Background
Von Mumm was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1887, son to Peter Arnold Gottlieb Hermann Mumm von Schwarzenstein and Emma Luise Marie Passavant. While in the United States., he met Frances Scoville, daughter of a Seneca, Kansas, banker.
Von Mumm was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1887, son to Peter Arnold Gottlieb Hermann Mumm von Schwarzenstein and Emma Luise Marie Passavant. While in the United States., he met Frances Scoville, daughter of a Seneca, Kansas, banker.
Mistress Scoville died in 1920 leaving one daughter behind, Mary, who was educated at a school in Aiken, South Carolina.
He was the one-time "champagne king" of Rheims in France, as part of the Mumm champagne making family. Between meeting and marrying Frances Scoville, von Mumm became involved with Marie van Rensimer Barnes, who later shot him in her Paris apartment in 1912. Society barrister Oliver Bodington represented van Rensimer Barnes.
Von Mumm returned to Germany at the outbreak of World War I. As his champagne winery was confiscated by the French, von Mumm sacrificed the prosperous 100-plus-year-old family business.
The Baroness went on to marry Prince Ulrich of Wchinitz and Tettau. After the war, von Mumm salvaged little of his fortune, and lost what remained in the 1929 Wall Street crash.
Thus, the "champagne king" saw his fortunes wither until he was living in a $10-a-week Manhattan boarding house. His suicide note read: "Bury me as I am and keep this out of the newspapers." Von Mumm rallied and recovered.
An avid sportsman, shortly after his accident he took part in the bobsleigh four-man event at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New New York
The gold medal was given to the United States of America.