Queen Silvia of Sweden
Encyclopedia
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Queen Silvia of Sweden (née
Silvia Renate Sommerlath; born 23 December 1943 in Heidelberg
) is the Queen consort
of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
. Styled Her Majesty The Queen, Silvia is the mother of the heir apparent to the throne, Crown Princess Victoria
.
, Germany, on 23 December 1943. She is the daughter of the late Walther Sommerlath
and his Brazil
ian wife Alice, née de Toledo, also deceased. Her maternal grandfather was Artur Floriano de Toledo (1873–1935), a descendant of King Afonso III of Portugal
and his concubine Maria Peres de Enxara. The Queen has two older brothers: Ralf and Walther Sommerlath. Her third brother, Jörg Sommerlath, died in 2006. The Sommerlath family lived in São Paulo
, Brazil
, between 1947 and 1957, where the Queen attended the traditional German school Colégio Visconde de Porto Seguro
and Walther Sommerlath held various positions, including President of the Brazilian subsidiary of Swedish company Uddeholm
. The family returned to West Germany
in 1957.
Consulate in Munich, was an educational host during the 1972 Summer Olympics
in Munich, and served as the Deputy Head of Protocol for the Winter Games in Innsbruck
in Austria
. She also was briefly a flight attendant
.
She is a trained interpreter and speaks six languages: Swedish
, her native languages German and Portuguese
, as well as French
, Spanish
, and English
. She has some fluency in Swedish Sign Language, a national sign language used by the deaf community in Sweden.
.jpg)
During the 1972 Summer Olympics
, Silvia Sommerlath met Crown Prince Carl Gustav. In a later interview, the King explained how it just "clicked" when they met.
After the death of King Gustaf VI Adolf
on 15 September 1973, Carl XVI Gustav was enthroned on 19 September that year.
He and Silvia announced their engagement on 12 March 1976 and were married three months later, on 19 June in Stockholm Cathedral ("Storkyrkan
Cathedral") in Stockholm
. It was the first marriage of a reigning Swedish monarch since 1797. If he had married Silvia during the reign of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf, he would have lost his position as heir to the Swedish throne. This was due to the inflexibility of his grandfather, who believed that royalty must marry royalty. This was also the reason why Carl Gustav's uncle, Prince Bertil, did not marry until after Gustaf VI Adolf's death. (Bertil was second-in-line to the throne until his nephew produced an heir, and was therefore unable to marry the Welsh commoner, now his widow, Princess Lilian
, with whom he had been in love for decades, until 1976.)
In celebration of the forthcoming wedding of the King and the soon-to-be-Queen, Silvia, the internationally famous pop group ABBA
performed the song Dancing Queen
on Swedish television the night before the ceremony, although the song was not actually written for Queen Silvia.
The King and Queen of Sweden have three children.
In 2003, Queen Silvia told a Swedish reporter that she and the royal family would like to be more open to contact with magazines and newspapers but that false articles about the family's lives – including photograph montages purported to show the Crown Princess and Princess Madeleine with their "secret" babies, published in the German magazine "Frau mit Herz" – had made them wary. As she told the Swedish news agency TT, "If a person is hurt too much, the natural reaction is to withdraw. That is a pity, because I really think our children are very natural and open toward other people and toward journalists."
The previous year, the Queen had become the unwelcome subject of international curiosity when an article published in the syndicalist
newspaper Arbetaren
in 2002 reported that German state archives record that the queen's father, Walther Sommerlath
, joined the Nazi party's foreign wing, the NSDAP/AO
, in 1934, when he was living in Brazil
and working for a German steel company. Rumors had long circulated about Sommerlath's life and career during World War II
, especially so when his daughter's relationship with the future King of Sweden became known, but until his death in 1990, the businessman denied any connection to the Nazi Party. However, study of state records further revealed that Sommerlath, in 1938, through the aryanization
policies in effect in Germany at the time, became the owner of a steel-fabrication plant that "produced components for the German war effort, including parts for Panzers, as well as gas masks," according to the Scotsman
(20 July 2002). When the revelations about Walther Sommerlath broke in the Swedish press, a palace spokesman said, "The Queen’s father has never been a part of the Royal Family and therefore I have no comment."
In December 2010, she wrote a plaintive letter to Jan Scherman
, the CEO of the television company that had produced a documentary about her father's alleged Nazi past. A report compiled by World War II expert Erik Norberg which was commissioned by Queen Silvia argued that her father had in fact helped a Jewish businessman escape from Germany by taking over the factory.
She was a co-founder of the World Childhood Foundation
in 1999. She also works actively for the handicapped, including as Chairman of the Royal Wedding Fund and Queen Silvia's Jubilee Fund. In 1990, she was awarded the prestigious German prize "Deutscher Kulturpreis" for her work for the handicapped. The Queen is also an honorary board member of The Mentor Foundation International, that works against drug use in adolescents and young adults. She is also the Patroness of the "Queen Silvia Fund" operated by the World Scout Foundation
which raises funds for Scouts with disabilities.
Her commitment to the work with dementia and the care of the elderly at the end of life is also well known and respected. On her initiative, Silviahemmet was established in Stockholm. It works to educate hospital personnel in how to work with people suffering from dementia, and also initiates research in the area.
The Queen also has brought the subject of dyslexia
into the public arena in Sweden. For many years, it was widely rumored that the King has dyslexia. Journalists noted that he misspelled his name when signing his accession document, and in 1973, when visiting a copper mine, he misspelled his name when signing it on a rock wall. In an interview on Swedish television in 1997, the condition was admitted publicly when the Queen addressed the issue. "When he was little, people did not pay attention to the problem," she said. "He didn't get the help he needed."
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Queen Silvia of Sweden (née
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Silvia Renate Sommerlath; born 23 December 1943 in Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
) is the Queen consort
Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
Carl XVI Gustaf is the reigning King of Sweden since 15 September 1973, succeeding his grandfather King Gustaf VI Adolf because his father had predeceased him...
. Styled Her Majesty The Queen, Silvia is the mother of the heir apparent to the throne, Crown Princess Victoria
Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden
Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland is the heiress-apparent to the Swedish throne. If she ascends to the throne as expected, she will be Sweden's fourth queen regnant .-Early life:...
.
Childhood
Queen Silvia was born in HeidelbergHeidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, Germany, on 23 December 1943. She is the daughter of the late Walther Sommerlath
Walther Sommerlath
Carl August Walther Sommerlath was a German businessman and the father of Queen Silvia of Sweden. He was president of the Brazilian subsidiary of the Swedish steel-parts manufacturer Uddeholm Tooling after World War II....
and his Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian wife Alice, née de Toledo, also deceased. Her maternal grandfather was Artur Floriano de Toledo (1873–1935), a descendant of King Afonso III of Portugal
Afonso III of Portugal
Afonso III , or Affonso , Alfonso or Alphonso or Alphonsus , the Bolognian , the fifth King of Portugal and the first to use the title King of Portugal and the Algarve, from 1249...
and his concubine Maria Peres de Enxara. The Queen has two older brothers: Ralf and Walther Sommerlath. Her third brother, Jörg Sommerlath, died in 2006. The Sommerlath family lived in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, between 1947 and 1957, where the Queen attended the traditional German school Colégio Visconde de Porto Seguro
Colégio Visconde de Porto Seguro
Colégio Visconde de Porto Seguro is a private bilingual school located in the neighborhood of Morumbi, in São Paulo, Brazil...
and Walther Sommerlath held various positions, including President of the Brazilian subsidiary of Swedish company Uddeholm
Uddeholm
Uddeholm is a locality situated in Hagfors Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden with 763 inhabitants in 2005....
. The family returned to West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
in 1957.
Career
Before her marriage to the King of Sweden, Silvia Sommerlath worked at the ArgentineArgentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
Consulate in Munich, was an educational host during the 1972 Summer Olympics
1972 Summer Olympics
The 1972 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from August 26 to September 11, 1972....
in Munich, and served as the Deputy Head of Protocol for the Winter Games in Innsbruck
1976 Winter Olympics
The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated February 4–15, 1976 in Innsbruck, Austria...
in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. She also was briefly a flight attendant
Flight attendant
Flight attendants or cabin crew are members of an aircrew employed by airlines primarily to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers aboard commercial flights, on select business jet aircraft, and on some military aircraft.-History:The role of a flight attendant derives from that of similar...
.
She is a trained interpreter and speaks six languages: Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, her native languages German and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, as well as French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. She has some fluency in Swedish Sign Language, a national sign language used by the deaf community in Sweden.
Marriage
1972 Summer Olympics
The 1972 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from August 26 to September 11, 1972....
, Silvia Sommerlath met Crown Prince Carl Gustav. In a later interview, the King explained how it just "clicked" when they met.
After the death of King Gustaf VI Adolf
Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden
Gustaf VI Adolf - Oscar Fredrik Wilhelm Olaf Gustaf Adolf - was King of Sweden from October 29, 1950 until his death. His official title was King of Sweden, of the Goths and of the Wends. He was the eldest son of King Gustaf V and his wife Victoria of Baden...
on 15 September 1973, Carl XVI Gustav was enthroned on 19 September that year.
He and Silvia announced their engagement on 12 March 1976 and were married three months later, on 19 June in Stockholm Cathedral ("Storkyrkan
Storkyrkan
Sankt Nikolai kyrka , most commonly known as Storkyrkan and Stockholms domkyrka , is the oldest church in Gamla Stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden. It is an important example of Swedish Brick Gothic...
Cathedral") in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. It was the first marriage of a reigning Swedish monarch since 1797. If he had married Silvia during the reign of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf, he would have lost his position as heir to the Swedish throne. This was due to the inflexibility of his grandfather, who believed that royalty must marry royalty. This was also the reason why Carl Gustav's uncle, Prince Bertil, did not marry until after Gustaf VI Adolf's death. (Bertil was second-in-line to the throne until his nephew produced an heir, and was therefore unable to marry the Welsh commoner, now his widow, Princess Lilian
Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland
Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland is a Welsh former fashion model who has been a member of the Swedish Royal Family since marrying Prince Bertil , an uncle of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, in 1976.-Early life:Born in Swansea, Wales, the daughter of William John Davies and wife Gladys Mary...
, with whom he had been in love for decades, until 1976.)
In celebration of the forthcoming wedding of the King and the soon-to-be-Queen, Silvia, the internationally famous pop group ABBA
ABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
performed the song Dancing Queen
Dancing Queen
"Dancing Queen" is a pop song recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released in August 1976, but was first performed two months earlier, on 18 June 1976, during a Royal Variety Show in Stockholm the evening before the Swedish royal wedding. It was the follow-up single to the hit "Fernando"...
on Swedish television the night before the ceremony, although the song was not actually written for Queen Silvia.
The King and Queen of Sweden have three children.
- Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria Ingrid Alice Désirée, Duchess of VästergötlandVictoria, Crown Princess of SwedenVictoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland is the heiress-apparent to the Swedish throne. If she ascends to the throne as expected, she will be Sweden's fourth queen regnant .-Early life:...
, born on 14 July 1977. She was married on 19 June 2010 to Daniel Westling, who was born on 15 September 1973 (the same day that Carl Gustav ascended to the Swedish throne). The wedding took place on her parents' 34th wedding anniversary. - His Royal Highness Prince Carl Philip Edmund Bertil, Duke of VärmlandPrince Carl Philip, Duke of VärmlandPrince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland , is the second child of three children and only son of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden. Born Crown Prince of Sweden, he retained his title and first place in succession for seven months until 1 January 1980...
, born on 13 May 1979. - Her Royal Highness Princess Madeleine Thérèse Amelie Josephine, Duchess of Hälsingland and GästriklandPrincess Madeleine, Duchess of Hälsingland and GästriklandPrincess Madeleine of Sweden, Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland is the youngest child and second daughter of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden...
, born on 10 June 1982.
Relationship with the press
Though initially cool to the idea of a commoner queen, the Swedish press quickly warmed to Queen Silvia and soon began publishing admiring articles about how easily she fit into the country's expectations of queenly deportment. As the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet noted in 1994, on the occasion of the Queen's 50th birthday, she had revived the popularity of the monarchy. "With Silvia, the republic died. You could put it that way. Even if Silvia's arrival was like kicking someone lying down. Or hitting a guy with glasses. The guy with glasses was mostly to be found with the Social Democrats. A few lines in the party manifesto, ever more vague over the years. It has always been there, but nobody has ever done anything to implement it."In 2003, Queen Silvia told a Swedish reporter that she and the royal family would like to be more open to contact with magazines and newspapers but that false articles about the family's lives – including photograph montages purported to show the Crown Princess and Princess Madeleine with their "secret" babies, published in the German magazine "Frau mit Herz" – had made them wary. As she told the Swedish news agency TT, "If a person is hurt too much, the natural reaction is to withdraw. That is a pity, because I really think our children are very natural and open toward other people and toward journalists."
The previous year, the Queen had become the unwelcome subject of international curiosity when an article published in the syndicalist
Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden
Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden is an anarcho-syndicalist trade union federation in Sweden. Unlike other Swedish unions, SAC organizes people from all occupations, including the unemployed, students, and the retired...
newspaper Arbetaren
Arbetaren
Arbetaren is a Swedish weekly newspaper, founded in 1922. It is published by the anarcho-syndicalist union SAC, Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden....
in 2002 reported that German state archives record that the queen's father, Walther Sommerlath
Walther Sommerlath
Carl August Walther Sommerlath was a German businessman and the father of Queen Silvia of Sweden. He was president of the Brazilian subsidiary of the Swedish steel-parts manufacturer Uddeholm Tooling after World War II....
, joined the Nazi party's foreign wing, the NSDAP/AO
NSDAP/AO
The NSDAP/AO was the Foreign Organization branch of the National Socialist German Workers Party . AO is the abbreviation of the German compound word Auslands-Organisation...
, in 1934, when he was living in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and working for a German steel company. Rumors had long circulated about Sommerlath's life and career during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, especially so when his daughter's relationship with the future King of Sweden became known, but until his death in 1990, the businessman denied any connection to the Nazi Party. However, study of state records further revealed that Sommerlath, in 1938, through the aryanization
Aryanization
Aryanization is a term coined during Nazism referring to the forced expulsion of so-called "non-Aryans", mainly Jews, from business life in Nazi Germany and the territories it controlled....
policies in effect in Germany at the time, became the owner of a steel-fabrication plant that "produced components for the German war effort, including parts for Panzers, as well as gas masks," according to the Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
(20 July 2002). When the revelations about Walther Sommerlath broke in the Swedish press, a palace spokesman said, "The Queen’s father has never been a part of the Royal Family and therefore I have no comment."
In December 2010, she wrote a plaintive letter to Jan Scherman
Jan Scherman
Jan Scherman is a Swedish journalist and CEO for the Sweden-based TV company TV4 AB. He is active in political debate and was a major critic of the Göran Persson cabinet...
, the CEO of the television company that had produced a documentary about her father's alleged Nazi past. A report compiled by World War II expert Erik Norberg which was commissioned by Queen Silvia argued that her father had in fact helped a Jewish businessman escape from Germany by taking over the factory.
Charity involvement
Queen Silvia is involved in numerous charity organizations, especially in the area of disadvantaged children, and has made several public statements about human rights and the sexual exploitation of children. On her own initiative, she alone watched videos confiscated by the police, of sexually abused children in an early pedophile tangle. The statement she made to the press became an eye opener for many people that the problem exists.She was a co-founder of the World Childhood Foundation
World Childhood Foundation
The World Childhood Foundation, often referred to as simply Childhood, was founded by HM Queen Silvia of Sweden in 1999 in an effort to reach and support children at risk around the world...
in 1999. She also works actively for the handicapped, including as Chairman of the Royal Wedding Fund and Queen Silvia's Jubilee Fund. In 1990, she was awarded the prestigious German prize "Deutscher Kulturpreis" for her work for the handicapped. The Queen is also an honorary board member of The Mentor Foundation International, that works against drug use in adolescents and young adults. She is also the Patroness of the "Queen Silvia Fund" operated by the World Scout Foundation
World Scout Foundation
The World Scout Foundation, WSF, is an international non-profit institution based in Geneva, Switzerland funded in 1969, but reorganized in the current form in 1977. The stated mission of the organization is to develop World Scouting by the provision of financial and other support to help develop...
which raises funds for Scouts with disabilities.
Her commitment to the work with dementia and the care of the elderly at the end of life is also well known and respected. On her initiative, Silviahemmet was established in Stockholm. It works to educate hospital personnel in how to work with people suffering from dementia, and also initiates research in the area.
The Queen also has brought the subject of dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
into the public arena in Sweden. For many years, it was widely rumored that the King has dyslexia. Journalists noted that he misspelled his name when signing his accession document, and in 1973, when visiting a copper mine, he misspelled his name when signing it on a rock wall. In an interview on Swedish television in 1997, the condition was admitted publicly when the Queen addressed the issue. "When he was little, people did not pay attention to the problem," she said. "He didn't get the help he needed."
External links
- Biography H.M. Queen Silvia - Official website of the Swedish Royal Court
- Ancestry of Queen Silvia of Sweden
- Royal House of Sweden
- World Childhood Foundation - Official site
- The Mentor Foundation International - Official site
- The Swedish Royal Family - Information site with pictures, news etc.
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