Following the First World War, Albrecht's grandfather King Ludwig was deposed. Albrecht and the family moved from Bavaria to the Austrian Tyrol. Prior to the Second World War, his family, the House of Wittelsbach, were opposed to the regime of Nazi Germany and refused to join the Nazi Party. The decision meant that Prince Albrecht, who had been studying forestry, was unable to complete his studies. In 1940 Albrecht took his family to his estate at Sárvár, Vas, Hungary. In October 1944, after Germany had occupied Hungary in March, the Wittelsbachs were arrested and imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp at Oranienburg, Brandenburg. In April 1945 they were moved to the Dachau concentration camp, where they were liberated by the United States Army. Albrecht became head of the deposed royal family of Bavaria with the death of his father on 2 August 1955. As the eldest son of the eldest son of Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, recognized by Jacobites as "Queen Mary IV and III ", he was also the dynastic representative and heir-general of England, Scotland and Ireland's last Stuart king, James II and VII, deposed in 1688. In 1959 Albrecht, in an official ceremony, returned the Greek crown jewels to the Greek nation, accepted by King Paul of Greece. In 1980 Albrecht presided over sumptuous ceremonies in Bavaria celebrating the 800th anniversary of the founding of the House of Wittelsbach. Albrecht was a prolific hunter and deer researcher, collecting 3,425 sets of antlers, now partially shown in a permanent exhibition on his research activities in the former royal castle at Berchtesgaden. He also wrote two books on "the habits of deer" for which he received honorary doctorates by the biological faculty of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. While visiting Brazil in 1953 he encountered Brazilian Mastiffs and took some to Germany, introducing the dog breed to Europe. Albrecht died on 8 July 1996, aged 91, at Berg Castle, southwest of Munich, where he had lived reclusively for decades. His funeral at Theatine Church, Munich was conducted by Friedrich Wetter, the Archbishop of Munich. He was buried on a family graveyard he himself had installed in 1977 at Andechs Abbey.
Marriages and children
Albrecht married Countess Maria Draskovich of Trakostjan on 3 September 1930 in Berchtesgaden. Daughter of Count Dionys Maria Draskovich von Trakostjan and Princess Juliana Rose von Montenuovo, she belonged to a family of the Croatian nobility known since 1230 and made Imperial counts in 1631. Although Albrecht's father allowed the wedding, a Wittelsbach family council concluded that the marriage was non-compliant with the dynasty's marital tradition as set out in its historical house laws, and the names of the couple's four children were excluded from the Almanach de Gotha. In 1948, however, a juridical consultation advised that the head of the house has sole authority to determine the validity of marriages within the House of Wittelsbach, prompting Crown Prince Rupprecht to recognize Albrecht's marriage as dynastic on 18 May 1949. On 21 April 1971 in Weichselboden, Albrecht married Countess Marie-Jenke Keglevich of Buzin, daughter of Count Stephan Keglevich de Buzin and Countess Klára Zichy of Zich and Vásonkeö. They had no children. At the time of his death, Albrecht had four children from his first marriage, fifteen grandchildren and twenty-six great-grandchildren. His children are:
