Rebels For a Reason
They were brave, a bit "crazy" and made for an easy life. But they chose otherwise. They did not care about conventions and decided to pursue their real happiness
By Milicz Ponds
Joanna Lamparska
1. Katarzyna Sapieha
Let's start with Katarzyna Sapieha. The daughter of the Grand Hetman of the Crown was born in Koźmin in 1718. From an early age, she was considered a person of unbridled temperament.
She was only 14 when her father introduced her husband
He was her cousin and Gulbinski foreman, Michał Antoni Sapieha. The 21-year old groom quickly became the Hunter of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Katarzyna, used this title until death, but after 10 years of marriage, she annulled it due to the dispensation lack of cousin marriage.
She looked favorably, though at the young man
Albert Paweł Żywny, a butler from Prague. Despite the fact that the Sapieha family didn't approve, Katarzyna married quietly her beloved, lived with him in Cieszków and… withdrew from public life for 20 years.
Her life was then like an idyll, which was interrupted by the death of her daughter from her first marriage (it was whispered that no one really knows who the girl's father was).
A temporary withdrawal
After this tragedy, Sapieżyna puts on a Tertiary habit, and exchanges an erotic excess with prayer, missionary activity, and care for peasants. But such a woman could not take long to act again soon...
She reminded the world about herself in 1768
At that time, she supported the Confederation of Bar and, thanks to it, joined Greater Poland in an armed uprising. She corresponded with prominent figures, among others, Bishop Adam Krasiński, who sought support for changes in the courts.
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She died at the age of 61
Seeing no chance of being buried in the family tomb, she previously made a decision that her body should be placed in the church in Cieszków she had funded. Shortly after her death, stories of the White Lady circling around the palace began to appear in the area.
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The inhabitants of the local villages whispered that the duchess was guarding the treasure. Apparently, she buried it out of fear of the Prussian troops that were going this way to Poland back in 1772.
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An additional sensation
Sapieżyna's body remained in a very good condition, perhaps due to natural mummification. To this day, when you go down to the crypt and lift the lid of the coffin, you can easily recognize the details of the habit in which she was buried
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Her body has been looking much worse for several decades, simply too many onlookers wanted to see the famous sinner from Cieszków. The coffin was opened too often….
Sophie HatzfeldMilicz Ponds
2. Sophie von Hatzfeldt-Trachenberg
In 1805, twenty-six years after Catherine's death, another extraordinary lady was born: Sophie von Hatzfeldt-Trachenberg. She grew up in the palace in Żmigród and, like Sapieżyna, married her older cousin, Edmund von Hatzfeldt.
She was 17, he was 24
He was a cold and brutal man, not the man of her dreams. The first pregnancy brought sadness, the baptised daughter died after 5 minutes, and the mother herself fought 18 days for her life. Even though 3 children were born later, the husband spent a fortune on his mistress...
Over time, he deprived Sophie of her livelihood
The countess, however, did not intend to give up and demanded a separation. She was 40 years old when she met Ferdinand Lassall, who was 20 years her junior, in Düsseldorf.
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Lassall came from Wrocław
He was the son of a wealthy Jewish silk merchant. He studied at the University of Wrocław and later in Berlin. As he said about himself, he was already a socialist in 1843.
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In future, he would establish the General Workers' Union
When Sophie's husband filed for divorce and accused his wife of wandering the world with adventurers and adultery, Lassalle decided to defend the dark-haired beauty. The Hatzfelds' case became public property, and soon there was a stormy divorce in a public eye...
Wolff, Marx, and Engels watched her carefully
...admiring the stubbornness of the countess, whose story became a symbol of the class struggle. The world was looking at Sophie, who now was associated with a rebel and a socialist. But she did not mind the opinions. Lassall fought for the Sophie's name with great dedication.
He handled thirty-five lawsuits
Finally, in 1854, she obtained her freedom. From then on, they became inseparable. He, nicknamed the Messiah of the nineteenth century, sought to gather workers into a party and introduce it to parliament.
Sophie supported him in almost every form
She rejected her origins and later became the godmother of the labour movement. In 1868, she headed the Lassall faction after the division of the General German Workers' Union that he had founded.
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Zofia outlived Lassal
She wanted to bury him in Berlin, but his mother did not agree, who confiscated the coffin from the train. She decided to buried him in Wrocław, at the Jewish cemetery. Supposedly, at the funeral, Sophie said to his mother, "... you are the goose who gave birth to the eagle."
3. Maria Maltzan
Now we are entering the 20th century. The third of our heroines did not choose their partners too happily. Maria Maltzan was born in 1909 and spent her childhood in the family palace in Milicz. She showed her character quite quickly.
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Instead of getting married, she decided to study ichthyology
During her studies in Wrocław, she had a fiery affair with a certain divorcee, but her family quickly cut it off. So Maria got married to ... a cabaret artist. During the wedding party, a bit stunned by the pouring liquors, she shot Hitler portrait between the eyes...
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She never joined the NSDAP
And during her subsequent studies, this time in veterinary medicine, she made friends with Hans Hirschel, a Jewish writer. Soon she became involved in the resistance movement and saving Jews.
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She cooperated with the Protestant Swedish commune in Berlin, as many people were transferred to Sweden. She saved about 60 people, often taking them personally and arranging for them false papers.
In 1942, Maria hid Hirschel in her apartment
...inside the special compartment of the couch in the living room. When Hans was forced to sit at home, all his time was either writing or ... Maria. It ended in an affair. And pregnancy, but the child did not survive, soon Maria adopted two girls from a children's camp.
After the war, she married Hans
The love that flourished in the enclosure did not stand the test of time. Two years later they divorced. They came back together after years. In 1972, these two elderly people got married again. The whole story is impressive, isn't it? But this is only a half of her life..
The drama of the war took its toll on her health. She became addicted to drugs and spent some time in an insane asylum, where - as she later recalled - she had to scrub the floors day after day. Then she lived in a Berlin slum. She died in 1997 at the age of 90.
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Three centuries, three women
Each of them is different, and yet their similar fates are intertwined in the Barycz Valley. Beautiful characters are simply born in such beautiful places.
