Have you ever considered touring castles in Germany? You’d be surprised to learn that there are 25,000 of them. They are leftovers from a time when a map of Germany looked like Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors – lots of different states and statelets loosely stitched together into an odd quilt called the Holy Roman Empire. You may wonder why you have never heard about all those blue-blooded castle residents. Sure, there is Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria who built Neuschwanstein – for himself and Walt Disney. Another household name is Kaiser Wilhelm who started WWI and held the award for Most Hated Man on Earth before the trophy went to Adolf Hitler. That still leaves 24,998 castle owners unaccounted for, and they can blame the notorious Wilhelm for being kicked out of politics and into obscurity. After he lost the war and his empire, Wilhelm got himself a one-way train ticket to the Netherlands and let his underlings deal with the defeat. Consequently, one of the first laws passed in the new German Republic by his former subjects was to put the remaining aristocrats in their place – by removing all privileges and titles. From 1919 on, all they could do with their Baron, Herzog or Freiherr titles was use them as middle or last name. Carrying them as noble ranks became illegal and still is.
Had he chosen Germany instead of California, even the Prince of Wales’ younger brother would have to go by Harry Prince or Harry Prince Windsor – no wonder Germany didn’t make the Sussexes’ shortlist for exiles. There are some other, more unappetizing facts about German aristocracy that make even the Windsor family look noble. Many German ex-princes to this day have trouble wrapping their royal heads around the notion that all people are created equal. They keep nursing a century-old grudge against a democratic Germany that demoted them to commoners. Exhibit A: Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss (note the word order) who made worldwide headlines last month after he was arrested for leading a coup d’état in Germany with a colorful mix of fellow noblemen, disgruntled veterans, police officers, COVID deniers and QAnon believers. The terrorist group also included members of the far-right and antisemitic Alternative for Germany (AfD) and was called “Patriotic Union.” Their goal? To re-establish the German Empire – yes, the one that would have allowed the ringleader to finally be “Prinz Heinrich” again or even better, “Kaiser Heinrich.” He might have also gotten an entry into history books as the German doppelganger of former nation heads Donald Trump or Jair Bolsonaro.
[image_caption]Henning Schroeder[/image_caption]
Henning Schroeder is a professor at the University of Minnesota and currently teaches in the Department of German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch. His email address is schro601@umn.edu and his Twitter handle is @HenningSchroed1.
Fun times in Deutschland, eh? We Americans don’t really hear too much about the remnants of European royalty (and general aristocracy) these days, other than the Windsors, naturally. But of course noble families still exist in some form of another, such as this crackpot Heinrich Prinz Reuss, a very minor fiefdom/principality even in its heyday.
To be fair, the German aristocrats have had the least amount of time to acclimate themselves to democratic forms of government, having only been forced into common citizen status in 1919. The French aristocracy has been dealing with the democracy problem since 1789. Of course, the Russian nobility after that country’s revolution in 1917 hasn’t thought it wise even to set foot in their old stomping grounds…
So all in all, we’d expect the Windsors to be the true experts at accommodating themselves to democratic government, while continuing to hold onto their titles and munificent estates. After all, the English monarchs have been having to stomach power-sharing with the unwashed commoners since at least the English Civil War of the 1640s, when Cromwell showed a somewhat pig-headed Charles I who was boss, after a nice march to the scaffold.
I’m sure our current King Charles (III) keeps his forebear’s example well in mind, and he didn’t choose the name himself! Thanks ever so much, Elizabeth…
I’m pretty sure that, here in the US, we fought a long and bloody war so we didn’t have to care about royalty anymore.
History of German royals laced with vinegar and mild but humored sass. Thank you Professor Schroeder