secrets of the former German royal family

Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia, current jefe of the Hohenzollern HouseHe has never really aspired to occupy a German throne which does not exist but he wishes to recover part of his family’s property. As the main heir of the family who gave 300 years of kings in PrussiaVon Preussen, 44, was negotiating with the German authorities for the return of the royal treasures (mainly works of art, furniture, jewelry, books and other documents) which were confiscated from the family by Germany from the East after World War II.

The first request for recovery of his expropriated property was made by Von Preussen’s grandfather just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It never materialized. The ongoing negotiations have dragged on without many secret outcomes since 2014, but when they came to light in 2019, the atmosphere grew thinner and the Lander of Berlin and Brandenburg – in the museums of which most of the riches claimed by Von Preussen – stepped on the brake. .

The heir to the Hohenzollern demands 1,200 million euros and 7,000 works of art, furniture and jewelry.

It didn’t help the negotiation that Von Preussen began to denounce historians, journalists or political leaders (there are over 80 complaints) who said his great-grandfather He was an ally of the Nazis.

He considers that there was no such collaboration and that it is about a later invention. Von Preussen has already threatened to go to court to recover what had been expropriated from his family if negotiations are not restored. Federal and regional authorities have decided not to negotiate anything until Von Preussen resigns to continue the case.

The German press has picked up on von Preussen in recent years. little seriously, especially when in 2019 he said he should be allowed to live in Cecilienhof, the former royal palace in the city of Potsdam, near Berlin, a mansion his ancestors occupied for generations.

Soon after, he regretted claiming the palace and blamed it for being poorly advised by his lawyers. Cecilienhof was portrayed for history because in this palace was held the Potsdam Conference of 1945 in which the American Harry Truman, the British Winston Churchill and the Russian Yosef Stalin decided on the final division of European territory into spheres of influence.

He also demanded by letter not only that the Landers in Berlin and Brandenburg recognize that he owned everything that had been expropriated from his family, but that he wanted take it out of the museums in which these works of art are displayed to keep them in your possessions.

The authorities practically accused him of extortion. He also regretted to say shortly after that his intention was only to have his property recognized, but that he would allow these works of art to continue. for rent indefinitely in the museums that exhibit them today.

Los Hohenzollern

The Hohenzollerns are not only one of the wealthy German families whose attitude towards the nazis he led Communist Germany to expropriate its property and its wealth. They are the family that reigned in Prussia – and for 50 years throughout Germany – during key moments of contemporary German history, such as its colonial past or the First World War.

German media recall that Kaiser Wilhelm II, last german emperor and great-great-grandfather of Von Preussen and grandson of queen victoria, went into exile in the Netherlands after abdicating in 1918 and took with him 60 wagons trains laden with furniture, artwork and jewelry.

The family had a fortune in cash and literally dozens of palaces and castles, which were expropriated and restored by the Weimar Republic, the pre-Nazi regime.

Like so many other wealthy families, East Germany expropriated its heritage after World War II. The Hohenzollerns lost palaces, businesses, farms and to forests.

Letters with Hitler

The debate goes well beyond the restitution or not of this immense heritage. It is also about the role that Von Preussen’s great-grandfather, Prince William, played in the rise of the nazis in power and in his relationship with them in the 1930s.

The family would have the right to recover what was expropriated by Communist Germany, but only if the judges find that it is not providing “substantial support” to the Nazi regime.

The German archives keep the flattering letters that Prince William wrote to Hitler convinced that the Nazi leader would restore the monarchy.

He defended the anti-Semitic policies Hitler and, like the Nazis, wore a swastika bracelet in public. Von Preussen says his great-grandfather repented and that during the years of Nazi rule he did not have the courage to oppose Hitler’s regime.

In January 2020, the Bundestag held a debate with historians on the role of Von Preussen’s great-grandfather, Prince William, during the Hitler years. From this debate, it was clear that the consensus among historians says that Guillermo yes I support “substantially” the rise of the Nazis to power and their regime.

Christopher Clark, one of the world’s foremost scholars on the period between the two world wars and professor of history at the University of Cambridge, wrote a letter to “ The New York Review of Books ” the last year in which he defends the latest historical research. and assures that “without a doubt the prince, although he was never a first-rate collaborator, was a supporter of the Nazis more proactive than we thought ”.

Von Preussen now protests because he considers that two themes mingle: the expropriation of his family’s property – which was done with other wealthy families – and his great-grandfather’s collaboration with the Nazis.

But the already reunified democratic German law (a rule of 1994) agrees with the authorities because it rejects the return of the expropriated property if its former owners collaborated with the Nazis, so called “Unworthiness clause”.

Brussels, special

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