Mechtilde Lichnowsky

 

Mechtilde Lichnowsky was a German author, playwright, and influential social figure. 

Born Countess Mechtilde von und zu Arco-Zinneberg on March 8, 1879, at Schloss Schönburg, Germany, she became a prominent member of European high society through her marriage to Prince Karl Max Lichnowsky, the German Ambassador to Great Britain. 

Her life was marked by a shift from aristocratic diplomacy to a dedicated career in literature and language criticism. Trapped in Germany in 1939 while visiting family; she was placed under house arrest as an "enemy alien" due to her British citizenship.

Mechtilde returned to London in 1946 following the war and her husband's death in 1945. She died on June 4, 1958, in London.