The Woman Who is Last in Line of Succession to the British Throne

Karin Vogel in 2011. Photograph (c) Schweriner Volkszeitung.

Since her birth on 4 February 1973, Karin Vogel has held a unique distinction: she is the last person in the line of succession to the British throne. In April 2011, ahead of the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, there were articles in BBC America, NPR, and the Wall Street Journal about the almost five thousand people in line to the throne. Ms. Vogel was mentioned in these pieces due to her special position: she is at the very end, the dynastic caboose, the British throne's omega. It would take a world disaster of dystopian proportions for Ms. Vogel to ever become Her Majesty Queen Karin of the United Kingdom. 

Karin Vogel is the daughter of Ilse Vogel (b.31 March 1930; née von der Trenck) and the late Dr. Wolfram Vogel (24 February 1926-7 May 2020), who married at Sulzfeld, Germany, on 12 April 1962. Karin has two older brothers: Martin (b.1963) and Klaus (b.1964). Martin Vogel is married to Ramona and has a son, Felix. Klaus Vogel and his wife Janice (née Heppell) have two children, Lorenz and Victoria. Klaus and Janice live in the village of Bösensell, Senden, where the couple are members of the charitable Die Johanniter organisation (Saint John Accident Assistance). Karin Vogel, the youngest of the siblings, is unmarried and is a healthcare professional; she lives in Rostock. The Vogel family, headed by matriarch Ilse and followed by her three children and three grandchildren, are the seven individuals who would be the final hope for the British monarchy - if ever the approximately six thousand relatives ahead of them were to suddenly disappear.

Karin Vogel, 2011.

When she was profiled a decade ago, Ms. Vogel quipped: "I can lean back and relax. It is really very comforting that one doesn’t have to worry about Great Britain." Indeed, Karin Vogel was at the time, and surely remains, very devoted to her work. She found her vocation as a therapist who specialises in counselling elderly people with chronic pain issues. Karin's interesting genealogical position stems from the 1701 Act of Settlement, which, according to the website of the British royal family, "was designed to secure the Protestant succession to the throne, and to strengthen the guarantees for ensuring a parliamentary system of government... According to the 1701 Act, succession to the throne went to Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover (James I's granddaughter) and her Protestant heirs. However, Sophia died before Queen Anne, therefore the succession passed to her son, George, Elector of Hanover, who in 1714 became King George I. The act was later extended to Scotland as a result of the Treaty of Union enacted in the Acts of Union of 1707." Karin Vogel is a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Electress Sophia of Hanover.

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Princess Sophia of the Palatinate (1630-1714); m.1658 Elector Ernst August of Hannover (1629-1698)

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King George I of Great Britain (1660-1727); m.1682 (div. 1694) Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1666-1726)

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Princess Sophia Dorothea of Great Britain (1687-1757); m.1706 King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia (1688-1740)

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Princess Sophie of Prussia (1719-1765); m.1734 Margrave Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1700-1771)

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Princess Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1736-1798); m.1753 Duke Friedrich II of Württemberg (1732-1797)

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Duke Alexander of Württemberg (1771-1833); m.1798 Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1779-1824)

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Duke Ernst of Württemberg (1807-1868); m.1860 Natalie Eischborn (1836-1905)

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Alexandra von Grünhof (1861-1933); m.1883 Robert von Keudell (1824-1903)

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Hedwig von Keudell (1891-?); m.1918 Karl von der Trenck (1881-1963)

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Ilse von der Trenck (b.1930); m.1962 Wolfram Vogel (1926-2020)

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Karin Vogel (b.1973)