Author Topic: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I  (Read 319781 times)

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Offline grandduchessella

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #225 on: December 18, 2007, 10:41:37 PM »


Wilhlem & Cecile in dress for a costume ball. Wilhelm wears the Death's Head Hussars uniform while Cecile wears Russian dress.
They also serve who only stand and wait--John Milton
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Eric_Lowe

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #226 on: December 19, 2007, 10:26:25 PM »
Indeed ! I often wonder with such a Russian mother, how Russian was Cecilie in her attitude ?  ???

Offline Svetabel

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #227 on: December 20, 2007, 12:39:45 AM »
Indeed ! I often wonder with such a Russian mother, how Russian was Cecilie in her attitude ?  ???

I wonder what's in your opinion a Russian attitide is?

Eric_Lowe

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #228 on: December 20, 2007, 04:20:18 AM »
Being a daughter of a Russian Grand Duchess. Like her cousins Missy & Ducky (who could be very imperial if they chose to be).  :)

Offline HerrKaiser

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #229 on: December 20, 2007, 08:27:48 AM »
Indeed ! I often wonder with such a Russian mother, how Russian was Cecilie in her attitude ?  ???

I wonder what's in your opinion a Russian attitide is?

 ;) I agree? what would that be?

Nonetheless, everything I've read about Cecilie is that she was very much in love with her childhood home and environs and activiities centered around Schwerin. She loved that area and her German roots. Even on vacations the family took to the Italian Riviera, she longed to get back home to the more familiar and beloved terrain of northern Germany. there is nothing in particular I have discovered that showed any special yearnings to visit Russia or create aspects to her family's life that were based on Russian traditions.
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Offline HerrKaiser

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #230 on: December 20, 2007, 08:36:14 AM »
Also, much like Rose Kennedy, Cecile devoted herself to a disabled child and this gave her some real purpose, I think. Thankfully for both Cecile and Alexandrine, Crown Prince Wilhelm wasn't the type to swoop in and attempt to have the 'problem' 'fixed' while his wife was away on a needed vacation.


Thanks for the comparative, Grandduchessella. It was dreadful what pappa Kennedy did to his daughter on the sly. Afterward, they "dumped" her in an institution in Wisconsin.

conversely, Cecilie and Wilhelm openly showcased little Alexandrine and maintained that display of compassion and acceptance for her entire life. This is a noteworthy event in the history of how disabilities are handled publicly and privately. The Kronprinz and Cecilie were shining examples of how to accept and care for a child with a disability or disease, and very much in the forefront of such a cause. It tood decades for the rest of the world to get to the place they were in the early 20th century.

It should be sadly noted that while Cecilie and Wilhelme were displaying this type of compassion, Queen Mary in England was rejecting her epileptic son and generally sequestering him out of sight...and sadly out of mind. Too bad Cecilie and Mary did not have a heart to heart during which Cecilie could have taught Mary a few things about mothering.
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Offline grandduchessella

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #231 on: December 20, 2007, 10:54:13 AM »
I have to disagree here, HerrKaiser. I think Queen Mary has been grossly misjudged in her treatment of Prince John. It's not a topic for here but it's been discussed a good deal on the Windsor threads. Charlotte Zeepvatt has done a lot of good work in looking past the myths surrounding the 'Lost Prince'. He wasn't just 'dumped off' and certainly not in an institution but surrounded by those who could care for him and provide him with a very comfortable life. He also wasn't hidden away from the public--he was well known and commonly photographed as well as appearing a good deal in public. It was only as his epilepsy became worse (coinciding with WW1) that he went to live in a house on the Sandringham estate near his grandmother.
They also serve who only stand and wait--John Milton
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Offline Svetabel

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #232 on: December 21, 2007, 12:39:17 AM »
Being a daughter of a Russian Grand Duchess. Like her cousins Missy & Ducky (who could be very imperial if they chose to be).  :)

I don't think that Cecilie was brought up in such an Imperial manner as Maria and Victoria Melita. GDss Anastasia Mikhailovna was not like her cousin GDss Maria Alexandrovna --- absolutely different personalities and lives.

Eric_Lowe

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #233 on: December 22, 2007, 12:20:24 AM »
Nonetheless Grand Duchess Anastasia was a quite determined lady herself, although she did not taught her children to be like that though.

I agree with you on that. Ceciie really could teach a few things about human compassion to Queen Mary. Empress Friedrich also noted May (future Queen Mary) 's lack of intimacy with her childen. However the QM approach was fully accepted at that time, while people like Ceicile was deemed modern and ahead of her time.  :)

Eric VdV

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #234 on: January 02, 2008, 03:08:22 PM »
I remember Kira Harris had the christening of her son at Burg Hohenzollern in a joint christening ceremony with Prince Christian of Prussia, son of Prince Christian Sigismund. It was covered in the media.

Eric VdV

Norbert

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #235 on: January 11, 2008, 04:51:23 PM »
 I can help on a few points raised.
 Yes Charlotte Zeepvatt has exposed the cruel myth about Queen Mary and her son. Pss Alexandrine had her own little home on Lake Starnberg near Munich. Cr Pr Wilhelm had a house built for Cecile on the Frauenkopt in Stuttgart. Cecile's last companion was her "secretary" Otto Groha. Her legacy to him was challenged in court in 1954 and he was forced to return jewelry

Adagietto

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #236 on: January 12, 2008, 03:05:58 PM »
Cecilie with Alexandrine:


Father and daughter:


Alexandrine when older with her brothers and sister:

eejm

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #237 on: January 12, 2008, 08:17:23 PM »
I love the above picture of Wilhelm holding baby Alexandrine.  Pictures of fathers from that time period alone with their babies seem to be quite rare.  Wilhelm looks very relaxed and natural in this picture, and quite content to be holding his little one.  :)

Offline brnbg aka: liljones1968

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #238 on: March 09, 2008, 11:55:17 PM »
.

click on image for larger version

the emperor with his first grandson, prince Wilhelm


according to A Distant Thunder by Anne Topham:
"the prince was a withdrawn, sullen child until it was discovered that he was being mistreated at the hands of his nurse.  her immediate dismissal was one of the few times His Majesty interfered in the lives of his married children."
"when i die, i hope i go like my grandfather --
peacefully in my sleep; not screaming & in terror,
like the passengers in his car."

-- anonymous
.

Adagietto

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Re: Crownprince Wilhelm & Crownprincess Cecilie, their family, Part I
« Reply #239 on: March 13, 2008, 05:47:48 AM »
The Kaiser had an awkward and unstable character, and his deformed arm certainly didn't help in that regard. After his fall from power, he mellowed considerably and became a more appealing person, even if he remained quite as blinkered in many of his views.  There is any amount of good literature on him, and it is unfair to suggest that all his bographers have been prejudiced in their view of him. Lamar Cecil's biography, for instance, may be critical but it is critical on perfectly reasonable grounds. He was ill-suited for his role and it is hard not to think that Germany's (and Europe's) history might have followed a far more fortunate course if his father or indeed his brother Heinrich had ruled instead. At a personal level he is a fascinating character though. There will be much to learn from the multi-volume study by John C. G. Röhl  that is now underway.  With his eldest son and eldest grandson: