Thursday, October 30, 2008

German mayor has royal connections





I wonder how many of the citizens of the German town of Delmenhorst know that their mayor, Patrick de la Lanne is a descendant of the Kings of Württemberg. His mother is Duchess Margarethe of Württemberg, eldest daughter and second child of Duke Albrecht of Württemberg and Princess Nadejda of Bulgaria.

Margarethe was born in 1928. She married at Althausen in 1970 to a French Vicomte Francois Luce de Chevigny. The couple has no children.

However, Margarethe is the mother of a son by a Scotsman, Robin Ian Evelyn Grinnell-Milne, who was born in 1925. In 1952, Robin changed his surname to Milne Stuart de la Lanne-Mirrlees. Six years later, he abandoned this surname by deed poll and adopting a new surname Milne Stuart le Comte de la Lanne-Mirrlees. In 1992, he changed his name from Deed Poll to Milne Stuart le Prince de la Lanne-Mirrlees.

Patrick Francis de la Lanne was born in San Francisco in 1962.

Patrick's daughter Marie-Charlotte has taken part in a Model UN - and using the surname de la Lanne-Mirrlees.

As far as I know, Patrick Francis de la Lanne-Mirrlees has never talked about his royal connections. His mother is a first cousin to King Simeon of Bulgaria. It is even possible that the Mayor de la Lanne, who is a member of the SPD party (Socialist), has limited contact with his mother's family.

He was raised by a foster mother, Charlotte Zaubzer in Oldenburg.  She died in 2007.

  I also do not think that Margarethe, now 80, has ever been seen in public with her son. Imagine the shame for a good Catholic girl from an aristocratic family who finds herself pregnant in the early 1960s - and goes off to San Francisco, California, to give birth.

As you can see from the comments, Patrick was raised by a foster family, and not by his mother.   He was not twin ... there is an error in the birth registration as Patrick is listed twice in the California Births Index: as Patrick Francis and Francis Patrick.  One and the same.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting
as my aunt lives there I know

Robin is titular Pr of Coronata

Patirck is married Irene Auer
and they have 3 children

two daughters:Marie Charlotte (born 1989) and Bernice (born 1990)

and a son Cyran (born 1997

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

The title comes from King Peter II of Yugoslavia, who dispensed titles like candy.

Actually, it is Berenice.

Anonymous said...

Patrick de La Lanne war ein ehemaliger Kommolitone von mir. Wir studierten Jura an der Universität in Freiburg in den 80-ziger Jahren.
Ich kann die Angaben, die Frau Eilers König gemacht hat in vollem Umfang bestätigen. Patrick hatte -so glaube ich auch einen Zwillingsbruder. Er wuchs in einer Pflegefamilie auf.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

Thank you for this information. Yes, there is a second birth listed in the San Francisco Records ... so he was not raised by his mother.

Anonymous said...

Woher kommt denn ihr Interesse an dieser Geschichte?
Davon wurde in Freiburg immer nur gemunkelt..
Patrick hatte nur sporadischen Kontakt zu seinem Vater, der eine Lachszucht in Schottland betrieb.
Er wuchs in einer Pflegefamilie in Oldenburg (so glaube ich) auf.
Interessant wäre es,herauszufinden, ob heute Kontakt zur Familie der Mutter besteht.Schliesslich handelt es sich um eines der ältesten Adelshäuser Baden-Württembergs. Fragen sie ihn doch am besten selbst.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

I think the interest is due the royal connections - a princess goes to America to have twin sons - and yet, she gave her sons to be raised by someone else ... society was very different in the early 1960s ... and then there is the contrast of growing up largely away from the family history - and moving into a career in politics ...
I do specialize in royal genealogy.

Anonymous said...

Patrick hat sich schon während des Jura Studiums politisch engagiert und zwar bei den Jusos (Jungsozialisten). Er war zwar kein besonders fleissiger Student, hat sich mehr oder weniger durchs Studium gemogelt,aber sein rhetorisches Talen war damals schon offensichtlich. Und so nimmt es nicht Wunder,dass er heute Bürgermeister (SPD) von Delmenhorst ist.
Leider ist mein Kontakt nach dem Studium zu ihm abgebrochen.
Interessant wäre es zu erfahren,ob seine Familie mütterlichseits im Hintergrund ihm bei seiner Karriere doch etwas geholfen haben.
In der damaligen Zeit gab es ausgewählte Pflegefamilien, die für solche "Fälle" in Adelskreisen zur Verfüfung standen.
Da sich die Zeiten ja gewaltig geändert haben,könnte ich mir vorstellen, dass inzwischen Kontakte zw. den Familien bestehen.
Was ich dem Internet entnehmen konnte,betsätigt meine Vermutung.
Nur wird auch darüber nicht gesprochen.Da herrrscht damals wie heute strikte Diskretion.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

The connection to Margarethe was made in an article about Robin (Patrick's father) - where he acknowledged his so and named the mother. However, articles about Patrick never mention his mother, and I have seen no other information about the twin (named Francis Patrick -California birth records are public information.)
I wonder if the mayor has ever been asked if he renounced his American citizenship. He was born in the USA, which made him an automatic citizen.

Anonymous said...

Ich glaube, dass mit dem Zwillingsbruder ist ein Missverständnis meinerseits.
Befürchte ich.

Aber was viel interessanter ist:

Wo lebt seine Mutter?
Wie lebt sie?
Gibt es mittlerweile eine Beziehung zum Sohn?

Das wird aus dem Internet nicht herauszufinden sein.

Schicken sie ihm doch ihre Ergebnisse zu seinem Lebenslauf.

delalanne@Delmenhorst.de

Ob er ihnen antworten wird, wage ich allerdings zu bezweifeln.

Und übrigens:

Wenn die Mutter 1928 geboren wurde und 1962 Patrick auf die Welt kam, war sie immerhin auch schon 34 (!!) Jahre alt.
Was war an dieser Liason so unmöglich, dass es zu solchen Folgen führte?
Das sind -so glaube ich- die spannenderen Fragen.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

The California birth records show two births: Patrick Francis and Francis Patrick. So you are saying you were wrong about the twin brother.

Margarete got married in 1970 to the Viscount de Chevigny. No Children. Other family members do not deny the story. Robin Grinnell strikes me as a cad -- and an eccentric. He uses a title that King Peter II of Yugoslavia bestowed on him when the king was in exile.

Anonymous said...

Vergleichen sie mal die Fotos.
Das ist die Großmutter und wie ich finde, besteht da eine gewisse Ähnlichkeit.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Nadejda_of_Bulgaria


http://www.spd-delmenhorst.de/lv/bzwe/ubdelmenhorst/content/04226.php?a=4&b=

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

Thank you. I am aware of this :) (By the way, as a librarian, I can never recommend Wikipedia as a source.) I've known King Simeon's sister, Marie Louise, for some years now.

Anonymous said...

Dann tun sie den Delmenhorstern Bürgern und mir den Gefallen, diese Geschichte an die Öffentlichkeit zu bringen. Ich könnte mir vorstellen, dass diese auf ihren Bürgermeister stolz wären, wenn sie erführen, wo seine Wurzeln liegen.
Anbei noch einpaar email Adressen:

online-redaktion@bunte.de
spiegel_online@spiegel.de
wir@sueddeutsche.de
http://www.focus.de/intern/impressum/autoren?id=928

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

I had to reject your last post because it included copyrighted material.

Anonymous said...

Das war nur für ihrem persönlichen Gebrauch gedacht.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

Vielen dank. I already had the articles (plus others) on Robin and his family.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

Yes, Marie Louise is still alive. She was born in 1933. She was first married to Prince Karl zu leiningen, a descendant of Queen Victoria. I am the author of the book, Queen Victoria's Descendants. The Princess lives in the US with her second husband.

balticprincess said...

As a member of the SPD he is NOT a socialist, but a social democrat. This is an important different for us Germans! Love the "Royal musings"!