Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg, in religious life, Dom Odo, O.S.B., was a German military officer, Benedictine monk, and anti-Nazi and pro-refugee activist. He was the youngest of three sons and had four younger sisters. His father was head of the cadet branch of the House of Württemberg and heir to the throne. His mother, the younger sister of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, died when he was six years of age. Educated at the royal gymnasium through high school, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Alt-Württemberg Infantry Regiment No. 121 (3rd Royal Württemberg) on his tenth birthday.
During the First World War, he served with Infantry Regiment No. 121 on the Western Front and in Italy. Assigned to Army High Command when the War began, he was promoted in June 1916 to captain of a machinegun company. He joined the General Staff the following year. Among his military awards were the Iron Cross First Class (awarded 13 May 1915) and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Royal Military Merit (awarded 21 May 1915 by King Wilhelm II of Württemberg).
Retired from active military service in January 1919, in September of that year he entered the Archabbey of Saint Martin, at Beuron. His name in religious life was Brother – later Father – Odo. Ordained a Roman Catholic priest on 10 August 1926, in the summer of 1930, he was sent to the Abbey of Saint Martin at Weingarten. Here, he held several offices and was active in local Catholic youth work.
Dom Odo openly opposed National Socialism from its outset and was arrested and interrogated numerous times by the Gestapo beginning in 1933. In April 1934, while he was helping to organize the Abbey of Saint Bartholomew at Neuburg, the National Socialist government expelled him from the German Reich. He found refuge at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Angels in Engelberg (Switzerland), where he established the International Catholic Refugee Aid Committee. As a representative of the Committee, he traveled throughout the United Kingdom and Continental Europe and in July 1938 participated in the international conference at Évian (France), which dealt with relief measures for people of the Jewish faith persecuted by the National Socialists.
In August 1940, informed by the Swiss government that they could no longer guarantee his safety, he escaped to Portugal and from there fled to the United States as a refugee. He took up residence at the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, D.C., and continued to be an outspoken enemy of the National Socialists. As head of the International Catholic Refugee Aid Committee, Dom Odo pursued the task of helping Christian and Jewish individuals and families fleeing the German Reich and its occupied territories. In addition, he worked closely with Catholic authorities on behalf of prisoners at the Gurs internment camp in southwestern France, where many people of the Jewish faith and other persons expelled from Reich-controlled territories were imprisoned under deplorable conditions. Beginning in 1943, he was involved in the pastoral care of German prisoners of war interned at American camps. While he had the unrealized dream of collaborating with likeminded military leaders in Germany to overthrow the Nazi regime, he was a friend of Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg, who on 20 July 1944 carried out an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler and organized the subsequent coup d'état.
In November 1945, while still based in the Unted States, Dom Odo founded the Central European Rehabilitation Association, Inc. (CERA), a nonprofit, apolitical, and nonsectarian charitable organization with the aim of sending food, clothes, medicine, and other needed items to war-torn Central Europe. As president of CERA, he raised significant funds for this purpose.
In 1949, he returned to Germany and reentered the Abbey of Saint Bartolomew, where he had served prior to being expelled from his homeland by the National Socialists fifteen years before. He remained at the Abbey until 1952, when a heart condition forced him to retire to his family's castle at Altshausen. Here, he spent the remaining twelve years of his life and worked to reestablish in 1960 the local Civil Guard on Horseback, the Yellow Hussars.
Dom Odo entered eternal life on the feast of Saint John the Evangelist, 27 December 1964, at the age of 68 years and nine months. Following his wishes, he was interred in the cemetery of the Abbey of Saint Martin at Weingarten, not far from Altshausen Castle.
---
Dom Odo helped save the lives of many Jewish and Christian non-Aryan people fleeing the Third Reich and helped ease the situation of those who were unable to escape, while he himself was also a target of Nazi hatred. His whole family opposed National Socialism, and while he was able to find safety in the United States and continue to work on behalf of refugees in Europe, his two older brothers were imprisoned by the Gestapo and awaiting execution when World War II ended.
According to World War II-era Vatican documents, the number of refugees aided by the International Catholic Refugee Aid Committee was in the thousands. In 1939 alone, the Committee secured emigration documents for 654 refugees and 150 other refugees who had not obtained a travel visa, at a cost of approximately $147,000 (about $3mil in 2023). The logo of the Committee was a silhouette of Saint Joseph beside the Blessed Virgin who is astride a donkey and holding the Infant Jesus as they travel through a barren desert as refugees.
After the War, Dom Odo founded the Central European Rehabilitation Association, for which he raised almost two million dollars [$2mil in 1945 = $33mil in 2023].
---
He spoke fluent German, English, and French, and his signature (in French) was "Dom Odon duc de Wurttemberg O. S. B."
---
Biographical Sketch of Dom Odo von Württemberg (Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg)
Catholic priest of the Benedictine Order
12 March 1896 - 27 December 1964
27 September 1919: Entered the Archabbey of Beuron
10 February 1921: Profession in the Archabbey of Beuron
10 August 1926: Priestly ordination
State President of the Catholic Youth of Württemberg
1933: numerous interrogations and arrests by the Gestapo
8 December 1933: Expulsion from Württemberg
23 February 1934: Benedictine Abbey of Neuburg near Heidelberg
8 April 1934: Expulsion from Baden, then stay in the Benedictine Abbey of St. Matthias, Trier
30 April 1934: Expulsion from the German Reich, transfer to Engelberg Abbey in Switzerland, employee in the International Refugee Aid
1936: Expatriation from the German Reich, acceptance of Luxembourg citizenship,
1 August 1940: Escape to the USA.
Sources and literature:
Württemberg, Odo von, in: Württembergische Landesbibliothek / Badische Landesbibliothek / Statistisches Landesamt. Landesbibliographie Baden-Württemberg online, in: www.statistik-bw.de (accessed on 25.09.2015)
Württemberg, Carl Alexander Herzog, in: Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg. German Digital Library, in: www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de (accessed on 25.09.2015)
Information: Archive of the Archabbey of Beuron.
Fritz, Eberhard, The House of Württemberg and National Socialism. Motives of resistance against Hitler and his movement, in: House of History Baden-Württemberg (ed.), Nobility and National Socialism in the German Southwest, Karlsruhe 2007, pp. 132 - 144, here: 139 - 144.
Online Source: Odo von Württemberg, in: Critical Online Edition of the Diaries of Michael Kardinal von Faulhabers (1911-1952). Available at: https://faulhaber-edition.de/03291. Last accessed on 17 January 2024.
---
The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, New South Wales (Australia)/
Tuesday 5 November 1940:
GERMAN PRIEST DENIES IS HITLER PEACE EMISSARY
(A.A.P. .Message)
New York, Monday.
The German Father Odo Benedictine, a monk, who formerly was the Duke of Wurttemberg, has denied London reports that he is in the United States as a peace emissary of Hitler.
He said his sole purpose was to help the Catholic refugees.
He had not been in Germany for seven years, and had never seen Hitler.
Meanwhile it is officially announced in Berlin that the Axis had seen no reason for a peace move, in view of its present political and military position.
The Secretary of State (Mr. Cordell Hull) in Washington, to-day said he had no information concerning reports from Europe that peace proposals had been outlined to the United States.
---
Curriculum vitae as published by the Central European Rehabilitation Association, Inc.:
Charles Alexander, Duke of Wurttemberg
born in Stuttgart, Wurttemberg 12th of March 1896
Father: Duke Albrecht of Wurttemberg, Heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Wurttemberg. Fieldmarshal. died 29th of October 1939.
Mother: Duchess Margarethe Sophie of Wurttemberg, née Archduchess of Austria died 24th of August 1902.
Studied at the private gymnasium for the Royal Princes and graduated of it 1914.
March 12, 1906 he became Second Lieutenant in the Royal Wurttembergish Infantery [sic] Regiment Alt Wurttemberg, 3rd Royal Wurttembergish No. 121.
He made the whole World War I on the West and Italian Front. He served as Lieutenant, then as Captain of the Machinegun Troops and finally as Captain of the General Staff. In January 1919 he quitted the army
September 1919 he joined the Benedictine Order at the Archabbey of Beuron in Hohenzollern, South Germany and received the religious name of Dom Odo.
He was ordained priest August 10th, 1926.
From 1930 until December 1933 he was the leader of the Catholic Youth in Wurttemberg. Because he did not submit himself and the Catholic Youth of Wurttemberg to Hitler and Nazism he was exiled from Wurttemberg December 8th, 1933. He went to the abbey of Neuburg near Heidelberg, Baden. From there he was exiled from [sic] the Gestapo April 8th, 1934 and finally from the whole of Germany April 30th, 1934. He went to Switzerland, where he remained until August 1st, 1940. He organized the International Catholic Help for Refugees and War Victims. He helped every one in misery as well as he could without looking on races, nationalities or creeds.
In August 1940 he went to Portugal and organized there the help for refugees. October 8th, 1940 he came by clipper to the United States. He worked privately for refugees and war victimes [sic] over the whole world.
During the war he helped as auxiliary chaplain in camps for Prisoners of War.
In November 1945 he founded the Central European Rehabilitation Association Inc. in order to help in all countries of Central Europe. CERA is a non profit, non political, non sectarian and charitable organization. He is President of CERA.
---
Translated extract from Dieter Kilian's "Bible Church Military: Christianity and Being a Soldier through the Ages," pages 254-255, published in 2018:
In the First World War, Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg served as a lieutenant with Infantry Regiment No. 121 and participated in battles at the Marne, in Champagne, and around Ypres. In August 1914, he was assigned to Army High Command 4 as an orderly officer. In December 1914, he was promoted to first lieutenant and in June 1916, to captain. Beginning in 1917, he served as a general staff officer on the Western Front. His awards include the Iron Cross, first and second classes, as well as numerous other medals. In June 1918, he fell ill with diphtheria and was given leave until mid-August. In December 1918, an Army Group health report found that he had been suffering for years from Graves' disease [an autoimmune disorder that leads to hyperthyroidism]. The senior physician making the report stated: "I consider His Royal Highness Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg physically unsuited for active military service." In September 1919, he entered the Benedictine abbey at Beuron and received the religious name "Odo." In 1921, Brother Odo made his temporary profession of vows and in 1926 was ordained a priest, renouncing his title and claims to his inheritance. Involved in youth work, he quickly found himself in the Gestapo's sights. He later explained: "I was in the Diocese of Rottenburg as a youth leader. We Swabians have pretty thick skulls, so we didn't bow down to the 'divine' Hitler, much less to Baldur von Schirach [head of the Hitler Youth from 1931 to 1940], but we simply held our own Youth firmly together." Due to the Stauffenbergs' close ties to the Württemberg family, Dom Odo, eleven years his senior, also knew Count Claus von Stauffenberg (1907-1944), as the Württemberg family seat at Altshausen near Ravensburg and the Stauffenberg Castle at Jettingen near Günzberg were only approximately fifty kilometers apart. The National Socialist government banished Dom Odo from Württemberg in 1933 and eventually expatriated him from the German Reich in 1934 [stripped of his German citizenship in 1936, he was soon after granted Luxembourgish citizenship]. He lived in Switzerland for six years and in Washington, D.C., for another nine. In 1949, he returned to Germany.
---
Translated extract from Paul Jakobius' "The Last Fight":
Prince Carl Alexander von Württemberg, son of Duke Albrecht von Württemberg and Princess Margarethe von Württemberg, née Archduchess of Austria, was born 12 March 1896 at the ducal coronation palace at Stuttgart.
Between 1898 and 1900, he lived with his parents at Potsdam, where his father was commander of the 5th Honorary Calvary Brigade. Between 1906 and 1908, the family resided in Kassel while Duke Albrecht commanded the Prussian Army as a general.
On 12 March 1906, his tenth birthday, the young prince [Carl Alexander] was, according to tradition, appointed lieutenant. He graduated [high school] in 1914.
As a young officer in the First World War, he served on the Western Front and in Italy. On Christmas 1914, he was promoted to first lieutenant. He was made a captain in 1916. He was wounded in action by a landmine explosion and was later decorated. In 1918 [sic], he retired from the military and moved to Altshausen Castle.
On 27 September 1919, the young prince duke entered the Benedictine abbey at Beuron. On 8 February 1920, he began his novitiate and received the name Brother Odo. He took his first vows on 10 February 1921. On 10 August 1926, he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Raymond Netzhammer, O.S.B.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original memorial text as composed by memorial author Wladyslaw Kordas:
Carl Alexander Herzog von Württemberg (Pater Odo OSB) (* 12. März 1896 in Stuttgart; † 27. Dezember 1964 in Altshausen) war ein Mitglied des Hauses Württemberg und ein Benediktinermönch. Während und nach der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus engagierte er sich in der Hilfe für Flüchtlinge, Juden und Kriegsgefangene und wurde dafür von den NS-Herrschern des damaligen Deutschen Reiches ausgewiesen.
Nach seinem Tod wurde Pater Odo seinem letzten Willen gemäß auf dem Friedhof der Abtei St. Martin, Weingarten beigesetzt.
=======================================
Carl Alexander Herzog von Württemberg (Father Odo OSB) (12 March 1896, Stuttgart – 27 December 1964, Altshausen) was a member of the House of Württemberg who became a Benedictine monk. ("Herzog von Württemberg" is German for "Duke of Württemberg".) During, and following, the Nazi era he provided aid to refugees, Jews, and prisoners of war, and was reported for these activities to the Nazi rulers of Germany.
Father Odo was, by his express wish, buried in the cemetery of the Abbey of St. Martin at Weingarten, Württemberg.
During the First World War, he served with Infantry Regiment No. 121 on the Western Front and in Italy. Assigned to Army High Command when the War began, he was promoted in June 1916 to captain of a machinegun company. He joined the General Staff the following year. Among his military awards were the Iron Cross First Class (awarded 13 May 1915) and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Royal Military Merit (awarded 21 May 1915 by King Wilhelm II of Württemberg).
Retired from active military service in January 1919, in September of that year he entered the Archabbey of Saint Martin, at Beuron. His name in religious life was Brother – later Father – Odo. Ordained a Roman Catholic priest on 10 August 1926, in the summer of 1930, he was sent to the Abbey of Saint Martin at Weingarten. Here, he held several offices and was active in local Catholic youth work.
Dom Odo openly opposed National Socialism from its outset and was arrested and interrogated numerous times by the Gestapo beginning in 1933. In April 1934, while he was helping to organize the Abbey of Saint Bartholomew at Neuburg, the National Socialist government expelled him from the German Reich. He found refuge at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Angels in Engelberg (Switzerland), where he established the International Catholic Refugee Aid Committee. As a representative of the Committee, he traveled throughout the United Kingdom and Continental Europe and in July 1938 participated in the international conference at Évian (France), which dealt with relief measures for people of the Jewish faith persecuted by the National Socialists.
In August 1940, informed by the Swiss government that they could no longer guarantee his safety, he escaped to Portugal and from there fled to the United States as a refugee. He took up residence at the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, D.C., and continued to be an outspoken enemy of the National Socialists. As head of the International Catholic Refugee Aid Committee, Dom Odo pursued the task of helping Christian and Jewish individuals and families fleeing the German Reich and its occupied territories. In addition, he worked closely with Catholic authorities on behalf of prisoners at the Gurs internment camp in southwestern France, where many people of the Jewish faith and other persons expelled from Reich-controlled territories were imprisoned under deplorable conditions. Beginning in 1943, he was involved in the pastoral care of German prisoners of war interned at American camps. While he had the unrealized dream of collaborating with likeminded military leaders in Germany to overthrow the Nazi regime, he was a friend of Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg, who on 20 July 1944 carried out an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler and organized the subsequent coup d'état.
In November 1945, while still based in the Unted States, Dom Odo founded the Central European Rehabilitation Association, Inc. (CERA), a nonprofit, apolitical, and nonsectarian charitable organization with the aim of sending food, clothes, medicine, and other needed items to war-torn Central Europe. As president of CERA, he raised significant funds for this purpose.
In 1949, he returned to Germany and reentered the Abbey of Saint Bartolomew, where he had served prior to being expelled from his homeland by the National Socialists fifteen years before. He remained at the Abbey until 1952, when a heart condition forced him to retire to his family's castle at Altshausen. Here, he spent the remaining twelve years of his life and worked to reestablish in 1960 the local Civil Guard on Horseback, the Yellow Hussars.
Dom Odo entered eternal life on the feast of Saint John the Evangelist, 27 December 1964, at the age of 68 years and nine months. Following his wishes, he was interred in the cemetery of the Abbey of Saint Martin at Weingarten, not far from Altshausen Castle.
---
Dom Odo helped save the lives of many Jewish and Christian non-Aryan people fleeing the Third Reich and helped ease the situation of those who were unable to escape, while he himself was also a target of Nazi hatred. His whole family opposed National Socialism, and while he was able to find safety in the United States and continue to work on behalf of refugees in Europe, his two older brothers were imprisoned by the Gestapo and awaiting execution when World War II ended.
According to World War II-era Vatican documents, the number of refugees aided by the International Catholic Refugee Aid Committee was in the thousands. In 1939 alone, the Committee secured emigration documents for 654 refugees and 150 other refugees who had not obtained a travel visa, at a cost of approximately $147,000 (about $3mil in 2023). The logo of the Committee was a silhouette of Saint Joseph beside the Blessed Virgin who is astride a donkey and holding the Infant Jesus as they travel through a barren desert as refugees.
After the War, Dom Odo founded the Central European Rehabilitation Association, for which he raised almost two million dollars [$2mil in 1945 = $33mil in 2023].
---
He spoke fluent German, English, and French, and his signature (in French) was "Dom Odon duc de Wurttemberg O. S. B."
---
Biographical Sketch of Dom Odo von Württemberg (Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg)
Catholic priest of the Benedictine Order
12 March 1896 - 27 December 1964
27 September 1919: Entered the Archabbey of Beuron
10 February 1921: Profession in the Archabbey of Beuron
10 August 1926: Priestly ordination
State President of the Catholic Youth of Württemberg
1933: numerous interrogations and arrests by the Gestapo
8 December 1933: Expulsion from Württemberg
23 February 1934: Benedictine Abbey of Neuburg near Heidelberg
8 April 1934: Expulsion from Baden, then stay in the Benedictine Abbey of St. Matthias, Trier
30 April 1934: Expulsion from the German Reich, transfer to Engelberg Abbey in Switzerland, employee in the International Refugee Aid
1936: Expatriation from the German Reich, acceptance of Luxembourg citizenship,
1 August 1940: Escape to the USA.
Sources and literature:
Württemberg, Odo von, in: Württembergische Landesbibliothek / Badische Landesbibliothek / Statistisches Landesamt. Landesbibliographie Baden-Württemberg online, in: www.statistik-bw.de (accessed on 25.09.2015)
Württemberg, Carl Alexander Herzog, in: Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg. German Digital Library, in: www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de (accessed on 25.09.2015)
Information: Archive of the Archabbey of Beuron.
Fritz, Eberhard, The House of Württemberg and National Socialism. Motives of resistance against Hitler and his movement, in: House of History Baden-Württemberg (ed.), Nobility and National Socialism in the German Southwest, Karlsruhe 2007, pp. 132 - 144, here: 139 - 144.
Online Source: Odo von Württemberg, in: Critical Online Edition of the Diaries of Michael Kardinal von Faulhabers (1911-1952). Available at: https://faulhaber-edition.de/03291. Last accessed on 17 January 2024.
---
The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, New South Wales (Australia)/
Tuesday 5 November 1940:
GERMAN PRIEST DENIES IS HITLER PEACE EMISSARY
(A.A.P. .Message)
New York, Monday.
The German Father Odo Benedictine, a monk, who formerly was the Duke of Wurttemberg, has denied London reports that he is in the United States as a peace emissary of Hitler.
He said his sole purpose was to help the Catholic refugees.
He had not been in Germany for seven years, and had never seen Hitler.
Meanwhile it is officially announced in Berlin that the Axis had seen no reason for a peace move, in view of its present political and military position.
The Secretary of State (Mr. Cordell Hull) in Washington, to-day said he had no information concerning reports from Europe that peace proposals had been outlined to the United States.
---
Curriculum vitae as published by the Central European Rehabilitation Association, Inc.:
Charles Alexander, Duke of Wurttemberg
born in Stuttgart, Wurttemberg 12th of March 1896
Father: Duke Albrecht of Wurttemberg, Heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Wurttemberg. Fieldmarshal. died 29th of October 1939.
Mother: Duchess Margarethe Sophie of Wurttemberg, née Archduchess of Austria died 24th of August 1902.
Studied at the private gymnasium for the Royal Princes and graduated of it 1914.
March 12, 1906 he became Second Lieutenant in the Royal Wurttembergish Infantery [sic] Regiment Alt Wurttemberg, 3rd Royal Wurttembergish No. 121.
He made the whole World War I on the West and Italian Front. He served as Lieutenant, then as Captain of the Machinegun Troops and finally as Captain of the General Staff. In January 1919 he quitted the army
September 1919 he joined the Benedictine Order at the Archabbey of Beuron in Hohenzollern, South Germany and received the religious name of Dom Odo.
He was ordained priest August 10th, 1926.
From 1930 until December 1933 he was the leader of the Catholic Youth in Wurttemberg. Because he did not submit himself and the Catholic Youth of Wurttemberg to Hitler and Nazism he was exiled from Wurttemberg December 8th, 1933. He went to the abbey of Neuburg near Heidelberg, Baden. From there he was exiled from [sic] the Gestapo April 8th, 1934 and finally from the whole of Germany April 30th, 1934. He went to Switzerland, where he remained until August 1st, 1940. He organized the International Catholic Help for Refugees and War Victims. He helped every one in misery as well as he could without looking on races, nationalities or creeds.
In August 1940 he went to Portugal and organized there the help for refugees. October 8th, 1940 he came by clipper to the United States. He worked privately for refugees and war victimes [sic] over the whole world.
During the war he helped as auxiliary chaplain in camps for Prisoners of War.
In November 1945 he founded the Central European Rehabilitation Association Inc. in order to help in all countries of Central Europe. CERA is a non profit, non political, non sectarian and charitable organization. He is President of CERA.
---
Translated extract from Dieter Kilian's "Bible Church Military: Christianity and Being a Soldier through the Ages," pages 254-255, published in 2018:
In the First World War, Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg served as a lieutenant with Infantry Regiment No. 121 and participated in battles at the Marne, in Champagne, and around Ypres. In August 1914, he was assigned to Army High Command 4 as an orderly officer. In December 1914, he was promoted to first lieutenant and in June 1916, to captain. Beginning in 1917, he served as a general staff officer on the Western Front. His awards include the Iron Cross, first and second classes, as well as numerous other medals. In June 1918, he fell ill with diphtheria and was given leave until mid-August. In December 1918, an Army Group health report found that he had been suffering for years from Graves' disease [an autoimmune disorder that leads to hyperthyroidism]. The senior physician making the report stated: "I consider His Royal Highness Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg physically unsuited for active military service." In September 1919, he entered the Benedictine abbey at Beuron and received the religious name "Odo." In 1921, Brother Odo made his temporary profession of vows and in 1926 was ordained a priest, renouncing his title and claims to his inheritance. Involved in youth work, he quickly found himself in the Gestapo's sights. He later explained: "I was in the Diocese of Rottenburg as a youth leader. We Swabians have pretty thick skulls, so we didn't bow down to the 'divine' Hitler, much less to Baldur von Schirach [head of the Hitler Youth from 1931 to 1940], but we simply held our own Youth firmly together." Due to the Stauffenbergs' close ties to the Württemberg family, Dom Odo, eleven years his senior, also knew Count Claus von Stauffenberg (1907-1944), as the Württemberg family seat at Altshausen near Ravensburg and the Stauffenberg Castle at Jettingen near Günzberg were only approximately fifty kilometers apart. The National Socialist government banished Dom Odo from Württemberg in 1933 and eventually expatriated him from the German Reich in 1934 [stripped of his German citizenship in 1936, he was soon after granted Luxembourgish citizenship]. He lived in Switzerland for six years and in Washington, D.C., for another nine. In 1949, he returned to Germany.
---
Translated extract from Paul Jakobius' "The Last Fight":
Prince Carl Alexander von Württemberg, son of Duke Albrecht von Württemberg and Princess Margarethe von Württemberg, née Archduchess of Austria, was born 12 March 1896 at the ducal coronation palace at Stuttgart.
Between 1898 and 1900, he lived with his parents at Potsdam, where his father was commander of the 5th Honorary Calvary Brigade. Between 1906 and 1908, the family resided in Kassel while Duke Albrecht commanded the Prussian Army as a general.
On 12 March 1906, his tenth birthday, the young prince [Carl Alexander] was, according to tradition, appointed lieutenant. He graduated [high school] in 1914.
As a young officer in the First World War, he served on the Western Front and in Italy. On Christmas 1914, he was promoted to first lieutenant. He was made a captain in 1916. He was wounded in action by a landmine explosion and was later decorated. In 1918 [sic], he retired from the military and moved to Altshausen Castle.
On 27 September 1919, the young prince duke entered the Benedictine abbey at Beuron. On 8 February 1920, he began his novitiate and received the name Brother Odo. He took his first vows on 10 February 1921. On 10 August 1926, he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Raymond Netzhammer, O.S.B.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original memorial text as composed by memorial author Wladyslaw Kordas:
Carl Alexander Herzog von Württemberg (Pater Odo OSB) (* 12. März 1896 in Stuttgart; † 27. Dezember 1964 in Altshausen) war ein Mitglied des Hauses Württemberg und ein Benediktinermönch. Während und nach der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus engagierte er sich in der Hilfe für Flüchtlinge, Juden und Kriegsgefangene und wurde dafür von den NS-Herrschern des damaligen Deutschen Reiches ausgewiesen.
Nach seinem Tod wurde Pater Odo seinem letzten Willen gemäß auf dem Friedhof der Abtei St. Martin, Weingarten beigesetzt.
=======================================
Carl Alexander Herzog von Württemberg (Father Odo OSB) (12 March 1896, Stuttgart – 27 December 1964, Altshausen) was a member of the House of Württemberg who became a Benedictine monk. ("Herzog von Württemberg" is German for "Duke of Württemberg".) During, and following, the Nazi era he provided aid to refugees, Jews, and prisoners of war, and was reported for these activities to the Nazi rulers of Germany.
Father Odo was, by his express wish, buried in the cemetery of the Abbey of St. Martin at Weingarten, Württemberg.
Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg, in religious life, Dom Odo, O.S.B., was a German military officer, Benedictine monk, and anti-Nazi and pro-refugee activist. He was the youngest of three sons and had four younger sisters. His father was head of the cadet branch of the House of Württemberg and heir to the throne. His mother, the younger sister of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, died when he was six years of age. Educated at the royal gymnasium through high school, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Alt-Württemberg Infantry Regiment No. 121 (3rd Royal Württemberg) on his tenth birthday.
During the First World War, he served with Infantry Regiment No. 121 on the Western Front and in Italy. Assigned to Army High Command when the War began, he was promoted in June 1916 to captain of a machinegun company. He joined the General Staff the following year. Among his military awards were the Iron Cross First Class (awarded 13 May 1915) and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Royal Military Merit (awarded 21 May 1915 by King Wilhelm II of Württemberg).
Retired from active military service in January 1919, in September of that year he entered the Archabbey of Saint Martin, at Beuron. His name in religious life was Brother – later Father – Odo. Ordained a Roman Catholic priest on 10 August 1926, in the summer of 1930, he was sent to the Abbey of Saint Martin at Weingarten. Here, he held several offices and was active in local Catholic youth work.
Dom Odo openly opposed National Socialism from its outset and was arrested and interrogated numerous times by the Gestapo beginning in 1933. In April 1934, while he was helping to organize the Abbey of Saint Bartholomew at Neuburg, the National Socialist government expelled him from the German Reich. He found refuge at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Angels in Engelberg (Switzerland), where he established the International Catholic Refugee Aid Committee. As a representative of the Committee, he traveled throughout the United Kingdom and Continental Europe and in July 1938 participated in the international conference at Évian (France), which dealt with relief measures for people of the Jewish faith persecuted by the National Socialists.
In August 1940, informed by the Swiss government that they could no longer guarantee his safety, he escaped to Portugal and from there fled to the United States as a refugee. He took up residence at the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, D.C., and continued to be an outspoken enemy of the National Socialists. As head of the International Catholic Refugee Aid Committee, Dom Odo pursued the task of helping Christian and Jewish individuals and families fleeing the German Reich and its occupied territories. In addition, he worked closely with Catholic authorities on behalf of prisoners at the Gurs internment camp in southwestern France, where many people of the Jewish faith and other persons expelled from Reich-controlled territories were imprisoned under deplorable conditions. Beginning in 1943, he was involved in the pastoral care of German prisoners of war interned at American camps. While he had the unrealized dream of collaborating with likeminded military leaders in Germany to overthrow the Nazi regime, he was a friend of Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg, who on 20 July 1944 carried out an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler and organized the subsequent coup d'état.
In November 1945, while still based in the Unted States, Dom Odo founded the Central European Rehabilitation Association, Inc. (CERA), a nonprofit, apolitical, and nonsectarian charitable organization with the aim of sending food, clothes, medicine, and other needed items to war-torn Central Europe. As president of CERA, he raised significant funds for this purpose.
In 1949, he returned to Germany and reentered the Abbey of Saint Bartolomew, where he had served prior to being expelled from his homeland by the National Socialists fifteen years before. He remained at the Abbey until 1952, when a heart condition forced him to retire to his family's castle at Altshausen. Here, he spent the remaining twelve years of his life and worked to reestablish in 1960 the local Civil Guard on Horseback, the Yellow Hussars.
Dom Odo entered eternal life on the feast of Saint John the Evangelist, 27 December 1964, at the age of 68 years and nine months. Following his wishes, he was interred in the cemetery of the Abbey of Saint Martin at Weingarten, not far from Altshausen Castle.
---
Dom Odo helped save the lives of many Jewish and Christian non-Aryan people fleeing the Third Reich and helped ease the situation of those who were unable to escape, while he himself was also a target of Nazi hatred. His whole family opposed National Socialism, and while he was able to find safety in the United States and continue to work on behalf of refugees in Europe, his two older brothers were imprisoned by the Gestapo and awaiting execution when World War II ended.
According to World War II-era Vatican documents, the number of refugees aided by the International Catholic Refugee Aid Committee was in the thousands. In 1939 alone, the Committee secured emigration documents for 654 refugees and 150 other refugees who had not obtained a travel visa, at a cost of approximately $147,000 (about $3mil in 2023). The logo of the Committee was a silhouette of Saint Joseph beside the Blessed Virgin who is astride a donkey and holding the Infant Jesus as they travel through a barren desert as refugees.
After the War, Dom Odo founded the Central European Rehabilitation Association, for which he raised almost two million dollars [$2mil in 1945 = $33mil in 2023].
---
He spoke fluent German, English, and French, and his signature (in French) was "Dom Odon duc de Wurttemberg O. S. B."
---
Biographical Sketch of Dom Odo von Württemberg (Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg)
Catholic priest of the Benedictine Order
12 March 1896 - 27 December 1964
27 September 1919: Entered the Archabbey of Beuron
10 February 1921: Profession in the Archabbey of Beuron
10 August 1926: Priestly ordination
State President of the Catholic Youth of Württemberg
1933: numerous interrogations and arrests by the Gestapo
8 December 1933: Expulsion from Württemberg
23 February 1934: Benedictine Abbey of Neuburg near Heidelberg
8 April 1934: Expulsion from Baden, then stay in the Benedictine Abbey of St. Matthias, Trier
30 April 1934: Expulsion from the German Reich, transfer to Engelberg Abbey in Switzerland, employee in the International Refugee Aid
1936: Expatriation from the German Reich, acceptance of Luxembourg citizenship,
1 August 1940: Escape to the USA.
Sources and literature:
Württemberg, Odo von, in: Württembergische Landesbibliothek / Badische Landesbibliothek / Statistisches Landesamt. Landesbibliographie Baden-Württemberg online, in: www.statistik-bw.de (accessed on 25.09.2015)
Württemberg, Carl Alexander Herzog, in: Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg. German Digital Library, in: www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de (accessed on 25.09.2015)
Information: Archive of the Archabbey of Beuron.
Fritz, Eberhard, The House of Württemberg and National Socialism. Motives of resistance against Hitler and his movement, in: House of History Baden-Württemberg (ed.), Nobility and National Socialism in the German Southwest, Karlsruhe 2007, pp. 132 - 144, here: 139 - 144.
Online Source: Odo von Württemberg, in: Critical Online Edition of the Diaries of Michael Kardinal von Faulhabers (1911-1952). Available at: https://faulhaber-edition.de/03291. Last accessed on 17 January 2024.
---
The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, New South Wales (Australia)/
Tuesday 5 November 1940:
GERMAN PRIEST DENIES IS HITLER PEACE EMISSARY
(A.A.P. .Message)
New York, Monday.
The German Father Odo Benedictine, a monk, who formerly was the Duke of Wurttemberg, has denied London reports that he is in the United States as a peace emissary of Hitler.
He said his sole purpose was to help the Catholic refugees.
He had not been in Germany for seven years, and had never seen Hitler.
Meanwhile it is officially announced in Berlin that the Axis had seen no reason for a peace move, in view of its present political and military position.
The Secretary of State (Mr. Cordell Hull) in Washington, to-day said he had no information concerning reports from Europe that peace proposals had been outlined to the United States.
---
Curriculum vitae as published by the Central European Rehabilitation Association, Inc.:
Charles Alexander, Duke of Wurttemberg
born in Stuttgart, Wurttemberg 12th of March 1896
Father: Duke Albrecht of Wurttemberg, Heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Wurttemberg. Fieldmarshal. died 29th of October 1939.
Mother: Duchess Margarethe Sophie of Wurttemberg, née Archduchess of Austria died 24th of August 1902.
Studied at the private gymnasium for the Royal Princes and graduated of it 1914.
March 12, 1906 he became Second Lieutenant in the Royal Wurttembergish Infantery [sic] Regiment Alt Wurttemberg, 3rd Royal Wurttembergish No. 121.
He made the whole World War I on the West and Italian Front. He served as Lieutenant, then as Captain of the Machinegun Troops and finally as Captain of the General Staff. In January 1919 he quitted the army
September 1919 he joined the Benedictine Order at the Archabbey of Beuron in Hohenzollern, South Germany and received the religious name of Dom Odo.
He was ordained priest August 10th, 1926.
From 1930 until December 1933 he was the leader of the Catholic Youth in Wurttemberg. Because he did not submit himself and the Catholic Youth of Wurttemberg to Hitler and Nazism he was exiled from Wurttemberg December 8th, 1933. He went to the abbey of Neuburg near Heidelberg, Baden. From there he was exiled from [sic] the Gestapo April 8th, 1934 and finally from the whole of Germany April 30th, 1934. He went to Switzerland, where he remained until August 1st, 1940. He organized the International Catholic Help for Refugees and War Victims. He helped every one in misery as well as he could without looking on races, nationalities or creeds.
In August 1940 he went to Portugal and organized there the help for refugees. October 8th, 1940 he came by clipper to the United States. He worked privately for refugees and war victimes [sic] over the whole world.
During the war he helped as auxiliary chaplain in camps for Prisoners of War.
In November 1945 he founded the Central European Rehabilitation Association Inc. in order to help in all countries of Central Europe. CERA is a non profit, non political, non sectarian and charitable organization. He is President of CERA.
---
Translated extract from Dieter Kilian's "Bible Church Military: Christianity and Being a Soldier through the Ages," pages 254-255, published in 2018:
In the First World War, Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg served as a lieutenant with Infantry Regiment No. 121 and participated in battles at the Marne, in Champagne, and around Ypres. In August 1914, he was assigned to Army High Command 4 as an orderly officer. In December 1914, he was promoted to first lieutenant and in June 1916, to captain. Beginning in 1917, he served as a general staff officer on the Western Front. His awards include the Iron Cross, first and second classes, as well as numerous other medals. In June 1918, he fell ill with diphtheria and was given leave until mid-August. In December 1918, an Army Group health report found that he had been suffering for years from Graves' disease [an autoimmune disorder that leads to hyperthyroidism]. The senior physician making the report stated: "I consider His Royal Highness Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg physically unsuited for active military service." In September 1919, he entered the Benedictine abbey at Beuron and received the religious name "Odo." In 1921, Brother Odo made his temporary profession of vows and in 1926 was ordained a priest, renouncing his title and claims to his inheritance. Involved in youth work, he quickly found himself in the Gestapo's sights. He later explained: "I was in the Diocese of Rottenburg as a youth leader. We Swabians have pretty thick skulls, so we didn't bow down to the 'divine' Hitler, much less to Baldur von Schirach [head of the Hitler Youth from 1931 to 1940], but we simply held our own Youth firmly together." Due to the Stauffenbergs' close ties to the Württemberg family, Dom Odo, eleven years his senior, also knew Count Claus von Stauffenberg (1907-1944), as the Württemberg family seat at Altshausen near Ravensburg and the Stauffenberg Castle at Jettingen near Günzberg were only approximately fifty kilometers apart. The National Socialist government banished Dom Odo from Württemberg in 1933 and eventually expatriated him from the German Reich in 1934 [stripped of his German citizenship in 1936, he was soon after granted Luxembourgish citizenship]. He lived in Switzerland for six years and in Washington, D.C., for another nine. In 1949, he returned to Germany.
---
Translated extract from Paul Jakobius' "The Last Fight":
Prince Carl Alexander von Württemberg, son of Duke Albrecht von Württemberg and Princess Margarethe von Württemberg, née Archduchess of Austria, was born 12 March 1896 at the ducal coronation palace at Stuttgart.
Between 1898 and 1900, he lived with his parents at Potsdam, where his father was commander of the 5th Honorary Calvary Brigade. Between 1906 and 1908, the family resided in Kassel while Duke Albrecht commanded the Prussian Army as a general.
On 12 March 1906, his tenth birthday, the young prince [Carl Alexander] was, according to tradition, appointed lieutenant. He graduated [high school] in 1914.
As a young officer in the First World War, he served on the Western Front and in Italy. On Christmas 1914, he was promoted to first lieutenant. He was made a captain in 1916. He was wounded in action by a landmine explosion and was later decorated. In 1918 [sic], he retired from the military and moved to Altshausen Castle.
On 27 September 1919, the young prince duke entered the Benedictine abbey at Beuron. On 8 February 1920, he began his novitiate and received the name Brother Odo. He took his first vows on 10 February 1921. On 10 August 1926, he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Raymond Netzhammer, O.S.B.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original memorial text as composed by memorial author Wladyslaw Kordas:
Carl Alexander Herzog von Württemberg (Pater Odo OSB) (* 12. März 1896 in Stuttgart; † 27. Dezember 1964 in Altshausen) war ein Mitglied des Hauses Württemberg und ein Benediktinermönch. Während und nach der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus engagierte er sich in der Hilfe für Flüchtlinge, Juden und Kriegsgefangene und wurde dafür von den NS-Herrschern des damaligen Deutschen Reiches ausgewiesen.
Nach seinem Tod wurde Pater Odo seinem letzten Willen gemäß auf dem Friedhof der Abtei St. Martin, Weingarten beigesetzt.
=======================================
Carl Alexander Herzog von Württemberg (Father Odo OSB) (12 March 1896, Stuttgart – 27 December 1964, Altshausen) was a member of the House of Württemberg who became a Benedictine monk. ("Herzog von Württemberg" is German for "Duke of Württemberg".) During, and following, the Nazi era he provided aid to refugees, Jews, and prisoners of war, and was reported for these activities to the Nazi rulers of Germany.
Father Odo was, by his express wish, buried in the cemetery of the Abbey of St. Martin at Weingarten, Württemberg.
During the First World War, he served with Infantry Regiment No. 121 on the Western Front and in Italy. Assigned to Army High Command when the War began, he was promoted in June 1916 to captain of a machinegun company. He joined the General Staff the following year. Among his military awards were the Iron Cross First Class (awarded 13 May 1915) and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Royal Military Merit (awarded 21 May 1915 by King Wilhelm II of Württemberg).
Retired from active military service in January 1919, in September of that year he entered the Archabbey of Saint Martin, at Beuron. His name in religious life was Brother – later Father – Odo. Ordained a Roman Catholic priest on 10 August 1926, in the summer of 1930, he was sent to the Abbey of Saint Martin at Weingarten. Here, he held several offices and was active in local Catholic youth work.
Dom Odo openly opposed National Socialism from its outset and was arrested and interrogated numerous times by the Gestapo beginning in 1933. In April 1934, while he was helping to organize the Abbey of Saint Bartholomew at Neuburg, the National Socialist government expelled him from the German Reich. He found refuge at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Angels in Engelberg (Switzerland), where he established the International Catholic Refugee Aid Committee. As a representative of the Committee, he traveled throughout the United Kingdom and Continental Europe and in July 1938 participated in the international conference at Évian (France), which dealt with relief measures for people of the Jewish faith persecuted by the National Socialists.
In August 1940, informed by the Swiss government that they could no longer guarantee his safety, he escaped to Portugal and from there fled to the United States as a refugee. He took up residence at the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, D.C., and continued to be an outspoken enemy of the National Socialists. As head of the International Catholic Refugee Aid Committee, Dom Odo pursued the task of helping Christian and Jewish individuals and families fleeing the German Reich and its occupied territories. In addition, he worked closely with Catholic authorities on behalf of prisoners at the Gurs internment camp in southwestern France, where many people of the Jewish faith and other persons expelled from Reich-controlled territories were imprisoned under deplorable conditions. Beginning in 1943, he was involved in the pastoral care of German prisoners of war interned at American camps. While he had the unrealized dream of collaborating with likeminded military leaders in Germany to overthrow the Nazi regime, he was a friend of Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg, who on 20 July 1944 carried out an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler and organized the subsequent coup d'état.
In November 1945, while still based in the Unted States, Dom Odo founded the Central European Rehabilitation Association, Inc. (CERA), a nonprofit, apolitical, and nonsectarian charitable organization with the aim of sending food, clothes, medicine, and other needed items to war-torn Central Europe. As president of CERA, he raised significant funds for this purpose.
In 1949, he returned to Germany and reentered the Abbey of Saint Bartolomew, where he had served prior to being expelled from his homeland by the National Socialists fifteen years before. He remained at the Abbey until 1952, when a heart condition forced him to retire to his family's castle at Altshausen. Here, he spent the remaining twelve years of his life and worked to reestablish in 1960 the local Civil Guard on Horseback, the Yellow Hussars.
Dom Odo entered eternal life on the feast of Saint John the Evangelist, 27 December 1964, at the age of 68 years and nine months. Following his wishes, he was interred in the cemetery of the Abbey of Saint Martin at Weingarten, not far from Altshausen Castle.
---
Dom Odo helped save the lives of many Jewish and Christian non-Aryan people fleeing the Third Reich and helped ease the situation of those who were unable to escape, while he himself was also a target of Nazi hatred. His whole family opposed National Socialism, and while he was able to find safety in the United States and continue to work on behalf of refugees in Europe, his two older brothers were imprisoned by the Gestapo and awaiting execution when World War II ended.
According to World War II-era Vatican documents, the number of refugees aided by the International Catholic Refugee Aid Committee was in the thousands. In 1939 alone, the Committee secured emigration documents for 654 refugees and 150 other refugees who had not obtained a travel visa, at a cost of approximately $147,000 (about $3mil in 2023). The logo of the Committee was a silhouette of Saint Joseph beside the Blessed Virgin who is astride a donkey and holding the Infant Jesus as they travel through a barren desert as refugees.
After the War, Dom Odo founded the Central European Rehabilitation Association, for which he raised almost two million dollars [$2mil in 1945 = $33mil in 2023].
---
He spoke fluent German, English, and French, and his signature (in French) was "Dom Odon duc de Wurttemberg O. S. B."
---
Biographical Sketch of Dom Odo von Württemberg (Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg)
Catholic priest of the Benedictine Order
12 March 1896 - 27 December 1964
27 September 1919: Entered the Archabbey of Beuron
10 February 1921: Profession in the Archabbey of Beuron
10 August 1926: Priestly ordination
State President of the Catholic Youth of Württemberg
1933: numerous interrogations and arrests by the Gestapo
8 December 1933: Expulsion from Württemberg
23 February 1934: Benedictine Abbey of Neuburg near Heidelberg
8 April 1934: Expulsion from Baden, then stay in the Benedictine Abbey of St. Matthias, Trier
30 April 1934: Expulsion from the German Reich, transfer to Engelberg Abbey in Switzerland, employee in the International Refugee Aid
1936: Expatriation from the German Reich, acceptance of Luxembourg citizenship,
1 August 1940: Escape to the USA.
Sources and literature:
Württemberg, Odo von, in: Württembergische Landesbibliothek / Badische Landesbibliothek / Statistisches Landesamt. Landesbibliographie Baden-Württemberg online, in: www.statistik-bw.de (accessed on 25.09.2015)
Württemberg, Carl Alexander Herzog, in: Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg. German Digital Library, in: www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de (accessed on 25.09.2015)
Information: Archive of the Archabbey of Beuron.
Fritz, Eberhard, The House of Württemberg and National Socialism. Motives of resistance against Hitler and his movement, in: House of History Baden-Württemberg (ed.), Nobility and National Socialism in the German Southwest, Karlsruhe 2007, pp. 132 - 144, here: 139 - 144.
Online Source: Odo von Württemberg, in: Critical Online Edition of the Diaries of Michael Kardinal von Faulhabers (1911-1952). Available at: https://faulhaber-edition.de/03291. Last accessed on 17 January 2024.
---
The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, New South Wales (Australia)/
Tuesday 5 November 1940:
GERMAN PRIEST DENIES IS HITLER PEACE EMISSARY
(A.A.P. .Message)
New York, Monday.
The German Father Odo Benedictine, a monk, who formerly was the Duke of Wurttemberg, has denied London reports that he is in the United States as a peace emissary of Hitler.
He said his sole purpose was to help the Catholic refugees.
He had not been in Germany for seven years, and had never seen Hitler.
Meanwhile it is officially announced in Berlin that the Axis had seen no reason for a peace move, in view of its present political and military position.
The Secretary of State (Mr. Cordell Hull) in Washington, to-day said he had no information concerning reports from Europe that peace proposals had been outlined to the United States.
---
Curriculum vitae as published by the Central European Rehabilitation Association, Inc.:
Charles Alexander, Duke of Wurttemberg
born in Stuttgart, Wurttemberg 12th of March 1896
Father: Duke Albrecht of Wurttemberg, Heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Wurttemberg. Fieldmarshal. died 29th of October 1939.
Mother: Duchess Margarethe Sophie of Wurttemberg, née Archduchess of Austria died 24th of August 1902.
Studied at the private gymnasium for the Royal Princes and graduated of it 1914.
March 12, 1906 he became Second Lieutenant in the Royal Wurttembergish Infantery [sic] Regiment Alt Wurttemberg, 3rd Royal Wurttembergish No. 121.
He made the whole World War I on the West and Italian Front. He served as Lieutenant, then as Captain of the Machinegun Troops and finally as Captain of the General Staff. In January 1919 he quitted the army
September 1919 he joined the Benedictine Order at the Archabbey of Beuron in Hohenzollern, South Germany and received the religious name of Dom Odo.
He was ordained priest August 10th, 1926.
From 1930 until December 1933 he was the leader of the Catholic Youth in Wurttemberg. Because he did not submit himself and the Catholic Youth of Wurttemberg to Hitler and Nazism he was exiled from Wurttemberg December 8th, 1933. He went to the abbey of Neuburg near Heidelberg, Baden. From there he was exiled from [sic] the Gestapo April 8th, 1934 and finally from the whole of Germany April 30th, 1934. He went to Switzerland, where he remained until August 1st, 1940. He organized the International Catholic Help for Refugees and War Victims. He helped every one in misery as well as he could without looking on races, nationalities or creeds.
In August 1940 he went to Portugal and organized there the help for refugees. October 8th, 1940 he came by clipper to the United States. He worked privately for refugees and war victimes [sic] over the whole world.
During the war he helped as auxiliary chaplain in camps for Prisoners of War.
In November 1945 he founded the Central European Rehabilitation Association Inc. in order to help in all countries of Central Europe. CERA is a non profit, non political, non sectarian and charitable organization. He is President of CERA.
---
Translated extract from Dieter Kilian's "Bible Church Military: Christianity and Being a Soldier through the Ages," pages 254-255, published in 2018:
In the First World War, Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg served as a lieutenant with Infantry Regiment No. 121 and participated in battles at the Marne, in Champagne, and around Ypres. In August 1914, he was assigned to Army High Command 4 as an orderly officer. In December 1914, he was promoted to first lieutenant and in June 1916, to captain. Beginning in 1917, he served as a general staff officer on the Western Front. His awards include the Iron Cross, first and second classes, as well as numerous other medals. In June 1918, he fell ill with diphtheria and was given leave until mid-August. In December 1918, an Army Group health report found that he had been suffering for years from Graves' disease [an autoimmune disorder that leads to hyperthyroidism]. The senior physician making the report stated: "I consider His Royal Highness Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg physically unsuited for active military service." In September 1919, he entered the Benedictine abbey at Beuron and received the religious name "Odo." In 1921, Brother Odo made his temporary profession of vows and in 1926 was ordained a priest, renouncing his title and claims to his inheritance. Involved in youth work, he quickly found himself in the Gestapo's sights. He later explained: "I was in the Diocese of Rottenburg as a youth leader. We Swabians have pretty thick skulls, so we didn't bow down to the 'divine' Hitler, much less to Baldur von Schirach [head of the Hitler Youth from 1931 to 1940], but we simply held our own Youth firmly together." Due to the Stauffenbergs' close ties to the Württemberg family, Dom Odo, eleven years his senior, also knew Count Claus von Stauffenberg (1907-1944), as the Württemberg family seat at Altshausen near Ravensburg and the Stauffenberg Castle at Jettingen near Günzberg were only approximately fifty kilometers apart. The National Socialist government banished Dom Odo from Württemberg in 1933 and eventually expatriated him from the German Reich in 1934 [stripped of his German citizenship in 1936, he was soon after granted Luxembourgish citizenship]. He lived in Switzerland for six years and in Washington, D.C., for another nine. In 1949, he returned to Germany.
---
Translated extract from Paul Jakobius' "The Last Fight":
Prince Carl Alexander von Württemberg, son of Duke Albrecht von Württemberg and Princess Margarethe von Württemberg, née Archduchess of Austria, was born 12 March 1896 at the ducal coronation palace at Stuttgart.
Between 1898 and 1900, he lived with his parents at Potsdam, where his father was commander of the 5th Honorary Calvary Brigade. Between 1906 and 1908, the family resided in Kassel while Duke Albrecht commanded the Prussian Army as a general.
On 12 March 1906, his tenth birthday, the young prince [Carl Alexander] was, according to tradition, appointed lieutenant. He graduated [high school] in 1914.
As a young officer in the First World War, he served on the Western Front and in Italy. On Christmas 1914, he was promoted to first lieutenant. He was made a captain in 1916. He was wounded in action by a landmine explosion and was later decorated. In 1918 [sic], he retired from the military and moved to Altshausen Castle.
On 27 September 1919, the young prince duke entered the Benedictine abbey at Beuron. On 8 February 1920, he began his novitiate and received the name Brother Odo. He took his first vows on 10 February 1921. On 10 August 1926, he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Raymond Netzhammer, O.S.B.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original memorial text as composed by memorial author Wladyslaw Kordas:
Carl Alexander Herzog von Württemberg (Pater Odo OSB) (* 12. März 1896 in Stuttgart; † 27. Dezember 1964 in Altshausen) war ein Mitglied des Hauses Württemberg und ein Benediktinermönch. Während und nach der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus engagierte er sich in der Hilfe für Flüchtlinge, Juden und Kriegsgefangene und wurde dafür von den NS-Herrschern des damaligen Deutschen Reiches ausgewiesen.
Nach seinem Tod wurde Pater Odo seinem letzten Willen gemäß auf dem Friedhof der Abtei St. Martin, Weingarten beigesetzt.
=======================================
Carl Alexander Herzog von Württemberg (Father Odo OSB) (12 March 1896, Stuttgart – 27 December 1964, Altshausen) was a member of the House of Württemberg who became a Benedictine monk. ("Herzog von Württemberg" is German for "Duke of Württemberg".) During, and following, the Nazi era he provided aid to refugees, Jews, and prisoners of war, and was reported for these activities to the Nazi rulers of Germany.
Father Odo was, by his express wish, buried in the cemetery of the Abbey of St. Martin at Weingarten, Württemberg.
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