Friday, July 22, 2011

Princess Katrin of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha - an appreciation

Grein Mayor Manfred Michmayer described the late Princess Katrin of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a "sociable woman who sought contact with Grein forever."  She was much admired and popular in the small Austrian town. She often took part in events within Grein and at her home, Schloss Greinburg, where she usually opened the Danube River Festival.

She was known as Princess Katya.  But when cancer struck, and she became increasingly weak,  Princess Katrin withdrew from public life.

Katrin Anna Dorothea Bremme was born on April 22, 1940 in what would become East Berlin.  At the age of 15, Katrin and her family moved to West Berlin.   Three years later, at the age of eighteen, she emigrated to Argentina with an uncle.   She spent four "carefree years" in Argentina, and it was in this South American country, where she met for the first time her future husband,  Prince Friedrich Josias of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, and head of the house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

In 1962,  Katrin and Friedrich Josias moved back to Germany, and lived in Hamburg, where they were married two years later.  Their wedding was attended by "many representatives of European nobility."

Three years after the wedding,  the Prince and Princess moved to Schloss Greinburg in Grein Austria, a property that had been in Coburg family since 1823.  Prince Friedrich Josias commuted between Coburg and Grein.

Sadly for Katrin, her marriage was childless although she had four stepchildren by her husband's first two marriages.  After Prince Friedrich Josias's death in 1998 at Grein,  Princess Katrin continued to live at Schloss Greinburg until her death last week.

A memorial service was held at the palace's chapel on Tuesday before her remains were transferred for burial in Coburg.

http://www.nachrichten.at/oberoesterreich/nachrufe/art86198,675072

http://www.schloss-greinburg.at/english/einfuehrung.html

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