Merry Christmas!

There were some shepherds in that
part of the country who were spending the
night in the fields, taking care of their
flocks. An angel of the Lord appeared
to them, and the glory of the Lord shone
over them. They were terribly afraid, but
the angel said to them, "Don't be afraid!
I am here with good news for you,
which will bring great joy to all the people.
This very day in David's town your
Saviour was born - Christ the Lord!
And this is what will prove it to you:
you will find a baby wrapped in strips
of cloth and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great army of heaven's
angels appeared with the angel, singing
praises to God:
"Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with
whom he is pleased!"

(Luke 2, 8-14)

***

I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 4, 2011

Oh, isn't it just wonderful! Two days before Christmas the latest issue of Royalty Digest Quarterly arrived in my mailbox. Great timing! Tonight I have just looked quickly through it in order to make this little presentation of its contents, and look forward to reading it more carefully when I leave for Kristiansand and Mandal tomorrow evening.

The front cover of Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 4, 2011 shows a photo taken around 1904 of six Saxe-Meiningen siblings, and their ducal house is dealt with later in the issue. The magazine editor, Ted Rosvall, not surprisingly comments on the proposal to change the British Act of Settlement (succession law) in his editioral column and is like your sincerely in favour of the idea of letting the eldest child inherit the throne regardless of sex.

The Polish Lucas Szkopinski has - just like I have - a great interest in the former Balkan monarchies, and this time he has delivered the article Alexander and Drage. Love and death in Belgrade, which of course deals with the last Obrenovic king and queen of Serbia, who were killed in 1903.

The next man out is the Brazilian Alberto Penna Rodriguez, whose contribution this time is called The forgotten Infanta. Dona Maria Adelaide of Braganza (Mrs. van Uden), who will celebrate her 100th birthday on 31 January 2012. She was the youngest child of the Miguelist pretender to the Portuguese throne Dom Miguel (II) and his second wife Maria Teresa, née Princess of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. Dona Maria Adelaide is an aunt of the current Portuguese pretender, Dom Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza. She married in 1945 the Dutch man Nicolaas van Uden and they got five children. Nicolaas died in 1991.

RDQ's historical consultant Charlotte Zeepvat is as usual responsible of A Family Album, which as already suggested gives an illustrated presentation of the ducal house of Saxe-Meiningen. Besides the 2 pages' long presentation and photos of Schloss Elisabethenburg and Schloss und Veste Heldburg, the reader can enjoy 16 pages with 59 photos of various family members as well as one photo of the family's summer palace Schloss Altenstein, as well as two pages with genealogical tables.

Archduke Otto of Austria (Otto von Habsburg) died on 4 July this year, and this is marked by two articles - An Imperial Farewell. Funeral Ceremonies of Otto von Habsburg by Stefan Haderer and An Autumn Wedding by Michael Nash (the latter article is about Archduke Otto's parents' wedding, it should be added).

The historian Trond Norén Isaksen gives an account of The oldest of the Bernadottes - Elsa Cedergren (1893-1996), followed by Charlotte Zeepvat second (but not last) contribution, Prelude to a Winter Wedding. The article deals with the 8 January 1930 wedding between the then Prince of Piedmont, later King Umberto II of Italy, and Princess Marie José, daughter of King Albert I and Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians. The last main article of this issue is written by Netty Leistra, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (1911-2004). A long and interesting life.

The editor has made space for three book reviews this time, and Trond Norén Isaksen has written two of them. His first review is of Philip Eade's book Young Prince Philip. His Turbulent Early Life, which I mentioned in my article England weekend October 2011 and which also Isaksen has commented on, and his second deals with Ilana D. Miller's The Four Graces. Queen Victoria's Hessian Granddaughters. Interestingly enough Charlotte Zepvaat returns with a second opinion of the same book.

As usual the Royalty Digest Quarterly gives the latest news of the royal world (or rather royal Europe) in the column The World Wide Web of Royalty. You can also find information about the forthcoming Royalty Weekend, which takes place in Ticehurst, East Sussex on 14-15 April 2012 (I attended the RW 2011, which I have written about here). Finally you can also find an advertisement of the book Hvidøre. A Royal Retreat, which is to be published in March 2012. Coryne Hall and Senta Driver are the authors. The villa Hvidøre on the Danish coast was once owned by the Danish-born Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom and her sister, Empress Maria Feodorovna, née Princess Dagmar of Denmark. Well, she was actually born a Princess of Glücksburg, when I come to think of it.

In other words, plenty of reading when my plane takes off tomorrow evening!

Royalty Digest Quarterly is published by Roosvall Royal Books, which can be contacted by e-mail royalbooks[at]telia.com.

See earler presentations of RDQ here.

Updated on Sunday 1 January 2012 at 20.15 (link added), last time Monday 9 January 2012 at 08.30 (one sentence modified).

A cemetery in Lindos, Rhodes, Greece

During my visit to Lindos at the Greek island of Rhodes back in October this year, I came over this small cemetery on the way up to the main road and bus station. The gate was closed, so I couldn't get better pictures than these. At the other side of the road there was a rather angry goat which I feared could attack me any minute, so I didn't stay long outside the gate!

Norwegian news in English

I have earlier written about two online newspapers which publish news about and from Norway in English - Views and News from Norway and The Foreigner (go here and here).

Recently I discovered that The Local earlier this fall launched a Norwegian version. The news portal also has similar English-speaking editions for France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.

Yet another online news site, "written in English, dedicated to Norwegian affairs at home and abroad", cf. the news site's own presentation, is Norway News.

Although not a news site, Norway.org - the Norwegian official site in the United States - is also a good source for news about Norwegian affairs.

New book for King Harald of Norway's 75th birthday: "Idrettskongen" ("The Sports King")

Dag Erik Pedersen's book Idrettskongen ("The Sports King") is to be launched in connection with King Harald V's 75th birthday on 21 February next year, Dagbladet.no revealed in the article Kongen håndplukket Dag Erik til bokprosjekt ("The king hand-picked Dag Erik for [the] book project") yesterday.

The book is meant to cover King Harald's commitment to and great interest in sports, both as an athlete, spectator and as a protector. The king is the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF)'s protector and is still an active yachtsman. In 1987 King Harald and his crew won the World Championships with his one-tonne yacht, the Fram X, and in 2005 they won the European Championships with the Fram XV. The King remains an avid yachtsman, participating in national and international regattas each year, cf. his biography at Kongehuset.no.

The king has on several times been described by his wife as a "sportsidiot" ("mad on sports", "sports crazy"), so even if there might be some sports that he finds more interesting than others, his frequent attendance at sports events in Norway and abroad is certainly not because of duty. His knowledge about Norwegian and international sports is said to be impressive. - You can interview any Norwegian athlete, and everyone will tell you that the king was present at the greatest moment of their career, the author says to Dagbladet.no.

Dag Erik Pedersen works as a sports journalist for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) and is a former professional cyclist. In 1999 he produced a TV documentary with the same title as the book, Idrettskongen. According to VG.no 10 December 2011, Pedersen asked the king if he would be interested in contributing to the book during the Olympic Winter Games in Torino in 2006. Dagbladet.no on the other hand claims that it was the king who wanted Pedersen to write the authorised book.

The book will be sold in the book stores as well as by the athletic clubs, which will get some of the profit.

The publisher is Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. ISBN: 9788205422803
(820542280X). Price: NOK 399. Expected to be on sale from 14 February 2012.

Updated on Tuesday 13 December 2011 at 22.00 (paragraph about the publishers added).

'King' Leka of the Albanians has died

"The Albanian Royal Court" announced today the death of the self-styled King Leka of the Albanians. The king died at the Mother Teresa Hospital in the Albanian capital of Tirana in the morning of 30 November 2011, 72 years old. He had been hospitalized earlier in November with heart and lung problems.

According to an Associated Press article, Saturday 3 December has been declared a day of national mourning, and President Bamir Topi has said that Albania "will respect King Leka I with all the attributes of a king not in office." In his condolence message the president also said that "His active efforts and role to topple the communist system and, during transition, to heighten Albania's national values and promote the integrating process remain alive in the nation's memory".

King Leka was born in Tirana on 5 April 1939 as the only child of King Zog (1895-1928-1939-1961) and Queen Geraldine, née Countess Apponyi de Nagy Appony (1915-2002). Through his mother King Leka was related to most reigning and former reigning royal families of Europe, as Geraldine descended from the Princely House of Anhalt-Dessau.

The royal family had to escape when Italy occupied Albania only a couple of days after Leka's birth. After many years in exile in among others United Kingdom, France, Spain and South Africa Leka was allowed to return to his fatherland in 2002. He was kicked out in 1993 when he first attempted to visit Albania, and again in 1997 after being charged with organizing an armed uprising following the demonstrations he lead after he lost a referendum on the form of government. Die-hard monarchists have claimed that the referendum was flawed. It should, howver, be added that the official result - about 33% in favour of restoration of the monarchy - was as far as I remember close to the last poll carried out before the referendum took place as well as the exit poll (I think it was the latter I wrote about in the newsgroup alt.talk.royalty on 13 June 1997).

Leka succeeded to the headship of the Albanian Royal Family on the death of King Zog in 1961 and styled himself King, which most of his supporters have referred to ever since. As he never held office as King, it might have made more sense to refer to him as Crown Prince Leka, just like his colleague in Yugoslavia (Serbia), Alexander, did. Alternatively one could have used his civil name, Leka Zogu.

King Leka married in 1975 the Australian-born Susan Cullen-Ward (1941-2004). They had one son, also named Leka, b. 1982, who has succeeded his father as head of the royal family. The new head, who works as a political adviser to the Albanian Minister of Interior, is engaged to marry the Albanian woman Elia Zaharia, b. 1983.

See also my website with links to more information about the Albanian Royal Family as well as the blog article I wrote in 2009 following my visit to the Thiais cemetery in Paris.

War memorials at Digitaltmuseum.no

Kulturnett.no (Culturenet.no) published earlier this week (21 November 2011) an interesting article about Norwegian war memorials which have been registered at Digitaltmuseum.no.

Forsvarsmuseet (The Armed Forces Museum) in Norway has kept a record of the war memorials in Norway since 1979. The survey was, however, rather insufficient and difficult of access. The Armed Forces carried out a national registration of all the war memorials with the help of the Home Guard districts. This registration work makes the basis for today's accessibility.

The survey of the war memorials can be viewed here.

According to the article historical objects, cultural monuments/relics or cultivated areas with defence-related relevance are not included in the Armed Forces' presentation of war memorials.

A war memorial is defined as a memorial of persons or events related to war occurrences and defence-related activity throughout history. A war memorial can be everything from a small plaque on a wall to a large monument in the middle of a city. There are war memorials of persons and events in every corner of Norway, symbolizing courage, resistance and the basic values of the Armed Forces. The vast majority of war memorials have been erected by initiatives of the local community. But the Armed Forces itself has also erected war memorials - both inside and outside military areas.

As of now about 2700 war memorials are included in the register.

I have over the years photographed many war memorials, often in connection with visits to cemeteries. The photos will be included in blog articles in due time. The photo at the top shows a war memorial outside Spangereid Cemetery in Lindesnes at the very south of Norway. Another photo of the memorial can be found at Digitaltmuseum.no. Named on the memorial are Sverre Gundersen (1916-1941), Norman E. Samuelsen (1919-1942) and Toralf Robertsen (1921-1943). The latter was a first cousin of my father-in-law and I wrote a few words about him in the Robertsen booklet published in August 2009 in connection with the Robertsen family reunion at Spangereid. Toralf, who had been a sailor since he was 15, was on board the ship D/S Christian Michelsen which was torpedoed on 26 September 1943.

Postscript 24 January 2017: The website Kulturnett.no was closed in 2013, so the three links in the first paragraph don't work any longer.

Updated on 24 January 2017 at 10.15 (postscript added).

Norway: Kongefamiliens årbok 2011 - The Royal Family's Yearbok 2011

We are getting closer to yet another Christmas celebration, and as usual a bunch of new and interesting book titles has reached the market. The fifth volume of Tor Bomann-Larsen's biography about King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway, Æresordet (Cappelen Damm, 2011, ISBN 978-82-02-30374-7) has created several headlines in the newspapers and is expected to sell well (I hope to get it for Christmas!). But it might get some competition in Juritzen forlag's publication Kongefamiliens årbok 2011 ("The Royal Family's Yearbook 2011"), which has recently arrived in the bookstores (it was delivered from the printers on 8 November 2011, cf. the blog Passion&Prose bokdesign). As the title suggests, the book, edited by Arve Juritzen, covers the main royal events of 2011, and according to its publisher, consists of about 350 pages with more than 400 photos (the BibSys entry, however, gives the number of pages to be 317). The publisher's presentation mentions the Crown Prince family's trip to the Middle East and Asia, the Oslo and Utøya terror acts and the British Royal Wedding as some of the events that will be covered by the yearbook.

The book costs NOK 399, but is priced at NOK 349 in some of the Internet bookstores (see for instance Norli). ISBN: 978-82-8205-168-2.

Kadriorg Palace and Park, Tallinn, Estonia

(1) Kadriorg Palace, today Kadriorg Art Museum.

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(5) The back side of the palace with the garden.

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(10) The Presidential Palace can be seen in the background.

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(12) Interior.

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(17) The Presidential Palace.

(18) Peter The Great House Museum.

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(20) The Russalka monument - a sculpture of an angel facing the sea - is a memorial to the military ship Russalka which sunk in 1893. The sun made it too difficult to get a decent photo of the angel's face...

(21) Statue of the Estonian writer Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803-1882).

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The construction of Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, started in 1718 on the order of Emperor Peter I of Russia (Peter the Great) (1672-1682-1725), but was not completed before after his death. It was named after his second wife Catherine (1684-1725-1727), née Marta Helena Skawrońska, who succeeded him on his death in 1725 and enjoyed a short reign before she died 2 years later. The German name of the baroque-style palace, which was designed by the Italian architect Niccolo Michetti, was Catherinethal ("Catherine's Valley"). The name by which the palace is better known today, Kadriorg - "Kadri" is an Estonian version of "Catherine" - was first established in the 20th century.

The palace was meant to be the summer residence of the Russian Emperor (Czar) when staying in Tallinn, and according to the official website, "Most of the Russian rulers, from Peter’s daughter Elizabeth, to the last Romanov emperor Nicholas II", have visited it. For a short period during the first Estonian independence, the palace served as the president's office, before the new presidential palace was built. Today the palace houses an art museum, a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia.

In the Kadriorg Park you can also find the Presidential Palace, which was finished in 1938, and which served its purpose once again from 1991 when the Republic of Estonia got independent for the second time, as well as the Peter The Great House Museum, Kumu Art Museum, the Swan Pond and the Russalka monument. Peter The Great used to stay in what is now a small museum during his visits to Tallinn during the construction work of the palace. Some of Peter's furniture can be viewed in the museum.

Kadriorg Palace and the park with the same name is only a short walk from Tallinn's old city. It can also be reached by taking tram no. 1 or 3.

All the photos were taken on Sunday 6 November 2011.

Hoelseth.com: 'Longest reigns' page updated

Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia died on Saturday 22 October 2011 in New York City and was buried in the Al-Oud cemetery in Riyadh on Tuesday 25 October. 3 days later Saudi Arabia's interior minister, Prince Nayef Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, b. 1933, was appointed as the country's new Crown Prince. He was also named prime minister, a position he will hold in addition to his post as interior minister.

In connection with the changes to the Saudi succession I have updated my website Longest reigns, which is a survey of the longest reigns among the reigning monarchs today.

The website will soon be updated once again, as Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah, the Sultan of Kedah, was recently elected by the Council of Rulers to be the next Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia. The Sultan of Kedah will succeed as King on 13 December 2011. The Sultan of Kelantan, Sultan Muhammad V, will at the same time be installed as the next Deputy Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Princess Tatiana of Greece is pregnant

Princess Tatiana of Greece, née Blatnik, wife of Prince Nikolaos of Greece, has confirmed to the Danish magazine Billed-Bladet that she is expecting their first child in the spring of 2012.

Prince Nikolaos is the third child and second son of the former King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie of the Hellenes. The child will become Their Majesties' tenth grandchild, and would have, if the Greek monarchy had still existed, become no. 8 in the line of succession.

Prince Nikolaos and Princess Tatiana were married at the Greek island of Spetses on 25 August 2010.

Postscript 12 March 2012: In the Billed-Bladet article referred to above the readers were told that Princess Tatiana had "posed" her tummy for the camera and had said "thank you" when the journalist offered his congratulations. Even if the pregnancy was never officially announced, I gathered that it would be strange if the princess didn't understand what the journalist was congratulating her on, and that she didn't want the publicity such an official announcement might lead to. However, according to a message by Stephanie at the Scandinavian Royals Message Board today, she has been in contact with the office of the former King of the Hellenes, which informed her that Princess Tatiana is not pregnant. Similar information has also been posted at the Nobiliana Forum. I can only say that I am sorry that I have contributed to passing on such false information. Normally I am rather critical about passing on information from unofficial sources, so I can only hope that I will get back to my normal standard in the future.

Updated on Monday 12 March 2012 at 23:45 (postscript added); Tuesday 13 March 2012 at 08:45 (postscript text slightly modified), last time Wednesday 2 January 2013 at 18:50 (one correction to the postscript).

England weekend October 2011

Last weekend (14-17 October 2011) I made my second trip to England this year. Last time was in April when I for the first time attended the Royalty Weekend in Ticehurst, East Sussex. I also spent one day in London, meeting friends and doing some shopping. It was the first time for a very long time that I visited England without watching at least one football (soccer) game. During the Royalty Weekend my English favourite team, Norwich City, played Swansea City away and lost 0-3, so I guess it didn't matter that much that I focused on royal history instead of travelling to Wales!

Carrow Road, Norwich. City Stand in the background.

Fortunately I got a chance to see football in England again in October because Supporterunionen for Britisk Fotball (SBF) (The Supporters' Union of British Football), which is the umbrella organisation for all the Scandinavian supporters' clubs following various British football teams, invited representatives of the membership clubs to an anniversary trip in connection with the organisation's 25th anniversary.

I was chairman of the Norwich City Supporters' Club of Scandinavia (NCSCS) from 1983 to 1996 and returned to the committee in June this year, now as an ordinary member. As none of the other members of the NCSCS committee were able to represent the supporterts' club that particular weekend, I got the chance instead. I was actually present when the SBF was founded back in 1986, so I guess it was only natural that I joined the other supporters' club representatives for the football weekend.

Marc Tierney ready for a throw-in.

On Saturday 15 October I took the train from London up to Norwich with members of the Capital Canaries, the London-based supporters' club for the Canaries (nick-name of Norwich City). I will not get too much into detail about the football part of the weekend, as I am going to write a piece for our newsletter, The Canary Magazine. But I am happy to tell that my favourites, who won promotion to the Premiership after last season, most deservedly beat Swansea City 3-1! The atmosphere at the stadium was great, and the weather was warm and lovely.
On Sunday the whole SBF group travelled up to Birmingham to watch the Championship game between Birmingham City and Leicester City. The home team won 2-0.

Display of royal biographies at Waterstone's, Piccadilly.

The display included one of the biographies I ended up buying, Young Prince Philip. His Turbulent Early Life by Philip Eade.

On Monday 17 October 2011 I had a few hours to spend in London before heading for Stansted and the flight home to Norway. My shopping round was not so very different from the one I had after the Royalty Weekend in April. I bought a few stamps at the Stanley Gibbons stamps shop at Strand, before visiting the bookstores at Piccadilly - Waterstone's and Hatchard's. I think the latter could do more out of the royal biographies section - the former seems to be more professional regarding how to display news items, but still I spent more time at Hatchard's. One of the reasons might be that one of the employees I have known since the early 1990s was in that day, and I hadn't seen him for quite some time. Always nice with a little chat about royalty!

I bought two biographies which as far as I remember (please correct me if I am wrong) were published after my last visit to London - Nazi Princess. Hitler, Lord Rothermere and Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe by Jim Wilson (Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2011) and Young Prince Philip. His Turbulent Early Life by Philip Eade (London: HarperPress, 2011). The latter was actually bought at Waterstone's, as it was signed by the author. Not sure why if was so important to me, though. It is not supposed to contain that much new information, but the topic interested me nevertheless.

I almost regret that I bought Jim Wilson's book. Now, it must be stressed that I have only read a few chapters of the book, but what I have read so far makes me a bit sceptical. With "access to secret British intelligence files, only derestricted and released to The National Archives in 2005, and a large collection of Princess Stephanie's own papers now held in the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University in California" (cf. the introduction), the book seemed promising, but as always it is important how you make use of the sources and how you present the story.

"Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe" refers to the Vienna-born Stéphanie Richter (1896-1972), who in 1914 married Prince Friedrich Franz of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst (1879-1958). After her divorce in 1920, she became "a close confidante of Hitler, Goering, Himmler and von Ribbentrop" (cf. the front inside flap). Stéphanie was born as the daughter of Ludmilla Kuranda, a Jewish woman from Prague, following - according to the biography - an affair with one Max Wiener. Kuranda, or rather Mrs. Richter, who converted upon marriage converted to Catholism, was married to one Johann "Hans" Richter who was in prison serving a sentence for embezzlement, and who accepted the child as his own after he was released.

One thing is that the author ignores the obvious question of the morganatic status of Prince Friedrich Franz's marriage to Stéphanie Richter. She surely kept the Hohenlohe name following the divorce, and she might have used "her title" all along, but as far as I know the marriage was not deemed dynastic. I find it much worse, though, that the author claims in connection with her marriage to Prince Friedrich Franz and the child that was born into the marriage, Franz Joseph, that the true father of the son was Archduke Franz Salvador, Prince of Tuscany (1866-1939) and son-in-law of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, without giving any source for the paternity. It might be true for all I know, but then the author should have told how the information was reached. There is no footnote or any clue whatsoever in the particular paragraph on page 31. Even more funny, on the very same page the author refers to Stéphanie's son as "illegitimate". No, no, no! Even if he was fathered by another man than his mother's husband, he was born into wedlock and was of course legitimate at birth. Pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant!

Oh well, I will finish the book eventually and might come back with a review later on. My general impression might change, but as of now I am a bit disappointed. I only hope that I will not get similarly disappointed with Philip Eade's biography of the young Prince Philip after having read the first 55 pages! If you have read any of the said biographies, you are of course free to post your thoughts!

After more shopping, I got home to Oslo late Monday evening (17 October). I have travelled a lot recently - among others to Rhodes (Greece), England and Mandal in Southern Norway this weekend - one reason why there has been little time for blogging and website updating. Other reasons are of course family and work commitments etc. I am also going to spend a weekend in Tallinn, Estonia in November, but apart from that I hope to do more blogging from now on, i.e. more frequently than in the last couple of months (I will not make any promises, though!). Besides news items (there was unfortunately no time to write about the Bhutanese Royal Wedding of 13 October or Princess Märtha Louise's 40th birthday celebration in September, but the initiatives to change the Danish Constitution and the British Act of Settlement can easily be commented on later on), I have numerous cemetery visits to write about - could be as many as 30, 40 articles, I think (graves and cemeteries in Norway, Denmark, the United States, Greece, Turkey, Montenegro and the United Kingdom). And from my many travels there are many royal history topics to cover as well!

Postscript 24 October 2011: I forgot to mention yesterday that another biography about Stéphanie von Hohenlohe was published in 2004: Hitler's Spy Princess: The Extraordinary Life of Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe (Stround, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2004, ISBN 978-0750935142). See also Sfluxe.com's article dated 8 December 2010, Sflashback: The Nazi Princess of Pacific Heights.

Postscript 10 November 2011: Tim Allman of the Capital Canaries has mentioned me in his review of the Swansea game (link). Unfortunately he has mixed things up and written that I come from Sweden! Yes, we did talk about Swedish players during the train trip, including Ottosson and Svensson, but we also talked about other Scandinavian football players formerly with Norwich, such as Åge Hareide, today manager of Viking FK, Erik Fuglestad (now at Bryne FK) and Henrik Mortensen (from Denmark).

Postscript 19 December 2011: See Supporterunionen for Britisk Fotball's chairman Trond Fuhre's article about the anniversary trip at www.supporterunionen.no (in Norwegian, but with photo).

Updated on Sunday 23 October 2011 at 22.55 (typo corrected), Monday 24 October 2011 at 08.45 (postscript added), Thursday 10 November 2011 at 23.35 (postscript added), Monday 19 December 2011 at 21.45 (postscript added), last time Friday 23 March 2012 (minor correction).

Wilmersdorf Cemetery, Berlin, Germany, Part III

Part I and part II.

(32) Wilmersdorf Cemetery in Berlin had many war memorials and war graves. Here is a "denkmal" for the victims of WW1.

(33) WW2.

(34) One of the victims, C. v. Callenberg (b. 17 February 1891, d. 26 April 1945).

(35)

(36) WW1 and WW2.

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(38) Another WW2 memorial.

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(40) The Columbarium at Wilmersdorf. As I have mentioned before, I would like to see similar memorials in Norway as well. The graves in Norway take up too much space.

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(48) As I mentioned in part II, I had not made any preparations prior to my visit to the Wilmersdorf Friedhof. Therefore I didn't know of any other graves which could be of interest. The cemetery lists a few honorary graves, which includes Gustav Kemmann, architect of the first subway line in Berlin, the actor Guido Thielscher, the author Fedor von Zobeltitz and the politician Eugen Schiffer.

For photos of the Patzek family grave, a map of the cemetery and for directions, go to part I. For other graves, go to part II.