Mary von Waldersee

Mary von Waldersee

Countess Mary von Waldersee (3 October 1837 New York City - 4 July 1914) was a philanthropist in Germany. She married Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg-Noër and later, after his death, Count Alfred von Waldersee, the successor of Field-Marshal von Moltke.

Mary von Waldersee was the daughter of David Lee, a New York merchant, who left his widow and five children a large fortune. The second daughter, Blanche, married Augustus Charles Murray, a commander in the British navy, and the third, Josephine (1833 New York City - 1930 Stuttgart), married Baron August von Waechter, ambassador of the king of Württemberg to the French court. The baroness sent for her youngest sister, Mary, to live with her in Paris, where she met and married Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg-Noër, who had been driven into exile by the Austro-Prussian army in 1864. Miss Lee, however, not wishing to be trammelled by the exacting etiquette that attaches to high rank, induced the prince to renounce his rights and titles as a member of the royal house of Denmark. He subsequently accepted from the emperor of Austria the title of Prince of Noër, the name of his principal estate. The prince died shortly after his marriage while on a visit to the Holy Land, 2 July 1865, and the princess then returned to Paris, where she resided with her sister, the Baroness Waechter, until the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War, when she accompanied the latter to Württemberg. In 1874 she married Count von Waldersee, and lived with him for some time at Hanover. There she soon became widely known through her interest in local charities. While she resided in Berlin, she was equally zealous in good works. She was for years the friend of Emperor Frederick William, of Germany, and of the Empress Victoria.

References

•  "Waldersee, Mary". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1889.  This source gives the date of her marriage to von Waldersee as 1871; the English and German articles on Alfred von Waldersee give the date as 1874.
• August von Wächter (German)

"A View of the Spree" by Alson J. Smith,Publisher:John Day Company,New York "The extraordinary career of the American grocer's daughter who became a "sanctified Pompadour" to Germany's last Kaiser.

Persondata
Name	Waldersee, Mary von
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Date of birth	3 October 1837
Place of birth
Date of death	4 July 1914
Place of death