Gustav Adolf, Cardinal Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingfürst

Who was Gustav Adolf, Cardinal Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingfürst?

Gustav Adolf, Cardinal Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingfürst, was a member of the Hohenlohe family of Germany, claiming descent from Eberhard, one of the early dukes of Franconia. He became a cardinal of the Catholic Church.

Hohenlohe was born in Rotenburg an der Fulda, in the Electorate of Hesse, on 26 February 1823, the son of its ruler, Prince Franz Joseph zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, and Princess Caroline Friederike Constanze zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg. His father was a Catholic, while his mother was a Lutheran. In the standard compromise of the era, he and his brothers were raised in the faith of their father, while his sisters were raised in that of their mother. He took Catholic holy orders in 1849 and became in 1857 the titular bishop of Edessa in Mesopotamia and almoner to Pope Pius IX. He was appointed a cardinal in June 1866, with the titular church of Santa Maria in Traspontina.

The Cardinal-Prince was a brother of Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Bavaria until its unification with the German Empire.