Figure 1.--This appears to be Frederika, but we are not sure just when it was taken, probably just after World War II. We are not sure who is with her. It is presumably her husband King Paul. We are also unsure who the children behind them are. Hopefully HBC reades will be able to tell us more.

Frederika was born in Blankenburg, Germany, a princess of Hannover (1917). Her father was Ernest Augustus III, Duke of Brunswick and Princess Victoria of Prussia. Princess Victoria was Kaiser Wilhelm II's daughter. Thus through her mother she was related to both the German and British royal family. We do not know much about her childhood. We do know that she joined the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM)--the girls' division of the Hitler Youth. Her brothers also joined the HJ. They were photographed together anout 1933-34. We do not know why she joined. In the early period of NAZI rule, membership was still voluntary. We do not know when she met Prince Paul. We do know that Prince Paul asked her to marry him whikle he was in Berlin attending the Summer Olympic Games (1936). They announced their engagement (1937) and were married in Athens (1938). They lived at Villa Psychiko in the Athens suburbs. Princess Sophia was born (1938) and and Prince Constantine (1940). Soon their quiet family life was interupted by international events. Mussolini who had seized Albania, invaded Greece (October 1940). Here husband became King Paul I after the War (1947). Queen Frederika was a beautiful and highly intelligent woman. She did not prove to be an asset to her husband as king after the War. There were several problems. First it was primarily her Germaness in a country that fought Germany in two world wars. Anti-German feeling was intense in Greece as a result of the brutal German World War II occuption of Greece. Photographs of Frederika in a HJ uniform were very embarassibng. Another problen=m was her outspokeness in a conservative country in which politics was still seen as a realm for men. Not only was she outspoken, but her autocratic attitudes made her a target for opponents of the monarchy. Some historians believe that she was a factor in the growing republican sentiment during her husband's reign.

Created: 5:26 PM 7/28/2008
Last updated: 5:26 PM 7/28/2008