Wilhelm von Kleydorff

Wilhelm Franz Otto von Kleydorff (born July 15, 1871 in Niederwalluf ; † July 31, 1914 in Hohenwehrda in Wehrda , Hesse ) was the second son of Prince Emil zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1824–1878) and his second wife, Camilla von Kleydorff (1838–1902).

ancestry

Wilhelm's mother, née Camilla Stefańska, was a Polish ballet dancer of simple origin and thus not befitting. Prince Emil must have met her when she danced the Giselle in Saint Petersburg in the spring of 1868 . Grand Duke Ludwig III. von Hessen-Darmstadt raised her to the nobility a week before her marriage as Baroness von Kleydorff in order to enable the prince to marry her. The descendants of the two bore their mother's new name. Three sons sprang from the Wittgenstein / Kleydorff marriage: Ludwig von Kleydorff (1869–1918), Wilhelm von Kleydorff (1871–1914) and Emil von Kleydorff (1874–1949). Emil became a well-known opera singer and film actor under the stage name Franz Egenieff .

Life

Hohenwehrda Castle (2007)

Wilhelm von Kleydorff married the industrialist's daughter Lilli Benckiser (1869–1961) in 1894. The marriage remained childless. In 1900/1901 he built Hohenwehrda Castle in a renaissance style on a hill above the Haune near Wehrda in today's Hersfeld-Rotenburg ( Hesse ) district and lived there until his death. His widow sold the castle to the Hermann-Lietz-Schule and since 1941 the Hermann-Lietz-Schule Schloss Hohenwehrda has been located there .

In Wehrda, Wilhelm von Kleydorff was popularly called the Prince of Kleydorff .

Individual evidence

↑ In most sources, the year of birth is incorrectly given as 1840. The correct year can be found in the Łomża Parish Birth Register , 1838, No. 29, pp. 7–8
↑ Yekaterina Vazem: Memoirs of a ballerina of the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater , Leningrad, 1937; Translated into English by Nina Dimitrievitch for the journal "Dance Research" and published in four parts between 1985 and 1988.

literature

Genealogical manual of the nobility. Volume 31, 1963

personal data
SURNAME	Kleydorff, Wilhelm von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kleydorff, Wilhelm Franz Otto Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH	July 15, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH	Niederwalluf
DATE OF DEATH	July 31, 1914
Place of death	Wehrda

[1] In most sources, the year of birth is incorrectly given as 1840. The correct year can be found in the Łomża Parish Birth Register , 1838, No. 29, pp. 7–8

[2] Yekaterina Vazem: Memoirs of a ballerina of the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater , Leningrad, 1937; Translated into English by Nina Dimitrievitch for the journal "Dance Research" and published in four parts between 1985 and 1988.