MOCK PRINCESS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 February 1929, Page 9

MOCK PRINCESS

COURTIERS’ CREDULITY AMAZING

Martha Barth, the Potsdam dairymaid who posed successfully in small towns of Thuringia as “Princess Marguerita of Prussia,” was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on 25 charges of obtaining money by false pretences. Evidence given by some of her victims revealed a credulity that amazed the judge and Court of Erfurt, where the trial took place.

Two of the victims were sisters, early ing on a. dressmaking business. When the “Princess” arrived they believed every word she said, for instance, that: 1. Her father was “the Prince of Asturia.” z 2. Her mother was “a sister of the ex-Kaiser.” 3. She was “adopted” by King Constantine of Greece. 4. —She had entered into a morgantic marriage with the then Prince Boris of Bulgaria. 5. —The then Crown Prince Wilhelm of Hohenzollern fell in love with her whilst on a visit to Sofia, succeeded in getting the earlier marriage dissolved, and then married her morganatically himself. Believing themselves to be the most honoured of women, because they were on such terms of friendship with a “princess,” the dressmaking sisters sacrificed everything they possessed in the interests of her and her “’’royal relatives.” When the prosecuting counsel asked one of the sisters if they had given the dairymaid money to help the exCrown Prince, she replied: “Yes, she threw herself at my feet, and told me that the Crown Prince was in such poverty that he had to sell the household supply of sugar.” 'Then the dressmaker gave money because “the Crown Prince was being held prisoner in a castle, and must be ransomed.” Once the dairymaid princess told the dressmaker to provide food enough for 12 persons, “including several Hohenzollern princes, who were coming as guests.” The sisters obeyed, although the provision of tho feast left them with nothing to eat themselves. ‘“We did this because we believed that the Royal Crown Prince was hungry, and so we were willing to sacrifice all we had.” Another astonishing witness was the landlord of a hotel in a small health resort. “Martha arrived one fine day. She gave her true name, but managed to set the rumour abroad that she was really a princess travelling incog.” So widely accepted was the story that the delighted landlord soon found his hotel crowded with social strivers. His faith was only strengthened when one day Martha ground the coffee to show him that “a princess could also work.” . , Not until some of Martha’s victims 1 eard her being sent to prison were they fully convinced that she is not really the Princess Marguerita of Prussia.