22nd February 1936
Dear Madeleine 1

Next: Dear Madeleine 2

22nd February 1936

Leutstetten to 27 Queen Square, Bath

Dear Madeleine!

Many thanks for your nice post-card. I am quite delighted. Of course I shall be your Valentine, but tell me first what it means. Suppose it means that I am to be your maid, I would like it, only you are not to be cross any day of the year. Shall you be able to be always kind and smiling? I am not I must confess. I am sad there are no more balls and parties because we may not dance till Easter. I wonder if one may dance in England the whole year round? We Catholics may not dance in Advent that is four weeks before Xmas till the 6th of January. Then is Carnival till Shrove Tuesday. There are always balls and parties during Carnival. After that we may not dance till Easter. It is much better not to be allowed to dance the whole year round because then I am much keener about it. People tell me I was a great success, but I wonder if it is really true, because I am not able to dance properly as you may have noticed in Middelkerke. But maybe they liked the awful nonsense I was talking. The other day I had a marvellous time. I was invited for lunch in Munich. There were about thirty people. And at four o’clock we went to see a film called “The Road to Paradies”. It is a rather stupid film, touching, about a little boy and his dog and his friend. We only made nonsense and talked and laughed and when we came out of it, resolved to go to a café. We were only 10 persons, 5 boys, 5 girls. So we went in search of one, talking all singing and laughing. And when we found a café, it was quite empty and we drank tea and made the tea-pots stand in one line, as if they were soldiers, and the servants were shocked. We did not mind it though. And we went home, as we did in Middelkerke, arm in arm, and saying: right-left, right-left. It was huge fun.

Now I must tell you I try to be useful. Muck, Deidi & I are having sewing lessons. Until now we only leant how to draw and cut a blouse. We go to Munich twice a week and have to work for three hours. Maybe I am going to be a good Valentine yet “cut out for house-keeping”.

We are all very sorry because out Fraulein died. We all loved her and she was here for nine years. She had the flu and heart weakness, and was very old besides.

We had snow and went skiing, but only for three days because the snow melted so soon. Yesterday it snowed again but today it is warm & raining and it melted away again. I never saw such an ugly, warm winter here. I love snow and ice and a very hot summer. But I can’t stand rain and wind & mist. Ten days ago we went to Garmisch with Ludwig and some friends and we came down the Kreuzeck, a marvellous mountain for skiing because there is a railway going up. It is rather high and Muck and I needed 1 hour & 20 minutes to come down. It was the second day and I was skiing and although I did not break any bone, I was very stiff the next day and could hardly move.

Much love to you and Mary

​

Loll

[Princess Eleonore Maria]

Schloß Leutstetten

Leutstetten Castle is located in Leutstetten, not far from Starnberg, on a hill above the Leutstettener Moos. The Renaissance -style complex includes a small, fenced-in park. The castle and park are not open to the public.

Hans Urmiller , a member of a Bavarian patrician family, ducal councillor and chamberlain of Duke Albert V, had the castle built around 1552.

In 1833, Ludwig, Prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein, came into possession of the castle. In 1850, he passed it on to his son-in-law, Hugo, Count Waldbott of Bassenheim. In 1864, Max August, Baron von Welden, acquired it, and in 1875, he sold it to Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, later King Ludwig III.

Ludwig III expanded the farm belonging to the castle into a model estate. By 1898 he had a land consolidation carried out in order to consolidate the previously scattered holdings. He acquired further land, such as the lower mill in the Würmtal in 1890, the Rieden estate in 1904 and the Petersbrunn estate and bath in 1909. In 1915 he brought eight mares from the estate of Nádasdy Castle in Sárvár (Hungary) and built up a horse breeding farm, from which today's Isarland stud farm emerged.

After Ludwig III died in 1921, Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria inherited Leutstetten. From there he maintained many different contacts with prominent figures of his time. From 1936 to 1938 he had the castle extended laterally according to plans by Carl Sattler. At the start of the Second World War, the National Socialists drove him into exile at Nádasdy Castle. Leutstetten Castle was confiscated and used by the NSDAP functionary Christian Weber, who was responsible for the SS cavalry, among other things, and was known for enriching himself with confiscated goods and maintaining a baroque lifestyle. Towards the end of the war, German refugees from the combat zone on the Saar were housed in the castle.

After the end of the war in 1945, the castle was temporarily used as accommodation for people made homeless by the chaos of war. Among them was the sculptor Arno Breker, who had to leave his studios in Wriezen and Jäckelsbruch in the Oderbruch because of the approach of the Red Army.

Leutstetten Castle was returned to the House of Wittelsbach and has remained in the family's possession ever since. Rupprecht of Bavaria returned here from exile in Florence. Ludwig Karl Maria of Bavaria brought the breeding horses from Nádasdy Castle to Leutstetten and to the Isarland Stud while fleeing from the Red Army. He lived in the castle until his death in 2008. After the death of his widow Irmingard, the castle has belonged to her son Luitpold Prince of Bavaria since 2010 .

Source: Wikipedia

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D = 'Diedi' (Princess Maria Elisabeth, 1914 - 2011)

M = 'Muck' (Princess Adelgunde Maria, 1917 - 2004)

L = 'Loll' (Princess Eleonore Maria, 1918 - 2009)

B = 'Baby' (Princess Dorothea Therese, 1920 - 2015)

22.02.1936 L, 28.08.1936 L, 14.09.1936 D, 17.09.1936 L, 17.10.1936 B, 07.11.1936 L, 14.11.1936 B, 04.12.1936 M, 10.12.1936 D, 03.01.1937 L, 03.01.1937 D, 22.01.1937 B, 27.01.1937 D, 03.02.1937 L, 16.03.1937 D, 26.03.1937 B, 11.04.1937 L, 06.05.1937 L, 14.05.1937 B, 09.06.1937 D, 02.07.1937 L, 14.07.1937 D, 19.07.1937 B, 07.08.1937 L, 02.09.1937 L, 01.10.1937 L, 08.10.1937 L, 11.10.1937 L, 17.10.1937 L, 28.10.1937 L, 02.11.1937 D, 20.11.1937 L, 27.11.1937 L, 31.12.1937 L, 27.01.1938 B, 02.02.1938 L, 20.02.1938 L, 26.03.1938 L, 15.04.1938 L, 20.05.1938 L, 27.05.1938 B, 04.06.1938 L, 12.06.1938 L, 24.07.1938 L, 12.08.1938 L, 14.08.1938 M, 30.08.1938 L, 18.09.1938 L, 03.10.1938 L, 18.10.1938 L, 28.12.1938 L, 26.01.1939 L, 14.02.1939 L, 14.03.1939 L, 05.04.1939 L, 17.04.1939 L, 20.07.1939 L, 27.11.1939 L, 03.01.1940 L, 19.03.1940 L