Duchess Donata of Mecklenburg

She was born in Kiel in the state of Schleswig-Holstein the eldest daughter of Duke Christian Louis of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and his wife Princess Barbara of Prussia. Her father was the younger brother to the last surviving male of the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. As Donata had only one sister Edwina (born 25 September 1960), and as her uncle had no children the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin became extinct in the male line in 2001 when her uncle died. As a result, the Mecklenburg-Strelitz line, headed by Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg, will become the only surviving line of the House of Mecklenburg when both Donata and Edwina are dead.

Her paternal grandfather was the last reigning Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Frederick Francis IV. Her maternal grandfather was Prince Sigismund of Prussia, a grandson of German Emperor Frederick III and Victoria, Princess Royal.

She married Alexander von Solodkoff on 19 September 1987, and had three children:

• Thyra von Solodkoff (b. 12 October 1989)
• Alix von Solodkoff (b. 17 March 1992)
• Niklot von Solodkoff (b. 8 December 1994)

• Marlene A. Eilers, Queen Victoria's Descendants (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987), page 161-162.

• Herzogin von Mecklenburg beansprucht weitere Kunstgüter. Welt, September 4, 2016.
• Herzogin Donata gibt es nicht mehr. Oz Ostsee Zeitung, March 23, 2018
• Donata will mehr Kunst zurück. Schweriner Volkszeitung, April 9, 2016