Photographer Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn turns 103 – salzburg.ORF.at
lifestyle
The Salzburg native, jet setter and photographer “Mamarazza” aka Marianne Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn celebrates her 103rd birthday in Munich on Friday. She lived in Fuschl (Flachgau) for a long time and has portrayed numerous international celebrities and stars over the decades.
Her daughter Yvonne Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn still lives in Salzburg and will be exactly 80 years old on Friday.
More than 60 offspring
The 103-year-old matriarch’s daughter-in-law is Gabriela Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, who lives near Koblenz. She told the German Press Agency: “My mother-in-law is doing very well, except that unfortunately she can no longer walk after being hospitalized because of Corona. Mentally, she’s in top shape.” According to insiders, “Mamarazza’s” birthday is to be celebrated in stages: “Every day others come to her less. She gets more out of that than when everyone is there at the same time,” says the daughter-in-law.
Callas, Dali, Connery, Pavarotti, King Charles
Marianne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, born in Salzburg in 1919, has photographed many international celebrities, such as today’s King Charles III, the star soprano Maria Callas, the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and the James Bond actor Sean Connery. The woman from Salzburg owes her nickname to her colleague Caroline von Monaco, who once joked: “You’re not a paparazzi, you’re a mamarazza.”
descendant of Maria Theresa
Her brother, who was three years younger, was the Salzburg entrepreneur, large landowner and huntsman Fritz Mayr Melnhof, who died in 2020.
Children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren: the jubilarian has more than 60 offspring. In Sayn, a museum also tells the story of her life. “Mamarazza” is a great-great-great-granddaughter of Empress Maria Theresa.