Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten (1899–1997)

[2] After the outbreak of World War I, due to the danger of invasion by the Russians, Dohna was evacuated to Darmstadt, together with his siblings, where they lived at the court of his uncle-in-law Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse.

[1] On 1 June 1918 he joined the Prussian Army regiment Garde du Corps and was deployed to Ukraine for a short time before the War ended in November.

After the Nazis came to power in Germany, Dohna, who was a classmate of Karl Wolff, met Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring and joined the SS as a candidate.

In March 1944, a U.S. Army commando group of 15 men had landed near La Spezia to blow up railway tunnels as part of Operation Ginny II but were captured by German and Italian troops.

Shortly before the end of the war Dohna was able to save a significant portion of the inventory of Schlobitten Castle before it was destroyed by arson following occupation by the Red Army.

[2] The Kingdom of Prussia had incorporated the lands of the various branches (Lauck, Schlobitten, Reichertswalde and Schlodien-Carwinden) into a privileged family trust in 1840, of which Alexander became a primary beneficiary.

[2] (The other two surviving branches of the Dohna-Schlobitten line were never elevated to princely status; the family historically carried only comital rank, their burgravial fief never having been declared an Imperial State within the Holy Roman Empire.)

[2] The Dohna-Schlobitten art collection was exhibited in Berlin's Schönhausen Palace in 2019. in 1979 he moved to Basel, Switzerland where he wrote his memoirs and where he died in 1997 at the age of 97.