in South Thuringia. Regina was born in
Würzburg. She was the youngest of four children born to
Prince Georg of Saxe-Meiningen and his wife,
Countess Klara Marie von Korff genannt Schmising-Kerssenbrock (1895–1992). A sister, Marie Elisabeth, died an infant in 1923. The elder brother, Anton Ulrich, was killed in action during the
Second World War, whereas the younger, Friedrich Alfred, became a
Carthusian monk. Although the Saxe-Meiningen dynasty was Protestant, Regina was raised in the Roman Catholic faith of her mother. She grew up in the
Veste Heldburg which overlooks the
Heldburger Land in south
Thuringia. Her father, a judge in Meiningen and Hildburghausen, joined the
Nazi Party in 1933 and died a captive at the
Soviet camp for
prisoners of war at
Cherepovets in 1946. Her mother had fled with her to
West Germany. Regina studied
social work at
Bamberg and then worked in
Munich at a
Caritas home for Hungarian refugees. In 1949, she met
Otto von Habsburg, the heir of the
House of Habsburg-Lorraine and the last crown prince of the dissolved
Austria-Hungary, when he came to visit his former subjects in the Caritas home. Regina and Otto were engaged in 1950. They were fourth cousins as both were descendants of
Karl Ludwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and his wife
Countess Amalie Henriette of Solms-Baruth. ==Marriage==