Alexandrine Countess of Üxküll-Gyllenband

Alexandrine Countess von Üxküll-Gyllenband (born June 30, 1873 in Vienna , † May 23, 1963 in Grünwald ) was superior at the German Red Cross . Besides the Swede Elsa Brändström , Alexandrine von Üxküll-Gyllenband was one of the few German sisters who were allowed to visit the German prisoners of war of the First World War in Russia under the protection of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) .

Life

Grave of Alexandrine Countess von Üxküll-Gyllenband in Satteldorf

Alexandrine von Üxküll-Gyllenband came from the German-Baltic noble family Uexküll . She was one of six children of Alfred Richard August Graf Üxküll-Gyllenband (* 1838, † 1877) and his wife Valerie geb. Countess von Hohenthal (* 1841, † 1878). She spent her early childhood near Vienna and on her father's estate in Güns, Hungary . At the age of five she became an orphan and came with her three siblings Albertine, Caroline (later married Schenk von Stauffenberg ) and Nikolaus to their foster mother, Countess Olga Üxküll-Gyllenband in Württemberg . In 1897 she began training as a Johanniter sister with the Olga Sisters in Stuttgart. After training in Munich , Hamburg , Schwäbisch Hall and Paris , she was appointed head nurse in the municipal hospital in Wiesbaden in 1903 . In 1908 she was appointed superior of the Red Cross.

First World War

During the First World War , she carried out inspections on the front lines in the west on the condition of the wounded and sick. In 1915 he was appointed to a higher-level body. Mediated by the Danish Red Cross and sponsored by the Tsarina and the German Empress, Red Cross sisters of the warring nations were allowed to visit and care for their prisoners in enemy territory for the first time and were given the right to speak to the prisoners without witnesses. They were also given access to the appropriate authorities to demand compliance with the Geneva Convention.

Accompanied by a Danish colonel, Üxküll-Gyllenband traveled with two other sisters via Sweden to Saint Petersburg , where they met the responsible representative of the War Ministry. The most important goal was to get the aid for the prisoners to the right place. The three delegations, each consisting of a German sister, a neutral representative of the Red Cross and a Russian interpreting officer, traveled all over Russia. The trips were all under the supervision of the Danish doctor Thorvald Madsen, who had been appointed by the International Red Cross in Geneva as an observer and hygiene officer. Üxküll-Gyllenband worked with Elsa Brändström . The two later enjoyed a lifelong friendship.

After a submarine incident, the sisters had to leave Russia in 1917. After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks declared all prisoners free, but only after the peace of Brest-Litovsk was the return migration of the prisoners carried out with German participation. Sister Alexandrine went to Russia again in the spring of 1918. Alexandrine von Üxküll-Gyllenband returned to Germany at the end of 1919.

Interwar period

In 1921 she received a new call to Upper Silesia, where armed conflict took place. From 1929 she was superior of the Rittberghaus sisterhood.

Second World War

After the " seizure " of the Nazis , it was, according to the statement of those party members who are nationals of princely houses are 1933 member of the May 1 NSDAP and under the party's number registered 2,645,280. After 1939, Sister Alexandrine lived with her widowed sister Caroline von Stauffenberg in Lautlingen and through her and her brother Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband was connected to the resistance. In 1944, her brother Nikolaus and three nephews died as a result of the events of July 20, 1944 . Alexandrine Countess von Üxküll-Gyllenband herself was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in Balingen , but released again after 6 weeks.

In June 1945 she helped bring the children of her nephews Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg , who were housed in a children's home in Bad Sachsa , to Lautlingen . She brought the children of her nephew Caesar von Hofacker from Bad Sachsa to Reichenbach and Tübingen .

Post-war years

In 1956 Sister Alexandrine published her memoirs under the title From a Sister's Life . Alexandrine Countess von Üxküll-Gyllenband died on May 25, 1963 in Grünwald near Munich. She is buried in the family grave in Satteldorf on the Protestant village cemetery. The Alexandrinenstift in Satteldorf is named after her.

Awards

In 1920 she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal for her services . In 1953 she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.

literature

Report of the Danish Red Cross delegation on the visit to the German POW camps in Russia, the German sister, Oberin Countess Alexandrine Üxküll-Gyllenband and the Danish Colonel GC Muus . In: Treatment of German prisoners of war in Russia contrary to international law . Berlin, Prussian War Ministry, 1918, cit., Volume II, Annex 413
Alexandrine Countess von Üxküll-Gyllenband: From a sister's life . Kohlhammer-Verlag, 1956.
Horst-Peter Wolff: Biographical lexicon on nursing history: who was who in nursing history . Elsevier, Urban & Fischer Verlag, 1997, p. 210 ( ISBN 3861266288 )

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Anne Hardy: Actions not Words. Thorvald Madsen, Denmark, and International Health. 1902-1939. In: Iris Borowy and Anne Hardy (ed.): Of Medicine and Men. Biographies and Ideas in European Social Medicine between the World Wars , Peter Lang Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt a. M. 2008, p. 135. ISBN 978-3-631-58044-8 .
^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 628.
^ Valerie Riedesel Baroness to Eisenbach: Ghost children. Five siblings in Himmler's kin . Holzgerlingen: Hänssler 3rd edition 2017, p. 291 ff.
↑ Red Cross Sisters: The Nursing Professionals: Humanity - the idea lives . Association of Sisterhoods, German Red Cross, Georg Olms Verlag, 2007, p. 59 ( ISBN 3487084678 )

personal data
SURNAME	Üxküll-Gyllenband, Countess Alexandrine von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Üxküll-Gyllenband, Countess of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Red Cross Superior
DATE OF BIRTH	June 30, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH	Vienna
DATE OF DEATH	May 23, 1963
Place of death	Grünwald

[1] Anne Hardy: Actions not Words. Thorvald Madsen, Denmark, and International Health. 1902-1939. In: Iris Borowy and Anne Hardy (ed.): Of Medicine and Men. Biographies and Ideas in European Social Medicine between the World Wars , Peter Lang Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt a. M. 2008, p. 135. ISBN 978-3-631-58044-8 .

[2] Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 628.

[3] Valerie Riedesel Baroness to Eisenbach: Ghost children. Five siblings in Himmler's kin . Holzgerlingen: Hänssler 3rd edition 2017, p. 291 ff.

[4] Red Cross Sisters: The Nursing Professionals: Humanity - the idea lives . Association of Sisterhoods, German Red Cross, Georg Olms Verlag, 2007, p. 59 ( ISBN 3487084678 )