PRINCESS AS CO-RESPONDENT

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 89, 15 April 1922, Page 19

PRINCESS AS CO-RESPONDENT

DAUGHTER-IN-LAW OF EX-KAISEB IN COURT. Details of a remarkable Hobenzollew family scandal were aired in a Potsdam court, where the Princess Eitel Friedrich, wife of the ex-Kaiser's second son, who is at present head of the Hohenzollerns in Germany, was cited as co-respondent in the divorce case of Baroness Pietenburg, who sued her husband, a former guards officer.

The Princess confessed that she knew the baron Intimately many years ago when both were unmarried an_ he was an aide-de-camp to her father, then Grand Duke of Oldenburg. Under cross-examination by the judge, she unashamedly said: "Our intimate relations continued even after my marriage with the Kaiser's son."

The Judge: "Did your husband know?"

"Of course, my husband knew everything," replied tbe Princess cynically. "Our intimacy ceased when the Baron married and was transferred from the Potsdam garrison. to Oldenburg." The judge then asked the Princess why she had aroused the anger of a republican court by her haughty manner, and whether she was prepared to assert on oath that ber statements were tree. The Princess replied with a laug£: "1 swear it with the greatest possible pleasure." "That answer is incompatible with the digpity of the court," said the judge severely. Remarkable evidence was given by a postal official who overhead a telephone conversation between the Princess and her lover. The Baron had just married and told the Princess that he had arrived in Berlin from Oldenburg. The Princess said: "I do not want to see your wife and I will not receive her if _h_ is presented, but you, Pietenburg, you shall come to mc at once."

The Baroness Pietenburg, confirming this, _aid that after this telephone call, her husband immediately left her and went to ißellevue Castle, then the Berlin residence of the princess and remained there four hours while his wife hung around the building waiting for the husband.

Letters revealing the unrestrained passion of the princess for Pietenburg were read in could. One letter ran:

"You know I have nothing in common with the man to whom I am married, but we have so much to give to each other." Another passage was: "The day will come when I must leave you and forget you."

All reports of the case in German news papers are suppressed.