Erwein (II) Theodor Philipp Damian (the younger) Prince von der Leyen und zu Hohengeroldseck, Lord of Waal and Unterdiessen (* 31 March 1863 in Munich; † 18 September 1938 in Waal) was the fourth Prince von der Leyen, a landowner in Bavarian Swabia and a German lord of the manor. Erwein II was the son of Prince Philipp (II) von der Leyen (* 1819; † 1882) and his wife Adelheid, née Princess von Thurn und Taxis (* 1829; † 1888). He belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. In 1882, he inherited the title of Prince from his father as well as the castle and estate at Waal, which had been linked to it since 1820, and a permanent seat in the First Chamber of the Baden Assembly of Estates. As Prince, he was entitled to the title of Serene Highness (S.D.). The seat of the Prince in the First Chamber of Baden was based on the Principality of von der Leyen, which had been mediatised in 1815, established in 1806 on the territory of the County of Hohengeroldseck and ceded from the Austrian Empire to the Grand Duchy of Baden on 4 October 1819 in accordance with an agreement at the Congress of Aachen. He was initially not personally present at the sessions of the First Chamber of Baden in Karlsruhe and usually had himself represented. From 1887 he attended the sessions sporadically, and from

1897 until the end of the monarchy in 1918 with relative regularity. He was also politically active as a member of the board of the Bavarian Landowners' Association and as president of the Association of German Estates. He was also involved in the German Anti-Duelling League. Erwein von der Leyen founded the sawmill in Waal, which has been operated by the von der Leyen dynasty ever since and from which Holzwerke Waal emerged. Prince Erwein married Marie Charlotte Princess and Old Countess of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Krautheim and Dyck (* 17 April 1867 in Herrschberg; † 4 April 1944 in Waal) on 22 May 1890 at Schloss Dyck. The marriage produced six children, of whom only two sons and three daughters reached adulthood.

The Leibgendarmerie was the name given to the detachments of orderlies in the Prussian army which were at the special disposal of the king. Until 1820, the cavalry regiments provided the mounted orderlies  for the king as well as the royal prince, the generals and the command authorities. On 12 February 1820, the formation of an ‘army gendarmerie’ was ordered by the Allerhöchste Kabinetts-Order (A.K.O.). This army gendarmerie consisted of 150 cavalrymen. Each provincial army corps received one non-commissioned officer and 13 men, while the Guards and Grenadier Corps received one non-commissioned officer and 14 men. These formed the Army Gendarmerie Command and the Guards Army Gendarmerie Command. Each commanding general received one non-commissioned officer and three men, each divisional general two and each brigadier general one man. The army gendarmes later became the staff orderlies. The remaining 23 posts (one constable, two non-commissioned officers and 20 men) were placed under the command of an officer at the disposal of ‘His Majesty the King’. At first they were experienced men from the rural constabulary, later men from the active cavalry. Two army gendarmes each had to speak French, Russian, Polish and one each Dutch and Wendish. Economically, the team was assigned to the regiment of the Gardes du Corps and was known as the ‘Garde-Reserve-Armee-Gendarmerie-Kommando’. This gave rise to the Leib-Gendarmerie. His duties

were: Ordnance service, such as delivering letters and orders from the royal cabinet, carrying and holding important documents and accompanying Her Majesty on state visits, manoeuvres and journeys. When foreign rulers were staying at court, they also carried out the orderly service there. Police duties or personal protection as we understand it today were not part of their duties. Furthermore, their duties included taking part in all parades of the guard corps and imperial manoeuvres. The standards of the Emperor and Empress were carried. At the annual imperial manoeuvres, a trumpeter from the Life Guards blew the signal at the end of the exercise: ‘Das Ganze Halt!’.

The House of Leyen-Hohengeroldseck is an ancient German noble family of princely and historically sovereign rank. As a former ruling and mediatized family, it belongs to the Hochadel (high nobility). The origin can be traced to the middle of the 10th century, which had estates on the Moselle. Originally the family was named de Petra or by its castle in Gondorf (Cunthereve). Since the 14th century it has called itself von der Leyen. Its members had the hereditary office of sénéchal in the Electorate of Trier. They also had Adendorf near Bonn, Leiningen on the Hunsrück, the Lordship of Arenfels and St. Ingbert. Prior to 1660, Hugo Ernst (line Leyen-Adendorf) became Lord of Blieskastel and, in 1657, was created Reichsfreiherr (Imperial baron) von der Leyen. In addition to its scattered territories the family acquired the lordships of Burresheim and Blieskastel before 1660, where it built a residence around 1760. In 1697 Freiherr Karl Caspar received the county of Hohengeroldseck as a fiefdom from Austria. In 1711 he was created Imperial count (Reichsgraf) von der Leyen und zu Hohengeroldseck.