Sonja Bernadotte

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sonja Bernadotte , Countess of Wisborg (* May 7, 1944 as Sonja Anita Maria Haunz in Litzelstetten near Konstanz ; † October 21, 2008 in Freiburg im Breisgau ), was the managing director of Mainau GmbH from 1981 to 2006 .

Life

Teutonic Order Castle on the island of Mainau
Monuments to Sonja and Lennart Bernadotte on the Mainau

Sonja Haunz was born as the daughter of Wolfgang (1913–1982) and Anita (1914–1997) Haunz. Mayr born. Since both parents worked on the Mainau , she and her brothers Manfred and Wolfgang more or less grew up on the flower island.

Sonja Haunz completed her school education with secondary school leaving certificate in 1960 and then attended a home economics school. Her parents suggested that the daughter work on the island. In April 1961 she was employed for the first time as a temporary worker in the Mainau switchboard and in the summer of 1961 she worked in various assistant positions, including for her father Wolfgang Haunz, who was administrative director of Mainau at the time. During this time she first met Count Lennart Bernadotte (1909-2004), 35 years her senior . In 1966 she worked for a year and a half at the Federal Institute for Vegetation Science, Nature Conservation and Landscape Management in Bad Godesberg with Professor Gerhard Olschowy and spent some time as a hotel employee in the English coastal town of Margate . In 1969 she brought Lennart Bernadotte back to Mainau as his assistant. In 1971 Lennart Bernadotte divorced his first wife, Karin Nissvandt . On April 29, 1972 Sonja Haunz and Count Lennart Bernadotte married on the Mainau.

The couple had five children, all of whom are still involved in Mainau today:

In order to avoid inheritance disputes with the children from Count Lennart's first marriage and to secure the tradition-steeped work Insel Mainau for the future, Count Lennart and Countess Sonja Bernadotte transferred Mainau to the Lennart-Bernadotte-Stiftung in 1974, based on Mainau im Lake Constance brought in. The foundation was put under the motto gardening for mankind and for nature's sake and pursues the following objectives: Promotion of science , land care , environmental and monument protection as well as homeland care . The island of Mainau should develop into a synthesis of a botanical garden, a historical castle park and a place for international encounters. In 1981 Countess Sonja became managing director of the Mainau administration Graf Lennart Bernadotte GmbH , which was renamed Mainau GmbH in 1998 . Since 2001 she has been the sole managing director of Mainau GmbH . Her eldest daughter, Countess Bettina Bernadotte, was her personal assistant from April 2002 to December 2006 and took over the management of Mainau GmbH in January 2007 . Countess Sonja had her living quarters in the left wing of the Baroque Mainau Palace. In 1995, doctors first noticed lumps in her breast. In 2005 she had to withdraw again for months. She spent her last days in a Freiburg clinic, where she died of breast cancer on October 21, 2008 at the age of 64 after a long illness .

Around 200 celebrities from politics, media, business and the nobility came to the castle church on the flower island for the funeral on October 25th. Among them were Anneliese Rothenberger , Liselotte Pulver , Bernhard von Baden , Erwin Teufel and Peter Straub . She found her final resting place at the side of her parents Wolfgang and Anita Haunz and her husband Count Lennart in the crypt of the castle church.

Voluntary work (selection)

  • Founder of the Lennart Bernadotte Foundation.
  • Founding member of Plan International Germany
  • Founding member of the Action to Save the Cultural Heritage EV
  • Honorary member of the Rheydt Golden Flower Board of Trustees
  • Member of the Board of Trustees of the Heinz Sielmann Foundation, Sielmanns Biotope Network Bodensee
  • For her 60th birthday, the Foundation has the Sonja Bernadotte Medal for Garden Culture awarded
  • from 1982 to 2008 president of the German Horticultural Society 1822 eV (since 1968 member of the DGG, since 1974 member of the Presidium) as a result of her husband Count Lennart Bernadotte, who headed the German Horticultural Society for 27 years
  • since 1987 President of the Board of Trustees for the Nobel Laureate Meetings in Lindau
  • 1988 founding member of the Rescue of Cultural Heritage Association
  • from 1995 to 2008 president of Gärtnern für Alle eV (the managing director of the association is Sandra Angerer)
  • from 1998 to 2008 president of the European KulturForum Mainau
  • since 2000 president of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (member since 1973)
  • since 2002 chairwoman of the board of the Singing with Children Foundation , Stuttgart
  • since 2003 patron of the NABU Foundation for Natural Heritage Baden-Württemberg

honors and awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Countess Sonja Bernadotte: Life and work for the Mainau. A portrait of the countess, written by Florian Heitzmann, press spokesman for Mainau GmbH. In: Südkurier of October 23, 2008
  2. ↑ Moving funeral service for Countess Mainau. In: Augsburger Allgemeine, October 26, 2008. Accessed December 26, 2018.
  3. ^ Jörg-Peter Rau: Farewell to Countess Sonja. Funeral service in the island church . In: Südkurier of October 27, 2008
  4. ↑ Jörg-Peter Rau: Mourning for the soul of the island . In: Südkurier of October 27, 2008
  5. ↑ Frank van Bebber: Discovering your own skills . In: Südkurier of August 30, 2007

literature

  • Gunna Wendt: Sonja Countess Bernadotte. A portrait . Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-1163-5

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bernadotte, Sonja
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sonja Bernadotte, Countess of Wisborg; Haunz, Sonja
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Swedish nobleman and manager
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Litzelstetten
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 2008
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau