GERMANY: No Light Thing

Proud, prolific and beloved, the House of Coburg counts among its sons British King George, Belgian King Albert, Bulgarian Tsar Boris and other European royalties too numerous to mention. Even the soil of Coburg is something special. As a wedding present the Town of Coburg last week gave a double-bottomed cradle (with Coburg soil between the bottoms) to pink and pretty Princess Sibylle Calma Maria Alicia Bathildis Feodora von Saxe-Coburg-und-Gotha. She seemed destined to become one day by her brilliant marriage Queen of Sweden. All Coburg was sure that as soon as he is born, the future King of Sweden will be laid, according to ancient ritual, “on Coburg soil” in the double-bottomed cradle.

This of course, was taking the extreme long view peculiar to royalty. Today 74-year-old Gustaf V is King of Sweden. His eldest son,Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, is only 50, and his eldest son, Prince Gustaf Adolf, who was in Coburg last week to marry Princess Sibylle, 24, is only 26. All the same life will not soon again be so gay and exciting as it was last week for good, grey Rev. Wolfgang Schanze, pastor of Coburg’s high-spired Moritzkirche, one-time tutor to the bride, whose privilege it was to unite in holy matrimony two great-grandchildren of British Queen Victoria.

Sixty-seven royal males and their females crowded the Moritzkirche. All Germany was agog. This was the first dynastic union to take place on German soil since the Fatherland became a Republic in 1919. King George, who hides his German light under a bushel and has changed his name to Windsor, was not there. Neither were any of his sons. But His Majesty’s first cousin, Prince Arthur of Connaught, strode up the aisle in the tight scarlet of a British guardsman. Deposed Kaiser Wilhelm was represented by his grandson Prince Wilhelm, in field grey topped by a steel helmet. Two most exalted shadows came in person. They were mystic, crystal-gazing Ferdinand, a Coburg who abdicated as Tsar of Bulgaria in favor of his son (the present Tsar Boris) and grim, old Rupprecht, the deposed Crown Prince of Bavaria. In Coburg last week everyone called Rupprecht “Your Majesty.” He happens to be the Stuart Pretender to the Crown of Britain.

While the organ groaned softly Rev. Wolfgang Schanze braced himself for the 21-gun salute which he knew would blaze away as soon as the bride andgroom exchanged rings in the Coburg fashion. “Dearly beloved,” cried Pastor Schanze, “the formation of a marriage which can stand before God and man is no light thing. . . . For you, dear bride, it means hoisting your sails—toward a new life! . . .”

BOOM! BANG!—the field guns let go, for President von Hindenburg had kindly ordered a company of the Republican Reichswehr to officiate at Coburg Castle on the hill. There, after the marriage, 140 noble guests sat down to banquet.

Swedes love Italy. As soon as possible Swedish Bridegroom Gustaf Adolf whisked off with his Coburg Sibylle to the blue, foam-flecked waters and sun-dappled hillsides of southern Italy.

Spiteful gossip writers for Berlin Socialist dailies called the wedding presents “cheap.” They also seemed annoyed because President von Hindenburg had contributed to the general atmosphere of simplicity by sending as his wedding gift a pair of white porcelain candlesticks with a white fruit bowl to match.