13: “Mamarazza”, the renowned photographer 

“Mamarazza”, as she was nicknamed by Caroline of Monaco, photographed everyone, her friends and guests, even in the evening after the Salzburg opera festival, when parties continued in Klessheim and Leopoldskron castle or the Hotel “Goldener Hirsch”. 

Just a few days later, the pictures were already developed and placed in her large red photo albums, dated and labelled. She kept the negatives, to this day a few hundred thousand, just as orderly and neatly in card index boxes. 

For a while, Princess Marianne earned her living with photography. She accompanied her friend Foreign Secretary Hans-Dietrich Genscher on political trips, shot cover pictures of Lilli Palmer for the German magazine “Bunte” in Bora Bora or visited Yves Saint Laurent for “Ambiente” magazine in Morocco. 

She finally was persuaded by gallerist Beate Wedekind to have her first solo exhibition in Berlin. Many exhibitions followed, in Salzburg, Vienna, Zurich, Munich, London and New York. Steidl printed the photo book “Mamarazza” in the style of her red photo albums, teNeues published the “Sayn-Wittgenstein Collection” with Andy Warhol and Ira Fürstenberg on the cover, and Polzer printed “SaynerZeit” and “ManniFeste”. “Stars & Sportscars”, by Delius Klasing, was even Motorsports Book of the Year.

On 9 December 2019, her 100th birthday, the still highly elegant princess was celebrated for her many achievements: Grande Dame of the Salzburg Festival, Mamarazza of photography, and of course as the matriarch of a large family, being a mother of 5, grandmother of 20, great-grandmother of 32 and great-great-grandmother of 4. 

Our little prince and princesses will now be escorted to the top floor by our “little lion” Disco and Childe Prince Peter dressed in a green blouse.