Hugo Karl, 3rd Prince of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz

Hugo Karl Franz de Paula Theodor, 3rd Prince of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz (9 November 1832 – 12 May 1890) was a mediatized German hereditary prince and politician.

Early life

Hugo was born on 15 September 1803 in Prague in the Kingdom of Bohemia. He was the eldest son of Hugo, 2nd Prince of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz and Countess Leopoldine Polyxene Christiane of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Krautheim (1805–1878). Among his siblings were Countess Augusta (who married Count ); Count Siegfried (a member of the House of Deputies and Bohemian Diet who married Countess Rudolfine Czernin von und zu Chudenitz); and Count Erich (who married Donna Maria Alvarez de Toledo).

His paternal grandparents were Count Franz Joseph of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz (only son of Karl Joseph, 1st Prince of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz and Princess Maria Franziska of Auersperg), and Countess Maria Josepha McCaffry von Keanmore. His maternal grandparents were Prince Franz Wilhelm of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Krautheim and Princess Franziska Luise of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein (sister of Louis Aloysius, Prince of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein).

He spent his youth at the family estate, Raitz Castle, among other places. His family often resided in the Salm Palace in Vienna, a residence his father had acquired from the estate of Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen in 1856.

Political career He began his political career in 1878 as a member of the Moravian Diet. There, he belonged to the estate of landowners. He was able to defend his seat in the 1884 elections. As a landowner, he also became a member of the House of Deputies of the Imperial Council in 1879. It was elevated to princely status for his great-grandfather, Karl Joseph zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz, in 1790, although the territory was mediatized in 1811.

Personal life

In 1858, he married Princess Elisabeth of Liechtenstein (1832–1892), a daughter of Prince Karl Joseph of Liechtenstein and Countess Franziska von Würben und Freudenthal. (Princess Elisabeth's family was a cadet branch of the reigning Princely House of Liechtenstein, the Moravský-Krumlov line, which was descended from Prince Karl Borromäus, the younger brother of Franz Joseph I, Prince of Liechtenstein.)

Countess Maria Leopoldine of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz (1859–1897), who married Count Karol Lanckoroński, a son of Count Kazimierz Wincenty Michał Lanckoroński and Leonia Wanda Vitzthum, in 1878. They divorced in 1880 and she married Count Markus von Bombelles, a son of Count Markus Heinrich Wilhelm Bombelles and Countess Ferdinandina Draskovich von Traskostjan, in 1882.

Descendants Through his eldest son Hugo, he was a grandfather of Countess Elisabeth of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz (who married Count Paul Draskovich von Traskostjan) and Hugo Nikolaus Leopold Siegfried Karl Joseph Maria, 5th Prince of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz (who married Countess Leopoldine von Mensdorff-Pouilly, a daughter of Count Alfons von Mensdorff-Pouilly and Ida Paar).