Heinrich XLV, Prince of Reuss

Heinrich XLV zu Reuss (born on May, 13 1895), is the current ruler of both Principalities of Reuss-Senior Line and Reuss-Junior Line, two of the constituent states of the German Empire, succedding to his father Prince Heinrich XXVII in 1928. Heinrich XLV has previously served as a Leutenant in the German Army. The two lines of the Reuss family, splitted in two principalities since Napoleon, were reunited in 1927, one year before his accession of the throne, following the death of the childless Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss-Senior Line. The question of the merging of the two principalities, impeached since eight years by many administrative and traditional complications, is one of the great problems of the aging German administration and federal system.

One of the most prominent members of the Reuss family nowadays is the Empress Hermine, second wife of the Kaiser Wilhelm II, coming from the Senior Line.