The dreaded "season"

From the Crown Princess to the Queen

Berlin, January 18, 1865

We are fast driving into the “whirlpool” of the carnival which I dread!  Oh the expense of the toilettes – and the fatigue!  Eleven balls await us!!  None over before three o’clock.  I do really think it is most alarming and heartily wish it were all over – then two fetes with trains – and innumerable quantities of small soirees – an concerts, besides the theatre and audiences.  I consider it far worse than the treadmill, it is just as much a punishment to me!  You have no idea what a foreign carnival is.  We have been giving dinners – to be as civil as possible – and some small dances.  But we have to give one huge party of over a thousand invitations, crammed into this small house and our very small reception rooms.  The house steamed for three days after!  In spite of open windows.

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 When Albert and Victoria sent Vicky to Prussia in the winter of 1858, she was to serve as something of a liberal prophet to tame conservative, military-loving Prussia.  Vicky ended up failing in this mission in more ways than one (many of which were beyond her control), but as a brand-new German princess, she had one considerable shortcoming: she loathed the expected devotion to a busy social life during the first few months of the year.

Ironically, it was Albert who led the charge in teaching Vicky that endless parties, balls, teas, formal dinners, and soirees were frivolous gatherings for empty-headed people.  After Albert’s death, Victoria felt that everyone in her family should adhere to her own strict withdrawal from the public and further discouraged Vicky from participating in the social scene.  This preparation for a life as an agent of change, however exciting for Vicky, made her rather unsuitable for her extensive social duties seen as necessary by her Prussian in-laws.

Augusta, Vicky’s mother-in-law and sometimes adversary, adored the Berlin social season and expected her daughter-in-law to keep up her high-energy trips from gathering to gathering.  “Mama is influenced by such fluctuating moods that sometimes when opinions differ it is wiser to pretend to agree so as not to irritate her still further,” Fritz warned his wife of Augusta.  This was a polite way of saying that Augusta may have suffered from bipolar disorder.  Augusta felt that a busy social life was the chief duty of a Prussian Crown Princess regardless of the circumstance. 

Whereas Vicky preferred to spend her time with her charity work, with Fritz, their children, or her studies, Augusta had few such diversions.  She had been separated from Wilhelm (the Emperor and Fritz’s father) for quite some time, giving her plenty of time to devote to her social life.  Augusta held extravagant weekly dinners for upwards of 250 people who were not permitted to move about the room.  Entertainment came from various dull singers that Augusta enjoyed.  She was also fond of frequent luncheons in which court gossip was the topic of conversation.  Vicky was expected to make these events a priority. 

Late hours were also expected.  Dressing even for a typical Sunday dinner was generally completed by 2:00 PM and included full court dress, decorations, and jewels.  Dinner was followed by a night at the theatre, and then a final nighttime visit with the family.  Like her father before her, Vicky was anything but a night owl and would struggle against falling asleep both from exhaustion and extreme boredom. 

Vicky tried to make plausible excuses to avoid these mundane activities.  Around this time of the year, Vicky often caught either the flu or a bad cold.  Wilhelm also kept Vicky and Fritz on a very tight budget, prompting Vicky to make a deep cut to her clothing budget to compensate.  Augusta did not find either reason to be an excuse for missing Vicky’s required social duties.

At one point, Vicky decided to concentrate her efforts on improving medical care in Germany by concentrating on needed care for the war wounded.  She traveled to Homburg during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 to establish a model hospital.  If successful, the approach would be duplicated in Berlin.  Vicky gathered old bed linens from her home and from her mother, using them to bed and bandage the wounded.  She used her own money to fund improvements at the primitive hospital there.  Doctors and patients were pleasantly surprised by Vicky’s knowledge and dedication, and even Fritz had heard about his wife’s efforts at military headquarters in Versailles (this occurred during the Siege of Paris).

Meanwhile, Augusta had been partying on as usual in Berlin.  However, hearing of Vicky’s work in Homburg she planned a visit in October 1870.  Vicky played host for Augusta, joining her daily for dinner and tea.  Augusta departed Homburg without much fuss, and Vicky thought she had been pleased at what she saw there.  But Augusta felt that Vicky’s efforts made her look bad, prompting Wilhelm to send Vicky a dressing down via letter.  Vicky was to return to Berlin immediately to fulfill the social duties expected by a Crown Princess.  Her request to stay in Homburg until her 30^th birthday was refused.

“Morning, noon and night she expects me to be at her beck and call…it ends in my being a sort of slave,” Vicky complained to her mother of Augusta.  Fritz empathized with his wife, but was fearful of angering his mentally unstable mother and urged Vicky to humor her as best she could.  Vicky returned to Berlin, where Augusta stepped up her social schedule.  Her daughter-in-law joined her glumly, seething with rage at how little her assigned “duties” in Berlin helped the war effort more than her work in Homburg.

Vicky’s complaints about the Berlin social season kept up for most of her married life.  In February 1881, she wrote that her in-laws were “never tired – standing, heat, toilettes, talking – nothing seems to knock them up.”  The only time Vicky seemed truly disappointed by the disruption of the season was in 1883, when Wilhelm’s brother Charles died shortly before Vicky’s and Fritz’s silver anniversary, cancelling all festivities. 

It was not until the late 1880s when Vicky finally got some relief from the social scene.  Fritz’s illness, brief reign in 1888, and death all but put an end to Vicky’s required presence at social events.  Augusta died in January 1890.  According to Vicky, her mother-in-law was overdressed in her party finery at her wake.  “You would have thought she was just going to a fete, or a soiree! …Her false hair in ringlets on her brow, the line of the eyebrows and eyelashes carefully painted as in life…an ample tulle veil…flowing and curling about her head and neck and shoulders, hiding her chin…I felt that if she could have seen herself she would have been pleased.” 

Even in death, Augusta seemed to be ready for the season.

(Pictures above: Vicky in her hated court dress and an overfrilled Augusta visiting Victoria.  Photo credits: The First Waltz and gogmsite.com)