Tiara Tuesday: Prussian Diamond Tiara*

The diadem was a wedding present for Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia from her father, Kaiser Wilhelm II. It was made by the Imperial jeweller Koch, in platinum and diamonds. In Berlin, he met Princess Viktoria Luise and a year later, in May 1913, the Princess married him wearing her father’s present.

Princess Frederika of Hanover

Ernest Augustus III, who would become the last reigning Monarch of the House of Hanover as the Duke of Bunrswick, and Viktoria Luise of Prussia, the Duchess of Brunswick, had five children. Their only daughter, Princess Frederika of Hanover, received the Prussian tiara from her mother, and took it with her to Athens when she married in 1938 the Crown Prince of Greece.


The Crown Prince and Princess had a daughter just ten months after their wedding, Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark, the current owner of the tiara, maternal granddaughter of the original owner, Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia. Queen Frederica lent the tiara to her first daughter for some of her first tiara events.

In September of 1961 the King of Greece announced Sophia's engagement to the Spanish Prince Juan Carlos. In 1962, Princess Sophia married Prince Juan Carlos of Spain in Athens, wearing the Prussian tiara. And through the now Princess Sofía of Spain, the diadem became part of the Spanish collection.  During the first years of marriage, first as Princess and later as Queen, Queen Sofía wore the tiara regularly. However, since her tiara choices grew and her daughters started using this one, Sofia stopped using the Prussian diadem so frequently. Since the Prince of Asturias marriage in 2004, practically the only member of the Family who has used it is Princess Letizia  

The Prussian can be considered an starter tiara, it was a present for a young Princess of Prussia, it was used by a young Princess of Hanover and it was the first tiara a young Princess Sophia of Denmark used in public. The first time Infanta Cristina attended a State dinner in the Royal Palace, she used this tiara. It is, of course, the first tiara the Princess of Asturias wore. Images: Google (Key Words: "Prussian Diamond Tiara", "Prussian Diamond Tiara Sofia",