PRINCE AND ACTRESS

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 March 1920, Page 6

PRINCE AND ACTRESS

A scandal of the former Imperial Court is recalled, by the death of the Baroness Lieheuherg, which is just announced.

The late baroness was in her younger clays a girl of remarkable beauty. Slie was tire daughter of a Jewish school teacher named Sulzer, who lived in Vienna, and ran away to go on the stage. After a brief spell of touring she obtained an engagement in Berlin, where, thanks to her beauty, she speedily became a popular favourite.

Prince Joachim Albrecht, of Prussia, a cousin of the ex-Kaiser, and son of the late Prince Regent of Brunswick, fell a victim to the actress’s charms, and a close friendship sprang up between them, Avhich was viewed with stern displeasure at the Imperial Court.

Tlie prince refused to give up tlie lady’s society, however, whereupon the displeasure of Wilhelm was heavily visited on him. He was sent in disgrace to German South-West Africa, in order to part him from his beloved. She, in the meantime, journeyed to London where, in accordance with a plan proposed by Prince Joachim, she wededd Baron Liebenberg, an Austrian nobleman. It was intended that her husband should allow himself to be divorced, and it was hoped that, as the lady was now a baroness, there would be no objection in Court circles to the prince marrying her.

Tlie scheme, however, fell through, as the baron held out for better terms. The prince returned from exile, more in love* l than ever; the old friendship, was resumed. The Emperor was furious An intrigue with an actress was bad enough, but an affair Avith a married woman, and a baroness, was impossible. So the prince Avas dismissed from the army and banished from Court. But fate had a happy ending in store for the devoted lover. The baron Avas obliging enough to die a few months later, and the prince lost no time in marrying* his beloved, with whom he retired to his country estate. The happy ending to this romance was completed, Avhen, at the death of the prince’s grandfather, the Duke Ernst, of Sachsen— A 1 ten berg, it Avas found that he had bequeathed to his grandson ' the sum of five and a-half million marks (£275,000).