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Queen Silvia of Sweden

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Silvia
Queen Silvia in 2023
Queen consort of Sweden
Tenure19 June 1976 – present
BornSilvia Renate Sommerlath
(1943-12-23)23 December 1943(age 80)
Heidelberg,Germany
Spouse
​
(m.1976)​
Issue
FatherWalther Sommerlath
MotherAlice Soares de Toledo
SignatureSilvia's signature

Silvia(bornSilvia Renate Sommerlath;23 December 1943) isQueen of Swedenas the wife of KingCarl XVI Gustaf.She has held this title since her marriage to Carl Gustaf in 1976. The king and queen have three children:Crown Princess Victoria,Prince Carl Philip,andPrincess Madeleine.

Childhood and parentage[edit]

Silvia Renate Sommerlath was born inHeidelberg,Germany, on 23 December 1943,[1]the only daughter ofAlice(née Soares de Toledo) andWalther Sommerlath.Her father wasGermanand her mother wasBrazilian.[2]

She has one older brother: Ralf Sommerlath (born 1929). Her other brothers were Walther Sommerlath, who died in 2020, and Jörg Sommerlath, who died in 2006. The Mother-Child House Jörg Sommerlath in Berlin, operated by Queen Silvia's World Childhood Foundation,[3]is named after her brother.[citation needed]

She attended grammar school inDüsseldorf,finishing her Abitur in 1963; and attended the Munich School of Interpreting from 1965 to 1969, majoring inSpanish.[1]

She has some fluency inSwedish Sign Language,a national sign language used by thedeaf communityin Sweden.[4]She is a trained interpreter andSwedishis her sixth language. She speaks her nativeGerman,her mother's language ofPortuguese,as well asFrench,Spanish,andEnglish.[2]

Marriage and family[edit]

Main article:Wedding of Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia Sommerlath

During the1972 Summer Olympics,Silvia Sommerlath met Crown Prince Carl Gustaf. At the time, she was leading a marketing campaign for the city ofMunich.Sommerlath and the other Olympic hostesses wore sky-bluedirndlsto promote Bavarian cultural identity.[5][6][7][8]After the death of KingGustaf VI Adolfon 15 September 1973, Carl XVI Gustaf succeeded to the throne.

He and Silvia announced their engagement on 12 March 1976 and were married three months later, on 19 June 1976 inStockholm Cathedral( "StorkyrkanCathedral ") inStockholm.[9]It was the first marriage of a reigning Swedish monarch since 1797. The wedding was preceded, the evening before, by a Royal Variety Performance, where the Swedish musical groupABBAperformed "Dancing Queen"for the very first time, as a tribute to Sweden's future queen.[10]

The King and Queen of Sweden have three children and eight grandchildren:

In February 2021, Silvia was taken to hospital after she fractured her right wrist in a fall.[11]

Father's Nazi links[edit]

In July 2002, the Queen became the subject of international curiosity when an article published in thesyndicalistnewspaperArbetarenreported that German state archives record that the Queen's father,Walther Sommerlath,joined the Nazi party's foreign wing, theNSDAP/AO,in 1934, when he was living inBraziland working for a German steel company.[12]In December 2010, Queen Silvia wrote a letter of complaint toJan Scherman,the CEO ofTV4,the network that had aired a documentary about her father's alleged Nazi past.[13]

Queen Silvia commissioned a report from World War II expert Erik Norberg, a choice that was criticised due to Norberg having ties to the royal family. In his report, Norberg argued that the Queen's father had in fact helped the owner of the steel-fabrication plant, a Jewish businessperson, escape from Germany by taking over the factory.[14]In a December 2011 interview for Sweden'spublic servicebroadcasterSveriges Television,Silvia called the media's handling of the information about her father "character assassination".[15]

First Lady Michelle Obama and Queen Silvia of Sweden meet in the Yellow Oval Room of the White House.
First LadyMichelle Obamaand Queen Silvia meet in theYellow Oval Roomin 2009.

Charity involvement[edit]

Queen Silvia visits Gustav Adolfi Gümnaasium inTallinn,Estoniain 1992

Queen Silvia establishedMentor Internationalin 1994 in collaboration with theWorld Health Organization.Her vision was to offer mentoring as inspiration, empowerment, and motivation for young people to make healthy life choices and view their futures more positively. Mentor's work has been recognized by theUnited Nations Office on Drugs & Crime,theOrganization of American States,and theCouncil of Europe.She is now an honorary board member ofMentor Foundation.[16]

She was also a co-founder of theWorld Childhood Foundationin 1999, having been inspired by her work as Patron of the first World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children held in Stockholm.[17]She has also been involved in theGlobal Child Forum,which she helped initiate, as a keynote speaker in several forums.[18][19]

Her commitment to the work withdementiaand the care of the elderly at the end of life is also well known and respected. On her initiative, Silviahemmet was established in Stockholm. It works to educate hospital personnel in how to work with people suffering from dementia, and also initiates research in the area.[20]

She chairs the Royal Wedding Fund, which supports research in sports and athletics for disabled young people[21]and the Queen Silvia Jubilee Fund for research on children and disability.[21]

Queen Silvia holds honorary positions in the Swedish Amateur Athletic Association, the Children's Cancer Foundation of Sweden andSave the ChildrenSweden.[21]

Honours and arms[edit]

See also:List of honours of the Swedish Royal Family by country

National[edit]

Styles of
Queen Silvia
Reference styleHer Majesty
Spoken styleYour Majesty

Foreign[edit]

Awards[edit]

Honorary doctorates[edit]

Queen Silvia has been awarded a number of honorary doctorates, most recently for her work on dementia.

References[edit]

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  2. ^abWeinraub, Bernard (15 March 1976)."Swedish King's Fiancee: Silvia Renate Sommerlath".The New York Times.Retrieved10 January2021.
  3. ^"Startpage".Childhood. Archived fromthe originalon 9 February 2012.Retrieved9 February2012.
  4. ^"Essener LVR-Schule zu Gast bei Königin Silvia von Schweden"[Students of an LVR School in Essen visit Queen Silvia of Sweden] (in German). 8 April 2009. Archived fromthe originalon 25 April 2010.Retrieved7 April2010.
  5. ^Eddy, Melissa (28 September 2013)."Dirndl, Dress of Past, Makes a Comeback in Bavaria".The New York Times.Retrieved9 May2020.
  6. ^Gerlach, Franziska (4 September 2015)."Die Macht der Tracht".Süddeutsche Zeitung(in German).Retrieved13 August2020.
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  8. ^Strassmair, Michaela (September 2019)."Typisch Oktoberfest? Darum gehört ein Dirndl eigentlich nicht auf die Wiesn".www.focus.de(in German).Retrieved9 May2020.
  9. ^Kilborn, Peter (20 June 1976)."Swedish Monarch Marries German as 150,000 Turn Out".The New York Times.p. 3.Retrieved26 April2017.
  10. ^ Dancing Queen Royal Swedish Opera by ABBA World Hit Song Track Theatrical Stage Act Videoon YouTube
  11. ^Stacey, Danielle (15 February 2021)."Queen Silvia of Sweden injured after accident at home".Hello!.Retrieved17 February2021.
  12. ^Berlin, Allan Hall in."Swedish queen's family 'made fortune from Jewish factory seized by Nazis'".The Daily Telegraph.Archivedfrom the original on 12 January 2022.Retrieved23 January2017.
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    State visit of Grand-Dukes of Luxembourg in Sweden, gala dinner (15 April 2008)
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External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toQueen Silvia of Sweden.
Silvia Sommerlath
Born:23 December 1943
Swedish royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Louise Mountbatten 		Queen consort of Sweden
1976–present 		Incumbent
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