Gloria von Thurn und Taxis

Gloria Gräfin von Schönburg-Glauchau was born on 23 February 1960 in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany. Her father, Joachim, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau, was the nominal head of the Glauchau branch of the German princely House of Schönburg, a mediatised dynasty within the former Holy Roman Empire. Gloria was baptized as an infant and raised in the Catholic faith. == Childhood and adolescence ==

When she was a child, Gloria and her family moved to Africa, living in Togo and Somalia, where her father worked as an author and a journalist. Although they are descendants of German nobility, her family had little wealth as a result of Communism in Germany and Hungary. In 1945 the Soviet government of Saxony seized her family's ancestral homes, castles Wechselburg, Hinterglauchau, Forderglauchau, Rochsburg, Alt-Penig, and Neu-Penig. She moved back to West Germany with her family in 1970 and enrolled at the Konrad-Adenauer-Gymnasium in Meckenheim, later studying at Kloster Wald, a girls' boarding school in a Benedictine convent. As a teenager she worked as a waitress at a ski resort in St Moritz, Switzerland. == Marriage and issue ==

In 1979, at age 19, Gloria met Johannes, Hereditary Prince of Thurn and Taxis, age 53, at a luncheon he hosted at Nürnberger Bratwurst Glöckl in Munich. She began a relationship with him soon thereafter and they married on 31 May 1980 in a Catholic ceremony in Regensburg, Bavaria. At the time of their marriage Johannes was estimated to be worth between $2 and $3 billion. Upon their marriage Gloria became the Hereditary Princess of Thurn and Taxis. When her father-in-law, Karl August, 10th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, died in 1982, her husband became the 11th Prince of Thurn and Taxis. The couple had three children: They have two daughters. • Princess Elisabeth Margarete Maria Anna Beatrix, born 24 March 1982 in Regensburg. • Prince Albert Maria Lamoral Miguel Johannes Gabriel, born 24 June 1983 in Regensburg, who succeeded his father in 1990 as both principal heir at law and nominal head of the former German princely House of Thurn und Taxis according to the traditional rules of the legal affairs committee of the Association of German Nobility. == Later life ==

in 2015 Gloria and her husband were known for their lavish lifestyle, becoming social and fashion icons in the 1980s. She became part of the European jet set and was referred to in the media as the "punk princess" and "Princess TNT". During this time she undertook a spiritual pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in Lourdes, France, emerging as a Roman Catholic activist. After her sister, Maya, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2012, Gloria accompanied her on pilgrimages to Lourdes and Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain. Gloria has become a successful artist, focusing mainly on oil paint and pastel portraits. The Hotel Chelsea asked her to do a series of pastels of its most famous denizens—a gallery show that brought her much acclaim as a painter. She has called herself a "dilettante" and cited her art collection as inspiration for her style of portraiture. In 2015 she had a solo show at the National Exemplar Gallery in New York. She also paints freelance. Bannon suggested her palatial home, Schloss Thurn und Taxis, as a potential site for a school to educate and train right-wing Catholics, but no firm plans have been made. Princess Gloria is a personal friend of Hillary Clinton, and was one of a dozen women to attend her 2016 birthday party. == Controversies ==

Comments on AIDS and Africa In 2001, Gloria sparked significant outrage after making offensive remarks on German television. She claimed that AIDS is widespread in Africa because "blacks like to copulate [schnackseln] a lot." These comments met with widespread criticism, and she expressed similar views in 2008, attributing alleged promiscuity in Africa to the continent's hot climate. Association with right-wing figures Gloria has established connections with several right-wing and conservative personalities, such as former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Cardinal Raymond Burke, positioning herself with conservative Catholic movements. These political alliances sparked controversy, leading to the cancellation of an exhibition of her work at El Museo del Barrio's 50th anniversary gala in Manhattan in 2019. In 2024, she delivered a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels, where she advocated for traditional Catholic values and criticized the religious stance of Pope Francis. In July 2025, she described abortions as “infanticide” in an interview with the right-wing populist broadcaster NiUS. ==Honours==

In accordance with the Weimar Constitution of 1919, German law recognises hereditary titles only as part of surnames. Members of the Thurn and Taxis family include the title as part of their surname in the form Prinz/essin von Thurn und Taxis. (Austrian Imperial and Royal Family) National • Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Germany) • Member of the Decoration of Merit (Bavaria) Foreign • : Knight Grand Officer of the Order of St. Gregory the Great • : Dame of Honour and Devotion of the Order of Saint John == Notable published works ==

• Unsere Umgangsformen. Die Welt der guten Sitten von A-Z - with Princess Alessandra Borghese - (2000). • Gloria: Die Fürstin - Im Gespräch mit Peter Seewald (2005). • Die Fürstin und der Kardinal - with Cardinal Joachim Meisner - (2008). ==References==