Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia has two big problems: he is the great-great-grandson and heir of Wilhelm II, Germany’s last emperor who was forced to abdicate after his country’s disastrous defeat in the First World War. For another, he is Prince of a country that hasn’t existed since 1947, when the victorious Allies abolished Prussia.
As if that wasn’t enough historical baggage, the head of the House of Hohenzollern has been embroiled in a long legal fight over his family’s role in Hitler’s rise. Now the Prince has announced a tactical withdrawal from this particular battle over his family’s legacy, one that he hopes will ‘clear the path for an open-minded debate.’ But it’s unlikely that a country so uneasy about its own past is ready to view that of its former monarchs with emotional detachment.
The argument concerns an estate worth several hundred million euros. The Hohenzollerns claim their land, property and over 10,000 pieces of art were seized from them illegally in the course of their tumultuous 20th century history.
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