Born in
Schwerin, Adolf Friedrich was the third child of
Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1823–1883), and his third wife
Princess Marie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. His younger brother was
Prince Hendrik of the Netherlands,
prince consort to the Dutch
Queen Wilhelmina.
Explorer of Africa From 1907 to 1908, Adolf Friedrich led a scientific research expedition in the region of the Central African
Graben and traversed
Africa from east to west. In 1908, he was awarded the
Eduard Vogel Medal of the Association of Geography of
Leipzig. The insects from his expeditions and residence in Togo are in the
Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin and in the
Senckenberg Museum. From 1910 to 1911, he led an expedition to
Lake Chad and the northern rivers of the
Congo to the
Nile in current
Sudan. Adolf Friedrich and his companions explored the then little-known
primeval forest region of the Congo tributaries and the basin of Lake Chad. Individual groups extended their explorations to the
Bahr el Ghazal near the upper Nile, while others travelled to south
Cameroon and the islands of the
Gulf of Guinea.
Vom Kongo zum Niger und Nil ("From the Congo to the
Niger and the Nile"), a two-volume work based on the 1910–1911 expeditions, has an excellent reputation today for its detail and images. From 1912 to 1914, Adolf Friedrich was the last governor of
Togoland in
German West Africa; he was invited for the official celebration of the independence of
Togo in 1960. After
World War I, he served as the vice-president of the privately chartered German Colonial Society for Southwest Africa; his brother
Johann Albrecht was president from 1895 to 1920.
Duke candidate for the planned United Baltic Duchy At the end of the
First World War, in the autumn of 1918, the Duke was offered the throne of the
United Baltic Duchy, a short-lived
client-state proclaimed on
Baltic territories under German occupation. By the Russo-German
Treaty of Berlin (27 August 1918),
Soviet Russia had formally relinquished all sovereignty over
Baltic provinces of
Estonia and
Livonia, and on 22 September (1918), Germany formally recognized independence of those lands, that were effectively still under German military occupation. By the autumn of 1918, the Duke was approached by Heinrich von Stryk, a representative of the
Baltic German nobility, but final steps towards implementation of their plans were undertaken on 5 November, when representatives of
Baltic Germans and some pro-German oriented leaders among Estonian and Latvian politicians from
Courland, Livonia and Estonia met in
Riga and proclaimed the creation of the
United Baltic Duchy. Since the Duke was in Germany, the temporary regency council (
Regentschaftsrat) was established in Riga, headed by baron
Adolf Pilar von Pilchau, and consisting of three Baltic Germans, three
Estonians and three
Latvians. The newly proclaimed state was to be an union of seven
cantons: Courland, Riga,
Latgale, South Livonia (
Südlivland, modern
Vidzeme), North Livonia (
Nordlivland, modern south
Estonia), the Islands (
Ösel, modern
Saaremaa), and Estonia (
Estland, modern north
Estonia). Since Germany lost the War by
11 November, the Duke never assumed the Baltic throne. The newly created states of
Estonia and
Latvia emerged in the region, and the Baltic regency council functioned until 28 November 1918, when it was dissolved.
Member of the International Olympic Committee Adolf Friedrich then served as a member of the
International Olympic Committee from 1926 to 1956 and as the first president of the National Olympic Committee of Germany from 1949 to 1951.
Personal life Adolf Friedrich was married twice. In
Gera on 24 April 1917, he married Princess Viktoria Feodora of
Reuss-Schleiz (1889-1918), daughter of
Heinrich XXVII, Prince Reuss Younger Line and
Princess Elise of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. She died a day after giving birth to their only daughter,
Duchess Woizlawa Feodora, on 18 December 1918. He later married the widow of his half-brother
Duke John Albert,
Princess Elisabeth of Stolberg-Rossla, on 15 October 1924; they were among the guests at the 1937 wedding of
Juliana of the Netherlands and
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. Princess Elisabeth survived her husband by only a few weeks after his death in
Eutin in 1969. ==Legacy==