Princes, Plots and Privilege — The Discreet Charm of German Nobility
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, Herzogor 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’s younger brother would have to go by Harry Prince or Harry Prince Windsor — no wonder Germany didn’t make the Sussexes’ shortlist for exiles. And when it comes to racism, one of the prime reasons Harry and Meghan left England, there are some other, more unappetizing facts about German aristocracy that make the royal Windsor firm look woke in comparison. In order to compensate for lost societal standing after WWI, the German Noble Society (Deutsche Adelsgenossenschaft, DAG) invented the Aryan race certificate as ersatz title. It is noteworthy that this happened in 1919. Back then the Nazis were still a tiny group of radicals debating how to name themselves. By requiring every member to prove that they were “of pure race” and without Jewish ancestry, the DAG gave a whole new meaning to noblesse oblige. In fact, German aristocrats had already embraced the concept of white racial supremacy when Adolf Hitler was still trying to make a living in Vienna by selling self-painted postcards.
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. True to DAG tradition, the terrorist group also included members of the far-right and antisemitic Alternative for Germany (AfD) and was aptly 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 Donald Trump or Jair Bolsonaro.
Heinrich XIII is not the only member of the German nobility with breathtakingly crude worldviews. Another one is Gloria, Princess of Thurn und Taxis, whose family made a fortune by owning a monopoly for postal services across Europe that lasted for several centuries. Most memorable is Gloria’s statement on German national television that the high rates of AIDS in African countries were “due to the much higher frequency of sexual intercourse in Africa as a consequence of the continent’s warm temperature.” No surprise that in 2018, Gloria’s friend Steve Bannon suggested one of her many castles as a potential site for a school to educate young Catholic activists and Christian nationalists.
In light of the terrorist, insurrectionist and racist activities of their (very) distant German cousins, it’s adorable that Prince Harry gives one interview after the other calling his stepmother Camilla “dangerous.” Sure, in recent interactions with their Black yet undeniably British fellow citizens, the late Queen’s entourage seemed hopelessly stuck in imperial and colonial times (“Where are you really from?”). But dangerous? You can call the Windsors a lot of things, but at least they haven’t mounted an attack on Parliament yet. And why should they? The British taxpayer showers shocking amounts of money on them, and they can spend endless vacations touring their own castles. And as for Harry and Meghan, isn’t it ironic that their search for a safe haven from racism brought them to America of all places? But I’m guessing when your neighbor’s name in the castle next door is Oprah — not Camilla, Gloria or Heinrich — life becomes bearable.
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.
An earlier version of this article appeared in MinnPost.
