Gloria von Thurn und Taxis

Gloria, Dowager Princess of Thurn and Taxis (Mariae Gloria Ferdinanda Joachima Josephine Wilhelmine Huberta; born Countess Gloria von Schönburg-Glauchau, 23 February 1960) is a German socialite, businesswoman, Catholic activist, art collector, and artist. Upon the death of her husband, Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, she took on the management of Schloss St. Emmeram and the enterprises of the House of Thurn and Taxis. She has been an advocate for Traditionalist Catholicism, particularly the continuation of the Tridentine Mass.

Early life and family

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. Her mother, Countess Beatrix Széchenyi de Sárvár-Felsővidék, was a member of the Széchenyi family and a descendant of Count István Széchenyi. Her parents divorced in 1986 and her father married Ursula Zwicker. Gloria is one of five children from her father's two marriages. She has two brothers, Carl-Alban Count von Schönburg-Glauchau (born 1966), formerly head of the family, who renounced his rights after his marriage to Juliet Helene Beechy-Fowler, daughter of Nicholas Beechy-Fowler and Countess Jutta von Pfeil und Klein-Ellguth; and Alexander, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau, a writer and the nominal head of the Schönburg-Glauchau branch of the family, who is married according to the rules of the house to Princess Irina of Hesse, grandniece of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II. One of her sisters was the socialite Countess Maya von Schönburg-Glauchau. Gloria was baptized as an infant and raised in the Catholic faith.