Alfred Von Niezychowski - American Citizenship

American Citizenship

Despite officially being a prisoner of the United States, Niezychowski was evidently quite a popular storyteller among influential Americans, partially because he was the nephew of Baron Ladislaus Hengelmüller von Hengervár, who had been Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the United States for decades, until retiring in 1913. Niezychowski was known as the "jolly Polish count" and after his release from Fort McPherson, Georgia in August 1919, he moved to Washington DC, where he was welcomed into diplomatic and society circles. He was also President of the Polish American Navigation Company of New York.

In October 1923, Niezychowski became engaged to Nanine H. Ulman (1896-1972), a Baltimore socialite and Colonial Dame, daughter of Jacob A. Ulman of Helmore Farms in Green Spring Valley, and great grandniece of President Thomas Jefferson. Niezychowski renounced his European titles, became an American citizen in January 1926, and married on December 27, 1927. Admiral Walter McLean, commander of the Norfolk Navy Yard where his ship had been interned ten years earlier, was his best man.

After his wedding, Niezychowski and his wife moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he entered the business world. First he worked as a salesman with a printing and advertising company, and later with the Seldon & Johnson real estate firm. In 1928, he published a book about the Kronprinz Wilhelm's 251-day adventure, and gave lectures on the subject. He was known for signing autographs with green ink, and one of his lecture taglines was that of all of the ships that had been sunk during the ship's wartime duty, it had never caused the loss of a single human life. The capturing and sinking had been done in a very civilized, even courteous, manner. Passengers who had been taken aboard from a captured vessel were often given first class accommodations aboard the ex-passenger liner (members of the crew, received second class cabins), until they could be transferred to another ship.

In 1932, while in the investment brokerage business, Niezychowski ran as a Democratic candidate for the Michigan First District. He was a staunch Democrat, and wanted to fight for the immediate repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, as well as lowering tariff laws to restore foreign trade. However, he lost in the primary election to George G. Sadowski.

Niezychowski and Nanine had no biological children, though Niezychowski did become guardian for the children of his half-brother Count Antoni Dunin, after both Antoni and his wife Zofia Werner Dunin (daughter of Polish vice-Finance Minister Edward Werner) had been killed in 1939, during the German offensive in the Invasion of Poland. According to the Detroit News, Alfred worked with Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan, to obtain visas so that the orphaned children could enter the United States in the 1940s. They were:

• Count Stanley Dunin, who later participated in a NASA project, launching the world's first geosynchronous communications satellite
• Countess Magda Dunin Hirata, who later married Japanese-American scientist Arthur Hirata
• Countess Christine Dunin Zika, later the mother of noted botanist Peter Zika

In 1964 Niezychowski died in Michigan, and was buried in Mt. Elliott Cemetery in Grosse Pointe.