Nazi Grenzempfehlung: Egyptian Princess’s 1939 Document
The Nazi Border Document That Belonged to the Wrong Egyptian Princess
I nearly filed this one under the wrong name. When this 1939 German Grenzempfehlung first crossed my desk, I assumed it belonged to Fawzia Fuad, the famous Egyptian princess who became Queen of Iran. I was wrong, and the real story turned out to be about a far more obscure royal whose life is barely documented anywhere.
The Document Actually Belongs to Princess Fawkia Fouad
This Grenzempfehlung, a German border recommendation document, was issued in Paris on July 28, 1939, for “the royal highness, the Princess of Egypt,” referencing her diplomatic passport, number 52, from the royal Egyptian embassy in Paris. That single detail, the passport number and the plain title “Princess of Egypt,” is what eventually led me away from Fawzia and toward her half-sister, Fawkia.
Princess Fawkia (Fawkie) Fouad was born on October 6, 1897, the daughter of Princess Shivakiar Ibrahim, the first wife of King Fuad I of Egypt. Fuad and Shivakiar had two children: a son, Ismail, who died in infancy, and Fawkia herself. That makes Fawkia the half-sister of King Farouk and his four full sisters from their father’s second marriage.
Fawkia married Mahmoud Fakhrib Pasha and had one son, Ahmed. Their palace overlooked the Nile in the Dokki district and today forms part of a building attached to the State Council. She later sold the Dokki palace to her sister, Princess Faeqa, so she could live with her second husband, Fouad Ahmed Sadek, after their return from America in 1950.
She Died Almost Forgotten in a Zurich Hotel
According to Royalstory.blogspot.com, Fawkia spent her final years largely withdrawn from public life at the Hotel Dolder in the hills above Zurich, Switzerland, until her death in 1974 at age 76. President Anwar Sadat personally permitted her burial in Egypt. Because of how private her later life was, no reliable photographs of her are known to survive. My thanks go to FB: @royalstory.page for research support here, since so little has been published about this particular princess.
Why the Famous Princess Fawzia Fuad Kept Pulling My Attention
Fawzia Fuad (1921 to 2013) became the first wife of the future Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1939, when she was only 17 years old. The marriage was arranged with Britain acting as matchmaker, aimed at strengthening ties between Egypt and Iran. Fawzia, educated in Switzerland, met Mohammad Reza only on their wedding day, after the marriage contract had already been signed.
Left: Princess Fawzia Fuad of Egypt portrait, 1936, age 17. Right: Princess Fawzia of Egypt & Shahpour Mohamed Reza Pahlavi of Iran, Kubbeh Palace, Cairo, Egypt, circa 1939.
The wedding took place on March 16, 1939, with the world already sliding toward war. Local newspapers called it “the blessed royal marriage,” and the coverage extended to the groom’s gifts: three pearl necklaces, a diamond ring, a mirror, and a hand-printed Quran, all photographed for public consumption.
Ten Years as Queen, One Daughter, and a Life Magazine Cover
The marriage lasted roughly a decade and produced a single child, Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi (1940 to present). The divorce was officially attributed to the health risks the “Persian climate” posed to the queen. During her years in Iran, Fawzia became internationally recognized, appearing on the cover of Life magazine in September 1942 as “Queen of Iran,” photographed by Cecil Beaton, who described her as strikingly composed, with dark hair and an almost sculptural elegance. Egyptian media held her up as a symbol of women’s advancement, while Western outlets more often reduced her to a fashion-magazine fixture.
Born a Princess, Educated Across Three Languages
The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram announced Fawzia’s birth on November 5, 1921, at the Ras El Tin Palace on Alexandria’s Mediterranean coast. She was the eldest daughter of Sultan Fuad I and his second wife, Nazli Sabri, and studied in Switzerland, becoming fluent in English and French alongside her native Arabic.
An Advocate, Not a Spoiled Princess
Fawzia campaigned for women’s rights both during her marriage and after her divorce, contrary to how Western press often portrayed her. Following the 1952 Egyptian Revolution, the new government seized her personal assets, though Egyptians continued to address her with the title of princess throughout her life. One of Pahlavi’s generals later wrote in his memoirs that she was strikingly shy at official functions, turning red whenever she had to make conversation.
In 1949, Fawzia remarried, this time to Colonel Ismail Chirine, an Egyptian diplomat, and had a son and a daughter with him. She died on July 2, 2013, at age 91.
A Family Marked by Tragedy and Exile
Fawzia’s sisters lived equally dramatic lives. Fathia, the youngest, was killed in 1976, shot six times by her ex-husband. Faika, the second-youngest, married an Egyptian commoner in a civil ceremony in the United States, a match her exiled brother King Farouk initially refused to recognize. Faiza worked with the Egyptian Red Crescent during Farouk’s reign. All of the sisters have since passed away.
What the Grenzempfehlung Actually Tells Collectors
This is a so-called Grenzempfehlung, a German border recommendation document, issued by German ambassador Count Johannes von Welczeck in Paris on July 28, 1939, for the Princess of Egypt. It’s tied to her diplomatic passport, number 52, issued by the royal Egyptian embassy in Paris, and covers travel to and from the French capital. The document carries Welczeck’s original signature, a notable detail given his position in the German Foreign Office under Hitler. The French historian Lucas Delattre once described Welczeck as a “diplomat of the old school,” known in Paris for his courtly manners and fluent French. Wikipedia
A Grenzempfehlung of this kind guaranteed faster, smoother processing at German border crossings, but only in conjunction with a valid passport. Given how little survives on the public record about Princess Fawkia Fouad, this document carries outsized importance for anyone researching diplomatic travel documents of the pre-war period.
If diplomatic travel documents from this era interest you, I’ve also written about the curious case of President Sadat’s diplomatic passport.
Tom Topol | Passport Historian & Author
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