the royal palaces in and around Regensburg to take in refugees. His childhood home, the former Benedictine monastery of Prüfening was, for a short time, home to the . As an aristocrat and Catholic, Albert was opposed to Nazism. Although his opposition was not active, he experienced his son Karl August's arrest in August 1944, and subsequent imprisonment in the Gestapo prison at Landshut until 1945. In 1949, Albert received the , named after Albertus Magnus, honouring scientists, artists, and patrons of the arts. Prince Albert and his wife Margarethe, artists, patrons of the art, and builders Prince Albert played piano and organ, and sang in private life as a baritone. He busied himself around Regensburg as a builder and patron of the arts, and supported a wide range of cultural activities. He funded a high altar reredos constructed between 1906 and 1912 in the , ; his coat of arms can be seen at the level of the central figure of St. Joseph. When a bust of Richard Wagner was set up at the memorial, Walhalla to celebrate the composer's 100th birthday in 1913, Prince Albert personally asked Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria if he might be permitted to fund the bust and its building-costs. In partial compensation for the loss of monopoly over the postal service on the founding of the kingdom of Bavaria, the princes of Thurn and Taxis had been given the secularised monastery buildings of the imperial monastery of St. Emmeram in 1812. From 1816, the buildings were converted into a residence. During the incumbency of Maximilian Maria, 7th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, the architect had added (1883-1885) the south wing of the palace, 150m in length. During the regency of prince Albert, the south wing was, from 188, converted to a Rococo Revival style. In the years 1904 to 1908, Prince Albert had Schultze build a new, modernised royal stables in the north part of the new ;at Waffnergasse. It had stalls and a three-storied coach house. When mechanised transport arrived in 1931, the royal stables were closed, and the contents of the harness-room and coach house were preserved in the royal stable museum of the princes of Thurn and Taxis. Princess Margarethe, too, was benevolent, and had good taste in art; she not only made a name for herself as a painter and sculptor, but also helped out as a surgical nurse