Grace
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This situation is somewhat similar to that in Philadelphia, where the Majer-Kelly family later lived and where again the emigrant Catholics of German-Irish heritage belonged to the minority. True acceptance was hard to come by. The Catholic element, rooted in her German and Irish backgrounds, and refreshed through her association with Monaco’s devoutly Catholic, Vatican-oriented culture, accompanied Grace Kelly her entire life. It was both her mainstay and her burden, her blessing and her curse. However, that story begins much later.
Grace Kelly’s maternal grandmother, Margaretha Berg, first entered the world on a Sunday, “in the year of our Lord 1870, on July 10 around 9:30 a.m.,” in Heppenheim.12 According to the baptismal register: “On this Sunday, the Heppenheim ‘Liderzweig’ choral society and the ‘Instrumental Society’ gave a major concert to benefit the local beautification society in the restaurant ‘Zum Halben Mond.’”13 On July 15, only five days after Margaretha’s birth, war with neighboring France broke out. According to the “Excerpts from the Baptism Register for 1870 of the Roman Catholic Parish of Heppenheim,” the child was baptized only ten days after her birth, on July 20.14
Margaretha’s birthplace still stands today, House Number 8 on the Great Market (as clearly marked on the house) in the historic center of this quaint village. In 1869, Georg Berg II and his wife Elisabetha purchased this two-storied house, which had been built in the first half of the eighteenth century, and attached a barn. The Great Market, with its well dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is ringed with restored Hessian, timbered houses, all painted white and decorated with red or brown timbers. One of these is the Berg house, while one of the others is the town hall with its bell tower. The Great Market rests on a hill that rises a little above the town. From behind the Berg house, one can see the ruins of the medieval Starkenburg Castle, built around 1065. The scene is as perfect as a postcard.
Margaretha was the daughter of the prospective master saddler, seller of architectural moldings, and wallpaper hanger Georg Berg II. He was born on October 17, 1841, in Erbach, near Heppenheim, and his wife Elisabetha Roehrig was born in Sonderbach, also near Heppenheim, on January 23, 1843. (Today Erbach and Sonderbach, as well as other neighboring villages, are incorporated into Heppenheim.) They were married on July 28, 1868, in Heppenheim, and two days later, Georg Berg opened “a saddle business. He also registered a grocery shop, a brandy tap over the street, an unparalleled wallpaper business, and a salt shop.”15
During the 1870s and 1880s, the Catholic-baptized and educated Margaretha grew up in the house on the Great Market along with her thirteen siblings. She completed her schooling in 1884, when she turned fourteen. Following her oldest brother Georg Nikolaus, Margaretha was the second-born child, and in such a large crowd of fourteen children, individuality was sacrificed in order to remain part of this confined, familial group, where no exclusive place or space existed.
However, the young unmarried Margaretha did not choose to stay in this town of 5,000, where her personal development would have been suffocated, her horizon forever ending at the hilltop ruins of Starkenburg Castle. She broke out of this narrow life in 1890, leaving her Hessian homeland and abandoning her historic roots. At this point, Margaretha was twenty, and she immigrated to America, vast and unimaginably far away.
Two of her thirteen siblings, her brothers Franz and Philipp, decided to follow in her footsteps.16 It is unclear if the three of them made the long trip together or if Margaretha undertook the voyage separate from her brothers. Often, at this time, families changed location or actually emigrated as groups. However, in 1890, Franz was only eleven years old, having been born in February 1879, and Philipp, born in May 1881, had only just turned nine. Therefore, it is likely that Margaretha attached herself to a larger group of emigrants and then left her homeland with the aid of an emigrant agent.
Beginning in the 1870s, emigration from the region was a common occurrence.17 Even in sleepy Heppenheim, there was an emigration agent, who could, in emergencies, aid in the booking of ship passage and the arrangement of arrival details. These agents and ship lines advertised their services publicly in the local newspapers, frequently including a small image of a ship in their logos. Thus, there was a regular tide of legal emigrants who sold off their property and goods to collect enough money to cover the costs of provisions and passage across the Atlantic.
Only several decades later, at the start of the 1930s, did it become customary to leave one’s homeland illegally, vanishing in a proverbial swirl of darkness and fog. This way one could easily leave behind a catastrophic financial situation or personal debts.
A journey in this period—especially from the Old World to the new promised land of America—meant undertaking a trip that lasted several weeks, accompanied only by the most essential goods and the uncertainty of what waited at the end of the voyage. This trip first entailed making one’s way from south Hessian Heppenheim to one of the port cities, traveling up the Rhine River to either the Netherlands or Belgium. Ultimately, one needed to reach a port, such as Rotterdam, in order to catch the transatlantic ships. The large steamers that traveled westward across the ocean usually docked in New York, and from here, the immigrants who did not wish to remain in New York could reach their destinations by train.
In 1890, Margaretha Berg’s destination was Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Besides the Italians, the Germans made up the largest immigrant group to this city, and from this ethnic reality, the Philadelphia neighborhood Germantown drew its name. The neighborhood of East Falls is located south of Germantown, and it, too, was a haven for newly arrived immigrants. In the 1920s and later, the Kelly family made its home here, at 3901 Henry Avenue, a road that directly bordered the University of Pennsylvania.
Margaretha’s parents remained in Heppenheim. They never left, staying there until their deaths. Her mother, Elisabetha Roehrig, died in March 1886 at the age of forty-three. Her father Georg Berg lived into the twentieth century and passed away in August 1908 at the age of sixty-six.
When Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in April 1956, the small birthplace of her grandmother wanted to give a suitable, personalized wedding gift to the couple. The current politically independent mayor, Wilhelm Metzendorf, prepared the present and sent it through the protocol chief of the German foreign office, Dr. Mohr. The gift comprised a heavy book about Heppenheim’s 1,200-year history, illustrated with black-and-white photographs, and an original engraving by Matthaeus Merian from 1645, bound in red leather, decorated with gold leaf, and nestled in a silk slipcase. Today, one can see an accurate reproduction of the book in the municipal archives of the South Hessian county seat on the Bergstrasse.
After presenting the gift to the royal palace on May 2, 1956, Dr. Mohr delivered a written account to the mayor, in which he wrote: “Miss Kelly was delighted by the personalized present. As I found out in a subsequent conversation with Miss Kelly’s parents, she had originally planned to visit Germany and also Heppenheim with her family. Because of the wedding between Miss Grace and Prince Rainier, these plans did not come to pass. She hopes to resume her travel plans next year.”18
Almost exactly two years after the wedding, Margaret Majer-Kelly visited Heppenheim during the last week of February 1958 without her husband. Before her marriage, she had been here once before, in 1914, in the company of her mother, Margaretha Berg. At that time, the visit was brief, with the outbreak of World War I already at hand. For this reason, their visit ended abruptly, since both mother and daughter had to immediately leave Germany and return to America.
What must it have been like for Margaretha Berg, at the age of forty-four, to be back in her German homeland, almost twenty-five years after her emigration? What did she feel standing in front of her birthplace at Great Market 8? This time, in February 1958, there was more time. Grace Kelly’s mother landed at the Frankfurt Rhein-Main airport, where she was greeted by a Heppenheim delegation and “surprised with several bottles of fine wine.”19
“In Heppenheim
, Mrs. Kelly walked around, tracing her ancestor’s footsteps and looking extraordinarily fresh and youthful.”20 She carefully explored her family’s hometown and the outlying areas. From the great hall on the second floor of the town hall, she gazed up at the market square and could see, to the right, the birthplace of her mother Margaretha: the house at the intersection of Muehlgasse and the square. Accompanied at all times by Madame Cornet, the spouse of the then Monegasque press chief, she visited the open-air theater on Kappel Hill and took an excursion up to the ruins of Starkenburg Castle. She dined at the Winzerkeller restaurant and strolled through the old city district. From the old black-and-white photographs, one can see her standing in front of her mother’s birthplace, visiting the town hall, and receiving a bouquet of flowers, often in the company of the Mayor Metzendorf as well.
One resourceful, local journalist found out that during her Germany tour, Margaret Majer-Kelly wore a golden charm bracelet. Each of the eight charms was decorated with jewels, and one of the charms was in the shape of a crown. The charms represented Margaret Kelly’s grandchildren, whose names and birth dates were engraved on the backs. The one with the crown was for Grace Kelly’s firstborn child, her daughter Caroline, born on January 23, 1957. Already by this time, a ninth charm had been ordered, again with a tiny crown. In March, the birth of another grandchild was anticipated. This would be Grace Kelly’s second child, Prince Albert, who was born in Monaco on March 14, 1958.21
In departure, Mrs. Kelly spoke in fluent German, which she modestly and unnecessarily described as ‘housewife German’: “During this visit, it seemed to me as if time stood still, because here one can encounter the Germany which might have existed for my mother in the ‘good, old days.’ I will tell the royal couple that it is worth coming to Germany, specifically here.”22
After a thorough tour of her mother’s birthplace and several additional days in Germany, Margaret Majer-Kelly traveled on to Constance and Immenstaad, to the birthplace of her father, Carl Majer.
On May 26, 1999, twenty-one years later, Prince Albert visited Heppenheim and toured the familial home of his great-grandmother.
Almost seven years before Margaretha Berg’s birth, another young life began. Carl Majer was born on December 11, 1863, in Immenstaad on Lake Constance, and was baptized into the Lutheran church. His parents were Johann Christian Karl Majer and Luise Wilhelmine Mathilde Adam who originally came from Tuebingen, where they were both born in 1837, and married in 1860. The young Majer family lived in Helmsdorf Castle on Lake Constance, which Joahnn Christian Karl Majer had acquired in May 1860 for 25,000 guilders. A wine merchant in Immenstaad and Constance, Johann remained the estate owner of Helmsdorf Castle until 1872, when he was compelled to sell the estate to cover his debts.
Along with his two older siblings, Emil (born in 1861) and Frieda (born in 1862), Carl Majer, grew up here, directly on the lake, several hundred miles southwest of Heppenheim, where his future wife, Margaretha, was born six and a half years later.
Carl also emigrated to America from Germany. In his case, he traveled with his mother Luise. And he, too, stayed permanently in his new country. Carl and his mother followed his father Johann Karl Majer, who had emigrated before them. According to family lore, Father Majer died in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on April 27, 1888. Carl’s mother Luisa died sixteen years later in New York on December 26, 1904.
They eventually met in Philadelphia, the young Margaretha from Heppenheim and the young Carl from Immenstaad. Philadelphia was where more than a few Germans found a new home, albeit a home in which respect for the immigrants from the Old World was not very great. On January 22, 1896, Margaretha and Carl were married in a traditional Lutheran ceremony in St. Paul Lutheran Church in Philadelphia. From this point on, the Majers lived in the northern part of the city in a solidly middle-class neighborhood.
They had three children over the years. The firstborn was son Carl Titus, whose birth on January 24, 1897, almost coincided with the Majers’ wedding anniversary. Two years later, another winter child was born, this time Grace Kelly’s mother, Margaret Katherine Majer. She was born in Philadelphia on December 13, 1898 (in some publications, her birth year is listed as 1899, but this is inaccurate23). The last child, son Bruno Majer, was born at the turn of the century.
Grace Kelly never knew her grandfather, since Carl Majer died in 1922. However, she did know her German grandmother, Margaretha from Heppenheim, well. She was described as “a round, laughing, bouncy little woman,”24 and was always addressed by her Kelly grandchildren as “Grossmutter.” In 1949, Margaretha Berg died at the age of ninety-seven in Philadelphia. Her granddaughter Grace was only twenty years old at the time.
Grace Kelly’s father, John Brendan Kelly, was born on October 4, 1889, in Philadelphia. (His birth date is often given as April 10, 1889, but October 4 is the actual date.25) John was the last and youngest of ten children—six boys and four girls—born to Irish immigrant parents, John Henry Kelly and Mary Ann Costello.
John B. Kelly’s parents both came from County Mayo, Ireland, but they first met each other in America, in Rutland, Vermont. In 1869, one year after both had arrived in the United States, they married in this small New England town. She was only seventeen years old; he was five years older. In order to find work, the Kellys had to move multiple times, and at one point, they lived in Mineville, New York. With the help of one of Mary Ann’s cousins, they finally settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The cornerstone for this family’s future was laid when they moved here.
John B. Kelly’s father, John Henry Kelly, grew up in County Mayo, in northwestern Ireland, during the 1850s and 1860s. As part of the Connaught Province, County Mayo is located several miles from the western Atlantic coast. This landscape is dotted with numerous lakes. In this area, close to Newport, John Henry Kelly was born in 1847. The Kellys worked as farmers, and their farm could be found in Drumilra. Their lives were hard and shaped by extreme poverty. On their struggling farm in Drumilra, they possessed only a house and two outbuildings.
Besides rivalries with, and uprisings against, the British authorities, the 1850s and 1860s were dominated by poor harvests, a dearth of potatoes, and hunger, especially among the Irish farming class. Within a few decades, the population of County Mayo had dropped to one-third of its original size. Above all, these two reasons are what motivated John H. Kelly, the third of four Kelly brothers, to undertake the trip to America in 1868.
John Henry Kelly ultimately sought work in the textile factory owned by the Dobson family, who had emigrated from England. This must have seemed to him an ironic trick of fate. After all, it was because of English authority and persecution that his family had emigrated from Ireland. Here, in Dobson’s factory, Carl Titus and Bruno Majer also worked. They were Margaret’s brothers, and they would eventually become the maternal uncles of young Grace. For the first time, the lives of the German Majers and the Irish Kellys crossed paths.
Margaret Majer and John Kelly initially met in the Philadelphia Athletic and Social Club, a kind of sports club and society located at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and Broad Street. They were both swimmers. She was fourteen. He was twenty-three. They were separated by almost a decade.
Margaret was a lovely girl: blonde with blue eyes and an athletic figure. In the coming years, the energetic, young woman with the expressive face, the wide cheekbones, and the healthy, athletic nature would be featured on the cover of various American periodicals, including The Country Gentleman. After two years of study at Temple University, she received her degree as a sport and swimming instructor and became the first woman to ever be hired at the University of Pennsylvania as a physical education lecturer. Ten years later, she married the successful Olympic athlete, swimmer, and building contractor, John Kelly, and they had four children, which she raised strictly and sternly. Considering her education and her employment as a teacher, this was an unusual life course for a woman during this period, especially for the daughter of an immigrant family.
Margaret Majer was a strong-willed and attractive young woman who knew what she wanted; and she got what she wanted, professionally as well as privately. It was an attitude she passed on to her children, including her daughter, Grace.
Grace Kelly’s son, Prince Albert II of Monaco, recalled his German grandmother: “[I remember her] very well. In fact, I was one of the last of the family to have seen her. She was in a nursing home. So I went there once, before she passed away. But she was an incredible lady, too. Very strong, very sort of no-nonsense with us kids. We visited her mostly in the summer time. She would always welcome us and cook for us, and be there for us, but she’d discipline us, too, so . . .”26
In describing the essential character of her background, Margaret Kelly wrote: “I had a good stiff German background. My parents believed in discipline and so do I—no tyranny or anything like that, but a certain firmness.”27
Similarly, Robert Dornhelm, director and longtime friend of Grace Kelly, described her mother as “a good, typically stern German, orderly, strict, Prussian.”28 And furthermore: “When I met Grace Kelly’s mother, she looked at me and said, ‘Why do you look like that?’ I asked, ‘What do you mean?’ ‘You cannot run around with your hair being so long,’ she said, and then she was gone. Grace’s father was stern as well, in his own way. It would seem she inherited her straight-laced nature from both sides.”29
Peggy, Grace’s older sister, described the discipline of their family life as follows: “We were never allowed to sit with our hands empty. We just knew we were expected to knit. We had to knit and crochet from the time we were three or four years old. We had to because we were German girls . . . it was expected of us, and we had to do it.”30
At first it was very important to Margaret Kelly that she share her heritage with her children, specifically the German language, which had been spoken in the Majer home. She spoke German for the first six years of her life, until she began to learn English. Margaret Majer hoped to pass her beloved mother tongue on to her four children. In the end, she failed in this goal, lacking support from her husband, from society at large, and not insignificantly, from her own protesting children. As the youngest, Lizanne, explained: “We gave her such grief when she tried to teach us German; we’d hide the grammar books. This was around the time of World War II and we’d complain how unpatriotic it was.”31