August Wilhelm von, Indexeintrag, Deutsche Biographie](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz1576.html)
6. [Gerold Paul, "Der 'Versager'. URANIA-Vortrag über Prinz August Wilhelm", Der Tagesspiegel, 30 March 2006](https://www.tagesspiegel.de/potsdam/potsdam-kultur/der-versager-urania-vortrag-uber-prinz-august-wilhelm-7708333.html)
7. [Harry Nutt, "Der verfemte Prinz", Frankfurter Rundschau, 1 February 2019](https://www.fr.de/kultur/literatur/verfemte-prinz-11654110.html)
8. [Oxford Research Archive: thesis on the historiographical reception of August the Strong](https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid%3Acb7df46e-ab52-4f27-a084-41d7fab5b54e/files/mf06bc93555af2e068d069eeb060ef672)
9. [David Motadel, "What Do the Hohenzollerns Deserve?", The New York Review of Books, 26 March 2020](https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/03/26/what-do-the-hohenzollerns-deserve/)
10. ["Politisches Buch: Parteigenosse 24", Die Zeit, 22 June 2006](https://www.zeit.de/2006/26/P-Machtan/komplettansicht)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Politics and government › Government and public administration › Royal consorts and dynastic families › Non-reigning princes and princesses › Continental European royal relatives › German and Austrian royalty*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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