Ladislaja Harnoncourt

Ladislaja Harnoncourt, née Gräfin von Meran, Freiin von Brandhoven (8 October 1899 – 22 July 1997)[1] was a member of the Austrian Harnoncourt family. She raised seven children, two of them from her husband's first marriage, including the conductor and pioneer of historically informed performance, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and the priest and patron of the arts Philipp Harnoncourt.

Ladislaja Harnoncourt
Born
Ladislaja Johanna Franziska Gräfin von Meran

(1899-10-08)8 October 1899
Schloss Stainz, Styria
Died22 July 1997(1997-07-22) (aged 97)
Graz, Styria, Austria
Children
Parent(s)Franz, Count of Meran

Life

Ladislaja Johanna Franziska Gräfin von Meran, Freiin von Brandhoven, was born in 1899. She was the great-granddaughter of the Habsburg Archduke Johann, the 13th child of Emperor Leopold II, a descendant of various Holy Roman Emperors and other European royalty.[2] Her father was Franz, Count of Meran, who bought Schloss Stainz, a former monastery in Styria, where she was born.[3] As a girl, she was regarded as uneducatable,[4]: 107  and was nicknamed "Die wilde Laja" (The wild Laja).[5] She was a good dancer[5] and singer. She was engaged with a Hungarian baron, who died. She then decided to remain single and work as a nurse.[4]: 107 

Her future husband, Eberhard Harnoncourt (1896–1970), born Graf de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt,[6] was an Austrian engineer working in Berlin. He was a widower with two small children, Alice and Renatus (René).[4]: 106  He thought of Ladislaja as a possible mother for his children, and asked permission from her mother to meet her.[4]: 107  He travelled to Austria for the meeting in October 1928, and they were married on 29 December that year in the bishop's chapel in Graz.[4]: 108  Their son Nikolaus was born in 1929, his brother Philipp two years later. In 1931, her husband's company went bankrupt.[4]: 107  The family moved to Graz where he obtained a post in the state government (Landesregierung) of Styria.[2] Their children Juliana, Karl and Franz were born there.[6][7] The family also spent time in Grundlsee and the Brandhof estate.[7][8]

Nikolaus Harnoncourt became a cellist, conductor and pioneer of historically informed performance, Philipp Harnoncourt was a priest and patron of the arts, Karl Harnoncourt a physician, and Franz Harnoncourt CEO of the warehouse Kastner & Öhler. Nikolaus Harnoncourt wrote a memoir of the family, which his wife Alice published after his death. It covers details of his mother's life.[4]

Ladislaja Harnoncourt died in Graz at age 97.[1]

References
  1. "Ladislaja Johanna Franziska Gräfin de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt". geni.com (in German). 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  2. Millington, Barry (16 June 2016). "Nikolaus Harnoncourt obituary". The Guardian.
  3. Wagner, Matthias (15 May 2021). "Unsere Spielplätze: Stainz" (in German). Styriarte. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  4. Harnoncourt, Nikolaus (2018). Harnoncourt, Alice (ed.). Kriegsende 1918. Meine Familie (in German). Residenz Verlag. pp. 103–112. ISBN 978-3-70-174593-7.
  5. Kübler, Susanne (12 February 2019). "Die Mutter wild, der Onkel ein Nazi". Tages-Anzeoger (in German). Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  6. "Nikolaus Harnoncourt". Munzinger-Archiv (in German). Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  7. "Adel verpflichtet". diesteirerin.at (in German). 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  8. "Nikolaus Harnoncourt ist 75". ORF (in German). 31 March 2004. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
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