At a boarding college in Switzerland, she noticed a 15-year-old boy suggest to his 13-year-old girlfriend with a Cartier diamond ring. Another classmate provided a visit to New York City (on his personal jet) to the primary individuals who preferred a publish he had shared on Facebook. And in native pubs, college students competed to see who might spend essentially the most cash, displaying their tabs like trophies.
These are among the experiences that Leonie von Ungern-Sternberg, a 29-year-old German girl, shares on TikTok below the label “Modern Baroness Diaries.” Through her social media account, she makes an attempt to point out that she’s totally different: not all aristocrats are the identical.
Ungern-Sternberg presently lives in Madrid, the place she’s finding out to acquire an MBA from IE Business School. Before starting her graduate diploma, she was already accustomed to Spain — in addition to the Spanish language — as a result of, for a time, throughout her childhood, she lived within the metropolis of Marbella. Her father was in love with southern Spain. She additionally had Latin American nannies.
“My sister’s first language was Spanish. [So], at dinner I needed to translate what she was saying, in order that my mother and father might perceive her.” She additionally speaks German and a few English and Arabic.
Question. You have greater than 93,000 followers on TikTok. What’s the profile of your viewers and what do you provide them?
Answer. My final title is legendary for each good and dangerous causes. I’ve ancestors who did horrible issues. And so, I assumed, “What can I give again?” I made a decision I might debunk what you see in sequence like Bridgerton — which has nothing to do with actuality — and present that I’m a traditional girl. [I’m] a hardworking scholar who grew up with many privileges — [and] not as a result of I belonged to the aristocracy, which suggests nothing lately — however due to the tradition I used to be given.
Knowledge have to be democratized; training ought to by no means be a luxurious. Nearly 70% of my viewers is feminine, principally from the United States. And this may be as a result of folks there are extra divided than ever as a result of political local weather, with many individuals imposing their opinions by platforms like TikTok. People are hungry for context… and that’s what I attempt to present. Context helps open minds.
Q. Which stereotypes in regards to the aristocracy would you say are actual? And that are simply stereotypes or clichés that not correspond to actuality?
A. Almost all European aristocratic households misplaced all the pieces sooner or later in historical past. My mother and father taught me you could lose all the pieces due to a battle, a monetary crash, or no matter. The solely factor they will by no means take from you is what’s in your head. So, the significance that the aristocracy locations on training is actual. Then, there’s the stereotype of the conceited aristocrat… however it relies on the individual. I do know many non-aristocrats who’re conceited, in addition to aristocrats who aren’t.
Q. In what methods do you assume you’re much like some other girl your age? And in what methods are you totally different?
A. I’ve the identical issues in my head as different ladies my age. I’m turning 30 and I need to begin a household; I spend plenty of time excited about what sort of career will enable me to steadiness work and household life. I need to be an impartial girl, as a result of a person also can attempt to take all the pieces from you. I’m not like different ladies my age, in that I grew up surrounded by many various cultures in several international locations.
Q. On your TikTok account, you’ve denounced the social stress that’s positioned on ladies to grow to be moms. You’ve criticized how some males are obsessive about their organic clocks, counting down the hours…
A. Yes! There are males who stress you by telling you when it’s important to have kids. And, generally, they use this to delay ladies’s careers. There are additionally ladies who stress [other women].
I do know many ladies who’ve had infants at 45, and that’s improbable! And, when you don’t need kids, that’s tremendous, too. The downside is that it appears ladies are all the time seen as doing one thing unsuitable: if you wish to wait to have kids, you’re chilly. If you need to have them quickly, you’re not bold sufficient. We’re going to be judged it doesn’t matter what we do. So, the very best factor is to disregard these judgments and forge our personal path ahead.
Q. Do you think about your self to be a feminist? Is feminism a subject that pursuits you?
A. Obviously.
Q. You’ve additionally spoken about what it’s wish to date as an aristocrat and a few prince who tried to seduce you by praising some great benefits of uniting lineages. You ended up blocking him as a result of he was annoying. Have you encountered many “frogs” among the many the Aristocracy?
A. No. I’ve had two boyfriends. Neither one was an aristocrat. That prince merely had very totally different values than mine. Focusing on surnames, on bloodlines… that may have been legitimate 200 years in the past, however not now.
Q. Do you realize any members of the Spanish royal household?
A. No. My social circle right here is made up of my MBA classmates.
Q. And are you conscious of the controversy surrounding the emeritus king’s memoirs? He’s complained about being the one Spaniard who doesn’t obtain a pension after 40 years of service.
A. (Laughs). I hadn’t heard about it; to be sincere, I’m not very interested by these matters.
Q. You stopped posting on TikTok for some time after a follower criticized your relation to Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, often called “the Bloody Baron” or “the God of War.” You then defined who he was and what he had finished… and the video went viral. How did you study your loved ones’s story? Did somebody inform it to you at house?
A. [I heard it] in school. A historical past instructor got here to my desk sooner or later with a e book and stated, “Look, somebody from your loved ones.” I requested my mom about it later. She defined that, certainly, “the Bloody Baron” was a relative of ours.
Q. Is it unusual to see your final title in a textbook?
A. Not actually. I’ve many kinfolk who seem in books. What was unusual – however in a great way – was seeing myself in The New York Times for one thing I had finished: my TikTok diaries. That day, I felt butterflies in my abdomen.
Q. You even have great-grandparents with a really totally different story from that of the Bloody Baron: they had been victims of the Nazis.
A. Yes. When I used to be little, I lived within the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. And I might come house crying [from school] as a result of they’d inform me, “You’re a Nazi since you’re German.” So, my mom informed me the true story:
My maternal great-grandparents had been serving to their Jewish buddies. They made a pact that, if the Nazis got here after them, they’d take their very own lives, relatively than give them info. They lived in a citadel. And, when my great-grandfather noticed the SS officers approaching by the window, he shot my great-grandmother after which killed himself.
My grandfather was 16 years outdated on the time. The Nazis took all the pieces of worth from the home. He fled with a backpack containing solely mementos: a photograph album and a few 500-year-old glasses that held extra sentimental than financial worth. These are the one issues we’ve got left within the household from that point. That’s my blood.
Q. And you say that, afterward, your grandfather was captured…
A. Yes. He turned a prisoner of battle. He managed to flee many instances, however they all the time caught him once more. He survived a number of shootouts whereas attempting to flee. And I do not forget that his physique was riddled with bullet marks. They saved him alive as a result of he spoke 10 languages: Russian, Czech, Polish, Estonian… he studied to grow to be a surgeon.
When the battle ended, he returned to Hamburg with that backpack and rebuilt himself from scratch. I’m very happy with him. That’s the a part of my story I like to recollect… not the half in regards to the Bloody Baron.
Q. Your household has nearly 900 years of documented historical past. In your TikTok diaries, you recount that, in 100 years, all the pieces was taken from them twice: first by the Russians after which by the Nazis.
A. Yes. The Nazis and, earlier than that, the Russians, once they got here to Estonia. They expelled the nobles. My household needed to flee. My grandfather refused to talk Estonian once more till the day he died, as a result of it was too painful for him to recollect the nation he needed to go away.
Q. What’s the strangest query you’ve been requested on TikTok?
A. Probably when folks ask if I need to marry them. I suppose it’s a joke, however I get plenty of requests (laughs).
Q. On TikTok, you’ve spoken about the consuming dysfunction you suffered from that left you in a wheelchair for a 12 months. Does having an viewers imply having a duty?
A. Absolutely. I seen that many women had been asking me what I ate, what workouts I did… and I made a decision to speak about my consuming dysfunction. One lady despatched me a 20-minute video telling me that she had had suicidal ideas and that she hadn’t left her home for 5 years. Another individual wrote to me, saying {that a} pal of hers was going by the identical factor: she requested me how she might assist her.
I made a video attempting to clarify what I might have finished otherwise if I might return in time. I felt that we had opened up an area to share tales: speaking about it helped all of us.
Q. On TikTok, you say that you just began working on the age of 18 and that you just had three jobs on the similar time. What had been they?
A. One was detecting counterfeit Hermès luggage [as a child, her mother would tie her to a chair with scarves from the brand, so that she wouldn’t slouch] and Chanel luggage in a secondhand store. I additionally labored at a start-up, constructing luxurious manufacturers. And, on weekends, I used to be a waitress in a café. It was plenty of enjoyable.
Q. You didn’t have to work. So, why did you do it? And why work as a waitress?
A. When I completed highschool, my mother and father informed me that I needed to earn my very own cash to pay for my research. That’s why I selected these jobs. I feel it’s essential to offer a service to somebody. I would like my kids to study that sooner or later, too.
Q. You’ve additionally labored as a synthetic intelligence marketing consultant. What precisely did you do in that place? And what did you study from that discipline?
A. I analyzed how corporations can work together with their clients in a extra private and human method. During my MBA, we’ve mentioned algorithmic biases resembling, for instance, the discrimination that Amazon practices when hiring ladies, or police racism within the U.S. — that are the moral issues that such highly effective machines pose. The huge downside of the long run is exactly that: how to make sure that AI is used with out bias.
Q. Do you assume that society is conscious of this downside?
A. Absolutely not. It’s a battle between the U.S. and China, with Europe caught within the center, lagging behind in so some ways. The downside Europe faces is the right way to preserve moral requirements, whereas nonetheless remaining aggressive available in the market. China and the U.S. are designing synthetic intelligence in response to their very own pursuits and requirements. We’re caught within the center.
Q. Where do you see your self in 10 years?
A. I don’t know. I don’t think about myself to be an influencer, however I feel my objective is to grow to be a voice for my era.
