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galsinspace · 4 years ago

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What is the tea about the Hohenzollern family? I googled them but Wikipedia was not helpful, and I’m not German

Dear anon, there is a LOT. And idk how much you know about German history, so I’m gonna try and explain comprehensively.

The Hohenzollern family is old German high nobility. And I mean HIGH. Of course, we do not have nobility in Germany anymore, but these families of former nobility are still around. They may even still go by their old titles, which are now considered simply part of the family name.

These families have a reputation of being pretty weird. I’m sure there’s some nice and normal people there, but generally when talking about this former nobility, think old money, old property, old customs. A man as the official “head” of the family, everyone running in the same circles, marrying in the same circles.

Now the Hohenzollern family is the cream of the crop. Earliest record of their existence is from 1061, and over time they spread into several powerful branches, two of which are still “officially” around, and they used to provide the emperors of the German Empire (1871-1918, three different emperors).

So this family has historically had a lot of power.

The German Empire was an interesting time period! Industrialisation, women’s rights, health insurance, public opinion and democratic participation gaining more power--

Also, colonialism.

Germany was the third strongest colonial power until WWI. Germans like to forget this, our colonialist legacy is constantly talked down. “But we barely had any colonies, they were all taken from us anyway, it’s not that important!”

It is important. The first genocide of the 20th century was the Herero and Nama genocide enacted by the German colonial rulers in what is now Namibia. I’ve linked the wikipedia article there, it’s a hard read. Absolute cruelty. And this is just one specific example of what German colonialism wrought: mass murder, slavery, concentration camps, rape, human experiments. That is our colonial legacy. That is the legacy of the German emperors.

Anyway, WWI happened, the German Empire ended in revolution, the Weimar Republic was established, it was a mess, the Nazis rose to power, WWII happened, Germany becomes a democracy again. Throughout all this, the Hohenzollern family has remained wealthy and influential. And details of this are currently the subject of legal and historical discourse.

You see, since 2014, the current head of the Hohenzollern family, George Friedrich Prince of Prussia, has been engaged in a legal battle with the German government to be compensated for assets that were seized from the family in 1945 by the Soviet occupying administration. Among the demands are the return of (or compensation for) thousands of art pieces that are currently in public hands, and a right to live in this castle which is currently a museum and hotel.

The gall.

So now people are arguing how much the Hohenzollern family helped the Nazi regime, because legally such a compensation is only possible if the dispossessed did not “considerably help” the Nazis. So, did this dude, who thought faschism was great, was in the SA, and supported Hitler in becoming chancellor, use his influence to considerably help the Nazis? Four seperate expert’s reports have been written on this. Two, commissioned by the Hohenzollern family, said no. One of them has since been retracted. The other two, commissioned by the government, said yes.

I guess we’ll never know! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh, and the family is known to sue historians who critically analyse their history. Several prominent historians’ associations have criticised this. There’s actually a fund to help people with their legal costs.

So, the Hohenzollern family has, for hundreds of years, waged wars and overseen atrocities across the whole world. And instead of having some fucking humility, their modern heirs try to sue the government because they don’t have all their castles anymore. George Friedrich looks like Elon Musk and makes me feel the same emotion, which is an overwhelming urge to punch.

Hohenzollern Castle (which still belongs to the family) looks fucking dope though, absolute best castle, Neuschwanstein is overrated, this baby is where it’s at:

I hope this was interesting! I love that you asked me about this, I’m very passionate about the history of my country. And you don’t get to write callout posts for nobility any day, loving this vibe!

#history #germany #castles #anon #ask #this post is still so long and i already cut out much of my elaboration on the history of germany as a country #now we wait to get sued by george friedrich

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