Günther von Reibnitz

Günther von Reibnitz
Born	(1894-09-08)8 September 1894 Mistitz, Kingdom of Prussia
Died	2 February 1983(1983-02-02) (aged 88) Breitbrunn am Chiemsee, West Germany
Spouse(s)	Countess Mária Anna Szapáry de Muraszombat, Széchysziget et Szapár
Children	Margarita von Reibnitz Friedrich von Reibnitz Marie Christine, Princess Michael of Kent

Baron Günther Hubertus von Reibnitz (8 September 1894 – 2 February 1983) was a cavalry officer of the German Empire during the First World War. A friend of Hermann Göring, he joined the Nazi Party in 1931 and was a member of the SS during the Second World War.

Yad Vashem has stated that he was planted in the SS to act as a spy for Hermann Göring.

Reibnitz married four times and was the father of Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz, who in 1978 became Princess Michael of Kent on marriage to Prince Michael of Kent, taking the traditional form of title and style. Two of grandchildren Lord Frederick Windsor and Lady Gabriella Windsor are in the line of succession to the British throne.

Life

The son of Freiherr Hans von Reibnitz (1856–1918) by his marriage on 19 February 1887 at Gieraltowitz, Silesia, to Freiin Ida von Eickstedt (1867–1937), Reibnitz was born on 8 September 1894 at Mistitz, Silesia, now Miejsce Odrzańskie, having since become part of Poland. He was educated at the University of Vienna, where he gained the nickname der Steiger, meaning philanderer.

A handsome man, Reibnitz had two passions, sport, especially hunting, and women. During the First World War he served with the German Army's 18th Regiment of Dragoons, an elite unit of the imperial cavalry, and was severely wounded in one leg by a sabre. On 20 September 1918, a few weeks before the end of the War, Reibnitz's father died in Berlin at the age of sixty-three.

Reibnitz married firstly Margherita Schoen (1893–1962), widow of Count Friedrich Ernst von Seherr-Thoss, daughter of Gustav Schoen and Elisabeth Wentzel. Their daughter Margarita was born at Krzanowitz on 18 January 1924. He and his wife were divorced at Breslau on 15 April 1931.

In 1931, Reibnitz joined the Nazi Party, having been influenced to do so by Herman Göring. He was subsequently a member of the Lebensborn programme.

On 15 July 1937, Reibnitz's mother died at Groß-Grauden, Silesia, now Grudynia Wielka in Poland.

As a captain on the army's reserve list, Reibnitz was called up for military service in the Wehrmacht at the outbreak of war in 1939, and he served as an officer in the Nazi storm-troopers, the SS. His SS number was 66010. However, he was not the most loyal of party members. He referred witheringly to the SS commander, Heinrich Himmler, as "the chicken farmer", and during the war joined the Roman Catholic Church and married a member of it without the knowledge of the party. On 17 December 1941, at Breslau, he married Countess Marianne Szapáry von Muraszombath (1911–1998), a daughter of the Austro-Hungarian diplomat Count Friedrich von Szapáry (1869–1935), and on 16 November 1942 their son, Friedrich was born at Breslau. He was followed on 15 January 1945 by their daughter, Marie Christine, who was born near Karlsbad in the Sudetenland, now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, on the estate of her maternal grandmother Countess Hedwig von Szapáry, a daughter of Alfred III, Prince of Windisch-Grätz.

After the war, the Berlin Documents Centre, which had the task of collecting evidence for the Nuremberg Trials of war criminals, built up a dossier on Reibnitz reported to be four inches thick, but no action was taken against him. The family fled Germany and emigrated to Mozambique, where Reibnitz became a farmer of citrus fruit. He and his wife split up, when his wife migrated onwards to Sydney, Australia, taking the two children with her. After a divorce, on 12 May 1950 at Johannesburg, Reibnitz married thirdly Esther Schütte (born 1909), the daughter of Afrikaner furnishing millionaire Karl Schütte. That marriage also failed, ending in a divorce granted at Pretoria on 12 July 1956, and on 15 December 1956 at Umtali, Southern Rhodesia, he married fourthly Rosemarie Kramer (1907–1999), the daughter of Aloys Carl Kramer, and the widow of Gustav von Buddenbrock, called in some sources Baroness Rosemarie von Buddenbrock.

On 14 September 1947 Reibnitz's daughter Margarita married Charles Jacques Francisco at Sharon, Connecticut, United States.

On 30 June 1978, Reibnitz attended the marriage of his daughter Marie Christine to Prince Michael of Kent, in a civil ceremony in Vienna, flying out from Mozambique. He thus became the grandfather of Lord Frederick Windsor (born 1979) and Lady Gabriella Windsor (born 1981). However, the marriage led to considerable public interest in his wartime career, details of which were made public for the first time. Experts on the SS at Yad Vashem, the Jerusalem organization which documents the Nazis, revealed that in their view Reibnitz was planted in the SS as a spy acting for Göring.

On 30 June 1979, Reibnitz's only son, Friedrich, married secondly at Sydney Helen Rodda Williams, the daughter of Professor Sir Bruce Rodda Williams, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney.

Reibnitz died on 2 February 1983 at Breitbrunn am Chiemsee, Bavaria. His widow, who had been born in Bavaria at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, died on 30 November 1999.