Elisabeth Countess Werthern

Elisabeth Countess Werthern , actually Elisabeth Countess von Werthern-Beichlingen (born April 1, 1916 in Hanover ; † January 24, 2009 in Freiburg ), b. Countess von Wedel, was the first managing director of the German Parliamentary Society in the then federal capital Bonn from 1951 to 1984.

Life until 1945

Elisabeth was born in 1916 as the daughter of the Prussian district administrator of the Hanover district Clemens Graf von Wedel-Gödens and his wife Pauline, nee. Countess von Wedel, born. She spent her childhood together with three siblings in a German-national home in Hanover . Her “second home” became her grandmother's castle in Großzschocher near Leipzig , where she enjoyed spending her holidays. In 1930 the family moved entirely to this “dear family property”. At the age of 15, Elisabeth became a pupil in the strict Freiadeligen Magdalenenstift in Altenburg . It was a "girl-in-uniform lifestyle". After the confirmation she moved back to her parents' house in Großzschocher. From there she got to know life in Leipzig society and enjoyed participating in it. She had the opportunity to spend six months as an au pair in England and then to a French language course in Geneva .

After the start of the war in 1939 she was briefly secretary to Helmuth James Graf von Moltke at the Wehrmacht High Command in Berlin . In the same year Elisabeth married in the village church of Großzschocher the six years older Wolfgang Graf and Mr. von Werthern- Beichlingen. This had Jura studied and managed his property, castle and estate Beichlingen in Thuringia . Elisabeth's entry into Beichlingen was followed by the call-up of reserve officer Wolfgang von Werthern and his soldier death near Dunkirk on May 29, 1940. The young widow stayed with her sister-in-law in Upper Bavarian Obergrainau and brought her daughter Luise -Amalia in Munich to the world. Mother and daughter moved back to Beichlingen, where Ottobald von Werthern, a cousin of Wolfgang, had taken over the inheritance. He fell at the front in 1942, and his brother Thilo von Werthern-Beichlingen was the master of Beichlingen until he was expropriated without compensation in 1945. In November 1944, Elisabeth and daughter moved to the planned widow's residence at Schloss und Gut Großneuhausen , not far from Beichlingen. The castle was also the quarters for young women who were obliged to do the Reich Labor Service and constantly took in refugees from the east.

A few days before the crew change from Americans to the Red Army , Elisabeth managed to escape with her daughter and a cousin who had been taken in from the Wartheland with a family by trek (11 horses and 4 box vans) via Herzberg am Harz to the west to relatives in Westphalia .

Activity from 1945

Countess Werthern and her daughter found temporary accommodation with an uncle in Sandfort in Westphalia. She made herself useful as a haulage company and field work with her horses and two organ wagons , but then went to Hamburg . There she worked as a secretary and got her mother out of Weimar , from the " Eastern Zone ". In 1950 Werthern received a private invitation to Bonn . She decided to start a new phase of life there.

Via FDP member Karl Georg Pfleiderer , she received the offer to take over the management of the German Parliamentary Society , which had just been founded by the major parliamentary groups on his initiative , from April 1, 1951 . She happily agreed. From the statutes of the association: "The parliamentary society sets itself the goal of maintaining human, factual and political relationships among the members of the federal and state parliaments ...". Through her work, Werthern laid the "basis for a new culture of mutual respect" for MPs.

Countess Werthern had many organizational, social and representative duties. This included the parliamentary evenings and ambassador meals ( introduced by Bismarck ). She also organized visits by foreign delegations and large state receptions. She had excellent, sometimes friendly contacts with the leading personalities of the early Federal Republic. Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer persistently refused to address her with the title of nobility and always called her "Frau Werthern". Thereupon she once introduced him to the British ambassador as "Chancellor Auer" and later stated that she had abbreviated his name as he did with hers. Werthern did not commit himself to party politics and so renounced a corresponding career. Elisabeth Countess Werthern experienced several presidents of the DPG, first Pfleiderer, later Otto Fürst von Bismarck (the grandson of the founder of the empire) and also a president, Hedwig Meermann . On the occasion of the company's 25th anniversary, after a laudation from Carlo Schmid , she received the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st Class . She later became an honorary member of the German Parliamentary Society. In 1984 she stopped working after 33 years.

Werthern wrote a column on etiquette in Jasmin magazine , which was published from 1968 to 1973. In 1985 she published the book “From Weimar to Bonn. Memories". In the late 1980s she worked as an art dealer in Bonn. Even during the GDR era, she financially supported rescue efforts for the dilapidated St. George's Church in Großneuhausen in Thuringia, the castle church of the von Werthern family (whose castle in the village was demolished in 1948). After reunification in 1990, she also became a member of the Board of Trustees for the Preservation of the Church, a “gem of German church architecture”.

Elisabeth Countess Werthern died on January 24, 2009 in Freiburg at the age of 92. She was buried on April 4, 2009, after a ceremony in the Beichlingen Palace Chapel, in the von Werthern family cemetery in the Beichlingen churchyard .

evaluation

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung characterized Countess Werthern's personality as follows: She was considered to be an “educated, intelligent and resolute woman with an accurate sense of style and knowledge of human nature” and was “an outstanding example of powerful war widows”.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Herrmann August Ludwig Degener , Walter Habel (ed.): Who is who? The German Who's Who. Volume 32, Schmidt Rönhild, 1993, p. 1463.
2. ^ Elisabeth Countess Werthern: From Weimar to Bonn. 1985, p. 70.
3. ^ Elisabeth Countess Werthern: From Weimar to Bonn. 1985, p. 76.
4. ^ Elisabeth Countess Werthern: From Weimar to Bonn. 1985, p. 79.
5. ^ Elisabeth Countess Werthern: From Weimar to Bonn. 1985, p. 99.
6. ^ Elisabeth Countess Werthern: From Weimar to Bonn. 1985, p. 104.
7. ↑ Hans Friedrich von Ehrenkrook (Ed.): Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels. Volume 63. Ostsee, CA Starke, 1976, p. 447.
8. ^ Elisabeth Countess Werthern: From Weimar to Bonn. 1985, p. 116.
9. ^ Elisabeth Countess Werthern: From Weimar to Bonn. 1985, p. 117.
10. ^ Elisabeth Countess Werthern: From Weimar to Bonn. 1985, p. 121.
11. ^ Elisabeth Countess Werthern: From Weimar to Bonn. 1985, p. 127.
12. ↑ ^{a b} "Countess Werthern died." FAZ from January 26, 2009
13. ↑ Alessandra Borghese , Gloria von Thurn and Taxis : Our manners. The world of good morals from A to Z. Falken, 2000, p. 32.
14. ↑ Jasmin - 16/68, August 5, 1968. In: Der Leser , August 22, 2013.
15. ↑ Biography of Elisabeth von Werthern. In: Who's Who (online), accessed on May 21, 2019.
16. ↑ Herrmann August Ludwig Degener, Walter Habel (ed.): Who is who? The German Who's Who. Volume 28, Schmidt Rönhild, 1989, p. 1477.

literature

• Elisabeth Countess Werthern: From Weimar to Bonn. Memories. Burg-Verlag Stuttgart / Bonn, 1985. ISBN 3-922801-95-1

Web links

• Literature by and about Elisabeth Countess Werthern in the catalog of the German National Library