Pauline von Metternich

Pauline Clémentine Marie Walburga, Princess of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein (née Countess Pauline Sándor de Szlavnicza; 25 February 1836 – 28 September 1921) was an Austrian socialite, mainly active in Vienna and Paris.

Known for her great charm and elegance as well as for her social commitment, she was an important promoter of the work of the German composer Richard Wagner and the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. She was also instrumental to the creation of the haute couture industry.

Life

Pauline was born in Vienna into the Hungarian noble family of Sándor de Szlavnicza.

Her father, Count Móric Sándor de Szlavnicza (1805–1878), described as "a furious rider", was known throughout the Habsburg empire as a passionate horseman. Her mother, Princess Leontine von Metternich-Winneburg (1811–1861), was a daughter of the Austrian state chancellor Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (known as the architect of the Concert of Europe). It was at his home in Vienna that Pauline spent almost her whole childhood.

In 1856, she married her uncle, Prince Richard von Metternich (1829–1895), whereby her grandfather Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich also became her father-in-law. 

The couple lived a happy conjugal life, despite Richard's frequent love-affairs with actresses and opera prima donnas. Their first child was Sophie (born 1857); her second daughter, Pascaline (b. 1862), married Count Georg von Waldstein-Wartenberg (1853-1890), an insane and alcoholic Czech aristocrat who was said to have murdered her in delirium in Duchcov (today in the Czech Republic) in 1890. Her youngest daughter, Clementine (b. 1870), was badly injured by her dog as a child and decided never to marry due to her scarred face.

Socialite

Pauline accompanied her husband, an Austrian diplomat, on his missions to the royal Saxon court in Dresden and in 1859 to the imperial French court in Paris, where they lived for more than eleven years until the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/71. She played an important role in the social and cultural life of both Dresden and Paris, and, after 1871, Vienna. Pauline's regular travels between, and extended stays in, Paris and Vienna, permitted her to act as a cross-cultural transmitter of the many trends that interested her in music, political ideas, and sport. She was a close friend and confidante of French Empress Eugénie, and, with her husband, was a prominent personality at the court of Emperor Napoleon III. In 1860 she introduced fashion designer Charles Frederick Worth to the Empress and thus started his rise to fame. She was a leading fashion icon; it was said that she was often the very first one to wear a new fashion, which was secondly adopted by the empress, and then accepted and copied by the rest of high society.

Princess Pauline was an ardent patron of music and contemporary arts, and also became a leader of fashionable society. Whether in Paris or Vienna, she set the latest social trends. She taught French and Czech aristocrats to skate, and ladies to smoke cigars without fear of their reputations. She was acquainted with many composers and writers, including Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saëns, Prosper Mérimée and Alexandre Dumas), and corresponded with them.

She befriended music composers Richard Wagner (who dedicated a piano composition to her) and Franz Liszt, and backed their career. At her request, Emperor Napoleon III invited Wagner to substantially amend his Tannhäuser for a special 1861 performance by the Paris Opéra, a revision that forms the basis of what is today known as the "Paris version". The project failed (it closed after three performances) and became a celebrated fiasco and one of the greatest music-related scandals of the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, Pauline continued to spread the music of Wagner and other now-famous composers. Wagner later called her his most substantial support beside the Berlin socialite Marie von Schleinitz. One of her protégés was the leading Czech musician of that time, Bedřich Smetana, whom she introduced to the music circles of Vienna and Paris. Thanks to Pauline, Smetana's comic opera The Bartered Bride was produced in Vienna in 1892, to popular acclaim. She also organised salon performances of abridged versions of many famous operas, including Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, in which she took part both as a stage director and singer. The composer Karl Michael Ziehrer dedicated her one of his dances.

In her private life, however, Pauline suffered several crises and disasters. As a child, she was an eyewitness to the bloody Revolution of 1848 in Vienna. In 1870 she remained at the side of Empress Eugénie in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Later she aided the Empress' escape from Paris to Great Britain by secretly sending Eugénie's jewels to London in a diplomatic bag. In Vienna, she was admired for her social engagement, but also feared for her gossiping. Her enmity with Empress Elisabeth of Austria was almost legendary and was enjoyed by the Habsburg court. After Elisabeth's death in 1898, Pauline together with Princess Eleonora Fugger von Babenhausen took the leading role of grand dames of the Vienna society.

Duel

It is claimed that in August 1892 Pauline took part in a sword duel with Countess Anastasia von Kielmannsegg (1860–1912). T

he disagreement supposedly stemmed from a dispute over a floral arrangement at the Vienna Musical and Theatre Exposition, of which the nobles were honorary president and president of the exhibition, respectively. The supposed duel involved the participants stripping to the waist to reduce the risk of a wound becoming infected; the image of two topless nobles captured the imagination of artists and scandalized Victorians. However, there are no primary sources for the story, only accounts from foreign newspapers; furthermore, not long after the first accounts were published, a French newspaper printed a denial by the Princess, in which she calls the story a "ridiculous invention by Italian journalists".

Legacy

Princess Metternich was a big promoter of arts and music, especially of music of Richard Wagner and Bedřich Smetana. She was one of the last aristocratic patrons of the pre-World War I era, a personality who combined both refined taste and finances to spread contemporary progressive culture. Her influence was equally strong on the development of the modern fashion industry and the beginning of bourgeois fashion designers, most notably Charles Frederick Worth.

Princess Metternich died in Vienna in 1921. She lived through the glory and fall of the Austrian and French empires and was believed to be a living symbol of these two lost worlds. A portrait of her by French impressionist Edgar Degas, painted from a photograph, now hangs in the National Gallery, London.

She wrote two books of memoirs. The first, Gesehenes, geschehenes, erlebtes, in German, honored her grandfather, Chancellor Metternich, and father, Count Moritz Sándor, and the second, Éclairs du passé, in French, recalled her life and times in the court of Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie. Both were published posthumously in the 1920s.

Issue

Richard and Pauline von Metternich had three children :

• Princess Sophie von Metternich-Sandor Winneburg (1857–1941)
• Princess Pascalina Antoinette von Metternich-Sandor Winneburg (1862–1890)
• Princess Klementina Marie von Metternich-Sandor Winneburg (1870-1963)

Since the marriage produced no sons, Richard's title of "Prince von Metternich" passed to his half-brother, Paul von Metternich.

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How princess and a countess fought a 'Topless' duel over flower arrangements : In August 1892 AD, honour demanded that two women settled their dispute sword in hand.

The Countess Anastasia Kielmannsegg and Princess Pauline von Metternich fought each other over flower arrangements, for an upcoming Vienna Musical Theatrical Exhibition. Princess Pauline von Metternich wasn’t just anyone. Her mother was Princess Leontine von Metternich-Winneburg (1811–1861), daughter of Austrian state chancellor Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich. Pauline’s father was a famed horseman of Hungarian noble family Sandor, and she also made quite a name for herself. Exhibition’s honorary president was Pauline von Metternich (wife of Ambassador Richard von Metternich) and Countess (a wealthy aristocrat and wife of Count Erich von Kielmansegg) oversaw organizing committee.

There was a minor squabble between these respected ladies (Austrian state’s “super socialites”) over the arrangement of floral decorations, which escalated into a huge conflict. After verbal abuse yielded no results, the aristocrats decided to get down to business and hurried to settle issue with swords. They appointed two local beau monde representatives as seconds Princess Lichtenstein and Countess Kinski and went to fight in Bois de Boulogne, on outskirts of Vaduz. Baroness Lubinskaya, a well-known medical specialist, was also present at the duel. She offered the ladies to strip naked and fight topless. Baroness was motivated by the fact that a piece of dirty clothing will almost certainly cause an infection if it gets on the wound.

The duelists stripped naked, and all male servants were ordered to move away and turn their backs. And, despite the desire of the strong half of humanity to support their mistresses, they were denied. Even though Countess Kilmansegg was a skilled swordswoman, Princess Pauline managed to prick her opponent’s nose with the tip of her sword. Blood splattered, and Pauline dashed to Anastasia’s aid, dropping her sword. She appears to have misjudged situation and struck a blow. Princess screamed again. The point was clearly in the hand. A commotion erupted, and the servants who had been nearby before rushed to their mistresses for assistance.

After all, they were standing with their backs to the action and were unaware of what was going on (remember that the secular ladies were topless). The duelists had already started screaming, followed by seconds. The servants who ran up were called voluptuous creatures, and they retreated under a hail of blows inflicted by Baroness Lyubinskaya’s umbrella. As a medical professional, she administered first aid to injured; fortunately, both injections were not fatal. Surprisingly, Paulina and Anastasia ran up to each other and hugged after helping. Yes, it was possible to believe that floral decorations were the source of the conflict, which nearly ended tragically.

Pauline von Metternich was still declared the winner. Fencing topless wasn’t a new thing in 1892 AD. There are plenty of images with topless and nude female duelists from as early as 18th Century AD. But the duel between the Countess and the Princess was different, because it wasn’t just the duellists who were female, but also the seconds and everyone else present. This type of female single combat is now known as an emancipated duel, because the duellists are topless for their own sake, and the duel is fought for real reasons and is not displayed to entertain men.

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