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Malte of Putbus

German prince (1783-1854)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ97528 ↗
Source-derived summary

Wilhelm Malte I Fürst und Herr zu Putbus (1783 – 1854) was a German prince (Fürst) from the old Slavic-Rügen noble family of the lords of Putbus. He acted as a Swedish governor in Swedish Pomerania and later, under Prussian rule, as the chairman of the regional council (Kommunallandtag) of Pomerania and Rügen.

As a result of his extensive building activity, Wilhelm Malte left many traces of the first half of the 19th century on the island of Rügen. Under his rule, his home town of Putbus was greatly expanded in the classical style and is still known today as "The White Town".

Life

Wilhelm Malte was born on 1 August 1783 in Putbus, when Rügen still belonged to Sweden as a result of the Thirty Years' War. He was the son of the Swedish Marshal of the Court, Malte Friedrich of Putbus and his wife Sophie Wilhelmine, née Countess von der Schulenburg. After studying at the University of Greifswald and Göttingen, he entered military service in Sweden on 21 July 1800 with the Stockholm Life Hussars. After becoming a Swedish chamberlain on 14 September 1802, Wilhelm Malte was elevated on 25 May 1807 by King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden to the rank of a prince (Fürst).

After the end of French occupation, he was nominated in 1813 by the Swedish Crown Prince and Regent, later Charles XIV John Bernadotte, as Governor-general of Swedish Pomerania. This office was traditionally linked to the office of Chancellor of the University of Greifswald.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Malte of Putbus” is german prince (1783-1854). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Malte, Putbus and German, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1783, 1854, 1800, 1802—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1783-08-01. For this dossier, Malte, Putbus and German is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “german prince (1783-1854)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q97528. VIAF identifies the subject as 52438819. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1783, 1854, 1800 and 1802.

Critical limits

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Malte of Putbus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.