by Johan
Dynasty: Hohenzollern
Capital: Berlin
Last Ruler: Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941) ruled (1888-1918)
Official residences: Stadschloss in Berlin, New Palace in Potsdam, Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin, Cecilienhof, Marmorpalais etc.
Despite their more humble beginnings, the Hohenzollerns utilized a well-organised army to become the most dominant power in Germany by the 19th century. This in spite of, or in some cases at the expense of, older dynasties with a previously bigger power base like the Wittelsbachs of Bavaria, the Guelphs of Hanover, Wettins of Saxony and the Habsburgs of Austria.
17th century Prussia consisted of the Margraviate of Brandenburg (around the area of Berlin) and in the East, two parts in modern-day Poland and Russia. The eastern parts were a province and a fief, respectively, of Poland. Therefore the Duke of Prussia was subordinate to the King of Poland. A 19th-century painting showing the homage of Prussia to the Polish Crown was thoroughly and ultimately unsuccessfully looked for in Poland during World War II. The Nazis didn’t want a reminder of the previous power exercised by the Polish, who they viewed as a lower race than the Germans.
During the Partitions of Poland in the late 18th century Prussia, Poland, and Austria were able to totally dismember Poland. After the 1815 Congress of Vienna awarded most of Saxony to Prussia plus the Rhine Province and Westphalia this set Prussia on a path to German unification under Prussian rule. Between 1863 and 1866 Schleswig-Holstein, Nassau, Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Homburg, Frankfurt, and Hanover were incorporated into Prussia. Thus about two-thirds of the total German Empire consisted of Prussia. This in effect made Prussia lose its identity to the bigger German state.
The 1st Kaiser/ Emperor of Germany was the Prussian King Wilhelm I 1797-1888. He was the son of King Frederick Wilhelm III of Prussia (1770-1840) and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He succeeded after the death of his brother King Frederick Wilhelm IV of Prussia in 1861. Their sister Charlotte was married to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. Wilhelm was married to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach although he wanted to marry Princess Elisabeth Radziwill who was a distant cousin. The marriage was forbidden as although she was of noble blood and even had a Prussian Hohenzollern Princess as a mother, she was not considered an equal spouse for Wilhelm. Wilhelm and Augusta weren’t truly happy, although they had 2 children together.
Wilhelm I achieved the unification of Germany with the help of Prince Bismarck. Kaiser Wilhelm was seen as conservative and the liberals hoped that his son, Frederick (1831-1888)’s reign would bring a new era of liberalism. He was married to the intellectual Princess Victoria of Great Britain (1840-1901) who was a demanding mother to her children. Victoria was the hope of her father Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who dreamed of his daughter and son-in-law reigning over a liberal unified Germany. Frederic, unfortunately, died from throat cancer after a short reign of only 99 days. Victoria had a difficult position in Germany as Bismarck’s foreign policy concentrated on alliances with Russia and Austria-Hungary. Bismarck was often at odds with Frederick and Victoria and she was blamed for his liberal leanings. A few years after the death of her beloved husband, Victoria had Schloss Friederickhof built near Frankfurt. After she died she left it to her youngest daughter Margaret, who was married to a Prince of the Hesse-Kassel family. (This property is still owned by them and has been converted into a luxury hotel).
Frederick was succeeded by his eldest son, Wilhelm II (1859-1941). Wilhelm was very proud and suffered not only from a crippled arm but also personality flaws like being manic and depression. (William would overcome his physical disability in a number of genius ways. For example, using a fork with a sharp edge acting both as a knife).
The Prussian Royals had access to vast palaces in Berlin & Potsdam including the Charlottenburg Palace, Marmorpalais, Sanssouci Palace, Babelsberg Palace, and the New Palace. Babelsberg Palace was a favourite of Kaiser Wilhelm I whilst his wife liked to visit Koblenz. Their son Frederick and his wife Victoria had a palace in Berlin and enjoyed staying in the New Palace in Potsdam. Shortly after ascending the throne, Wilhelm II ordered his widowed mother move out of the New Palace so that he could occupy it. After staying in Homburg, she had the Kronberg Castle built, which she named Schloss Friedrichshof, in honor of her late husband. Although the New Palace was larger than his Marmorpalais, Victoria was still surprised by her son’s request to vacate the palace, seeing that he had access to dozens of Palaces, castles and hunting lodges throughout the Reich.
Kaiser Wilhelm II not only had the traditional Prussian castles and palaces at his disposal but also the estates taken from the states they conquered. He, for example, stayed at Bad Homburg (taken from the Hesse family in 1866), Leineschloss in Hanover (taken from the Hanover family in 1866), Stadschloss Wiesbaden (taken from the Nassau family in 1866) and Wilhelm’s favourite Schloss Wilhelmshohe (taken from the Hesse-Kassel family). He also bought the Achelion villa on Corfu, Greece from the heirs of Empress Sissi of Austria. (This was confiscated after World War I).
Kaiser Wilhelm II, being the grandson of Queen Victoria, was closely related to the British and Russian Royal families. These family relationships ultimately meant nothing as Germany joined Austria as allies in the 1st World War. After the war when there were calls to have him indicted as a war criminal, some historians now claim that Wilhelm wasn’t the war-agitator and point to his overtures for peace shortly before and after Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. Wilhelm was able to move to ultimately Doorn in the neutral Netherlands. He took a trainload of furniture and porcelain that used to be in the Potsdam palaces. In exile Wilhelm rarely left his exile-property and was only allowed short trips in the vicinity. He amused himself by organising talks on archaeology (a hobby he enjoyed whilst at Achelion on Corfu) and chopping wood.
The Weimar Republic was mostly kind to their former rulers. William was able to keep 62,500 hectares in Germany and 2 farms in South-West Africa. They were also able to keep Cecilienhof in Potsdam (the home of William’s oldest son), 2 palaces in the Linden, a few villas in Potsdam, as well as the Rominten hunting lodge in East Prussia (which was sold to the Nazi, Herman Goering in 1936, and ultimately ended up in Russia after World War II). Schloss Cadinen which became the home of his grandson Louis Ferdinand (who would later be the head of the family from 1951-1994), was nationalised and became part of Poland after 1945. Hammelseck, Burgs Hohenzollern, the wine estate of Schloss Reinhartshausen, Oels and Schloss Schildberg. Therefore the Hohenzollerns remained one of the greatest landowners in Germany with 97,000 hectares. Unfortunately, most of this was located in East Germany where property was nationalised.
During the Nazi period, the Hohenzollern family was able to secure a pension from the Nazi government. This was in part to placate them and prevent them from offering any opposition to the Nazi state. After William died at Huis Doorn in the Netherlands, his 2nd wife Hermine moved to her Silesian possessions and she turned the property into a type of museum. Crown Prince William retrieved a painting from Huis Doorn that Goering wanted and sold it to him in exchange for some property. This was a reversal of roles, as in the medieval times the Sovereigns would grant land to a noble in return for some favors.
Wilhelm II’s oldest son and heir was Crown Prince Wilhelm (1882-1951). At the time of his birth, his great-grandfather, grandfather and father were still alive. Wilhelm married Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He would ultimately ruin the marriage with his many affairs. Cecilie, who was the sister of Queen Alexandrine of Denmark and cousin of Princess Irina Yusupov, was a very popular Crown Princess. Due to their popularity, his father Wilhelm II ordered Crown Prince Wilhelm to report for duty at Danzig away from Berlin. After World War I broke out, Wilhelm successfully served as a commander in World War I on the Western Front. After the war, he followed his father in exile and stayed in the Netherlands for a few years living modestly with little comfort. During this time he worked on his memoirs until he was able to join his wife and children at Oels in Silesia and their property Cecilienhof (the property that was built and finalised shortly before the end of World War I). Between the two world wars, Wilhelm lived a quiet life. Although he campaigned for the Nazis, he wasn’t as actively involved in the Nazi party as his one brother.
By the end of the Second World War, Crown Prince Wilhelm was a broken man. Their main property of Cecielenhof in Potsdam was confiscated, and the famous Potsdam conference occurred there. Also, all their properties in East Prussia and East Germany got nationalised in East Germany. Wilhelm sold pieces of property for money and amused himself with various women. The fortunes of the family had fallen to such a point that when the American Clyde Harris asked for the hand in marriage of his daughter, Princess Cecilie, he said that she won’t have a grand life, but he would be able to feed her.
The Hohenzollern family and their distant cousins the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringens (Catholic branch who gave up their sovereignty to Prussia in 1849) jointly own Burg Hohenzollern in Southern Germany. The castle was finished in 1867 and was intended as a show castle for the prestige of the Hohenzollern family and after the war, Crown Prince Wilhelm stayed there.
The next head of the family, Louis Ferdinand (1907-1994) was the 2nd son of Wilhelm. His older brother married a person of unequal rank and died in France during World War II. Despite the loss of the throne, some German houses continue to demand an equal/mediatised or at least a noble marriage. The former Kaiser would not allow the unequal marriage and is reported to have said “Remember, there is every possible form of horse. We are thoroughbreds, however, and when we conclude a marriage such as with Fräulein von Salviati, it produces mongrels, and that cannot be allowed to happen.” Louis Ferdinand married a relative, Princess (or Grand Duchess) Kira of Russia (they both descend from Tsar Nicholas I and Queen Victoria). One can imagine Bismarck approving of this as a Russian ally formed the basis of his foreign policy. Unfortunately by this time both of these dynasties were no longer reigning.
After Cadinen was confiscated, Louis Ferdinand and his family moved to Bremen. The marriage was happy but Kira died reasonably young at age 58 after gaining weight and suffering from high blood pressure. She was reported to have said whilst adding several spoonfuls of sugar (shortly before suffering a fatal heart attack) “God forbid I should eat anything healthy”. In 1991 one of his musical compositions was used for the return of King Freidrich II of Prussia’s remains to Potsdam. He also had his parents remains brought to the imperial vault in Potsdam after they were initially interred at Burg Hohenzollern.
Louis Ferdinand was succeeded, in 1994, by his grandson Georg Friedrich (born 1976). Georg Friedrich’s father, also named Louis Ferdinand, had died in an accident in 1977 when his son was only a year old. Georg Friedrich was his grandfather’s main heir. Some of his uncles took Georg Friedrich to court to demand a greater share of the family money, but after various court cases ultimately lost. These court costs severely depleted the family fortune. Louis Ferdinand continues to pay small allowances to members of his family. In 2011, Georg Friedrich married Princess Sophie of Isenburg whom he has known since childhood and they have four children.