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| spouse = John Eacott Manahan
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'''Anastasia Manahan''', usually known as '''Anna Anderson''' or more recently '''Franziska Schanzkowska'''<ref name="movie" | ''Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna''.1986.</ref> ([[Circa|c.]] [[1900]]—[[4 February]] [[1984]]), was the best known of several women who claimed to be [[Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia|Grand Duchess Anastasia]], the youngest daughter of Tsar [[Nicholas II]] and [[Alexandra Fyodorovna (Alix of Hesse)|Empress Alexandra]], the last monarchs of [[Imperial Russia]]. The Grand Duchess '''Anastasia''' was born on [[June 5th]], [[1901]] and is presumed to have been executed with her family on [[July 16]], [[1918]] by Bolshevik Secret Police.
Anderson's body was cremated upon her death in 1984. Following Anderson's death, [[DNA test]]s were performed comparing Anderson's [[DNA]] to the known bloodline of Grand Duchess Anastasia. The DNA tests very strongly suggest she was not related to the Russian Royal Family. Regardless of who she was, both identifications remain controversial. Anderson's supporters question the validity of Anderson's DNA testing and its results, while her opponents have undoubtedly accepted them as the final word.
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Anderson's first claim to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia occurred after her failed attempt at suicide in [[Berlin]] in 1920, although it was not until 1922 her claim became world famous. Later, she explained that she had gone by train and walked to Berlin to seek out her "aunt," [[Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine|Princess Irene]]. Once she reached the palace, she feared that no one would recognize her, or worse, that they would discover she had borne a child out of wedlock. In shame, she attempted to take her own life by jumping off a bridge into the cold water of the [[Landwehr]] Canal. [[Image:Anna1922berlin.jpg|left|thumb|150px|'Fräulein Unbekannt' in 1922.]]
She was rescued by a passing official and became a ward of the state as a patient in a mental hospital in [[Dalldorf]]. The young woman was covered, according to her doctors at the asylum with
==Controversy==
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In 1925, Anderson developed an infection in her arm and was again placed in a hospital. Sick and near death, she lost a lot of weight. It was during this time that [[Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia]], the younger sister of Tsar Nicholas II and Anastasia’s aunt, who had survived the Revolution and settled in Denmark, came to Berlin to see the woman who claimed to be her niece. She spent several days with the patient. After some hesitation, she, along with former Imperial tutor Pierre Gilliard, denounced the young woman in the hospital as a fraud, saying that she was “not who she believes she is.” [[Image:Anastasia&Olga.JPG|left|thumb|150px|Grand Duchess Olga with the young Anastasia]]
Olga’s original statement was, “My reason cannot grasp it, but my heart tells me it is she.”{{cn}}
According to Dr. Rudnev (the doctor treating Anderson), Gilliard referred to the sick young woman as “Her Imperial Highness” and said that he could not say as “a fact” that the woman in the hospital was not the Grand Duchess. Olga and Gilliard themselves later declared they had known instantly that she was a fraud, “a sad deranged creature”{{cn}}. Yet in many letters written by Olga to Anderson before the denunciation, Olga declared, in reference to the Royal Family, “we shall not abandon you
Other people who knew the young Anastasia quite well, like the Grand Duchess’s childhood nurse Alexandra (Shura) Tegleva and Empress Alexandra’s close friend [[Lili Dehn]], definitely identified Anderson as Anastasia.
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Certain people (in this case, Captain Felix Dassel) would question her, having trick questions such as “The billiard table was on the second floor” and Anna would reply, “You remember nothing. Billiard was on the first floor.”
One time, Faith Lavington's sister had sent her an article clipped from the New York Times, headlined "First Uncensored Photos from Soviet Russia", depicting various rooms from the Tsar's palaces at Tsarskoe Selo and Livadia. Trying to test Anna, she cut off every trace of caption to see if Anna would recognize it. When she was shown the pictures, she turned "very red" and declared, "But this is my Papa's bathroom!"{{cn}}
At around the time when Anna was suffering from a severe illness, Anna recalled a visit by Anastasia’s uncle, [[Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine]] (Alexandra’s brother), to Russia in 1916 during World War I, which would have amounted to [[treason]]. There has been continued arguments from many sides regarding the issue of the Grand Duke's supposed trip. (See [http://www.kingandwilson.com/ErnstLudwig1916/ Ernst Ludwig]) for more information.
=== Ernst Ludwig and Franziska Schanzkowska ===
Ernst Ludwig hired a private investigator to investigate her claims. It was suggested that she was in fact a missing Polish factory worker, Franziska Schanzkowska (in Polish transcription: Franciszka Szanckowska).
To see if this story was true, Ambassador Zahle and Anderson supporter [[Harriet von Rathlef]] set up a meeting between Anderson and Franziska Schanzkowska's brother Felix. When Felix saw her from a distance, he declared, "That is my sister Franziska." At the end of the day, when asked to sign an affadavit, he declined. "I will not sign it. That is definitely not my sister." {{cn}}
Protocols from Dalldorf show that she spoke Russian with the nurses. Nurse Erna Buchholz stated that she "spoke Russian like a native." Later, she refused to speak Russian, and although she clearly understood it, she would only respond in German. She explained her failure to speak Russian by saying that she was unwilling to use the language spoken by the people who murdered her family, as they were not allowed to speak any other language in the Ipatiev House. She did, however, overcome her fear of speaking Russian in the late 30's, and spoke it fluently with Professor Rudnev and her lawyer's assistant.
Also, Anna did not have [[hemophelia]] and Anastasia, her grandmother, the tzarina and her brother and sisters have (Hemophelia is carried on the X chromosome, so all the children would have it).<ref name="movie"/>
=== Inheritance dispute, 1938-1970 ===
In 1938, Anderson's lawyer initiated a suit in German courts to claim an inheritance which was handed out to relatives of Empress Alexandra who declared all the Imperial family to be dead. Anderson’s lawyers declared that Grand Duchess Anastasia was still alive. Her supporters fought valiantly for her claim. Her opponents fought just as hard, however, to prove she was, in reality, the missing Polish factory worker, Franziska Schanzkowska. The case dragged out until 1970, when the court determined that she had not proven herself to be the Grand Duchess, nor had the identity been disproven. Also proven was the statement, "The death of Tzarina Anastasia Romanov cannot be proven." <refname= "anna" | [http://www.peterkurth.com/ANNA-ANASTASIA%20NOTES%20ON%20FRANZISKA%20SCHANZKOWSKA.htm]. Written by Peter Kurth in [[2005]].</ref>
== Marriage and death ==
After moving to the [[United States]] in 1927, Anderson lived for several months on [[Long Island]] with Mrs. William B. Leeds (born [[Princess Xenia Georgievna Romanova of Russia]]), a daughter of [[Grand Duke George Mihailovich of Russia]] and [[Princess Maria Georgievna of Greece and Denmark]]. When she later came to live in the Garden City Hotel on Long Island, she booked in as Mrs. Eugene Anderson to avoid the press.
From 1947 to 1968 she lived in Bad Liebenzell-Unterlengenhardt, a small village in the [[Black Forest]] near Stuttgart.
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== DNA tests ==
In 1991, the bodies of the royal family were exhumed, and it was discovered that the bodies of [[Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia|Alexei]], and one of his sisters, were not in the grave.
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It was later discovered that indeed there was 'Anastasia Manahan' tissue in the hospital. Anderson’s DNA was compared with those of the Romanovs, at the suggestion of Marina Botkin Schweitzer, the daughter of Gleb Botkin. "At the time that they identified the bodies of the Imperial Family, I thought we should do the same for the Grand Duchess," she said.
Anderson’s DNA sample, however, did not match that of the Duke of Edinburgh or that of the bones, meaning that if the tissue sample being tested belonged to Anderson, she could not have been Anastasia. At the press conference, Dr. Peter Gill stated, “If one accepts that this sample is from Anna Anderson, then it is almost impossible that she could have been Anastasia.” When asked if the mystery was now over, Gill replied, "That is not for me to say." {{cn}}
There were also several strands of hair tested which produced the same mtDNA sequence as the tissue. The hair came from a woman who claimed she found the hair at a used bookstore in Charlottesville, Virginia. Inside a book which belonged to Jack Manahan, there was an envelope which read "Anastasia's hair". Inside were several strands of hair which she gave to Anderson biographer Peter Kurth. He in turn gave them to a BBC reporter who in turn transferred them to Aldermaston for DNA testing.
Some of the differences in the mtDNA sequence (NOVA):<p>
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== Supporters cling to hope ==
The DNA tests came as an unexpected shock to those involved with Anastasia Manahan. Few who had known her were willing to accept that this woman was a Polish girl who had been working in the factories and then miraculously became a Grand Duchess.
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They also claim it was not coincidence that she had distinctive birthmarks on her body that Anastasia had as well.
According to early reports, Schanzkowska was reported missing on March 9, 1920, while Anderson had appeared on February 17. Franziska was 5'5", while Anderson was only 5'2". According to Franziska's mother, she wore a shoe size 39, while Anderson wore a size 36. {{cn}}
According to Franziska's medical records, she had not been injured in a grenade explosion (King and Wilson), and was certified medically insane. Not a single doctor who had examined Anna Anderson had found her to be insane.
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:''They don’t explain her intimate acquaintance with the history, customs and lore of the Romanov family and every royal house of Europe; how she could deal with hotel staff in French; play the piano with or without sheet music; walk, sit, stand or offer her hand in exactly the home-trained manner; how she recognised members of the Romanov family just by the sound of their voices; “walked through the garden calling the flowers by their quaint Russian names” etc.’
:''They don't explain the exact handwriting match or the exact match in many areas of her physical body, including the exact same deformities as Anastasia. {{cn}}
==Anna in popular culture==
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| doi =
| id = ISBN 0-8065-2064-7 }}
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== External links ==
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