Raimund von Hofmannsthal

Raimund von Hofmannsthal (26 May 1906 – 20 March 1974) was an Austrian-born author and representative of an American newsreel firm in London.

Raimund von Hofmannsthal
Born(1906-05-26)26 May 1906
Austria
Died20 March 1974(1974-03-20) (aged 67)
Marylebone London, England
Occupation(s)Writer, businessman
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1933; div. 1939)​
    Lady Elizabeth Paget
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1939)​
    ChildrenSylvia Guirey
    Romana McEwen
    Arabella Heathcoat-Amory
    Octavian von Hofmannsthal
    Parent(s)Hugo von Hofmannsthal
    Gertrud Schlesinger

    Early life
    Schloss Prielau, the Hofmannsthal family castle on the shores of the lake at Zell am See

    Hofmannsthal was born 26 May 1906 in Austria. He was the youngest child of Gertrud "Gerty" Schlesinger, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, an Austrian novelist, librettist, and dramatist, who settled in Rodaun (now part of Liesing).[1] His sister, Christiane, married German indologist Heinrich Zimmer and they moved to New Rochelle, when he became a visiting lecturer at Columbia University.[2] His father died of a heart attack in Vienna on 15 July 1929 as he was dressing for the funeral of Raimund's elder brother, Franz, who committed suicide at age 25 two days' prior. His mother died in London thirty years later in November 1959.[3]

    His paternal grandparents were the former Anna Maria Josefa Fohleutner, an upper-class Christian Austrian, and Hugo August Peter Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal, a Christian Austrian–Italian bank manager.[4] His great-great-grandfather, Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal, from whom his family inherited the noble title "Edler von Hofmannsthal", was a Jewish tobacco farmer who was made a member of the hereditary nobility by the Emperor of Austria in 1835.[4][lower-alpha 1] His mother, who converted to Christianity before their marriage, was the daughter of a Viennese Jewish banker.[6]

    Career

    Hofmannsthal was an author who had written several magazine articles. In 1930, he was in Hollywood where he was associated with the United Artists and Paramount Studios and was one of the promoters of an enterprise in which Max Reinhardt and other well-known Continental artists and producers were active. By the late 1930s, he was a representative of an American newsreel firm in London.[7] He belonged to the small, highly successful band of Austrians who made their name in Britain and in the United States--with his friend Sir George Weidenfeld probably the best known of all."[8]

    In 1937, Hofmannsthal hosted the Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII) and his wife, Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, in the Austrian Tyrol,[1] at their estate, Schloss Kammer on Lake Attersee near Salzburg.[9] His family owned Schloss Prielau, a 17th-century chateau on the shores of the lake at Zell am See, which had been seized by the Nazis because of their Jewish ancestry, but was restituted in 1947.[10]

    Personal life
    Photograph of his first wife, Ava Astor, c. 1920
    "A Girl in a Yellow Dress on a Sofa with a Dog", a portrait of his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Paget, by Rex Whistler, 1938[11]

    On 21 January 1933, von Hofmannsthal married Princess Obolensky, the former Ava Alice Muriel Astor (1902–1956), in the city court of Newark, New Jersey.[12] Ava was the daughter of Col. John Jacob Astor IV (the wealthiest passenger to die in the sinking of the RMS Titanic) and, his first wife, Ava Lowle Willing (who married Thomas Lister, 4th Baron Ribblesdale in 1919).[13] Although she was still married to her first husband, Prince Serge Obolensky (from whom she was divorced in December 1932), Hofmannsthal was said to be the father of their youngest child, Princess Sylvia Obolensky, who was born in May 1931.[14] Before their divorce in 1939, they were the parents of another daughter:

    After his divorce,[lower-alpha 2] Hofmannsthal married Lady Elizabeth Hester Mary Paget (1916–1980) on 7 June 1939 at Chelsea, London.[1] Lady Elizabeth was the second daughter of Charles Paget, 6th Marquess of Anglesey and Marjorie Paget, Marchioness of Anglesey (herself the eldest daughter of Henry Manners, 8th Duke of Rutland).[21] Together, they were the parents of two children:

    Hofmannsthal died in London on 20 March 1974. His funeral took place in Vienna.[8]

    Notes
    1. Edler was, until 1919, the lowest rank of nobility in Austria-Hungary and Germany, just beneath a Ritter (hereditary knight), but above untitled nobles, who used only the nobiliary particle von before their surnames.[5]
    2. After their divorce, Ava Alice Muriel Astor married twice more, first to English journalist Philip John Ryves Harding (cousin to Maxwell Eley and Sir Geoffrey Eley) in 1940 (they divorced in 1945),[17] and then to David Pleydell-Bouverie (a grandson of William Pleydell-Bouverie, 5th Earl of Radnor) in 1946 (they divorced in 1952)[18] before her death in 1956.[13] From her marriage to Harding, she was the mother of Emily Sophia Harding (1941–2019), who married Michael Zimmer (Raimund's nephew through his sister Christiane (née von Hofmannsthal) Zimmer), in 1963.[19][20]
    3. Michael FitzGerald Heathcoat-Amory (1941–2016) served as High Sheriff of Devon in 1985.[23]

    References
    1. "LADY PAGET MARRIED IN LONDON CEREMONY; Trainbearer to Queen Is Wed to Raimund von Hofmannsthal". The New York Times. 8 June 1939. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
    2. "AMERICAN FOUND DEAD AT OXFORD; Body of New York Student Discovered on the Campus -- Foul Play Is Doubted". The New York Times. 13 March 1955. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
    3. "POET'S WIDOW IS DEAD; Frau Hugo von Hofmannsthal Succumbs in London". The New York Times. 11 November 1959. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
    4. Stimer, Herbert (19 September 1949). "Hofmannsthal's Background". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
    5. Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon; Bibliographisches Institut, Lexikonverlag, Mannheim/Wien/Zürich 1975, Band 7, S. 420.
    6. Hofmannsthal, Hugo von; Degenfeld-Schonburg, Grafin Ottonie; Barcel, W. Eric (2000). The Poet and the Countess: Hugo Von Hofmannsthal's Correspondence with Countess Ottonie Degenfeld. Camden House. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-57113-030-3. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
    7. World, Times Wide (19 April 1939). "Marquess's Daughter Well Wed Son of Poet". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
    8. "Raimund von Hofmannsthal". Evening Standard. 25 March 1974. p. 22. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
    9. "DUKE, DUCHESS OF KENT MAY GREET WINDSORS". The Morning News. 9 August 1937. p. 3. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
    10. Fermor, Patrick Leigh (6 October 2016). Dashing for the Post: The Letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor. John Murray Press. p. 317. ISBN 978-1-4736-2248-7. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
    11. Mackrell, Judith (5 September 2017). The Unfinished Palazzo: Life, Love and Art in Venice: The Stories of Luisa Casati, Doris Castlerosse and Peggy Guggenheim. Thames & Hudson. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-500-77396-3. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
    12. "ASTOR HEIRESS WED QUIETLY IN JERSEY; Princess .Obolensky Becomes Bride of Raimund von Hof- mannsthal of Austria. TROTH NOT ANNOUNCED Ceremony Performed Saturday by Police Court JudgeuCouple Left Immediately for Europe". The New York Times. 24 January 1933. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
    13. "Mrs. Pleydell-Bouverie Dies Here. Daughter of Col. John Jacob Astor. Heiress, a Patron of Ballet Companies, Was 54. Did War Work in Britain". The New York Times. July 20, 1956. Retrieved 2009-02-17. Mrs. Ava Pleydell-Bouverie, the former Ava Alice Muriel Astor, a sister of Vincent Astor, died yesterday of a stroke at her home, 219 East Sixty-first Street. She had a country home in Rhinebeck, NY.
    14. Baker, Anne Pimlott (2004). "Guirey [née Obolensky], Princess Sylvia (1931–1997), artist and art patron". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/67153. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 2020-09-06. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
    15. "NIECE OF ASTOR IS FUTURE BRIDE; Romana von Hofmannstahl Engaged to Rory McEwen, Spectator's Art Director". The New York Times. 22 October 1957. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
    16. Times, Special To The New York (16 April 1958). "Niece of Astor Wed in London To Art Director; Miss von Hofmannsthal Is Married to Roderick McEwen of Spectator". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
    17. "Astor Heiress Wed To Philip Harding. Mrs. Ava von Hofmannsthal British Journalist's Bride". The New York Times. March 29, 1940. Retrieved 2009-02-17. The marriage of Mrs. Ava von Hofmannsthal, the former Miss Ava Astor, daughter of John Jacob Astor IV, who was lost on the Titanic, and of Lady Ribblesdale. ...
    18. "Mrs. Ava Harding Is Wed In Vermont. Daughter of Lady Ribblesdale and Late Col. Astor Bride of David Pleydell-Bouverie". The New York Times. May 15, 1946. Retrieved 2009-02-17. Mrs. Ava Alice Muriel Astor Harding, only daughter of Lady Ribblesdale and the late Col. John Jacob Astor, who was lost on the Titanic, was married Sunday in Reading, Vt., to David Pleydell-Bouverie of this city and Glen Ellen, Calif., it was announced here yesterday. This is the fourth marriage for the bride, who is a sister of Vincent Astor
    19. "Michael Zimmer Becomes Fiance Of Miss Harding; Graduate of Harvard to Wed Descendant of John Jacob Astor". The New York Times. 27 May 1963. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
    20. Times, Special to The New York (30 June 1963). "Michael Zimmer Weds Miss Emily S. Harding". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
    21. Times, Special To The New York (16 April 1958). "Niece of Astor Wed in London To Art Director; Miss von Hofmannsthal Is Married to Roderick McEwen of Spectator". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
    22. Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes. Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999, volume 1, page 78.
    23. Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, volume 1, page 102.
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