COURT ATMOSPHERE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 214, 29 November 1927, Page 15

COURT ATMOSPHERE

OLD CUSTOMS DIE HARD COBURG'S ANTIQUE MANNERS ' Despite the republicanisation of Germany, Coburg has remained a city with an almost ancient court atmosphere, in which the daily routine, the manners and customs of its populace are entirely governed by the four princely households of the ex-Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria, the English born Duke of Albany, who is now the Duke Karl Eduard of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, the Russian “pretender Tsar’* Cyrill, cousin of the late Tsar of Russia, and the Prince Regent Von Hohenlohe-Langenburg. The centre of public adulation is the Duke Karl Eduard who, like a mediaeval sovereign, reigns on a lofty peak in Coburg Castle from which his pennant of green and gold may be seen from far. Visitors in town are struck by the incessant allusions to “his royal highness” and by the many enlightening inscriptions that the respective shopkeeper is "purveyor to his royal highness the Duke.” When the ducal family enter a concert hall or the theatre, the entire audience rises, mothers and daughters curtseying with abandonment and the men bowing slowly from the hip. In comparison, ex-Tsar Ferdinand leads a more retired life, either at the “Hofgarten Palais” or in his historical “Buerglasschloeschenn.” Despite his 66 years, he is still sorrtething of a Beau Brummel and an ardent theatregoer.