Imperial Yacht - "Hohenzollern"

[Douglas]

[HerrKaiser]

the color scheme on the outside was cream and gold, similar to the Imperial train.

The Hohenzollern was larger than the Standart and I think larger than the Saxe Coburgs.

[Adagietto]

A handsome ship, but she didn't have particularly elegant lines in my view.

This was presumably taken on her deck. Adalbert in his yachting gear!

[Превед]

SM Hohenzollern was anchored off Balholm (Balestrand) far into the Sogne-Fjord in western Norway and Wilhelm II visiting the artist Professor Dahl when he was told that Franz Ferdinand had been shot in Sarajevo and he had to rush back to Berlin.

Norwegian TV program, "Fotografen og keisaren", the photographer and the emperor, about a young Norwegian girl (the daughter of the Russian consul in Bergen) who holidayed alongside the emperor in Balestrand and took lots of photos of the imperial retinue. (I hope it can also be viewed from abroad.)

[Превед]

Norwegian TV program, "Fotografen og keisaren", the photographer and the emperor, about a young Norwegian girl (the daughter of the Russian consul in Bergen) who holidayed alongside the emperor in Balestrand and took lots of photos of the imperial retinue. (I hope it can also be viewed from abroad.)

The program can still be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/96922960

[joellegirl]

That was interesting and I enjoyed the candid photos and film. At the risk of sounding ignorant (since I cannot understand what they are saying!) they got to travel with the Kaiser on the Hohenzollern?  Are those older ladies two of the same young girls in the photos?

[Sanochka]

Ditto Joellegirl.  The suspense is killing me.

[Превед]

That was interesting and I enjoyed the candid photos and film. At the risk of sounding ignorant (since I cannot understand what they are saying!) they got to travel with the Kaiser on the Hohenzollern?  Are those older ladies two of the same young girls in the photos?

Hey, you don't sound ignorant, Norwegian is an esoteric subject! The young girls were invited on board the Hohenzollern for balls and a ladies rowing race. The two old ladies are the daughters of the girl who took the photos (the films are probably from official Norwegian or German news sources): Magdalene Elisabeth Kroepelien Gran. NB the Kaiser himself did not dance, they danced with the young officers and members of the court.

Young miss Gran apparantly had a bit of a romance with one of the officers, Lieutenant Walter Dose, who survived the war and ended up as a rear admiral and again knocked on the door of Magdalene, by then mrs. Architect Nicolai Beer, when he came to Norway during WW2. She turned him away as the enemy, but after her husband died in 1950 they got in touch again.

They year before the outbreak of the war, the imperial visit, properly documented by miss Gran, had featured the Kaiser (and a less enthusiastic King Haakon VII!) unveiling his gigantic gift to his host country, an enormous statue of the legendary local Viking hero Fritjof: See more info here.

Notice from 22:44 to 23:24 the locals watching the imperial ball in Professor Dahl's garden from behind the fence!

[Превед]

BTW Magdalene Gran was a cousin of Norwegian aviator pioneer Tryggve Gran, who flew for the British Royal Flying Corps during WW1, also during the White intervention in North Russia in 1919. His pioneer air crossing of the North Sea from Scotland to Norway on the 30th of July 1914 was very soon forgotten thanks to the declarations of war which launched WW1. He credited his choice of a naval career (before he took up flying) with meeting Wilhelm II in similar circumstances as his cousin Magdalene.

[Kalafrana]

Going slightly off topic, Trygve Gran is principally known over here as a participant in Captain Scott's Antarctic expedition of 1911-13. I believe he was there mainly as a skiing instructor, and his joining the RFC was the result of a promise he made to his expedition comrades that he would join the British forces in the event of war.

He lived into the 1970s and I remember seeing him being interviewed on a children's TV programme when I was about 12 - that would have been in 1972.

Ann

[joellegirl]

Thanks for all the information. Such an exiting time for them, meeting Wilhelm II, dancing with all those gentlemen and just fun being young.