Sonja Bernadotte
Sonja Bernadotte, Countess af (of ) Wisborg ( born May 7, 1944 as Sonja Anita Maria Haunz Litzelstetten at Constance; † October 21, 2008 in Freiburg im Breisgau), was from 1981 to 2006 Managing Director of Mainau GmbH.
Life
Sonja Haunz was the daughter of Wolfgang (1913-1982) and Anita (1914-1997) Haunz born Mayr. Since both parents worked on the Mainau, she grew up with her brothers Manfred and Wolfgang more or less on the flower island.
Sonja Haunz graduated in 1960 with their education from middle school now and then visited a home economics school. Her parents put her daughter an activity on the island near. In April 1961, she was first employed as an assistant in the switchboard of Mainau and worked in the summer of 1961 in various assistance activities, among others, for her father Wolfgang Haunz, who was managing director of Mainau at this time. During this time she had met for the first time with the 35 years older Count Lennart Bernadotte ( 1909-2004 ). In 1966 she worked for one and a half years at the Federal Institute for Vegetation Science, Nature Conservation and Landscape Management in Bad Godesberg with Professor Gerhard Olschowy and spent some time as a hotel employee in the English seaside town of Margate. 1969 Lennart Bernadotte took her as his assistant returned to the Mainau. 1971 divorced Lennart Bernadotte from his first wife Karin Nissvandt. On April 29, 1972 married Sonja Haunz and Count Lennart Bernadotte on the Mainau.
The couple had five children who are involved today, all in the Mainau:
- Bettina Bernadotte ( born March 12, 1974 in Scherzingen ), Managing Director of Mainau GmbH.
- Bjorn Wilhelm Bernadotte ( born June 13, 1975 in Scherzingen ), Managing Director of the Lennart Bernadotte Foundation.
- Ruffing Catherina Bernadotte (* April 11, 1977 in Scherzingen ), landscape architect.
- Christian Wolfgang Bernadotte ( born May 24, 1979 in Scherzingen ) involved in administration of the island.
- Diana Bernadotte ( born April 18, 1982 in Scherzingen ), a trained milliner who owns a boutique with my own creations in the castle.
To avoid probate dispute with the children of Count Lennart's first marriage and to the traditional work to secure the island Mainau in the future, have Count Lennart and Countess Sonja Bernadotte Mainau in 1974 in the Lennart Bernadotte Foundation, based on the Mainau Constance introduced. The foundation was made for man and to nature 's sake under the motto gardeners and pursues the following objectives: to promote science, land conservation, environmental and conservation as well as home care. Thus, the island of Mainau developed by the dedicated and tireless work of Countess Bernadotte to a synthesis of botanical gardens, historic castle park and an international meeting place. 1981 Countess Sonja Managing Director of Mainau administration Count Lennart Bernadotte GmbH, which was renamed in Mainau GmbH in 1998. From 1987 until the end of 2001, she was assisted in this task by Volkmar T. Leutenegger, second directors of the company. Since 2001, she was the sole managing director of Mainau GmbH. Her eldest daughter Countess Bettina Bernadotte was from April 2002 to December 2006 her personal assistant and took over the management of Mainau GmbH in January 2007. Her brother Björn Bernadotte was actually intended, but refrained.
Countess Sonja had their living quarters in the left wing of the palace of the Baroque castle of Mainau. In 1995, the first time doctors nodes found in her breast. In 2005, she had to retire for months again. However, their last days she spent in a Freiburg clinic where she died on 21 October 2008 at the age of 64 after a long illness with breast cancer.
At the funeral on October 25, some 200 celebrities from politics, media, business and nobility came to the castle church of the island of flowers. However, the Swedish royal family sent a delegation neither nor flowers. Your final resting she finds her parents, Wolfgang and Anita Haunz and her husband, Count Lennart in the crypt of the castle church at the side.
The most visited tourist attraction at the lake is considered her and her husband's life together work.
Volunteer activities (selection)
- Founder of the Lennart Bernadotte Foundation.
- Founding member of Plan International Germany
- Founding member of the action to the rescue of cultural heritage EV
- Honorary Member of the Board of Trustees of Golden Flower Reydt
- Board of Trustees member of the Heinz Sielmann Foundation Sielmanns biotope network Bodensee
- For her 60th birthday, the Foundation has awarded the Sonja Bernadotte Medal for horticulture
- 1982-2008 President of the German Horticultural Society 1822 eV ( since 1968 a member of the DGG, since 1974, member of the Presidium ) as a result of her husband, Count Lennart Bernadotte, who was 27 years at the head of the German Horticultural Society
- Since 1987 President of the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings in Lindau
- 1988 Founding member of the Special Rescue of Cultural Heritage eV
- 1995-2008 President of Gardening for All Association ( Executive Director of the Association is Sandra Angerer )
- 1998-2008 President of the European Cultural Forum Mainau
- Since 2000 President of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting ( since 1973 Member )
- Since 2002 Chairman of the Foundation singing with children, Stuttgart
- Since 2003, the patron of the NABU Foundation Heritage Baden- Wuerttemberg