Diary entry about Manfred von Richthofens memorial service May 2nd 1918

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Since Manfred von Richthofen crashed and died on in an area controlled by troops from the British empire and also was buried by them. The german authorities held a big Memorial service for him in Berlin on May 2nd 1918 apart from the family several important people were present including the empress Augusta Victoria and some of her entourage. i found a little account of it in a published diary of the Princess Blücher who was an english lady Evelyn Stapleton-Bretherton married to a german prince Blücher
On May 3rd 1818 she met one of the empress ladies in waiting (Mistress of the Robes) a Countess Therese Brockdorf (1846-1924) who had been present at the Memorial service.Princess Blücher gives the following account:





citation from "An english wife in Berlin"

Berlin, May 3, 1918. — This afternoon, among my
many farewell calls before leaving for the country, I went
to say good-bye to Countess Brockdorff, the dear old
Hofdame of the Empress. She is in fact a typical one,
and, as they say, manages the Empress in quite the his-
toric manner of the Hofdamen of former times, not fear-
ing to tell Her Majesty home-truths, and not permitting
her to be too ultra-Prussian, or anti-Catholic and narrow-
minded in her ideas, as she is inclined to be more and
more each day.

The Countess is very broad-minded, and was most
sympathetic about my anxiety concerning my brothers,
etc She had just returned from the memorial service
for Herr von Richthofen, the gallant flyer, and men-
tioned how sad it was to see the grief of the poor parents.
All Berlin had assembled to do honour to the dead hero,
but this seemed little compensation to his mother for the
loss of her son. "





http://archive.org/stream/englishwif...ciala_djvu.txt


Anna-Karin S