The Mysterious Ending of Queen Juliana’s Half Brother

Pim Lier, half brother of the late Queen Juliana, featured regularly in the Dutch news since his existance was discovered in 1979. In 1986 he made headlines again when he killed his wife Petra. The extramarital son of Prince Hendrik of the Netherlands and Mien Abbo-Wenneker spent most of his life in anonimity. Newspaper ‘De Telegraaf’ discovered that he died last year on April 9 at the age of 96.

He died in anonimity, his family didn’t even place a death advertisement in the newspapers. Only a year after his death, this fact has been picked up by the press. His discovery in 1979 in the series ‘The Kingdom of The Netherlands in WWII’ by Prof. Dr. Lou de Jong was not a great surprise. It was widely kown that Prince Hendrik did not take his marital vows too seriously.

Pim Lier himself was happy with the discovery and expected great things to happen to him. He even printed visiting cards using his father’s title ‘Prinz von Mecklenburg’ (prince Hendrik was born as Duke Heinrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin). In the Netherlands these cards were treated as a joke, Mr. Lier was mainly invited by carnaval associations.

Mr. Lier drew attention to himself again when he joined the extreme right political party of Hans Janmaat. The party leader proudly announced that a member of the royal family had joined his party.

However, the problems in Mr. Lier’s life seemed to spiral out of control. In 1986 he faced financial ruin, he lost his job as a lawyer, he left the extreme right party due to a fight and his wife Petra became terminally ill. Around christmas 1986 he killed her with a gun and was convicted to 4 1/2 years in prison. The couple planned the killing together, though supposedly the plan was for Mr. Lier to commit suicide afterwards.

Mr. Lier spent the rest of his life in anonimity. He died on April 9th 2015 in Almelo. Few people remembered who he was. His children, who disliked their father’s queste for publicity, buried him quietly.

Pim Lier holding a portrait of his father, Prince Hendrik

Filed under The Netherlands
Tagged Hendrik of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands.

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