Religion Roman Catholic | Name Gloria, of Role Businesswoman | |
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Issue Maria TheresiaElisabethAlbert Father Joachim, Count of Schonburg-Glauchau Mother Countess Beatrix Szechenyi de Sarvar-Felsovidek Children Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis Siblings Alexander, Count of Schonburg-Glauchau, Anabel Maya-Felicitas, Maria Felicitas Parents Countess Beatrix Szechenyi, Joachim, Count of Schonburg-Glauchau Grandparents Maria Anna Baworowska, Friedrich Carl, Count of Schonburg-Glauchau Similar People Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis, Princess Maria Theresia, Albert - 12th Prince of Thurn an, Johannes - 11th Prince of Thurn, Alexander - Count of Schonburg‑Glauchau | ||
Mariae Gloria, Princess von Thurn und Taxis (Mariae Gloria Prinzessin von Thurn und Taxis, born Mariae Gloria Ferdinanda Joachima Josephine Wilhelmine Huberta Graefin von Schönburg-Glauchau, 23 February 1960) is a German businesswoman, manager, artist and member, by marriage, of the German princely House of Thurn and Taxis.
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Biography
Gloria is the daughter of Joachim, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau and of Countess Beatrix Széchenyi de Sárvár-Felsővidék. Her brother, Alexander, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau, is a bestselling writer and journalist.
Much of her youth was spent in Togo and Somalia in Africa, where her father was an author and journalist. Although a countess by birth, her family had little money, and she had worked as a waitress in the Swiss ski resort, St Moritz, before marrying her 4th cousin twice removed, Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, who was born in 1926 and possessed a fortune estimated at between US$2 and US$3 billion. They are both descended from Karl Alexander, 5th Prince of Thurn and Taxis.
Gloria's frank exuberance, lavish spending, edgy attire and a whirlwind, international social life with her husband made her a social icon in the 80s, garnering her such sobriquets in media as the "punk princess" and "Princess TNT". On Johannes's death, however, the spending came to a halt as US$500 million was owed on the estate he left behind. Acting as trustee for her son, Gloria went into isolation to study finance, accounting and estate management, sold off jewelry, castles, cars, and land to preserve the family fortune, and undertook a spiritual pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in Lourdes, France from which she emerged a sobered Roman Catholic activist and philanthropist.
The couple had three children:
In 2001, she was severely criticized for stating in a talkshow 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.
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.
Styles
Since former hereditary titles are only recognised 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, Prinz/essin von Thurn und Taxis. The following are merely styles, not titles, under obsolete conventions.