The monarchy was abolished in Bavaria in 1918, but if it still existed, he would be sitting on the throne today: Duke Franz von Bayern, from the Wittelsbach family. This week he presented his memoirs in the large auditorium of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and probably ended the evening more emotionally than expected. Towards the end of the event, he asked his partner Thomas Greinwald to join him on stage for the first time, thereby officially outing himself as homosexual.
The fact that Duke Franz is gay was not news to many, and that he had been in a long-term relationship was something of an open secret. So far, however, the couple had not shown themselves publicly. In the family circle, his partner, who is a doctor of alternative medicine and a lawyer, was always considered a friend and confidant of the duke. Now the two finally don’t have to “play theater” anymore, they say.
The two have now been a couple for 43 years. In his memoirs, Franz writes about the fear of being outed and how much his partner Greinwald had to endure because the relationship was kept secret for so long. Although the secrecy and hide-and-seek is over now, don’t expect the couple to seek the spotlight. The 89-year-old, who will celebrate his 90th birthday later this year, has never been known for big appearances, but is considered to be rather reserved. He recently told the media that he was not unhappy about not having to govern. He would only bow to duty when the need was so great that the people called him, he said.
After the abolition of the nobility, the Wittelsbacher family had been able to agree that they could keep their place of residence. The family was persecuted under National Socialism and had to flee into exile. They were sent to several concentration camps and Duke Franz also experienced the camps as a young boy. He still remembers huge piles of corpses. He later studied business administration and was trained as a businessman. In addition to his royal duties, he dedicates himself primarily to art. In the family he was dubbed the “weird bird” for this, but Franz is highly valued in the Munich art scene.
Sources: Tagesspiegel, T-Online
