Gloria, Princess of Thurn and Taxis

Countess Gloria von Schönburg-Glauchau was born on 23 February 1960 in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany. Her father, Joachim, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau, was the nominal head of the Glauchau branch of the German princely Schönburg family, a mediatised dynasty within the former Holy Roman Empire.[2] Her mother, Countess Beatrix Széchenyi de Sárvár-Felsővidék, was a member of the Hungarian nobility and a descendant of Count István Széchenyi. Her parents divorced in 1986 and her father married a second time to Ursula Zwicker. Gloria descends from various European royal and noble families including the Chotek, Trubetskoy, von Rechteren-Limpurg-Speckfeld, Kinsky and Golitsyn. She is one of five children from her father's two marriages. she has 2 brothers, Carl Count von Schoenburg-Glauchau, born 2.2.1966 and formely head of the family but renounced his rights after his marriage to Juliet Helene Beechhey Fowler, younger brother Alexander, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau, a writer and the current nominal head of the Schönburg family. One of her sisters was the socialite Countess 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 in Togo and Somalia, where her father worked as an author and a journalist.[2] Although a member of the German nobility, her family had little wealth as a result of Communism in Germany and Hungary.[5] Her family's ancestral homes, Wechselburg, Glauchau Rochsburg and Penig Castles, had been seized by the Soviet government of Saxony in 1945. She moved back to Germany with her family in 1970 and was enrolled at the Konrad-Adenauer-Gymnasium in Meckenheim, later studying at Kloster Wald, a girl's boarding school in a Benedictine convent. As a teenager she worked as a waitress at a ski resort in St Moritz, Switzerland.

In 1979 Gloria met Johannes, Hereditary Prince of Thurn and Taxis at a luncheon he was hosting at Nürnberger Bratwurst Glöckl in Munich. She had attended as the guest of his nephew Johannes von Schönborn. A few days later she ran into him at Café Reitschule while on her way to a Supertramp concert with friends. She decided to have dinner with him instead of attending the concert.[6] They began a relationship soon after and she accompanied him on a trip to South America. On 31 May 1980, Gloria and Johannes married in a Catholic ceremony in Regensburg, Bavaria. She wore a Valentino dress and a diamond diadem that had belonged to Marie Antoinette at the wedding.[5] At the time of their marriage Johannes was estimated to be worth between US$2 and US$3 billion.[7][3] She and her husband are fourth cousins twice removed, both descending from Karl Alexander, 5th Prince of Thurn and Taxis. Upon their marriage she became the Hereditary 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]

• Princess Maria Theresia Ludowika Klothilde Helene Alexandra, born 28 November 1980 in Regensburg. On 13 September 2014, she married Hugo Wilson, a British artist, in Tutzing, Germany.[10][11] They have two daughters.
  • Mafalda Beatrix Maria Wilson (born 21 August 2015).[12]
  • Maya Romy Alexandra Wilson (born 22 September 2017).[12]
• Princess Elisabeth Margarete Maria Anna Beatrix, born 24 March 1982 in Regensburg.
• Prince Albert Maria Lamoral Miguel Johannes Gabriel, born 24 June 1983 in Regensburg, who succeeded his father in 1990 as both principal heir at law and nominal head of the former German princely House of Thurn and Taxis according to the traditional rules of the legal affairs committee of the Association of German Nobility.

Gloria and her husband were known for their lavish lifestyle, becoming social and fashion icons in the 1980s. She became part of the European jet set and was referred to in the media as the "punk princess" and "Princess TNT".[3]

When her husband died in 1990, Gloria was left to settle his debts, which totaled at US$500 million.[3] Her son, Albert, became the 12th Prince of Thurn and Taxis at the time of Johannes' 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. She sold off family property including art, jewelry, castles, cars, and land to preserve the family fortune.[13][14] During this time she undertook a spiritual pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in Lourdes, France, emerging as a sobered Roman Catholic activist and philanthropist.[3][4]

In 2001 Gloria was severely criticized for stating on a talk show that the high rate of AIDS in African countries was due not to a lack of safe sex practices but to the fact that "the blacks like to copulate ('schnackseln') a lot". In 2008 she said in an interview that Africans have a lot of sex because of Africa's higher temperatures.[15]

Gloria accompanied her sister, Maya, on pilgrimages to Lourdes and Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain after Maya was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2012.[16]

Gloria has become a successful artist, focusing mainly on portraits done with oil paint and pastel. The Hotel Chelsea asked her to do a series of pastels of its most famous denizens—a gallery show which brought her much acclaim as a painter.[17][5][18][19] She has referred to herself as a "dilettante", and cites her art collection as inspirtation for her contemporary style of portraiture.[20] In 2015 she had a solo show at the National Exemplar Gallery in New York. She also paints freelance.[20]

In January 2019 the El Museo del Barrio in Manhattan decided to cancel an upcoming exhibition of Gloria's work at their 50th anniversary gala due to her right wing political stances and comments she had made about race and AIDS.[21]

Princess Gloria with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015.

A devout Catholic, Gloria serves 300 hot meals to the poor every day from a dedicated room in her home. She also works closely with conservative Traditionalist Catholic leaders including Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Cardinal Raymond Burke, Wilhelm Imkamp, and Steve Bannon.[22] Her palatial home, Schloss Thurn und Taxis was suggested by Bannon as a potential site for a school to educate and train right-wing Catholics, although no firm plans have been made.[22]

Gloria is a personal friend of Hillary Clinton, and was one of a dozen women to attend her 2016 birthday party.[22]

• Unsere Umgangsformen. Die Welt der guten Sitten von A-Z - with Princess Alessandra Borghese - (2000).[35] ISBN 9783806875799
• Gloria: Die Fürstin - Im Gespräch mit Peter Seewald (2005).[36] ISBN 9783453380004
• Die Fürstin und der Kardinal - with Cardinal Joachim Meisner - (2008).[37] ISBN 9783451298714

Media related to Gloria, Princess of Thurn and Taxis at Wikimedia Commons

• The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis
• Thurn und Taxis: The History of an Enterprising Family
• Photos of Gloria von Thurn und Taxis and Lilly zu Sayn-Wittgenstein in crazy outfits.