ANNA-ANASTASIA: NOTES ON "FRANZISKA SCHANZKOWSKA"

BY PETER KURTH

Grand Duchess Anastasia (center, 1916) and “Anna Anderson” (1968; 1960)

The truth is a snare: you cannot have it without being caught. You cannot have the truth in such a way that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you. — Søren Kierkegaard

The grave of Anna Anderson-Manahan at Seeon Castle, Klostersee, Oberbayern; Anna Anderson (1965); Anastasia (1911)

Anastasia (1913; 1908) and Anna Anderson (1953; 1949). In 1920, during her incarceration at the Dalldorf Asylum in Berlin, most of Mrs. Anderson’s front teeth were removed; for this reason, she tended to cover her mouth when speaking and photographed. It was noted on examination of the skeletons unearthed at Ekaterinburg in 1991 that the teeth of the Russian imperial family were in bad condition, sharing "a special family dental disease.” Dental records of the imperial family have not been found.

Peterhof (ca. 1906); Spala (1912); Hannover (1938); Tsarskoe Selo (1916)

Tsarskoe Selo (1917); New York City (1929); Crimea (1916); Grand Duchess Tatiana

Anastasia (1914); Anna Anderson (1926); Anastasia (1910); Anna Anderson (1953); Anastasia (1916)

Anastasia (1916, 1915); Anna Anderson (1928)

Anastasia (1915, 1916); Anna Anderson (1976)

Franziska Schanzkowska (left): the only published photograph, reportedly from 1916; as she appeared (center) in the Berliner Nachtausgabe, March 1927; and (right) her face, three times retouched, as submitted in Pierre Gilliard and Konstantin Savitch’s La fausse Anastasie (Paris, Payot, 1929).

Grand Duchess Tatiana, Anastasia’s sister, for whom Mrs. Anderson was first mistaken

Anastasia -- Anna Anderson – Tatiana

Anastasia (1912, 1910) and Anna Anderson (1946, 1929) After operations for bone tuberculosis in 1925, Mrs. Anderson’s left arm was paralyzed at the elbow and invariably held tight against the body.

Anastasia (1910-1912); Anna Anderson (1969)

The Tsarevitch Alexei; Anna Anderson (1949); Anastasia (ca. 1911)

Anastasia (1915, 1913), Anna Anderson (1929)

Anna Anderson (ca. 1950; 1981) and Anastasia (1917)

Anna Anderson and the tsar’s mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna.

For most of the 1920s Mrs. Anderson suffered from tuberculosis of the bones; in 1925-26 (above and below) she weighed less than 85 pounds. A physician in Berlin reported: “There was not an ounce of fat on her body.”

“The height, the form, the color of the hair are exactly hers. … The mouth has changed and coarsened noticeably, and because of the face’s leanness the nose appears to be larger than it was. But … her unforgettable eyes and the look in them have remained exactly the same.” — Tatiana Botkin (1926)

Anastasia (1909); Anna Anderson (1953); Anastasia ( ca. 1905; Anna Anderson )1920). Pictures of the young grand duchess were normally retouched by court photographers, as were all official portraits

Anastasia (1916); Anna Anderson (1920, the first known photograph); Grand Duchess Tatiana

Anastasia on the beach at Livadia—the large bunion (hallux valgus) is visible on her right instep

Anastasia (1916); Empress Maria Feodorovna; “Anna Anderson” (1922, 1968

Tobolsk, Winter 1917-1918; Crimea, 1913-1914; Oberstdorf, 1926

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