King Frederick, Queen Louise, and three of their eight adult children, Princesses Thyra and Dagmar and Prince Gustav, were spending a few days in Hamburg on the way home from a holiday in the Riviera. The King, aged 69, was suffering from a mild heart condition and was travelling under the name of Count Kronberg. They were staying in the hotel Hamburger Hof near the Jungfernsteg, now a shopping mall, not far from the Schwiegerstrasse, a more elegant street than the Reeperbahn in St. Pauli, Hamburg’s Red Light District, but devoted to similar pleasures. The brothels in the Schwiegerstrasse were closed in 1922.
After dinner, the king said he would like to take a little stroll. Somewhat later he collapsed on the street. A policeman was called. The king was still able to give the name of his hotel before he lost consciousness. He died in the taxi. He had no identifying papers on him, but the police concluded from his clothes that he was a man of rare distinction. The novelist Gustav Hillard wrote a novel about the event mentioning the salon Chez Madame Rosa and a lady named Maya.
One month after the Titanic disaster had made headlines, the death had a distinctly therapeutic effect on the public.
The Hamburger Hof hoisted a Danish flag at half-mast. Before she left for Copenhagen, Queen Louise issued a statement to the citizens of Hamburg thanking them for the love they had shown her husband.
Source: Die Zeit (May 14)
Eric Koch’s new book, The Golden Years: Five Stories, was launched on Saturday, March 16. The book is available from the 
