ROYAL LOVE TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1210, 19 February 1914, Page 4

ROYAL LOVE TRAGEDY.

PRINCESS COMMITS SUICIDIS.

All Europe was shorked a few weeks ago by the news that the Princess of Saxe-Weimar had taken her life. The rough outlines of the tragedy were soon known to everyone. The Princess, it appeared, had fallen in love with Dr. Hans von Blelchroeder, of the great banking house of Berlin, but had been forbidden to marry him, A little later one learned that the passion between herself and Dr. von Bleichroeder was mutual, and people began to wonder why it was that a marriage bad not been arranged, for the Bleichroeders are among the halfdozen Jews who have won a great social position even in the exclusive society of Berlin. The father ot Hans von Blelchroeder was a personal friend of Bismarck, they used to dine together and meet continually, indeed, Bismarck is reported to have said that Bleichroeder vva. the best councillor in the Empire, and, indeed, the only Privy Councillor. Besides, Dr. Hans von Bleichroeder has the honour of being a favourite of the Emperor himself, and one might have thought that the Warlord would be able to conquer the opposition to the wedding. The real bar to the wedding was the veto of the hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, the head of the house. He would not hear ot a uuiou. “Marriage,” he said, “between a Princess of Saxe-Wei-mar and a Jew is impossible.”

The father of the Princess, an ordinary type ot German officer, took the veto of the head of the house as final, received it indeed as a military command, not to be even discussed. The mother, it is said, pleaded for her child’s happiness, but iu vain, the fiat was absolute.

The mother ot the unhappy Princess, Princess Gerta of SaxeWeimar, is one of the most charming royalties in the world. She is extremely intelligent, and very fond of music. It is she who has done more to break down the social restrictions which hedge around the little German Court than anyone. She is a great admirer of Wagner’s music, and a great friend of Frau Colima ,'.ud her daughters. She is not only mentally vivacious and musical, but really kind and sympathetic, and was from the beginning on her daughter’s side. But her deepest sympathies were centred in another of her children. The Saxe Weimars had not only a daughter, but two sons, and the elder sou was from the beginning a source of intense anxiety to his parents, and intensely loved and favoured by his mother. While still a youth he broke all bounds; threw money away like water, and with the years became worse than a mere spendthrift. He went to Paris and to England, and contracted debts, and, as soon as his expenditure was curtailed, he got money by dishonourable methods. While still a young man he had lost all position, and he put the crown on bis achievements by marrying an Italian who was said to be of light life. All this time he had made up to his mother again and again lor money and again and again she had forgiven and helped him. After his marriage he wanted more money, and it was supplied aim by his father on condition that he should give up his title, and abandon his position in favour of his younger brother, who is now an officer in the Empress’s own regiment. It was in this family and under these circumstances that Princess Sofia (as she signed herself) grew to womanhood. Of a loving, affectionate disposition, she found her mother preoccupied with the troubles of her elder sou ; very intelligent and self willed, she soon came to see that her father was nothing but a Prussian officer, subservient to discipline and the word of command. Very early she showed herself intelligent with a complex modern nature. She loved art and art; at j, end writers. She drew well and painted, and was extremely musical. On the other band she took up sports with enthusiasm ;

she ski-ed and bunted, skated and motored, with the result that at twenty she had the animation of vigorous health aud a most perfect figure. But in measure as her sympathies widened, and as she grew intellectually, her contempt for German courts and conventionalities grew too. She was always independent, and thought freedom the first condition of all happiness In the world. She loved to make fun of German ceremonies, and German long titles, and German snobberies. She wanted to live her own life, and fulfil her own being. In this spirit, thwarted yet eager, she met Dr Hans von Bleichroeder, who brought with him the free air of the modern world. He, too, had artistic aud literary tastes, knew personally many of the writers aud painters and musicians whom the girl admired. He soon won her heart, and one of the delights of the Princess was to go long motor drives with her mother and the doctor. She drove herself, and drove excellently. O' one of these drives, in France, she is said to have run over a child, and the tragedy gave her such a shock that she couldn’t recover from it.

Meanwhile, the opposition of the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, the bead of the house, to the marriage hardened to resolve. He sent for the father, the Prince of Saxe-Weimar, and told him that marriage was for ever impossible, unthinkable, and, it is said, brought up the conduct of the elder sou to point the moral and show what freedom involvedThe father returned, aud took Sofia for a motor trip through the Dolomites. On that trip he talked resolutely while the girl listened with a heart of lead. Day after (Ly, from a dozen different standpoints, he pushed home the old argument, that marriage between a Princess of Saxe-Weimar and a Jew was impossible. Shaken as she was in health, the Princess Sofia at length gave herself over to despair, On her return to Heidelberg in the late summer, her friends say that she was evidently not herself; she was overwrought aud nervous ; sleeplessness, too, plunged her even deeper iu despair ; and after a final vain appeal to the Grand Duke, she foued life unbearable.

Then, with the quick resolution that was innate in her, she faced the Arch Fear. She went up to her own room that evening in Heidelberg, wrote thixe long letters, signed and sealed them ; one, it is said, to Dr Haus von Bleichroeder, one to her mother, and the other to her father. She then drew her armchair in ffout of the great mirror iu her dressing room, put a revolver to her forehead, and pulled the trigger.

The forehead aud the back of her head were blown away.