LuRussa 👩🏻‍🦰

A German princess was born in 1915 with Down syndrome and her family did something quietly radical for the time... Princess Alexandrine Irene of Prussia (1915-1980), affectionately called "Adini," was the eldest daughter and fifth child of Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, and Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and a great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was diagnosed with Down syndrome shortly after birth. In the early 20th century, European aristocratic and royal families routinely institutionalized or hid children with intellectual disabilities. Her parents chose the opposite path, openly embracing her, including her in family life, and allowing her to appear in official family photographs and public events. . . . Princess Alexandrine Irene of Prussia, raised closely under the care of her dedicated nurse, Selma Boese. As a teenager, she attended the Trüpersche Sonderschule, a pioneering residential school for children with special needs, from 1932-34. In October 1934, she celebrated her Protestant confirmation alongside her sister Cecilie. Following the death of her long-time nanny Selma Boese in 1936, Alexandrine moved to Niederpöcking in Bavaria. She spent the WWII years living in Bavaria under the care of another dedicated nurse, Ericka Strecker, as she required lifelong support. As Nazi Germany rose, disabled people became targets of one of the regime’s most chilling programs: Aktion T4, the organized murder of people deemed “unworthy of life.” Alexandrine’s place inside her family circle mattered. She was not abandoned to the institutions that became so dangerous for vulnerable people. She was kept close, protected, and cared for. Her life was not loud. It was not filled with crowns, speeches, or political power. But it carries a different kind of weight. She lived through the fall of empires, the brutality of the Nazi era, WWII, and the shrinking of her once-powerful royal family. Through it all, Alexandrine remained loved. Her mother, Crown Princess Cecilie, stayed devoted to her. Throughout her later life near Lake Starnberg, she was visited regularly by her family, particularly her brother Louis Ferdinand. She died in 1980 at the age of 65 — an extraordinary lifespan for someone born with Down syndrome during that era, which community discussions and historians attribute to the steady affection, stability, and high level of private care she received. History often remembers royal women for whom they married, what jewels they wore, or what scandals followed them. But Alexandrine’s legacy is gentler and, in some ways, more powerful. #archaeohistories