The topless duel between Austrian socialites made sizzling summer reading across continents in August of 1892. The alleged kerfuffle was supposedly triggered by a disagreement over floral arrangements for the Viennese International Exhibition of Music and Theater. The two Viennese noblewomen were real as were the event and the flowers. But proof beyond that remains scant.
Whether or not the topless duel occurred is interesting. But more interesting is the wave of newspaper articles and imagery it inspired. Either way, stories swirled around the purported summer time duel of 1892.
Fact — Two Noblewomen Involved In The Fabled Furor
The professed duelists were Viennese Princess Pauline and Russian Countess Kielmansegg. Both were very real.
Born in Vienna, Princess Pauline Metternich (February 25, 1836 – September 28 , 1921) was the granddaughter of Napoleonic-era Austrian statesman, Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich. At 20, she married her mother’s half brother, Prince Richard von Metternich, Austrian ambassador at the court of Napoleon III. As the wife of a diplomat, Princess Pauline was know for her charm and elegance as she traveled in social circles across Europe.
Pauline promoted classical music particularly that of Richard Wagner. Also known as a fashion icon and a tastemaker of her day, she promoted haute couture and designer Charles Frederick Worth.
Ironically, the Met Museum writes that Pauline was:
“…a famously homely yet chic style icon known for her sense of wit; she was said to have referred to herself as “the fashion monkey.”
One would never guess this based on this flattering Winterhalter portrait painted in 1860, long before Photoshop and the reputed topless duel.
Countess Anastasia Kielmansegg-Lebedeff (February 22, 1860 – February 20, 1912) came from a wealthy Russian family in Bessarabia in the Republic of Moldova. Her German husband, Count Erich von Kielmansegg, was the governor of Lower Austria, thus giving her entree into Viennese society.
Fact: The Rivalry Of Princess Pauline vs. Countess Kielmansegg
The Lady’s Realm magazine was published in Britain from 1896 for an audience of upper society women as well as the up-and-coming middle class. Volume IV covered May through October of 1898. It included brief profiles of socialites who were movers and shakers, including Princess Pauline and Countess Kielmansegg.
The editors made no mention of a topless duel between any profiled socialites.
“Of all the grandes dames of Vienna the Princess Pauline Metternich has made herself better known than any other, and, by reason of hr energy, untiring good-nature and charitable works, she has earned herself the name of…a person possessing an undying energy.
The Princess is particularly fond of arranging charitable entertainments, and the years she spent in Paris during the second Empire were made good use of by her, so that, combined with the elegance of the Austrian grande dame, she has all the chic and originality of the Parisienne in her arrangements for the amusement and benefit of others.” (The Lady’s Realm p. 645)
“The Countess Anastasia, who is Russian by birth, is very ambitious, and has a great talent for arranging entertainments of all kinds, and during the mourning of the Princess Paulina she has come more to the front than ever and has been most indefatigable. She is young enough to be the daughter of her rival in good works, and, like her, is possessed of an untiring energy.” (The Lady’s Realm. P. 645)
“The Princess Paulina Metternich has, however, a rival in her works of charity, in the person of the Countess Anastasia Kielmansegg, the wife of the Statthalter of Lower Austria, Count Erich Kielmansegg. The Countess Anastasia, who is Russian by birth, is very ambitious, and has a great talent for arranging entertainments of all kinds, and during the mourning of the Princess Paulina she has come more to the front than ever and has been most indefatigable. She is young enough to be the daughter of her rival in good works, and, like hr, is possessed of untiring energy.
Those who need money for worthy charities must apply to one of the two ladies, each of whom has her following; and it is quite certain that, shortly after the application, a magnificent fete will be arranged, which affords amusement to the great world, brings fresh laurels to the organizer, and a large some of money to the charity. This rivalry has its good side, as it makes each lady doubly anxious to do her best, and it certainly affords amusement to the outside world, and is made good use of by the needy.” (The Lady’s Realm p. 645)
If a topless duel was part of the amusement derived from their rivalry, the Lady’s Realm did not get involved.
Fact: The Event Was Grand With Or Without A Topless Duel
The event that supposedly set the stage for the Topless Duel was the Viennese International Exhibition of Music and Theater of 1892. Inspired by the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London of 1851 and the series of World Fairs that followed, this was a grand affair. The work of great musicians to be honored and promoted included Mozart, Beethoven and Hayden.
María Cáceres-Piñuel writes:
“During the six months of the International Exhibition of Music and Theater in Vienna (from May 7 to October 9, 1892), a lot of concerts were performed inside and outside the music hall of the exhibition. Twelve of those concerts were part of the series of the Historische Concerte. Adler and Albert Ritter von Hermann (1864–95) were the leaders of the commission that convened and organized these concerts.” (Musicologica Austriaca – Journal for Austrian Music Studies (MusAu)
This case study shows that the event was profoundly important.
“… to the development of the pioneering early music movement at the turn of nineteenth century was manifold, rich, and transversal, and that it laid the foundations for the further development of early music research and practices in the twentieth century.”
This was the very significant backdrop for volunteers among the socialites of Vienna to make their mark. Princess Pauline was the Honorary President of the Vienna Musical and Theatrical Exhibition and Countess Kielmansegg was the President of the Ladies’ Committee of the Exhibition.
Fact Or Fiction: News Of The Topless Duel Spread Fast
Is it possible that a personal rivalry between two highly visible people could end in a Topless Duel? Or was the topless duel a metaphor that got out of hand? Or perhaps it was the work of an enemy of one or both parties involved?
Whether based on a kernel of truth or pure fiction, details of the story were repeated in publications around the world.
Started in 1865, The Pall Mall Gazette tackled important issues of the day. It established a reputation with investigative reporter William Stead who wrote about issues including child. The paper was also known for contributions from such notable authors as George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
On August 23, 1892 the Pall Mall Gazette reported:
“No small sensation has been made by the report of a duel between two ladies of the high Austrian nobility. The Princess Pauline Metternich, the Honorary President of the Vienna Musical and Theatrical Exhibition and the Countess Kielmansegg, the wife of the Statthalter of Lower Austria, and President of the Ladies’ Committee of the Exhibition has a fearful quarrel over some arrangements at the Exhibition, The affair was regarded as so serious that it could only be settled by blood.
The ladies traveled to Vaduz, the capital of the little principality of Lichentenstend, on the Swiss frontier, the town which Prince Alois of Lichtenstein some time ago offered to the Pope as a city of refuse in the even of his being obliged to leave the Vatican.
The duel was fought with rapiers. At the third round the Princess was slightly wounded on the nose, and the Countess on the arm. There up the two seconds, Princess Schwarzenberg and Countess Kinsk, advised them to embrace, kiss, and make friends; which accordingly they did.
Their wounds were attended to by Baroness Lubinska, a Polish lady who has studied medicine and obtained a doctor’s degree, whom they had prudently sent for from Warsaw to attend the duel.”
The story was further embellished by the time the story reached the Missoulian in Missoula, Montana on October 5, 1892.
“All the aristocrats of Europe are in a cold sweat of horror, and all plebeian Europe is indulging in a broad smile over the recent performance of two grand dames of Vienna. A duel between two ladies of the highest rank? Shocking! The first though among the nobility was that it was only a sham duel…
It was a real fight, and both were wounded—no hair pulling or plain scratching, but a duel with rapiers—and the ladies are of the creme of the crème.”
The Missoulian reported more specifics regarding the point of contention between the grand dames. No quotes from interviews of witnesses or official statements were included.
“They differed as to the details in preparation, and quarreled over the respective powers in the case. The lie was passed, or what amounts to the same thing or worse among ladies, and both wanted to fight.
They retired to Vaduz, a village of Lichtenstein, and went at it with rapiers. In the third round the princess had her pretty nose slit and the countess got it through her sword arm. There were screams and tears—then repentance. The Baroness Lubinszka, a Polish lady who has a doctor’s degree dressed their wounds and then persuaded them to kiss and make up. Historic names, these. No wonder Europe is astonished.”
Other accounts explained that the Baroness Lubinszka (spellings differ in various accounts) who had battlefield experience persuaded them to fight a topless duel because injuries could become septic if the point of a rapier drove a strip of cloth into a wound.
But The Damage Was Already Done
News of the Topless Duel fought between Austrian noblewomen to resolve a dispute over floral arrangements spread across continents. The story appears in books on dueling and can be found across the Internet today.
It is possible that Princess Pauline Metternich publicly denied that the duel ever took place, although we have no sources to prove that she acknowledged it. Austrian press denounced the story as a fabrication of Italian newspapers that spread across the continent like the great Russian flu of 1889.
It was a time of time of Yellow Journalism. Once the tantalizing story of the topless Duel appeared in the international press, it became as real as the Great Potato Hoax, Tulip Mania, the Great Moon Hoax, the Texas Horned Toad and many others.
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