Ban Bathtubs, Says Sweden's 'Green King'

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden

THE TELEGRAPH: King Carl XVI Gustaf, once better known as a lothario, describes how he was shocked recently to find himself having to bathe, not shower

The king of Sweden wants to ban all bath-tubs in an effort to save water.

King Carl XVI Gustaf, who in recent years has put past scandals relating to his reputation as a lothario behind him to become better known as a dedicated environmentalist, has given a frank interview to describe his determination to turn the royal palace in Stockholm green.

He also suggested that having given up taking baths himself his people should follow where he has led.

“We should ban all baths, imagine that,” he said when asked about his suggestions for everyday energy saving.

The question arose when he confessed he had recently been forced to run himself a bath when staying somewhere that lacked showers. “That’s when it hit me how much water and energy it used," he said. "I thought ‘I can’t believe I’m having to do this’. I felt quite ashamed.”

The comment about a bath ban appeared to be in jest, but he added: “There’s truth in it though. It’s the small details that have an enormous effect.” » | Lisa Kjellsson | Saturday, November 21, 2015

My comment:

Doesn't this king have more important things to worry about? I would have thought that the Islamisation of his country would be uppermost in his mind. – © Mark

Sweden's Princess Madeleine to Marry British-American Banker

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A London-born banker is set to join the Swedish royal family after the announcement of his engagement to Princess Madeleine.

Christopher O’Neill, 38, met Princess Madeleine while the pair were both living in New York and their engagement was announced on the Swedish royal family’s website.

“Chris proposed to me in New York at the start of October, and we are very happy,” Princess Madeleine said in a video recorded at Drottningholm Palace outside Stockholm and posted online [see below].

The 30-year-old princess is the youngest of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia’s three children and is fourth in line to the throne. » | Barney Henderson | Thursday, October 25, 2012

King Carl XVI Gustaf's 'annus horribilis'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: King Carl XVI Gustaf's 'annus horribilis' started last November with the publication of The Reluctant Monarch, a[n] exposé of his playboy past detailing the sex parties hosted for him and his friends by Mille Markovic, a Serbian gangster.

The book also brought into the open a steamy affair with Camilla Henemark, a Swedish-Nigerian pop singer, who the King was involved with for a year in the late 1990s, with the full knowledge of Queen Silvia, who was powerless to stop it.

"The King sometimes looked like a love-crazed schoolboy, and on one occasion they talked about running away together to an isolated exotic island," Thomas Sjöberg wrote in his book.

Then, on November 24, a documentary aired on Swedish television that claimed that Walter Sommerlath, the German father of Queen Silvia had grown rich on returning to Germany in 1939 by producing armaments in a factory stolen from the Jews, and that he had joined the Nazi Party in the 1930s when the family still lived in Brazil.

These claims conflicted with the account given by Queen Silvia in another documentary, aired at the start of the year. She had claimed that he had not been "politically active", that the factory he owned had produced mainly trains and hair dryers, and that he had joined the Nazi party to save his career. » | Richard Orange | Saturday, October 29, 2011

Related »

Swedish King Braced for Further Allegations about Sex Parties

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Police are investigating the origins of a data stick filled with material from a forthcoming documentary investigating allegations Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf attended sex parties allegedly hosted by a Serbian gangster.

The data stick, which contains material stolen from the hard drive of Nuri Kino, an investigative journalist, was mailed on Monday to Anders Lettström, a childhood friend of the king, with a message saying it came from "some friends", according to Sweden's Expressen newspaper.

Mr Lettström handed the material to Swedish Police on Wednesday.

The 65-year-old King Carl Gustav's reputation was shattered last year following the publication of The Reluctant Monarch, a biography by Swedish journalist Thomas Sjöberg, which alleged that the King had attended sex parties hosted by Serbian gangster Mille Markovic at his underground club in Stockholm almost 40 years ago[.[

The King has never fully denied all of the allegations. » | Richard Orange, Malmö | Saturday, October 29, 2011

Related »

Swedish King Denies Improprieties as Scandal Grows

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf on Monday gave a rare interview in an attempt to quash a swelling scandal, flatly rejecting media reports he had visited strip clubs and even had indirect contact with organised crime.

In a long interview with the TT news agency published late on Monday, Sweden's head of state denied recent reported claims from a former mafia member, Mille Markovic, that he had pictures in his possession showing the king in a sex club in the same shot as two naked women.

"No, it is impossible that they exist," the king insisted, stressing that "it is also difficult to comment on something one has not seen and no one else has seen either."

The royal court has demanded that public broadcaster TV4, which in a report two weeks ago about the alleged pictures said a journalist had seen them, show the shots to prove there is any substance to the claims.

The TV4 report and a new book about another shady figure from Sweden's underworld alleged friends of the king had been willing to pay large sums of money to block the publication of pictures of the monarch in compromising situations.

One of the king's childhood friends, Ander Lettstroem, admitted in a statement last week he had contacted people involved with organised crime, but insisted it was purely his own initiative and had nothing to do with Carl XVI Gustaf. » | Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Swedish Queen's Family 'Made Fortune from Jewish Factory Seized by Nazis'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Sweden's royal family has been rocked by allegations that the father of Queen Silvia made a fortune from a factory seized from Jewish owners in Nazi Germany.

The queen's attempts earlier this year to play down the Nazi past of her father have led to fierce criticism of her in the media now, both in Germany and Sweden. Photo: The Daily Telegraph
Swedish TV4 broadcast a documentary detailing how Walter Sommerlath, a German Nazi Party member, had bought the factory from Efim Wechsler, a Jew.

The transaction was part of the so-called "Ayranisation" of such enterprises according to the Nuremberg Laws which stripped Jews of their rights and property. The factory allegedly made Ack Ack guns for the Luftwaffe and also parts for tanks.

When she married in 1976 the Queen's German father denied he had ever been a member of the Nazi party. That fiction was exposed some years later by a Swedish newspaper which proved he joined the movement in 1934.

Earlier this year Queen Silvia spoke for the first time about it in a TV documentary in which she said he was not "politically active"[.]

"The truth about Queen Silvia's father, which she doesn't want to tell herself or her family, is that he joined Hitler's Nazi party beginning on December 1st, 1934," said Swedish investigative journalist Bosse Schon [sic] [Schön]. >>> Allan Hall in Berlin | Wednesday, December 01, 2010

MAIL ONLINE: Fresh scandal for Swedish royal family after Nazi past of Queen’s father is revealed by TV documentary: Sweden’s royal family - recovering from revelations of the secret affair the king enjoyed with a pop singer - has been thrown into fresh turmoil over the Nazi past of the queen’s father. >>> Allan Hall in Berlin | Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Schweden: Königin Silvia und ihr Nazi-Vater
SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG: Neuer Imageschaden für das schwedische Königshaus: Jüngste Enthüllungen über die Nazi-Vergangenheit ihres Vaters stellen Schwedens Königin Silvia bloß.

Walther Sommerlath, der Vater der schwedischen Königin Silvia, ist immer sehr verschwiegen gewesen, wenn es um seine Vergangenheit ging. Mindestens einmal hat er sogar gelogen: Er sei nie Mitglied der NSDAP gewesen, sagte er im Interview mit einer schwedischen Boulevardzeitung. Das war kurz vor der Hochzeit seiner Tochter mit Carl XVI. Gustaf, und es dauerte fast dreißig Jahre, bis herauskam, dass er eben doch ein Nationalsozialist war.

Geballte PR-Pleite: Kurz nachdem König Carl XVI. Gustav wegen angeblicher Kontakte zum Rotlichtmilieu in die Schlagzeilen geraten war, macht sich seine Frau Silvia mit ihrer Einstellung zur Nazivergangenheit ihres Vaters unbeliebt. Foto: Suedeutsche.de
In Schweden verursachte das damals einen Skandal. Und am Sonntagabend gewann diese alte Geschichte nun erneut an Fahrt. Als der Fernsehsender TV4 berichtete, dass Sommerlath 1938 in Berlin eine Fabrik übernahm, die man im Zuge der "Arisierung" zuvor ihren jüdischen Eigentümern weggenommen hatte. Für Königin Silvia ist diese Entdeckung besonders peinlich, hatte sie doch erst vor einigen Monaten die Vergangenheit des Vaters in einem Interview nach Kräften heruntergespielt.

Hinter den Enthüllungen steht erneut der Historiker Mats Deland, der bereits vor acht Jahren im Archiv Sommerlaths Karte aus der NSDAP-Mitgliederkartei ausgegraben hatte. Sommerlath war am 1. Dezember 1934 der Partei beigetreten, genauer gesagt der Auslandsorganisation in Brasilien, wo die Familie bis zum Umzug nach Berlin 1938 gewohnt hatte.

Als die Nazivergangenheit ihres Vater 2002 bekannt wurde, tat Silvia zunächst das, was der schwedische Hof in heiklen Fragen immer zu tun pflegt: sie schwieg. Erst im vergangenen Frühjahr, einige Monate vor der Hochzeit ihrer Tochter Victoria, rang sie sich schließlich dazu durch, in einem Interview über Walther Sommerlaths NS-Verbindungen zu sprechen. >>> Von Gunnar Herrmann, Stockholm | Dienstag, 29. November 2010

FOTOGALERIE: Königin Silvia von Schweden wird 60 >>>

Swedes in Shock at King Carl Gustaf Sex Scandal
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Sweden has been shocked by revelations about their quietly dignified King.

Five months ago, the Swedish royal family was the toast of Europe. All eyes were trained on Stockholm as the glamorous Crown Princess Victoria wed her long-time boyfriend in a fairy-tale ceremony, and the world's press clamoured for a glimpse of the elegant Swedish royals and their regal guests.

Now the international media is again camped outside the gates of Stockholm's Drottningholm Palace – but this time for far less congratulatory reason.

Revelations last week that the King of Sweden once enjoyed romps in seedy nightclubs owned by shadowy underworld figures have eclipsed the sparkle of July's wedding. King Carl XVI Gustaf, the stern-looking, bespectacled monarch who is honorary chairman of the World Scout Foundation, has found himself thrust uncomfortably in the spotlight following the publication of an unflinching book, Carl XVI Gustaf – Den motvillige monarken (Carl XVI Gustaf – The reluctant monarch) which catalogues his past predilection for wild, alcohol-fuelled orgies and naked jacuzzi parties with models.

The book has caused uproar and dominated the country's media, leading to nationwide soul-searching about the 64-year-old King's role, reputation and right to privacy.

"Strip clubs, illegal clubs, rented ladies who are naked under their fur coats. Women were simply desserts, used as sweets to be served with the coffee," wrote Katrine Kielos in the daily Aftonbladet newspaper.

"The royal family has always been viewed as an august, fabulous family. But these allegations are so grave that our trust in them is seriously damaged," said Jenny Madestam, a political analyst. "The King is not even denying it."

Indeed, the King's bizarre press conference on Thursday – held in a forest after an elk hunt – only served to fan the flames of interest.

"I have spoken with my family and the Queen and we choose to turn the page and move forward because, as I understand, these are things that happened a long time ago," he said – standing in a field, still dressed in his wax jacket and hunting clothes, among a sea of camera crews and reporters.

His handling of the book's publication has shocked some observers.

"Now is the time for the King to be quiet and give no comments. Instead, he says yes to a press conference in the middle of the forest where anything can happen. It is like playing Russian roulette," said Paul Ronge, a PR expert, in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.

"His statement can be interpreted as a confession. It is beneath his dignity to even comment a gossip book about his private life. Now the plug is gone and the papers can print page after page with material from the book.

"For the royal court to handle the issue like kindergarten behaviour, without responsibility is very serious". >>> Harriet Alexander | Saturday, November 06, 2010