He was born at , an hereditary property of the Rußwurm family since 1657. His father, the painter
Ludwig von Gleichen-Rußwurm, was a grandson of the poet,
Friedrich Schiller. His mother, Elisabeth (Baroness von
Thienen-Adlerflycht), died a few weeks after he was born, so he was raised by his grandmother , Schiller's youngest daughter. Due to his family's reverence for his famous ancestor, a writing career was virtually inevitable. However, following the tradition for noble families, he received his primary education at military schools. From 1883 to 1895, he served as an
adjutant, with the rank of lieutenant, for Grand Dukes
Louis IV and
Ernest Louis. In 1895, he married Baroness Sophie von Thienen-Adlerflycht, one of his mother's nieces. They lived at Greifenstein, where the guest book shows an impressive list of literary visitors, including
Heinrich Mann,
Friedrich Lienhard and
Johannes Fastenrath. Shortly after
World War I, he acquired the "Hotel Krone" in
Wasserburg am Bodensee and entered the tourism industry. Although moderately successful, it failed to solve his growing financial problems. His efforts to emulate his great-grandfather, Schiller, had apparently made him mentally as well as financially unstable, leading to an incident that left him with the nickname "Mouse Baron".
The "Mouse Affair" He said that he was sending a two-meter (6.6 ft.) chain, made from 234
cultured pearls, to a jeweler in Munich to be reworked. The package was insured and had an estimated value of . However, when the package arrived, it contained a dead mouse, not the chain. He reported the incident himself. The investigations took four years, until 1929, when charges of fraud were brought against him in
Würzburg. He was accused of deliberately placing a live mouse in the package which, rather than die, was expected to gnaw its way out and simulate a damaged shipment, thereby enabling him to collect on his insurance. He vehemently denied the allegations, while he prepared an insanity defense; citing hallucinations and a "
split personality". He finally claimed that he had placed the chain and mouse in identical cigarette boxes, then became confused and threw the chain into a stream, instead of the dead mouse, as intended. Friends tried to support him, but were concerned about suicidal thoughts he had expressed. Expert testimony from several psychologists was contradictory. The court found him guilty but, in consideration of his age, mental condition and lack of any previous record, limited his punishment to a fine of . In 1933, he was one of eighty-eight writers who signed the "
Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft"; a pledge of loyalty to
Adolf Hitler. After the reintroduction of general
conscription and the beginning of rearmament in 1935, the military authorities decided to enlarge their
proving grounds in
Hammelburg and relocate two nearby villages. As the expansion progressed, he and Sophie were forced to prove their loyalty and leave Greifenstein in 1938. His collection of literary memorabilia was donated to the . The couple settled in Baden-Baden, in a villa overlooking the
Lichtentaler Allee. Once again, his home became a gathering place for famous writers, including
Gerhart Hauptmann,
Otto Flake and
Börries Freiherr von Münchhausen. He died there, largely forgotten and impoverished, just before his eighty-second birthday. He was the last known descendant of Schiller.
Thomas Mann mentions him three times by name in his novel,
Doctor Faustus (1947). == Sources ==