Leo-Ferdinand Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck

Count Leo-Ferdinand Maria Lazarus Romwolt Wilhelm Edwin Gerhard Henckel von Donnersmarck (26 December 1935 – 23 July 2009) was a German historian, businessman, and Catholic lay worker. He worked as an executive for the German airline Lufthansa from 1967 to 1996. After retiring from business, Henckel von Donnersmarck served as the President of the German Association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from 1997 to 2006. He was made a Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta's highest honour. He was also a member of the Forum of German Catholics and, prior to that, a member of the Central Committee of German Catholics. Henckel von Donnersmarck was twice awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, receiving a Cross of Merit in 1991 and a Grand Cross of Merit in 2009.

Early life, family, and education Count Leo-Ferdinand Henckel von Donnersmarck was born on 26 December 1935 in Beuthen O.S. to Count Friedrich-Carl Henckel von Donnersmarck, a member of the Silesian nobility and a philosophist who specialized on the works of Thomas Aquinas, and Countess Anna-Ilse von Zitzewitz, a member of the Pomeranian nobility. He had a brother, Gregor. He was a member of the House of Henckel von Donnersmarck, an Austro-German noble family which had agricultural holdings and mining operations in Silesia since the 17th century.

Career In 1967, Henckel von Donnersmarck began working as an executive at Lufthansa, a transport company and flag carrier of Germany. At the international level of the order, he acted as primus inter pares of the forty-seven presidents of national associations of the Order of Malta.

Personal life In 1968, he married the literary scout and activist Countess Anna-Maria von Berg. His wife, who came from a noble family in Saxony-Anhalt, was four years old when her family fled to West Germany in order to escape the Soviet Army.

Death and burial Henckel von Donnersmarck died on 23 July 2009 in Berlin after battling leukemia. The funeral was attended by members of the Henckel von Donnersmarck family and by representatives of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

He was buried in the family mausoleum at Wolfsberg Castle in Carinthia.