Birth name Franziska Schanzkowska. According to the generally accepted version, the entire imperial family was shot on July 17, 1918. According to Anna's version, it was she, Princess Anastasia Nikolaevna, who managed to survive and escape.
Anna Anderson (Anna Anderson) - perhaps the most successful false Anastasia, Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of the executed last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. According to the generally accepted version of the entire imperial family was shot on July 17, 1918. According to Anna's version, it was she, Princess Anastasia Nikolaevna, who managed to survive and escape.
The story began on the night of February 17, 1920, when a young woman tried to throw herself off the Bendlerbrücke bridge in Berlin. The unidentified woman was rescued - a policeman was on duty not far from the scene of the tragedy. At the hospital, where she was taken after a report was made at the police station, she was found to have multiple gunshot scars on her back and a star-shaped scar on the back of her head. The woman was severely malnourished - she weighed only 44 kilograms at a height of 170 centimeters - and she was also in a state of shock and did not appear to be mentally normal. She later said that she had come to Berlin in the hope of finding her aunt, Princess Irene, sister of Tsarina Alexandra, but that she was not recognized or even listened to at the palace. According to 'Anastasia' she attempted suicide because of shame and humiliation.
The young woman was committed to a psychiatric hospital in Dalldorf, where she spent a year and a half. Exact data, and even the name of the patient, could not be established - the 'princess' answered questions inaccurately, and although she understood the questions in Russian, she answered them in some other Slavic language. However, someone later claimed that the patient spoke in perfect Russian
The girl suffered from severe melancholy and could spend whole days in bed. She was often visited in the hospital by various people who had ever had anything to do with the Russian royal court, but the identity of the strange patient could not be unequivocally established. Someone came to the conclusion that this is the Princess Anastasia, someone assured that it is a hundred percent impostor.
In the meantime, the patient was on the mend, but it still did not help the investigation - the stories of her rescue were always different and contradictory. For example, 'Anastasia' once said that she lost consciousness during a shooting and woke up in the house of the soldier who had supposedly saved her. Together with his wife, she arrived in Romania, after which she escaped to Berlin. Another time she told that the soldier's name was Alexander Tchaikovsky, and that he had no wife, but that 'Anastasia' herself had given birth to a son from Tchaikovsky, who must have been about three years old at the time of the story. Alexander, according to the patient, was killed in a street shootout in Bucharest..
It was later discovered that none of the firing squad bore the surname 'Tchaikovsky', and none of the people whom 'Princess' referred to as her rescuers could be found.
After the hospital, 'Anastasia' enjoyed the hospitality of several homes, all of which eventually refused to care for her - partly because of the falsity of her stories, partly because of her bad character. However, whatever the case, all without exception agreed that the manners, behavior and etiquette of the unknown unequivocally gave her a person of high society.
Soon, thanks to the press, actively covering the story of the 'princess', Alexei Volkov, the former valet of Alexandra Feodorovna, arrived in Berlin. After the meeting, Volkov openly announced that he 'could not claim that the Grand Duchess was not in front of him'.
By the way, 'Anastasia' herself continued to be ill - she was suffering from bone tuberculosis, and her health was under great threat. In 1925, she was declared an impostor by Pierre Gilliard, a Swiss who had previously been the tutor of the imperial children. Moreover, Gilliard led his own investigation, tracing the history of the 'princess' from her very appearance in Berlin. In addition to him, several other people conducted the investigation.
In 1928, 'Anastasia' moved to the United States at the invitation of Grand Duchess Xenia Georgievna, but again because of her obnoxious character she did not stay long in the house of the princess and moved to the Garden City Hotel. By the way, it was here that she registered under the name 'Anna Anderson', and later this name was finally fixed for her.
So, Anna Anderson remained in the United States, and from time to time she had to be a patient in psychiatric hospitals. It must be said that the 'last Russian princess' was almost everywhere received warmly - many tried to give her hospitality and help. In turn, Anderson accepted help without much embarrassment.
In 1932 Anderson returned to Germany, where preparations were underway for the trial that would recognize her as Grand Duchess and give her access to the Romanov succession.
In 1968, she returned to the States, and, already being 70 years old, married her longtime admirer Jack Manahan. It is known that by that time her character was already more than obnoxious, but faithful Manahan happily tolerated all the antics of the 'princess'.
At the end of 1983, An Anderson was again in a psychiatric hospital, her condition by that time was very unimportant.
Anna Anderson died on February 12, 1984, her body was cremated, and on a tomb, according to her will, it was written: 'Anastasia Romanova. Anna Anderson.
Experts' opinions on whether Anderson was the emperor's real daughter or a mere impostor remained contradictory. When in 1991 it was decided to exhume the remains of the royal family, the common grave was missing two bodies - one of them just Princess Anastasia. DNA examinations did not show Anderson's belonging to the Russian royal family, but completely coincided with the family Schanzkowska, and according to one version of the woman was Franziska Schanzkowska, a worker of one of the Berlin enterprises.
Thus, the false Anastasia is considered one of the world's most successful impostors, who managed to stay in her role for half a century.
