Baroness Armgard of Sierstorpff-Cramm, known as Armgard von Cramm (; 18 December 188327 April 1971) was the mother of

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (later Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands; 29 June 1911 – 1 December 2004) was Prince consort of the Netherlands, Prince of the Netherlands from 6 September 1948 to 30 April 1980 as the husband of Queen J ...

Prince consort A prince consort is the husband of a monarch who is not a monarch in his own right. In recognition of his status, a prince consort may be given a formal title, such as ''prince''. Most monarchies do not allow the husband of a queen regnant to be ...

of Queen

Juliana of the Netherlands Juliana (; Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina; 30 April 1909 – 20 March 2004) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980. Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Sh ...

Early life

Armgard was born at

Bad Driburg Bad Driburg () is a town and spa in Höxter district in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, situated on the river Aa and the Altenbeken–Kreiensen railway. Geography Bad Driburg lies on the eastern slopes of the Eggegebirge which is roughly 20&n ...

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

(now in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

, Germany), as the fourth child and fourth daughter of Baron Aschwin of Sierstorpff-Cramm (1846–1909), and his wife, Baroness Hedwig of Sierstorpff-Driburg (1848–1900). By birth, she belonged to the

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...

German Cramm family.

Marriages

Armgard married on 24 October 1905 at

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

to Count Bodo von

Oeynhausen Bad Oeynhausen () is a spa town on the southern edge of the Wiehengebirge in the district of Minden-Lübbecke in the East-Westphalia-Lippe region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The closest larger towns are Bielefeld (39 kilometres southwest) ...

(1881–1909), an officer in the 8th

Hussars A hussar, ; ; ; ; . was a member of a class of light cavalry, originally from the Kingdom of Hungary during the 15th and 16th centuries. The title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely adopted by light cavalry ...

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn (district), Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pade ...

, son of Count Erich von

(1849-1898) and his wife, Therese von Lenthe (1846-1917). They divorced in 1908 and had no children. Armgard married secondly, after the death of her ex-husband, on 4 March 1909 at Oelber, Brunswick to

(1872–1934), a younger son of Ernest II, Count of Lippe-Biesterfeld, regent (1897–1904) of the

Principality of Lippe Lippe (later Lippe-Detmold and then again Lippe) was a state in Germany, ruled by the House of Lippe. It was located between the Weser river and the southeast part of the Teutoburg Forest. It originated as a state during the Holy Roman Empire, an ...

, and his wife, Countess Karoline von Wartensleben. The marriage was at first considered

morganatic Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...

, as Armgard's family didn't belong to one of the reigning or former reigning families. Thus, she was created "Countess of Biesterfeld" () on 8 February 1909. They had two sons: *

(29 June 1911 – 1 December 2004), married in 1937 to

, had issue. * Prince Aschwin of Lippe-Biesterfeld (13 June 1914 – 14 May 1988), married in 1951 to Simone Arnoux, no issue. On 24 February 1916, her marriage was declared equal and she was made " Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld" () along with the style ''

Serene Highness His/Her Serene Highness (abbreviation: HSH, second person address: Your Serene Highness) is a style (manner of address), style used today by the reigning families of Liechtenstein, Monaco and Thailand. Until 1918, it was also associated with the p ...

'' by her brother-in-law,

Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe (''Leopold Julius Bernhard Adalbert Otto Karl Gustav''; 30 May 1871 – 30 December 1949) was the final sovereign of the Principality of Lippe in northwestern Germany from 1905 until his abdication in 1918. Prior t ...

, and this title was extended to her two sons in order to produce a new branch of the Lippe family.

World War II

After the death of her husband in 1934, Armgard moved into Reckenwalde palace with her sons and managed an estate in Wojnowo, Lubusz Voivodeship,

Province of Brandenburg The Province of Brandenburg () was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1947. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg (excluding Altmark) and ...

(now Wojnowo, Poland), together with her new partner, Alexis Pantchoulidzew, an exiled Russian nobleman.Jurryt van de Vooren (20 March 2013
Koningshuis wankelde tijdens de Olympische Ruiterspelen van 1956
. sportgeschiedenis.nl Alexis accompanied Armgard to the wedding of Bernhard to Princess Juliana. During World War II Armgard and Alexis were observed by the local

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

. Her apolitical past and the service that the monarchist and anti-Stalinist Colonel Pantchoulidzew later rendered in the war to the German Reich Railway, would have shielded her from Nazi authorities. The SS demanded in September 1944 in Recke, one of Armgard's properties, ''Schloss Woynowo Walde'' for military purposes. Armgard and Alexis gave an account of the withdrawal in 1945 of the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

behind the

Oder The Oder ( ; Czech and ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and its largest tributary the Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows through wes ...

-line on their estate at

Neumark The Neumark (), also known as the New March () or as East Brandenburg (), was a region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and its successors located east of the Oder River in territory which became part of Poland in 1945 except some villages o ...

. Wim Klinkenberg ansd some other writers have accused Armgard of sexual promiscuity, intrigue, conspiracy, and – as with her son Aschwin – of Nazi sympathies. In March 2004, her son Bernhard tried to rectify this image with an open letter to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

''.

Life in the Netherlands

She lived from early 1952 with her partner Alexis Pantchoulidzew in House Warmelo at Diepenheim. Alexis went on to be the Netherlands' sole representative at the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XVI Olympiad and officially branded as Melbourne 1956, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December ...

, competing in

dressage Dressage ( or ; , most commonly translated as "training") is a form of horse riding performed in exhibition and competition, as well as an art sometimes pursued solely for the sake of mastery. As an equestrianism, equestrian sport defined by th ...

. Alexis Pantchoulidzew died in 1968. Armgard was a convert to Roman Catholicism like her granddaughter Princess Irene, but decided against attending Irene's controversial wedding to

Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma and Piacenza (8 April 1930 – 18 August 2010) was the head of the ducal House of Bourbon-Parma from 1977 until his death. Carlos Hugo was a Carlist claimant to the throne of Spain and sought to change the political dir ...

, which neither the Dutch royal family nor any Dutch diplomatic representative attended. The family nevertheless gathered at Armgard's home for the television coverage of the wedding.

Death

Armgard died on 27 April 1971 in House Warmelo in Diepenheim, at the age of 87. She was buried in the Mausoleum am Büchenberg, Lippe family mausoleum in

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43826106/armgard-von_cramm

Early life

Marriages

World War II

Life in the Netherlands

Death

Ancestry

References

Further reading