November 13, 1908
Former Archduke Leopold of Austria, who is now known as Leopold Woelfling, has filed suit against a journalist for defamation of character. The journalist has threatened retaliation by reading letters from the Austrian Emperor to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. These letters are alleged to contain revealing information about Leopold, who is the son of the Grand Duke.
Leopold was cast out of the family when he he became "enamoured" with a Bavarian actress, Wilhelmine Abramovic, whom he married without the approval of the Emperor. Franz Joseph struck Leopold off the army list and stripped him of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Having lost his archducal status, Leopold assumed the surname Woelfling.
He divorced his wife in July 1907 because "she joined a sect of vegetarians and was in the habit of taking sun baths without her clothes." Leopold was recently married in a civil ceremony in Zurich, Switzlerland, to Maria Magdalena Ritter, whose father, Albert, owns horses.
Leopold's sister, Louise, has lead an equally scandalous life. Once the wife of the Crown Prince of Saxony, she is now known as Countess Montignoso.
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