Biography
Cecilie had a happy childhood. She was selected as a the bride for the Crown prince, and the wedding in 1905 was reported as a spectacular public event, with an artistically decorated procession through Brandenburger Tor in Berlin. Cecilie quickly adapted to the role of Crown Princess and became popular both by the public and within the court. She is described as quiet but friendly, a natural beauty with an interest in fashion. She became a role model for German women within fashion, and was also interested in social issues, especially women's education. Several schools and roads were named after her. Cecilie and William drifted apart because of William's adultery, and after the abolition of the monarchy, they separated. When her spouse and parents-in-law left Germany in 1919, she preferred to stay in Berlin with her children. William was allowed to return in 1923 but their relationship was finished and they only met for official occasions such as family weddings and similar events. Cecilie was active within several charity and royalist organisations until all private organisations were taken over by the Nazi party in 1933. During 1933-1945, she lived a private life on Cecilienhof in Potsdam, where she hosted concerts, several of them conducted by famous musicians. In February 1945, she left Potsdam to escape the Soviet army and moved to Bavaria. She lived in Bad Kissingen and 1952-54 in Stuttgart before her death.
Read more about this topic: Duchess Cecilie Of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)