Alexander Hochberg

He was born 1 February 1905 in London, to Hans Heinrich XV, 3rd Prince von Pleß and his first wife Daisy, Princess of Pless. As an heir of once mighty Silesian ducal family of Dukes von Pless, Alexander (officially styled Alexander Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Konrad Ernst Maximilian Graf von Hochberg, baron zu Fürstenstein, 5th Fürst von Pless) had been a Polish citizen when Upper Silesia and Pless became part of Poland in 1921.

In 1924 Alexander became one of the main charactrers of a scandal in Wałbrzych. Six men (Alexander, Werner von der Schulenburg, butcher apprentice Fritz Langner, typesetter Rudolf Nimptsch, office worker Fritz Wähner, tailor Ernst Dünnebier) were accused of composing "Lila Klub" that was to organize gay orgies in Fürstenstein Castle teahouse. Von Hochberg was punished with 2 months of prison time.[1]

In 1927, his father sent him to London to study banking at Oxford University. After two years, Alexander quit his studies and in 1929 started an apprenticeship at Barclays in London. Afterwards, he returned to his mother in Munich. On his mother's initiative, he became engaged to Princess Ileana of Romania, but the Romanian side broke off the engagement in 1930 after being tipped off about "Hochberg–Schulenburg–Langner affair".[1]

Due to fiscal problems and indebtedness his estate was partly taken the Polish State (65% of the family's assets). Following his father's death in 1938 he emigrated to Paris, where he later joined the Polish Army in the West in the latter stages of the war, becoming personal security guard for Prime Minister of Poland general Władysław Sikorski. He served with distinction in North Africa and in Italy.

After the war he settled in Pollença on the Spanish island of Majorca. In the early 1950s, he befriended the American pulp author Gordon Merrick who described von Hochberg in his novel The Demon of Noon, disguising him as a Central European prince Alex. Alexander died on 22 February 1984, survived by his younger legally adopted lover Max.[1] He was succeeded as the head of the von Pless line of his family by his nephew Bolko Graf von Hochberg, 6th Fürst von Pless (b. Munich 3 Apr 1936, d. Munich 27 Aug 2022).[2]

• Ludovici, Laurence James (1993). The Three of Us. London: Marjay Books.
• Luke, Michael (2002). Hansel Pless: Prisoner of History. A Life of H.S.H. Hans Heinrich XVII, 4th Prince of Pless. London: Cygnet Press.