Sad news today! Princess Marianne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn has passed away at the age of 105. The accomplished Princess from the illustrious Princely Family who was a renowned photographer and socialite at the centre of Royal and Noble circles for over eighty years.
But first, lets learn about Princess Marianne! Born Baroness Marianne von Mayr-Melnhof, she was the eldest daughter of Baron Friedrich Mayr von Melnhof and Countess Maria-Anna von Meran, a member of a a morganatic branch of the Imperial Habsburg-Lorraine. Growing up at Glanegg Castle near Salzburg, she studied at the Blocherer Art School in Munich and in 1942, she married Ludwig Prince zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, facing many hardships in the years during and after the Second World War.
The couple had five children, including the present Fürst zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn before the Prince’s death in 1964, after being ‘run over by a drunk truck driver in Sayn near Koblenz on the sidewalk in front of her house’.
The Princess then took over the management of the family estates, which include Schloss Sayn and a Hunting Lodge in Fuschl am See near Salzburg, inherited from Princess Marianne’s father, until her son came of age. Princess Marianne began a career as a professional photographer and took over 300,000 of photos Royals, Nobels, Celebrities and Socialites, being termed ‘Mamarazza’ by Princess Caroline of Monaco and Hanover; “Manni, you are a real Mamarazza” because in contrast to paparazzi, she never used indiscreet or degrading photos: “I always photographed my friends as friends.” From the 1970s to 2009, during and around the annual Salzburg Festival, Princess Marianne gave several “rural lunches” for 100 guests each in her Hunting Lodge at Fuschl am See near Salzburg, to which she has welcomed thousands of celebrities, including many artists performing at the festival, as well as scores of Diplomats, Politicians, and Royals, most notably King Juan Carlos of Spain.
Our condolences to the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn Princely Family!
