Duchess Cecilie Auguste Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (20 September 1886 – 6 May 1954) was the last German Crown Princess and Crown Princess of Prussia as the wife of Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, the son of Wilhelm II, German Emperor.
Cecilie was a daughter of Frederick Francis III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia. She was brought up with simplicity, and her early life was peripatetic, spending summers in Mecklenburg and the rest of the year in Southern France. After the death of her father, she traveled every summer between 1898 and 1904 to her mother's native Russia. On 6 June 1905, she married German Crown Prince Wilhelm. The couple had four sons and two daughters. Cecilie, tall and statuesque, became popular in Germany for her sense of style. However, her husband was a womanizer and the marriage was unhappy.
After the fall of the German monarchy, at the end of World War I, Cecilie and her husband lived mostly apart. During the Weimar Republic and the Nazi period, Cecilie lived a private life mainly at Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam. With the advance of the Soviet troops, she left the Cecilienhof in February 1945, never to return. She settled in Bad Kissingen until 1952 when she moved to an apartment in the Frauenkopf district of Stuttgart. In 1952, she published a book of memoirs. She died two years later.
Early years
Born on 20 September 1886 in Schwerin, Cecilie was the youngest daughter of Frederick Francis III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia.Kirschstein, Kronprinzessin Cecilie, p. 11. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Princess Cecilie of Baden. She spent most of her childhood in Schwerin, at the royal residences of Ludwigslust Palace and the Gelbensande hunting lodge, only a few kilometres from the Baltic Sea coast.Zeepvat, 'The Other Anastasia', p. 5. Her father suffered badly from asthma and the wet damp cold climate of Mecklenburg was not good for his health. As a result, Cecilie spent a large amount of time with her family in Cannes in the south of France, favoured at the time by European royalty, including some whom Cecilie met such as Empress Eugénie and her future husband's great-uncle, Edward VII.
During the winter visit of 1897, Cecilie's sister, Alexandrine, met her future husband, Crown Prince Christian, later Christian X of Denmark, shortly before the death of their father at the age of 46. After returning to Schwerin, Cecilie spent time with her widowed mother in Denmark. The wedding of her sister took place in Cannes in April 1898. After the death of her father, she traveled every summer, from 1898 to 1904, visiting her relatives in Russia.Cecilie, Crown Princess of Germany, 'My Memories of Imperial Russia', p. 89. Cecilie lived there in Mikhailovskoe on Kronstadt Bay, the country home of her maternal grandfather, Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia.Cecilie, Crown Princess of Germany, 'My Memories of Imperial Russia', p. 93.
Engagement
During the wedding festivities of her brother Frederick Francis IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in Schwerin in June 1904, the 17-year-old Duchess Cecilie got to know her future husband, Wilhelm, German Crown Prince. Kaiser Wilhelm II had sent his eldest son to the festivities as his personal representative. Taller than most women of her time at 182 centimetres (over 5'11"), Cecilie was as tall as the German Crown Prince. Wilhelm was struck by her great beauty, and her dark hair and eyes. On 4 September 1904, the young couple celebrated their engagement at the Mecklenburg-Schwerin hunting lodge, Gelbensande. The kaiser as an engagement present had a wooden residence built nearby for the couple. On 5 September the first official photos of the couple were taken.
Wedding
The wedding of Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the German Crown Prince Wilhelm took place on 6 June 1905 in Berlin. Arriving from Schwerin at Berlin's Lehrter Station, the future Crown Princess was greeted on the platform with a gift of dark red roses. She was greeted at Bellevue Palace by the entire German imperial family and later made a joyeuse entrée through the Brandenburg Gate to a gun salute in the Tiergarten. Crowds lined the sides of the Unter den Linden as she passed on the way to the Berlin Palace. Kaiser Wilhelm II greeted her at the palace and conducted her to the Knight's Hall where over fifty guests from different European royal houses awaited the young bride including Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, as well as representatives from Denmark, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and the Netherlands. On her wedding day, Kaiser Wilhelm II presented his daughter-in-law with the Order of Louise.
The wedding ceremony took place in the Royal Chapel and also the nearby Berlin Cathedral. The royal couple received as wedding presents jewellery, silverware and porcelain. At the wish of the bride, Richard Wagner's famous wedding march from Lohengrin was played along with music from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg conducted by Richard Strauss. On her wedding day, Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin became Her Imperial and Royal Highness The German Crown Princess and Crown Princess of Prussia. She was expected to one day become German empress and queen of Prussia.
German Crown Princess
As German crown princess, Cecilie quickly became one of the most beloved members of the German imperial house. She was known for her elegance and fashion consciousness. It was not long before her fashion style was copied by many women throughout the German Empire. After the end of the wedding festivities, the crown princely couple made their summer residence at the Marble Palace in Potsdam. Every year at the beginning of the court season in January, the couple would return to the Crown Prince Palace in Berlin on Unter den Linden. Cecilie's first child was born on 4 July 1906 and given the traditional Hohenzollern name of Wilhelm. At the time, the German monarchy appeared to be very secure.
Nonetheless in private she had a fiery temper, not countenancing contradiction. Although in public the marriage of the crown prince and princess appeared to be perfect, cracks quickly appeared due to the crown prince's wandering eye and controlling behaviour. Very early on, he began a series of affairs that strained the relationship between husband and wife - on one occasion announcing to his wife his latest escapade, whereupon she thought of drowning herself.Easton, Journey to the Abyss, pp. 479–85.
In spite of her husband's unfaithfulness, however, Cecilie had given birth to six children by 1917. They were:
Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1906–1940); married Dorothea von Salviati, had issue. Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, Head of the House of Hohenzollern (1907–1994); married Kira Kirillovna of Russia, had issue. Prince Hubertus of Prussia (1909–1950); married Baroness Maria von Humboldt-Dachroeden, no issue; married Princess Magdalena Reuss of Köstritz, had issue. Prince Friedrich Georg of Prussia (1911–1966); married Lady Brigid Guinness, had issue. Princess Alexandrine of Prussia (1915–1980), who had Down syndrome. Princess Cecilie of Prussia (1917–1975); married American architect Clyde Kenneth Harris, had issue.
She herself developed a passionate relationship with Baron Otto von Dungern (1873-1969), her husband's aide de camp - attempting, once, to get into bed with Dungern. On discovering that Dungern was also having an affair with another woman at court, she confessed to her husband who told him to resign with the words: "Only my consideration for his imperial majesty (his father, Kaiser William II) prevents me from grinding you into the dust."Easton, Journey to the Abyss, p. 484.
Impact as German Crown Princess
Cecilie made considerable impact in a number of areas including women's education. Several schools and roads were named after her. On 6 December 1906, at AG Vulcan Stettin's shipyard, she christened the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamship SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie. For Cecilie, who had a great passion for the sea since childhood, the gesture brought her great joy and honour. Towards the end of 1910, the couple undertook a tour to Ceylon, India, and Egypt. Cecilie's life in Berlin was a constant round of royal duties: attending military parades, gala state banquets, official ceremonies, and other courtly activities. She also made state visits to foreign courts, such as the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef in Vienna. In May 1911, Cecilie and the crown prince visited the Russian imperial court in Saint Petersburg. The visit coincided with the birthday of the Russian tsar. In June 1911, they attended the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in London. A British illustrated magazine, The Sphere, called them "our beloved visitors for the coronation". Queen Mary was particularly fond of the imperial couple and maintained contact with Cecilie until her death in 1953. The 1911 visit to London was Cecilie's last as representative of the German Empire.
Revolution and the overthrow of the German monarchy
The political and economic situation in the last year of the war became more and more hopeless. On 6 November 1918, the new German imperial Chancellor, Prince Maximilian of Baden, met with Minister Wilhelm Solf to discuss the future of the German Empire. They were both of the opinion that the monarchy could only survive with the removal of the kaiser and his son the crown prince and the setting up of a regency under the nominal rule of the young son of Crown Princess Cecilie. Such an idea quickly disappeared with Friedrich Ebert becoming chancellor and a republic being declared a few days later. Both the kaiser and the crown prince crossed the border to seek exile in the neutral Netherlands. The monarchy collapsed with the defeat of Germany at the end of the war. Cecilie with her young children was living in Potsdam during the revolutionary period. She had moved from her new home of Cecilienhof with her children to join her mother-in-law in the relative safety of the New Palace. It was here that the Empress Auguste Viktoria informed her daughter-in-law, "The revolution has broken out. The kaiser has abdicated. The war is lost."Kirschstein, Kronprinzessin Cecilie, p. 54.
Life under the republic
The former crown princess was nothing but realistic about the new political situation confronting her family and Germany. The former empress went into exile to join her husband. The crown princess was quite prepared to do the same, but wanted to stay in Germany with her children if at all possible. This she was allowed to do and on 14 November, she quietly left the New Palace and returned to her private home of Cecilienhof. As a result of a change of circumstances, Cecilie reduced her household staff by 50%.Kirschstein, Kronprinzessin Cecilie, p. 54. Her children's tutor also left her service and as a result her two eldest sons, Princes Wilhelm and Louis Ferdinand, for the first time attended as day students at a nearby school.Kirschstein, Kronprinzessin Cecilie, p. 54. Cecilie had considerable sympathy for the plight of the German people. In reply to an address from the German Women's Union in Berlin, the former crown princess stated, "I need no sympathy. I have the beautiful situation that can befall any German woman, the education of my children as good German citizens."Kirschstein, Kronprinzessin Cecilie, p. 55.