Juliana of the Netherlands
Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina ( German Juliane, born April 30, 1909 in The Hague, † 20 March, 2004 Soestdijk ), Princess of Orange- Nassau, Duchess of Mecklenburg, was September 6, 1948 to April 30, 1980 Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Life
Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and Duke Henry of Mecklenburg.
The oldest known Oranierin was considered a " mother of the nation". Her four daughters Beatrix ( born 1938 ), Irene (* 1939), Margriet ( born 1943 ) and Christina ( b. 1947 ) from his marriage to a native of Germany Bernhard of Lippe - Biesterfeld were generously and freely educated. Your humanistic worldview and parting with old traditional manners minted their tenure.
With their " Inhuldiging " ( enthronement ) on September 6, 1948, she ascended as the successor to her mother Wilhelmina of Orange- Nassau to the throne of the Netherlands, after they had previously exercised briefly the regency for her mother. She struggled from the beginning of their government about bringing closer the royal house to the citizens of the country. The " pedaling monarch " did her own shopping in the supermarket and sent their children to a state school. Under the pseudonym " van Buren " (she was, among others, Countess of Buren ) she gave telephone orders or table reservations in restaurants they visited incognito. She was also the protocol-related Salutation " Majesteit " ( Majesty ) hostile to and preferred the less formal " mevrouw " ( madam ). In 1949 she released due to the political development of Indonesia 's independence, but remained still theoretically to 1954 head of the Dutch -Indonesian Union. In February 1953, she held on the occasion of the great flood encouragement speeches.
On the evening of January 31, 1980, the 42nd anniversary of the Crown Princess, she announced in an unexpected televised address in prime time, that she would resign on 30 April 1980 her 71st birthday, in favor of her daughter Beatrix of Orange- Nassau. Into old age, she took few true representative commitments for the royal family. Recently she was seen in May 1998 at the wedding of her grandson Prince Maurits. At the beginning of the 21st century Queen Juliana suffered increasingly from Alzheimer 's disease and completely withdrew from public life back. At the wedding of Crown Prince Willem- Alexander in February 2002, she already could not participate. She died on 20 March 2004 at Castle Soestdijk after a long illness from the effects of pneumonia.
Queen Juliana of the Netherlands was honored on 30 March 2004 with a state funeral and buried in the royal tombs of the New Church at Delft.
At the request of the deceased worship should be kept plain and simple with the theme " Peace and fearless transition to eternal life." Eulogies, the former monarch had Verbeten. Her daughter Christina sang: "It's a gift to be simple " ( It's a gift to be simple ). At the end of the service the sixth verse of the Wilhelmus, the Dutch national anthem, but the last stanza was not sung as usual, the text reflects their personal understanding of kingship.