Warning, this article contains spoilers for the Sissi series. If you don’t want to understand anything, don’t read the following!
Last night, W9 aired the first two episodes of Season 2 of Sissi, the German-Austrian series that revisits the story of Austrian Empress Elisabeth Wittelsbach.
In this new season, Franz (Yannick Schumann) and Sissy (Dominic Davenport) take Fanny’s (Paula Kober) daughter Marie (Romy Schroeder) under their wing and welcome her to the Imperial Palace to offer her a better life. .
It must be said that Fanny, a former prostitute who became the emperor’s confidante, promised on the day of Sisi’s execution that she would take care of her daughter after her death. A promise that the Empress of Austria intends to keep, even if her husband and Archduchess Sophie don’t like it.
Marie, who previously lived in poverty, discovers life in the castle, its habits and customs. First of all, he will drive the Imperial couple crazy for hiding the real reasons for their mother’s execution.
If the series depicts the life of Elisabeth de Wittelsbach, we can wonder if Marie is a fictional character or if she really existed.
Did Mary really exist?
Unlike Ernst Marischka’s cinematic saga, the scriptwriters of the Sissy series tried to stay true to the true – much less magical – history of the Empress of Austria. Even if this fiction gives a less romantic picture of Sissy’s journey, the screenwriters still took some leeway for the purposes of the script.
So was Fan’s character, who really existed except for a few details. Indeed, the latter is loosely inspired by Franziska “Fan” Feifalik, the empress’s personal hairdresser and confidante. You see, a true fan has never been a prostitute and never been executed. Very close to the empress, Fanny left the court after thirty years of good and faithful service and only two years before the assassination of Sisi in Geneva on September 10, 1898.
But what about Mary?
If the union between Francis and Sisi produced a daughter named Marie-Valerie, there is nothing in the historical record to indicate that the imperial couple welcomed and took under their wing a child named Marie.
A true fan, on the other hand, would have a baby boy, the fruit of her union with Hugo Feifalik, a humble bank clerk who later became a secretary and then the Empress’s travel steward before rising through the ranks at court. Therefore, we can assume that Marie’s character is an invention that serves the plot of the series.
Source: Allocine
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
