Countess Maya von Schönburg-Glauchau

Countess Maria Felicitas von Schönburg-Glauchau (Maria Felicitas Gräfin von Schönburg-Glauchau in German, born 1958), also known as Countess Maya von Schönburg, is a German socialite.

Early life and family

Countess von Schönburg-Glauchau was born in 1958 to Joachim, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau and his first wife, Countess Beatrix Széchényi de Sárvár-Felsővidék.^[1] Her father was the nominal successor head of the mediatized German comital House of Schönburg-Glauchau. Her mother is the great-granddaughter of the Hungarian social reformer Count István Széchenyi. She is the sister of Count Carl-Alban, Count Alexander, and Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis. She has a half-sister, Countess Anabel, from her father's second marriage to Ursula Zwicker.

In the 1960s, Countess von Schönburg-Glauchau's family moved to Togo due to her father's profession as a journalist and foreign correspondent.^[2] They later moved to Somalia, where she was educated at an Italian missionary school in Mogadishu.^[3] The family returned to Germany in 1970, residing in Meckenheim in the Rhineland. Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, her father reclaimed the family's estates in Saxony which had been taken by the Soviets after World War II.

Countess von Schönburg-Glauchau is the maternal aunt of Princess Maria Theresia, Princess Elisabeth, and Albert, 12th Prince of Thurn and Taxis.

Personal life

In 1985 Countess von Schönburg-Glauchau married Friedrich Christian Flick, founder of the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection and heir to the Flick family fortune.^[4] They had three children: Friedrich-Alexander, Maria-Pilar, and Ernst-Moritz. They divorced in 1993.^[5] She later had a daughter, Maria Carlotta Beatrice, with her then-partner Stefan Hipp.^[6] The countess lived in Parkside House at Englefield Green, a former residence of Marilyn Monroe, before moving to Italy in 2011.^[7] In 2012, she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and moved back to Germany to receive treatment.^[8]

The countess is a practicing Catholic and has gone on pilgrimages with her sister Princess Gloria to Santiago de Compostela Cathedral and Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, to which she partially credits with her recovery from cancer.^[9] She stated in an interview with Die Welt that at Christmas time her family does not celebrate Santa Claus, instead choosing to celebrate the Christkind.^[10]

The countess has been in a committed relationship with former Sotheby chairman Henry Wyndham.^[11]

In 2008 Countess von Schönburg-Glauchau voiced her opinion on family life and a woman's role, stating that she believed women are meant to raise children and that mothers should not have careers.^[12]

She is frequently photographed at fashion, art, and society events in Germany and in England.^{[13][14][15][16]}

Legal issues

In 2013, Countess von Schönburg-Glauchau faced a tribunal in Reading, Berkshire for the treatment of her former housekeeper, Teresa Filipowska, whom she had hired in 2008 while living at Parkside House. Filipowska alleged that she was fired for becoming pregnant without her employer's consent, and also claimed that she was overworked and mistreated by the countess.^[17] The tribunal ordered the countess to pay Filipowska £19,000 on the grounds of unfair dismissal, sex discrimination, and unpaid wages.^[18][19][20]

Titles and styles

Since former hereditary titles are only recognized in German law as part of the surname in accordance with the Weimar Constitution of 1919, family members include the title as an integral part of their name in the form, Graf/Gräfin von Schönburg-Glauchau. The following are merely styles, not titles, under obsolete conventions.

• 1958 - present: Her Illustrious Highness Countess Maria Felicitas von Schönburg-Glauchau

References