Coburg Fortress, Germany

Nico van Leeuwen

The Veste Coburg, or Coburg Fortress, is one of Germany's largest castles. It is situated on a hill above the town of Coburg, in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria.
The Veste Coburg dominates the town of Coburg on Bavaria's border with Thuringia. It is located at an altitude of 464 meters above NHN, or 167 meters above the town. Its size (around 135 meters by 260 meters) makes it one of the largest castles in Germany. A document dated from 1225 uses the term sloss (palace) for the first time.

The castle was owned by several noble families. In 1826, the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was created. Through a successful policy of political marriages, the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha established links with several of the major European dynasties:

Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Kingdom of Belgium
Kingdom of Portugal
Kingdom of Bulgaria
Kingdom of Sweden
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Indian Empire

The dynasty ended with the reign of Herzog Carl Eduard (1884-1954), also known as Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a grandson of Queen Victoria, who until 1919 also was the 2nd Duke of Albany in the United Kingdom.
In 1919, Charles Edward was deprived of his British peerages, his title of Prince and Royal Highness and his British honours for having fought in the German Army (eventually as a General) during WWI; he was labelled a "traitor peer".

Charles Edward later joined the Nazi Party as well as the Sturmabteilung (SA, or Brownshirts), where he reached the position of Obergruppenführer. Charles Edward served in a number of positions in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, including President of the German Red Cross from 1933–45. He was the maternal grandfather of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and the younger brother of Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone.

After paying the fines imposed by the denazification court and losing properties to the Soviet army, he died in poverty in 1954