Figure 1.--This is Princess Daisy Von Pless with her two sons Alexander (1905-84) and Heinrich (1900-84) on her birthday (1909). She was an inpoverished British aristocrat who married a fabuously rich German aristocrat. She moved to Germany and raised her children there. Princess Daisey worked as a nurse during World War I. Her husband became a Polish citizen after the War. We have only limited information on the boys, but they fought against the NAZIs during World War II. Heinrich served with the British RAF. Alexander served with the Polish Anders Army in North Africa and Italy. .

Here we see Princess Daisy with her two oldest sons. It difficklt to sort out their nationality. Princess Daisy was born British and married a German, making her home in Germany. Hervhusband was a German aristocrat, but became Polish. Their two oldest sons fought with Polish and British forcesc during World War II. There were a lot of impoverished aristocrats in Britain during the Gilded Age. One sollution was to marry rich American debutantes. The American economy by the late-1870s was booming. Fortunes were being made. Edith Warton wrote about this in The Buccaneers set in the 1870s. One product of this was Winston Churchill. There were also impoverished female aristocrats. One impoverished female aristocrat, the vivacious Mary Theresa Olivia née Cornwallis-West (1873-1943), found a rich German--Hans Heinrich XV von Hochberg (1861-1938). He was a member of one of the wealthiest European noble families controlling large estates and coal mines in Silesia (now part of Poland). Notable witnesses at theur marriage were Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and his wife Princess Alexandra (1891). And through her husband she became aquainted with Emperor Wilhem II who as smitten by her. . She became known as Princess Daisy after her marriage and moved to Silesia (then part of the German Empire) where she lived in great luxury. She never learned to speak German well. She and her husband disagreed on many issues, especially on the formal ettuquette and hiw to treat the servants. Many fellow artiticrats thiugh she was much too progressive. She got involved in many social causes. A photograph of the Princess with her children appeared in an issue of the British magazine Country Life which commonly covered the social elite (1910). This may be the portrait (figure 1). She was known in German as the Fürstin von Pless. She becamne a social reformer and was a voice for peace. Unfortunztely Kaiser Wilhelm had other inclinations. During World War I she served as a nurse and her husband served in the German Army. After the War he rhusband became a Polish citiizens as his estates were in the new independent Polish state. It was never a close marriage. Hans Heinrich divorced her (1922) nand married a Spanish nobel woman. She divorced him (1922). Princess Daisey after vthe War published none too discreet diaries (1928). She disliked the NAZIs. It is believed that she sold her famous pearls to get one of her sons away from the Gestapo. She was lived in gnteel povery during the NAZI era in German Silesia (1943) before the arrival of the Red Army. Her two oldest sons fought with British and Polish against the Germaans in the British RAF and Anders Army. We think that they were more anti-NAZI than pro-Polish.

Created: 3:02 PM 2/23/2021
Last updated: 8:42 PM 2/23/2021