page_title: Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
section_title: Engagement
hierarchical_section_title: Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin / Engagement
caption_attribution_description: English: Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the German Crown Prince
context_page_description: Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was the last German Crown Princess and Crown Princess of Prussia as the wife of German Crown Prince Wilhelm, the son of German Emperor Wilhelm II.
  Cecilie was a daughter of Frederick Francis III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia. She was brought up with simplicity and her early life was peripatetic, spending summers in Mecklenburg and the rest of the year in the south of France. After the death of her father, she traveled every summer between 1898 and 1904 to her mother's native Russia. On 6 June 1905, she married German Crown Prince Wilhelm. The couple had four sons and two daughters. Cecilie, tall and statuesque, became popular in Germany for her sense of style. However, her husband was a womanizer and the marriage was unhappy.
  After the fall of the German monarchy, at the end of World War I, Cecilie and her husband lived mostly apart. During the Weimar Republic and the Nazi period, Cecilie lived a private life mainly at Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam. With the advance of the Soviet troops, she left the Cecilienhof in February 1945, never to return.
context_section_description: During the wedding festivities of her brother Frederick Francis IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in Schwerin in June 1904, the 17-year-old Duchess Cecilie got to know her future husband, Wilhelm, German Crown Prince. Kaiser Wilhelm II had sent his eldest son to the festivities as his personal representative. Taller than most women of her time at 182 centimetres (over 5'11"), Cecilie was as tall as the German Crown Prince. Wilhelm was struck by her great beauty, and her dark hair and eyes. On 4 September 1904, the young couple celebrated their engagement at the Mecklenburg-Schwerin hunting lodge, Gelbensande. The Kaiser as an engagement present had a wooden residence built nearby for the couple. On 5 September the first official photos of the couple were taken.
caption: Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the German Crown Prince. Engagement photograph
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