| Gloria von Thurn und Taxis | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dowager Princess of Thurn and Taxis | |||||
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| Born | Mariae Gloria Ferdinanda Joachima Josephine Wilhelmine Huberta Gräfin von Schönburg-Glauchau (1960-02-23)23 February 1960 (age 65) Stuttgart,Baden-Württemberg West Germany | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue | Princess Maria Theresia Princess Elisabeth Albert, 12th Prince of Thurn and Taxis | ||||
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| House | Schönburg-Glauchau | ||||
| Father | Joachim, Count von Schönburg-Glauchau | ||||
| Mother | Countess Beatrix Széchenyi de Sárvár-Felsővidék | ||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic[1] | ||||
| Occupation | Catholic activist, artist, socialite, businesswoman | ||||
Gloria, Dowager Princess of Thurn and Taxis (Mariae Gloria Ferdinanda Joachima Josephine Wilhelmine Huberta; bornCountess Gloria von Schönburg-Glauchau, 23 February 1960) is aGerman noblewoman, socialite, businesswoman, Catholic activist, and artist. Through her marriage toJohannes, 11th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, she acquired thecourtesy titlePrincess Consort ofThurn und Taxis.
Gloria Gräfin vonSchönburg-Glauchau was born on 23 February 1960 inStuttgart,Baden-Württemberg,West Germany. Her father,Joachim, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau, was the nominal head of theGlauchau branch of the German princelyHouse of Schönburg, amediatised dynasty within the formerHoly Roman Empire.[2] Her mother,Countess Beatrix Széchenyi de Sárvár-Felsővidék, was a member of theSzéchenyi family and a descendant ofCount István Széchenyi. Her parents divorced in 1986 and her father married Ursula Zwicker. Gloria is one of five children from her father's two marriages. She has two brothers, Carl-Alban Count von Schönburg-Glauchau (born 1966), formerly head of the family, who renounced his rights after his marriage to Juliet Helene Beechy-Fowler, daughter of Nicholas Beechy-Fowler and Countess Jutta vonPfeil und Klein-Ellguth; andAlexander, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau, a writer and the nominal head of the Schönburg-Glauchau branch of the family, who is married according to the rules of the house to Princess Irina ofHesse, grandniece ofPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort ofQueen Elizabeth II. One of her sisters was the socialiteCountess Maya von Schönburg-Glauchau.[3] Gloria was baptized as an infant and raised in the Catholic faith.[4]
When she was a child, Gloria and her family moved to Africa, living inTogo andSomalia, where her father worked as an author and a journalist.[2] Although they are descendants ofGerman nobility, her family had little wealth as a result of Communism inGermany andHungary.[5] In 1945 theSoviet government ofSaxony seized her family's ancestral homes, castlesWechselburg,Hinterglauchau,Forderglauchau,Rochsburg,Alt-Penig, andNeu-Penig. She moved back to Germany with her family in 1970 and enrolled at the Konrad-Adenauer-Gymnasium inMeckenheim, later studying at Kloster Wald, a girls' boarding school in a Benedictine convent. As a teenager she worked as a waitress at a ski resort inSt Moritz, Switzerland.
In 1979, at age 19, Gloria metJohannes, Hereditary Prince of Thurn and Taxis, age 53, at a luncheon he hosted at Nürnberger Bratwurst Glöckl inMunich. She began a relationship with him soon thereafter and they married on 31 May 1980 in a Catholic ceremony inRegensburg,Bavaria. At the time of their marriage Johannes was estimated to be worth between $2 and $3 billion.[6][3] Gloria and her husband are fourth cousins twice removed, both descendants ofKarl Alexander, 5th Prince of Thurn and Taxis.[7] Upon their marriage Gloria became theHereditary Princess of Thurn and Taxis. When her father-in-law,Karl August, 10th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, died in 1982, her husband became the 11th Prince of Thurn and Taxis.[8][2][9]
The couple had three children:[2]
Gloria and her husband were known for their lavish lifestyle, becoming social and fashion icons in the 1980s. She became part of the Europeanjet set and was referred to in the media as the "punk princess" and "PrincessTNT".[3]
When her husband died in 1990, Gloria was left to settle his debts, which totaled $500 million.[3] Her son,Albert, became the 12th Prince of Thurn and Taxis upon Johannes's death. She acted as the trustee for Albert, taking over management of the family estate,Saint Emmeram's Abbey. She went into isolation from society, studying finance, accounting, and estate management and selling off family property, including art, jewelry, castles, cars, and land to preserve the family fortune.[12][13] During this time she undertook a spiritual pilgrimage to theSanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes inLourdes, France, emerging as a Roman Catholic activist.[3][4]
After her sister, Maya, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2012, Gloria accompanied her on pilgrimages toLourdes andSantiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain.[14]
Gloria has become a successful artist, focusing mainly on oil paint and pastel portraits. TheHotel Chelsea asked her to do a series of pastels of its most famous denizens—a gallery show that brought her much acclaim as a painter.[15][5][16][17] She has called herself a "dilettante" and cited her art collection as inspiration for her style of portraiture.[18] In 2015 she had a solo show at the National Exemplar Gallery in New York. She also paints freelance.[18]
A devout Catholic, Gloria works closely with conservativeTraditionalist Catholic leaders, includingArchbishop Carlo Maria Viganò,Cardinal Raymond Burke,Monsignor Wilhelm Imkamp, andSteve Bannon.[19] Bannon suggested her palatial home,Schloss Thurn und Taxis, as a potential site for a school to educate and train right-wing Catholics, but no firm plans have been made.[19]
Gloria is a personal friend ofHillary Clinton, and was one of a dozen women to attend her 2016 birthday party.[19]
In 2001, Gloria sparked significant outrage after making offensive remarks on German television. She claimed thatAIDS is widespread inAfrica because "blacks like to copulate [schnackseln] a lot." These comments met with widespread criticism, and she expressed similar views in 2008, attributing sexual behavior in Africa to the continent's hot climate.[20][21]
Gloria has established connections with several right-wing and conservative personalities, such as formerDonald Trump adviserSteve Bannon andCardinal Raymond Burke, positioning herself with conservative Catholic movements. These political alliances sparked controversy, leading to the cancellation of an exhibition of her work atEl Museo del Barrio's 50th anniversary gala inManhattan in 2019. In 2024, she delivered a speech at theNational Conservatism Conference inBrussels, where she advocated for traditional Catholic values and criticized the religious stance ofPope Francis.[22][23]
In accordance with theWeimar Constitution of 1919,German law recognises hereditary titles only as part of surnames. Members of the Thurn and Taxis family include the title as part of their surname in the formPrinz/essin von Thurn und Taxis.[2]
Dame Grand Cross of theOrder of Perfect Friendship (House of Thurn und Taxis)
Dame 1st Class of theOrder of the Starry Cross[24] (Austrian Imperial and Royal Family)
Officer's Cross of theOrder of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Germany)[citation needed]
Recipient of theBavarian Order of Merit (Bavaria)[citation needed]
Dame Commander with Star of theOrder of St. Gregory the Great[25] (Holy See)
Dames Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of theSovereign Military Order of Malta[26] (Sovereign Military Order of Malta)| Ancestors of Gloria von Thurn und Taxis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media related toGloria, Princess of Thurn and Taxis at Wikimedia Commons
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