Feodora of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg

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Feodora of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, 1909

Feodora Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg , actually Feodora Adelheid Helene Louise Caroline Pauline Alice Jenny VA (born July 3, 1874 at Primkenau Castle in Lower Silesia ; † June 21, 1910 in Hochfelden near Obersasbach ) was a member of the Augustenburg line the house of Oldenburg .

Live and act

from left to right: Louise Sophie (standing), Feodora, Auguste Viktoria and Ernst Günther , around 1876
Primkenau Castle around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection

Princess Feodora was the youngest daughter of seven children of the (titular) Duke Friedrich VIII of Schleswig-Holstein (-Sonderburg-Augustenburg) (1829-1880) and his wife of Princess Adelheid zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1835-1900), second Daughter of Prince Ernst I of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Feodora of Leiningen . Through her mother she was the great niece of the British Queen Victoria and her eldest sister Auguste Viktoria had been married to the Crown Prince of Prussia and later Kaiser Wilhelm II since 1881 . She spent a harmonious childhood with her siblings in Dolzig , Kiel and in exile at Primkenau Castle, which had belonged to her grandfather, Duke Christian August , since 1853 . The princess was tutored exclusively at home by governesses and tutors ; she spoke several foreign languages ​​and was artistically gifted and interested in many ways.

Feodora studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden . Her fatherly mentor, privy councilor Max Lehrs, dedicated words of appreciation to her posthumously. She was a princess in spirit and what more would like to say, a princess of the heart and ... She had a particularly close relationship with Fritz Mackensen , the co-founder of the Worpswede artists' colony near Bremen (1889). Mackensen was her teacher in artistic terms. The princess visited Mackensen in Worpswede in 1899 , where she also came into contact with the other members of the artist community -  Heinrich Vogeler , Hans am Ende , Paula Modersohn-Becker , Otto Modersohn  . Vogeler supplied the book decorations for her Fischer novel Durch den Nebel , published in 1908 by G. Grotesche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin.

Bornstedt Crown Estate, around 1905

Princess Feodora moved into the Bornstedt Crown Estate in Bornstedt near Potsdam in 1903 and was given it for life. In the following years Bornstedt developed into an artists' court with writers, literary circles and painters. During extensive travels, she met the painters Hans Thoma and Max Klinger in the following years . The princess found the motifs for her Impressionist paintings in the vicinity of the crown property and in Schleswig-Holstein, which is perceived as home .

From 1906 onwards, Princess Feodora turned back to writing, which was her real calling. As a writer , under the pseudonym "Feodora Holstein" or "F. Hugin ”(one of Odin's ravens ), Feodora sought contact with northern German writers, to whom she saw herself connected as the Princess of Schleswig-Holstein. From their environment she also drew the themes of her naturalistic stories such as Hahn Berta or Durch den Nebel . For example, a letter dated April 18, 1904 to the author Gustav Frenssen about the Bornstedt Crown Estate has been preserved.

Baroness Roeder von Diersburg was the lady-in-waiting of the princess in Bornstedt. Princess Feodora, who had been ailing for several years, died unexpectedly on June 21, 1910 on their property in Hochfelden in the Black Forest . The contemporaries spoke of a typhus disease ; the real cause of death remains diffuse. Her remains were buried on the family estate Primkenau Castle in Lower Silesia. The grave was looted in 1945.

Worth mentioning

In 1910, the wife of the then Bornstedt pastor Simon put the princess in contact with her father, the owner of the chocolate factory in Tangermünde, Friedrich Theodor Meyer. The trigger was a charity event at which Princess Feodora - according to legend - tasted the fine "Tangermünder Chocolade" and was so enthusiastic about it that the company has since been allowed to sell its chocolate specialties under her name. More likely, however, is the variant that the chocolate only got its name after the death of the princess, following a request from the factory owner to Hofmarschall von Mirbach (Court Marshal Empress Auguste Victorias). The Empress is said to have determined her own influence in the design of the packaging - which is suggested by the rich yellow color of the paper (favorite color of the Empress). The factory Hachez GmbH & Co. KG , located in Bremen since 1945, still produces Feodora chocolates in box-like packaging under the name Feodora Chocolade GmbH & Co KG Bremen (FC for short, now in Danish hands), also a wish of the Empress. In 2010 the FC edited the little book How the Princess Came into Chocolate - 100 Years of Feodora Chocolade . Text: Leontine Countess of Schmettow, research "Institute for company's history," Prof. Leuthold FH Bremen, information was Thomas Weiberg, author of the book chasing after stars , reference is made to Anna Wagemann, 1932 their memories of the August Burger and the Prussian court in Martin Warneck Verlag in Berlin, reference is also made to the 1925 lecture by the Bornstedter pastor Domnick about the princess (Domstiftsarchiv Brandenburg) and the explanations of her picture collage, which can still be seen today in the Bornstedt church.

A son of the last German Emperor Wilhelm II (who died in exile in Holland in 1941), Prince August Wilhelm , who was also the hereditary nephew of Princess Feodora, gave this filigree photograph, framed as if in a Gothic window, with drawings of stations in her life, which probably Countess Henkel von Donnersmarck is said to have assembled for the Empress, to Pastor Dominik for the Feodora youth home. To be on the safe side, the pastor decided to hang it in the church, where Feo had always sat. In 2013, the frame was restored by the Broschke family of restorers (unfortunately the photograph continues to fade) on the initiative of Martin-Max Zühlke for the 100th anniversary of the youth home. For a few days the picture found its way back to its intended place and is now hanging in the church again.

On June 16, 2016, on the initiative of Zühlke, an approx. 2 m high monument to Princess Feodora was erected to mark the 10th anniversary of today's “Villa Feodora” (the former youth home and community center). A granite ball crowns a rectangular column made of natural sandstone on a slightly arched granite base and symbolically waits for the raven who will settle on it. A memorial plaque with information about the princess was put up in August.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Thomas Weiberg: Hunt for stars . Berlin Story Publishing House
personal data
SURNAME Feodora of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Feodora Adelheid Helene Louise Caroline Pauline Alice Jenny from Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg; F. Hugin (pseudonym); Feodora Holstein (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Member of the Augustenburger line from Oldenburg
DATE OF BIRTH July 3, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Primkenau Castle, Lower Silesia
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 1910
Place of death Hochfelden, Obersasbach