Queen Silvia of Sweden
Silvia (born Silvia Renate Sommerlath; 23 December 1943) is Queen of Sweden as the wife of King Carl 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, and Princess Madeleine.
Childhood and parentage
Silvia Renate Sommerlath was born in Heidelberg, Germany on 23 December 1943, the only daughter of Alice (née Soares de Toledo) and Walther Sommerlath. Her father was German and her mother was Brazilian.
She has one older brother: Ralf Sommerlath (born 1929). Her other brothers were Walther Sommerlath, who died in 2020, and Jorg Sommerlath, who died in 2006. The Mother-Child House Jorg Sommerlath in Berlin, operated by Queen Silvia’s World Childhood Foundation, is named after her brother.
She attended high school in Düsseldorf, graduating in 1963; and attended the Munich School of Interpreting from 1965 to 1969, majoring in Spanish.
She has some fluency in Swedish Sign Language, a national sign language used by the deaf community in Sweden. She is a trained interpreter and Swedish is her sixth language. She speaks her native German, her mother’s language of Portuguese, as well as French, Spanish, and English.
Marriage and Family
During the 1972 Summer Olympics, Silvia Sommerlath met Crown Prince Carl Gustaf. At the time, she was leading a marketing campaign for the city of Munich. Sommerlath and other Olympic hostesses wore sky-blue dirndls to promote Bavarian cultural identity. After the death of King Gustaf VI Adolf on 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 in Stockholm Cathedral (“Storkyrkan Cathedral”) in Stockholm. 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 group ABBA performed “Dancing Queen” for the very first time, as a tribute to Sweden’s future queen.
The King and Queen of Sweden have three children and eight grandchildren:
-Crown Princess Victoria, Duchess of Vastergotland (born 14 July 1977), who is married Daniel Westling and has two children
-Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Varmland (born 13 May 1979), who is married to Sofia Hellqvist and has three children
-Princess Madeleine, Duchess of Halsingland and Gastrikland, (born 10 June 1982), who is married to Christopher O'Neill and has three children
In February 2021, Silvia was taken to hospital after she fractured her right wrist in a fall.
Father’s Nazi Links
In July 2002, the Queen became the subject of international curiosity when an article published in the syndicalist newspaper Arbetaren reported that German state archives record that the Queen’s father, Walther Sommerlath, joined the Nazi party’s foreign wing, the NSDAP/AO, in 1934, when he was living in Brazil and working for a German steel company. In December 2010, Queen Silvia wrote a letter of complaint to Jan Scherman, the CEO of TV4, the network that had aired a documentary about her father's alleged Nazi past.
Queen Silvia commissioned a report from World War II expect Erik Norberg, a choice that was criticized 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. In a December 2011 interview for Channel 1 with Sweden's public service broadcaster Sveriges Television, Silvia called the media's handling of the information about her father "character assassination."
Charity Involvement
Queen Silvia established Mentor International in 1994 in collaboration with the World 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 the United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime, the Organization of American States, and the Council of Europe. She is now an honorary board member of Mentor Foundation.
She was also a co-founder of the World Childhood Foundation in 1999, having been inspired by her work as Patron of the first World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children held in Stockholm. She has also been involved in the Global Child Forum, which she helped initiate, as a keynote speaker in several forums.
Her commitment to the work with dementia and 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 initiative research in the area.
She chairs the Royal Wedding Fund, which supports research in sports and athletics for disabled young people and the Queen Silvia Jubilee Fund for research on children and disability.
Queen Silvia holds honorary positions in the Swedish Amateur Athletic Association, the Children's Cancer Foundation of Sweden and Save the Children of Sweden.
Title
19 June 1976 Her Majesty The Queen of Sweden
Religion: Church of Sweden
House: Bernadotte (by marriage)
Honors
National
-Sweden: Member of the Royal Order of the Seraphim in Diamonds
-Sweden: Member of the Royal Family Decoration of King Carl XVI Gustaf, 1st Class
-Sweden: Recipient of the 50th Birthday Badge Medal of King Carl XVI Gustaf
-Sweden: Recipient of the Wedding Medal of Crown Princess Victoria to Daniel Westling
-Sweden: Recipient of the Ruby Jubilee Badge Medal of King Carl XVI Gustaf
-Sweden: Recipient of the 70th Birthday Badge Medal of King Carl XVI Gustaf
-Sweden: Recipient of the Golden Jubilee Badge Medal of King Carl XVI Gustaf
Foreign
-Argentina: Grand Cross of the Order of the Liberator General San Martin
-Austria: Grand Star of the Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria
-Belgium: Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold I
-Brazil: Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross
-Brunei: Member of the Family Order of Laila Utama
-Bulgaria: Grand Cross of the Order of the Balkan Mountains
-Chile: Grand Cross of the Order of Bernardo O'Higgins
-Croatia: Grand Cross of the Grand Order of Queen Jelena
-Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant (3 September 1985), Recipient of the Silver Anniversary Medal of Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik
-Estonia: Member 1st Class of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, Member 1st Class of the Order of the White Star
-Finland: Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the White Rose of Finland, Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland
-France: Grand Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honor, Grand Cross of the Order of Merit
-Germany: Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
-Baden-Wurttemberg: Member of the Decoration of Merit
-Bavaria: Member of the Decoration of Merit
-Greece: Grand Cross of the Order of Honor
-Holy See: Recipient of the Benemerenti Medal
-Hungary: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary
-Iceland: Grand Cross of the Order of the Falcon
-Italy: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
-Japan: Grand Cordon (Paulownia) of the Order of the Precious Crown
-Jordan: Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Renaissance
-Lativa: Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Three Stars, Grand Cross of the Order of Cross of Recognition
-Lithuania: Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great, Grand Cross of the Order of Merit
-Luxembourg: Knight of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau
-Malaysia: Recipient of the Order of the Crown of the Realm
-Mexico: Grand Cross of the Order of the Aztec Eagle
-Netherlands: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands
-Norway: Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav, Recipient of the Silver Jubilee Medal of King Harald V
-Poland: Knight of the Order of the White Eagle
-Portugal: Grand Cross of the Order of Christ, Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry
-Romania: Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania
-Slovenia: Member of the Order for Exceptional Merits
-South Korea: Grand Gwanghwa Medal of the Order of Diplomatic Service Merit
-Spain: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III (16 November 2021)
-Thailand: Dame Grand Cross of the Most Illustrious Order of Chula Chom Klao (2003), Recipient of the Boy Scout Citation Medal (2008), Recipient of the Commemorative Medal on the Occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Accession to the Throne of H.M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej (2006)
-Tunisia: Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit
-Ukraine: Member 1st Class of the Yaroslav the Wise
Awards
-Sweden: Lady Grand Cross of the Social Order of the Amaranth
-Germany: The National German Sustainability Award
-United Arab Emirates: Recipient of the Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Motherhood and Childhood
