Metternich – Kielmansegg duel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Magazine illustration of Paul Balluriau's duel

The Metternich – Kielmansegg duel was an alleged duel with rapiers (swords) between Princess Pauline von Metternich and Countess Anastasia von Kielmansegg, wife of Count Erich von Kielmansegg , in August 1892.

Even if numerous contemporary newspapers reported on this duel , according to the Austrian press of the time it was a false report.

The duel

Princess Metternich regularly organized large celebrations at the Austrian imperial court. She initiated the international music and theater exhibition that took place from May 7th to October 9th, 1892 in the Vienna Prater . According to the reports, Count Kielmansegg proposed to the princess to include his wife in the ladies' committee, where she proved to be just as ambitious as the princess. The two women got into an argument about a flower arrangement so much that the battle of words ended in a duel.

They went to Vaduz in the neighboring Principality of Liechtenstein for a duel . Baroness Lubinska is said to have acted as referee , according to the reports Princess Schwarzenberg and Countess Kinsky were seconds . The fight should be "until the first blood". Baroness Lubinska had medical knowledge. She is said to have warned that dueling injuries were particularly dangerous if parts of the clothing got into the wounds and infected them in the process. That could lead to death. So she suggested to the duelists that the male servants standing aloof should turn around and the ladies should take off their outer clothing. So the duel was topless been fought. According to other sources, undressing was limited to the fact that the arguing women were still wearing corsets and shirts.

Princess Metternich is said to have been slightly injured in the nose at first, but was then able to hit the countess in the arm, who then dropped the rapier with a scream. Baroness Lubinska drove away her servants, who rushed up immediately, with an umbrella. The injuries were then treated by the seconds and the two arguing women were persuaded to reconcile.

Reporting and Entrance into Art

The duel was reported across Europe, including the British women's magazine The Lady's Realm and the French newspaper Le Radical, which cited Figaro as a source . However, the contemporary sources are limited to newspaper reports. In memoirs of members of the Viennese aristocracy there is no mention of the piquant story. Instead, a telegram from Princess Metternich appears in a French newspaper, who denies the duel and calls it the invention of an Italian newspaper. In the Austrian press, the story was clearly denounced as a false report, for example in the Vienna Sunday and Monday newspaper of August 15, 1892, which reported in detail on the “ duck ” of the Italian tribuna .

Nevertheless, the story of the aristocratic duelists was taken up in many ways. Numerous paintings and later also erotic photographs were created that depicted a duel between two bare-breasted or lightly clad women. The Austrian composer Josef Bayer created the operetta Das Damenduell in 1907 according to the reports .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Jenni Wiltz: The Dueling Princess: Pauline Metternich. In: jenniwiltz.com. October 7, 2019, accessed December 10, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e The first emancipated duel. In: Time Travel Viennna. January 15, 2017, accessed December 10, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b Lauren Davis: A Princess Once Dueled A Countess Over Floral Arrangements… Topless. In: Gizmodo . May 20, 2015, accessed December 10, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Helen Keen: The Science of Ice and Fire: When "Game of Thrones" meets facts. Bastei Lübbe paperback, Cologne, 2017, ISBN 978-3-404-60938-3 . limited preview in Google Book search.
  5. ↑ Features: This and That. In: Wiener Sonntags- und Monday-Zeitung. August 15, 1892, pp. 1–2 , accessed on January 6, 2020 (in the archives of the Austrian National Library).