The New York Times published a belated obituary of Lennart today with a photo.
Count Lennart Bernadotte, who gave up his royal Swedish title to marry a commoner but gained an Edenic island that he built into a tourist attraction, died on Dec. 21 on Mainau, the island he had gardened in Lake Constance, Germany, for over half a century. He was 95. The death was announced by the foundation he formed to administer the 96-acre island, which had been in and out of the possession of the Swedish crown since the end of the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century. The island's palmy climate - rare for Europe north of the Alps - inspired its owners in the mid-1800's to cultivate rare plants and start an arboretum, an Italian rose garden and an orangery. Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden, grandfather of Lennart Bernadotte, added exotic flowers and trees. The park today attracts more than a million visitors each year. Born Gustaf Lennart Nicolaus Paul in Stockholm on May 8, 1909, he was the only child of Prince Wilhelm of Sweden and Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna of Russia. After his parents' divorce, his uncle and aunt, King Gustaf V and Queen Victoria of Sweden, took over his upbringing. His family entrusted its property on Mainau, an island in Lake Constance, to his care in 1932. The 208-square-mile lake, which is also known as Bodensee, is fed and drained by the Rhine and borders on Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The count had already studied horticulture and later pursued ecology, filmmaking and photography. Most of the picture postcards on Mainau came from his camera. In 1932, he also married over his parents' objections Karin Nissvandt, an industrialist's daughter. They had four children before divorcing in 1970; she died in 1991. He spent World War II in Sweden, then returned to Mainau and transformed the island into a tourist destination. In 1951 he was given the title Count of Wisborg from the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. In 1972 he married his assistant, Sonja Haunz, with whom he had five more children. He withdrew from daily operations of the island in the 1980's. The couple entrusted the island and everything on it to the Lennart Bernadotte Foundation, which they formed in 1974. His wife, who helped make the garden a prosperous enterprise, was named co-manager in 1982. Other survivors are two daughters, Birgitta and Cecilia, and a son, Jan, from his first marriage; and Bettina, Bjorn Wilhelm, Catharina, Christian Wolfgang and Diana, from his second marriage, according to the Bernadotte Foundation.
