Anna Anderson's claims first received public attention in 1922. In 1927, a private investigation funded by the Tsarina's brother, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, identified Anderson as Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish factory worker with a history of mental illness. After a lawsuit lasting many years, the German courts ruled that Anderson had failed to prove she was Anastasia.
Anna Anderson died in 1984. In 1994, DNA analysis confirmed that she could not have been related to the Romanov family and was in fact Franziska Schanzkowska.
© Haydn Thompson 2019