Hessian Plane Crash 1937

[Eric_Lowe]

That picture I know Bobby would use it (the photo on Queen Sophie) as he found it after he published his second book.

That issue is out of print now in DC...

Would love to look out for it...

[grandduchessella]

I still intend to use it someday but boy was it deflating. :/  Still, the book is one of my Christmas presents this  year. I love all his books and the anecdotes he uses to accompany them.

[Gabriella]

I would like to read the article in Majesty magazine and add it to my collection about the grandducal family of Hesse.
Sad, Majesty magazine is neither sold at Frankfurt Central main station nor in the shops at the airport.

Could somebody scan it and send it via email? Visit my profile to get my email address. Thanks in advance.

[grandduchessella]

I could if you don't mind waiting until the end of the week since I'm away on vacation. I invested last year in a handheld scanner.

[Thomas_Hesse]

Thanks for sharing that titbit. He seems a very charming & handsome man. How did he become close to the Hesse brothers ?

The Barons Riedesel were an old Darmstadt noble family - they'd had high positions at court for centuries and therefore the boys might have had their lessons together

[Eric_Lowe]

Thanks for the information on the Riedesel Family. Love to know more about them. Do they know VMH or Irene too ?

[Gabriella]

The Riedesel family is a hessian noble family. They were involved with the Hesse-Darmstadts and Hesse and by Rhiny for centuaries.

As a Baron Riedesel of Eisenbach was the major-domus of Wolfsgarten in time of Eleonore and Ernst-Ludwig I am certain that members of the Riedesel family were in touch with Prince Ludwig and Princess Margaret as well with Lord Louis Mountbatten and I also assume with Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh.
 
Despite that Joachim of Riedesel who died in the plane crash was a close friend of Prince Ludwig as well as Prince Georg-Donatus and Prince Cecile.
Prince Ludwig had chosen him together with Lord Mountbatten as best man. That's why he was in the plane.

[Gabriella]

A refreshing to my post:

I think that members of the Riedesel family had known Victoria and Irene, too.

Victoria was in Wolfsgarten many summers when Ernst-Ludwig was still living. Afterwards Victoria often accompanied by Ernst-Ludwig and Eleopnore made her trip to Irene who was still living in Hemmelmark. From their she went back to Wolfsgarten to catch Prince Philip who spent his summer vacations with Georg-Donatus and Cecile in Wolfsgarten before visiting his Mountbatten uncles or the Kerrs in Great Britain.

Irene and Heinrich had also been to Wolfsgarten in the the 1920ies, and as Prince Ludwig and Princess Margaret were in touch with Irene's  granddaughter
Barbara as well as  Sophie of Greece and her sisters and their spouses and family I assume their had been touch between both familys.

[Eric_Lowe]

Thanks for the extra information. I wonder if Prince Philip remained close to the Riedesel family since he was in Darmstadt a lot and was at the funeral of his sister. After the War, he and his son Charles remained close to Lu & Peg Hesse. Maybe that circle included the Riedesels too...

[grandduchessella]

Joachim's full name/title was Joachim Riedesel Freiherr (Baron) zu Eisenbach. One of his relatives is listed in a book on the Third Reich elite, receiving a posthumous promotion and being a recipient of the Knight's Grand Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.

The ties continued into the modern day with another branch of the family--Marie Battenberg/Erbach's descendant (I think great-granddaughter), Countess Ulrike of Stolberg-Wernigerode (born 1940) married, as her second husband, Kurt-Joachim Riedesel, Baron zu Eisenbach in 1972. They have 2 children.

A  Maria Franziska Riedesel zu Eisenbach  (1717 - 1785) was an ancestress of Julie Hauke so there was a blood tie as well.

[Eric_Lowe]

Thanks. This give a new dynamic to the relationship. They must be one of the local aristocratic families that the Hesse family has close ties with. Not a lot of books touched upon that subject. It would be nice to read books by this section on the lives of Alicky, VMH & Ducky since they are not directly involved. The insight would have been more interesting.

[rgt9w]

Does anyone have a listing of the jewels taken on the flight?  Were any of the actual jewels lost?

According to Geoffrey Munn's "Tiara's" book, the moonstone and turquoise tiara survived the crash:

http://img1.imagilive.com/0112/grandduchessofhesseturqouiseandmoonstone.jpg

According to "Hesse: A Princely German Collection", Princess Alice of Hesse's tiara given to her by her mother, Queen Victoria, also survived the accident:

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/615674tiara.jpg

I have read that the lace worn by Hessian Royal brides was destroyed.

[Eric_Lowe]

I think the tall tiara & diamond star tiara that Cecile wore were destroyed. The turquoise & crystal tiara survived because it was put in a strong box that survived the crash.

[rgt9w]

Hi Eric,

Thank you for the response. I am surprised that all of the jewels were not kept in strong boxes, but even if they were there is no guarantee that they would have survived depending on how the aircraft broke apart.

[Eric_Lowe]

Welcome.

I think that was kept in the strong box since it was meant to be a gift for Peg. I read she wore it a few times, but I never seen it in a photograph.