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DW
25-06-2025
- Business
- DW
Hohenzollern: Germany's ex-royals settle riches dispute – DW – 06/17/2025
After years of legal wrangling, the German state and Hohenzollern family — heirs to the former German imperial dynasty — have reached a settlement over thousands of precious items, including paintings and furniture. An almost century-long dispute in Germany is coming to an end. The House of Hohenzollern — a German noble family which the last German Emperor, Wilhelm II, also belonged to — had long laid claim to various objects housed in German museums. They had also demanded millions in compensation for expropriated palaces and inventory. The whole saga went to court — until Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia, the great-great-grandson of the last German emperor, finally changed the aristocratic house's strategy in 2023. He withdrew the compensation claims and thus cleared the way for out-of-court negotiations. The talks began in late 2024, resulting in the newly-reached agreement. The new German Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer (CDU) and Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia had announced the breakthrough back in May 2025. The federal government and the states of Berlin and Brandenburg had reached an agreement with the former ruling house of Hohenzollern to set up the non-profit "Hohenzollern Art Foundation" to manage the previously reclaimed art and cultural objects. Now that the supervisory bodies of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the German Historical Museum have also given their approval, the agreement has been signed and sealed. According to Weimer, the public will be the biggest winner. The collections that include around 3,000 objects will now feature in the German Historical Museum, along with museums run by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. The new foundation will also manage the inventory — furniture, tableware and paintings — from around 70 palaces, villas and other properties in Berlin and Potsdam that were owned or used by the Hohenzollern family until 1945. There are also objects belonging to the family that were confiscated as early as 1918, after the end of the monarchy. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video At the end of World War II, Soviet troops conquered the former German territories east of the Elbe River and with them the bulk of the Hohenzollern territories. The Soviet Union regarded the "Junkers" — the land-owning nobility — as the class enemy and a pillar of the Nazi system. So in 1945, all noble houses in the Soviet occupation zone were expropriated without compensation. More than four decades later, the Berlin Wall fell and Germany was reunited. From one minute to the next, many former Hohenzollern castles and estates were once again on the Federal Republic's soil. But the German Unification Treaty in 1990 stated that the land reform of 1945 would not be reversed, meaning the Hohenzollerns had to write off their old properties in the east. Some 30 years later, the heirs of the last monarch demanded millions in compensation from the German state and the restitution of cultural assets — in vain. So the matter went to court. This question played a central role in the compensation dispute: Had representatives of the House of Hohenzollern colluded with the National Socialists who ruled Germany between 1933 and 1945? Specifically, had the heirs of the last German Emperor, Wilhelm II, who abdicated in 1918, "significantly supported" National Socialism? And what role did the son of the last monarch and former Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia play between the world wars? Did he help the Nazis come to power in order to re-establish the monarchy? The so-called "Compensation Act" of 1994, which regulates the compensation of landowners whose property was expropriated in the East in 1945, states that anyone who "significantly aided" Hitler and the Nazis has no right to compensation. In fact, historical documents prove Wilhelm's ties to Hitler, with photos and films showing the former crown prince with the dictator and other Nazi leaders. However, Wilhelm's hopes that the Nazis would crown him the new emperor were never realized and historians continue to debate Wilhelm's role in the Nazi state. In their biographies, two German historians Lothar Machtan ("The Crown Prince and the Nazis") and Stephan Malinowski ("The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis") describe the crown prince as a radical anti-democrat who admired Mussolini and sought proximity to Hitler. His mission was to restore the monarchy. Malinowski and his colleague Peter Brandt concluded that Wilhelm of Prussia's behavior had "considerably aided and abetted" the establishment and consolidation of the National Socialist regime. In fact, the ex-crown prince called for the election of Hitler in the 1932 German presidential election. He later boasted to Hitler that he had procured him two million votes. Wilhelm also publicly demonstrated solidarity with the new elites. "The symbolic capital of the Hohenzollerns was very important for the Nazis in 1932/33, even if the crown prince had his own agenda in the process," said Jacco Pekelder, a historian from Münster, in a television interview." The editors of the anthology "Die Hohenzollerndebatte" (The Hohenzollern Debate), published in 2021, casted their doubt on these fascist ties. Historian Frank-Lothar Kroll attested to Wilhelm's "rather marginal commitment" to the Nazis. He may have pandered to Hitler, but he did not share his totalitarian ideology. For decades, hordes of lawyers, politicians and historians dealt with the restitution and compensation claims of the descendants of Wilhelm of Prussia. Now a settlement finally seems to have been reached, and the public could benefit the most.
DW
25-06-2025
- Business
- DW
Germany's ex-royals strike deal over family riches – DW – 06/17/2025
After years of wrangling, the German state and Hohenzollern family — heirs to the former German imperial dynasty — have reached a settlement over thousands of precious items, including paintings and furniture. An almost century-long dispute in Germany is coming to an end. The House of Hohenzollern — a German noble family which the last German Emperor, Wilhelm II, also belonged to — had long laid claim to various objects housed in German museums. They had also demanded millions in compensation for expropriated palaces and inventory. The whole saga went to court — until Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia, the great-great-grandson of the last German emperor, finally changed the aristocratic house's strategy in 2023. He withdrew the compensation claims and thus cleared the way for out-of-court negotiations. The talks began in late 2024, resulting in the newly-reached agreement. The new German Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer (CDU) and Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia had announced the breakthrough back in May 2025. The federal government and the states of Berlin and Brandenburg had reached an agreement with the former ruling house of Hohenzollern to set up the non-profit "Hohenzollern Art Foundation" to manage the previously reclaimed art and cultural objects. Now that the supervisory bodies of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the German Historical Museum have also given their approval, the agreement has been signed and sealed. According to Weimer, the public will be the biggest winner. The collections that include around 3,000 objects will now feature in the German Historical Museum, along with museums run by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. The new foundation will also manage the inventory — furniture, tableware and paintings — from around 70 palaces, villas and other properties in Berlin and Potsdam that were owned or used by the Hohenzollern family until 1945. There are also objects belonging to the family that were confiscated as early as 1918, after the end of the monarchy. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video At the end of World War II, Soviet troops conquered the former German territories east of the Elbe River and with them the bulk of the Hohenzollern territories. The Soviet Union regarded the "Junkers" — the land-owning nobility — as the class enemy and a pillar of the Nazi system. So in 1945, all noble houses in the Soviet occupation zone were expropriated without compensation. More than four decades later, the Berlin Wall fell and Germany was reunited. From one minute to the next, many former Hohenzollern castles and estates were once again on the Federal Republic's soil. But the German Unification Treaty in 1990 stated that the land reform of 1945 would not be reversed, meaning the Hohenzollerns had to write off their old properties in the east. Some 30 years later, the heirs of the last monarch demanded millions in compensation from the German state and the restitution of cultural assets — in vain. So the matter went to court. This question played a central role in the compensation dispute: Had representatives of the House of Hohenzollern colluded with the National Socialists who ruled Germany between 1933 and 1945? Specifically, had the heirs of the last German Emperor, Wilhelm II, who abdicated in 1918, "significantly supported" National Socialism? And what role did the son of the last monarch and former Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia play between the world wars? Did he help the Nazis come to power in order to re-establish the monarchy? The so-called "Compensation Act" of 1994, which regulates the compensation of landowners whose property was expropriated in the East in 1945, states that anyone who "significantly aided" Hitler and the Nazis has no right to compensation. In fact, historical documents prove Wilhelm's ties to Hitler, with photos and films showing the former crown prince with the dictator and other Nazi leaders. However, Wilhelm's hopes that the Nazis would crown him the new emperor were never realized and historians continue to debate Wilhelm's role in the Nazi state. In their biographies, two German historians Lothar Machtan ("The Crown Prince and the Nazis") and Stephan Malinowski ("The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis") describe the crown prince as a radical anti-democrat who admired Mussolini and sought proximity to Hitler. His mission was to restore the monarchy. Malinowski and his colleague Peter Brandt concluded that Wilhelm of Prussia's behavior had "considerably aided and abetted" the establishment and consolidation of the National Socialist regime. In fact, the ex-crown prince called for the election of Hitler in the 1932 German presidential election. He later boasted to Hitler that he had procured him two million votes. Wilhelm also publicly demonstrated solidarity with the new elites. "The symbolic capital of the Hohenzollerns was very important for the Nazis in 1932/33, even if the crown prince had his own agenda in the process," said Jacco Pekelder, a historian from Münster, in a television interview." The editors of the anthology "Die Hohenzollerndebatte" (The Hohenzollern Debate), published in 2021, casted their doubt on these fascist ties. Historian Frank-Lothar Kroll attested to Wilhelm's "rather marginal commitment" to the Nazis. He may have pandered to Hitler, but he did not share his totalitarian ideology. For decades, hordes of lawyers, politicians and historians dealt with the restitution and compensation claims of the descendants of Wilhelm of Prussia. Now a settlement finally seems to have been reached, and the public could benefit the most.
DW
17-06-2025
- Business
- DW
Dispute with the Hohenzollerns ends after almost 100 years – DW – 06/17/2025
After years of debate, the state and the Hohenzollerns have reached a mutually beneficial deal over diverse art items, including paintings and furniture. An almost century-long dispute in Germany is coming to an end. The House of Hohenzollern — a German noble family to which the last German Emperor, Wilhelm II, also belonged — had long laid claim to various objects in German museums. They had also demanded millions in compensation for expropriated palaces and inventory. The whole thing went to court — until Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia, the great-great-grandson of the last German emperor, finally changed the aristocratic house's strategy in 2023. He withdrew the compensation claims and thus cleared the way for out-of-court negotiations. The talks began in late 2024, resulting in the newly-reached agreement. Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia, great-great-grandson of the last German emperor Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Hirschberger Works of art to remain in museums The new German Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer (CDU) and Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia had announced the breakthrough back in May 2025. The federal government and the states of Berlin and Brandenburg had reached an agreement with the former ruling house of Hohenzollern to set up the non-profit "Hohenzollern Art Foundation" to manage the previously reclaimed art and cultural objects. Now that the supervisory bodies of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the German Historical Museum have also given their approval, the agreement has been signed and sealed. According to Weimer, the public will be the biggest winner. The collections that include around 3,000 objects will now feature in the German Historical Museum, along with museums run by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. The new foundation will also manage the inventory — furniture, tableware and paintings — from around 70 palaces, villas and other properties in Berlin and Potsdam that were owned or used by the Hohenzollern family until 1945. There are also objects belonging to the family that were confiscated as early as 1918, after the end of the monarchy. #DailyDrone: Hohenzollern Castle To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The expropriation of the 'Junkers' At the end of World War II, Soviet troops conquered the former German territories east of the Elbe River and with them the bulk of the Hohenzollern territories. The Soviet Union regarded the "Junkers" — the land-owning nobility — as the class enemy and a pillar of the Nazi system. So in 1945, all noble houses in the Soviet occupation zone were expropriated without compensation. More than four decades later, the Berlin Wall fell and Germany was reunited. From one minute to the next, many former Hohenzollern castles and estates were once again on the Federal Republic's soil. But the German Unification Treaty in 1990 stated that the land reform of 1945 would not be reversed, meaning the Hohenzollerns had to write off their old properties in the east. Some 30 years later, the heirs of the last monarch demanded millions in compensation from the German state and the restitution of cultural assets — in vain. So the matter went to court. A painting of the last German Emperor Wilhelm II, painted by Philip de László in 1911 Image: Ralf Hirschberger/dpa/picture alliance Did the Hohenzollerns 'aid and abet' the Nazis? This question played a central role in the compensation dispute: Had representatives of the House of Hohenzollern colluded with the National Socialists who ruled Germany between 1933 and 1945? Specifically, had the heirs of the last German Emperor, Wilhelm II, who abdicated in 1918, "significantly supported" National Socialism? And what role did the son of the last monarch and former Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia play between the world wars? Did he help the Nazis come to power in order to re-establish the monarchy? The so-called "Compensation Act" of 1994, which regulates the compensation of landowners whose property was expropriated in the East in 1945, states that anyone who "significantly aided" Hitler and the Nazis has no right to compensation. In fact, historical documents prove Wilhelm's ties to Hitler, with photos and films showing the former crown prince with the dictator and other Nazi leaders. However, Wilhelm's hopes that the Nazis would crown him the new emperor were never realized and historians continue to debate Wilhelm's role in the Nazi state. What relationship did the House of Hohenzollern have with the Nazi regime? Image: akg-images/picture-alliance Seeking proximity with Hitler In their biographies, two German historians Lothar Machtan ("The Crown Prince and the Nazis") and Stephan Malinowski ("The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis") describe the crown prince as a radical anti-democrat who admired Mussolini and sought proximity to Hitler. His mission was to restore the monarchy. Malinowski and his colleague Peter Brandt concluded that Wilhelm of Prussia's behavior had "considerably aided and abetted" the establishment and consolidation of the National Socialist regime. In fact, the ex-crown prince called for the election of Hitler in the 1932 German presidential election. He later boasted to Hitler that he had procured him two million votes. Wilhelm also publicly demonstrated solidarity with the new elites. "The symbolic capital of the Hohenzollerns was very important for the Nazis in 1932/33, even if the crown prince had his own agenda in the process," said Jacco Pekelder, a historian from Münster, in a television interview." This is where the last German emperor spent his exile — at Doorn House in the Netherlands Image: Daniela Posdnjakova/DW Debate ongoing but settlement reached The editors of the anthology "Die Hohenzollerndebatte" (The Hohenzollern Debate), published in 2021, casted their doubt on these fascist ties. Historian Frank-Lothar Kroll attested to Wilhelm's "rather marginal commitment" to the Nazis. He may have pandered to Hitler, but he did not share his totalitarian ideology. For decades, hordes of lawyers, politicians and historians dealt with the restitution and compensation claims of the descendants of Wilhelm of Prussia. Now a settlement finally seems to have been reached, and the public could benefit the most. This is an updated version of an article originally written in German.
Asharq Al-Awsat
07-05-2025
- Business
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Saudi Museums Commission, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation to Deepen Museum Collaboration
The Saudi Museums Commission, one of the eleven sector-specific commissions under the Ministry of Culture, and Germany's Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK) have taken a significant step forward in their cultural partnership by activating an executive program focused on long-term collaboration in the museum sector. Central to this initiative is the development of a loan index, outlining a selection of artworks and artifacts from the SPK's various Berlin-based museums to be shared with the Museums Commission over a five-year period. This loan program forms part of the broader executive program signed by both parties. The agreement outlines key areas of cooperation, including joint exhibitions in art and archaeology, long-term loans, strategic cultural projects, and capacity building through training and residencies. Two dedicated training programs have been agreed upon as part of this collaboration. One of the flagship initiatives, Museums in Motion, will bring together up to 80 cultural and museum professionals from both countries over five years through four interdisciplinary training sessions. Participants will engage in joint learning activities in both countries, fostering sustained dialogue, professional exchange, deeper cross-cultural understanding, and long-term institutional partnerships. In a parallel initiative with the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart (National Gallery of Contemporary Art) in Berlin, a professional secondment program will support talent development in the museum field. Over the next five years, experts from Hamburger Bahnhof will contribute to training and mentorship, fostering the exchange of knowledge and best practices in museum management and curation. This executive program reflects the Kingdom's commitment to strengthening international cultural dialogue and advancing professional exchange in the global museum community.
New Statesman
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
The complicity of Leni Riefenstahl
Leni Riefenstahl welcomes Adolf Hitler to her villa in Berlin, in 1937. Photo by Prod DB © Bayrische Staatsbibliothek – Vinc/Alamy There has been a remarkable documentary about Leni Riefenstahl before. The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993) was commissioned by Riefenstahl herself and she participated in it fully. In ridiculously good shape at the age of 90, she revisited the key locations of her life – the mountains, where she starred in her early romantic dramas; Nuremberg, where the Nazi rallies were held and she made Triumph of the Will (1935); the stadium in Berlin where she made Olympia (1938) – and gave prolonged, combative interviews. Again and again, she insisted that art had nothing to do with politics: 'I just observed and tried to film it well,' she said. As far as she was concerned, she claimed, Hitler's speeches might just as well have been about trees or fish as politics. The documentary's director, Ray Müller, who took on the task after many had shied away from it, adopted a leisurely approach, indulgently covering her whole career, from her first appearance as a dancer in the early Twenties, to her photographic work in the Sixties and Seventies among the Nuba people of Sudan. This wonderful, horrible life eventually clocked in at a little more than three hours long: Müller, while fulfilling his assignment, had taken care to give Riefenstahl enough rope to hang herself. You cannot mistake what she was really like. The documentary deservedly won an Emmy. Riefenstahl died in 2003, but her partner and collaborator, Horst Kettner, whom she had been with since she was 60 and he 20, lived until 2016. Her archive, including some 700 boxes of tapes, film footage, photos and documents, was then bequeathed to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin. The German TV presenter Sandra Maischberger, who had conducted the last major interview with Riefenstahl in 2002 and come away realising she had been deceived, made a deal to have the archive sorted and catalogued in exchange for the rights to use it for this new documentary. As producer, she recruited Andres Veiel, best known for his 2017 film about Joseph Beuys, as director. The intention, clearly, was to convict Riefenstahl of active collaboration with Nazi crimes at last. Riefenstahl, the result, consists entirely of archival material. The approach sounds stultifying, but this is a riveting watch, a masterclass in how to animate such material through inventive treatment. Montage and cross-cutting are always effective in documentaries, but Riefenstahl goes much further. The old media – slides, cassette tapes, crumpled prints of photos and film stock – are transformed. The stills are never still, the camera moving across them, panning in or out. The footage of Riefenstahl, on screen or in television interview, is altered by close-ups, slow motion, silencing: alienation effects that make us observe her, not just listen. The picture quality throughout is astonishing. There is a terrific minimalist score by Freya Arde, pulsing and rattling, which has the effect of keeping us in the present, distancing us from what we are seeing. The subject is not so much Riefenstahl's career itself but her unrepentant management of her reputation until the end of her life. 'For something to be remembered, other things must be forgotten,' we are ominously told at the outset, as if full disclosure is on the way. Yet it has to be said that this archive, doubtless previously edited by Riefenstahl, the control freak's control freak, yields little compelling new evidence for such a posthumous conviction. There's a suggestion that, during her very brief time as a war correspondent in Poland, she ordered some Jews to be removed from the scene, and that this set direction was taken literally and they were shot. But it remains hearsay. She was post-truth before the concept had been invented. She always insisted that she, like many other Germans, knew nothing at all of Hitler's crimes until the very end of the war, but, implausible as that may be, nothing here conclusively proves otherwise. The film ends with a tape of a phone call from a supporter telling her, codedly, that in one or two generations, Germany will return to 'morality, decency and virtue'. 'Yes, the German people are pre-destined for that,' she agrees. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe The film-makers clearly intend this film as a warning from history, in the context of the rise of the AfD. It forms an essential coda to the 1993 film. The most telling critique of Riefenstahl's career, however, remains Susan Sontag's 1974 takedown of her work for the New York Review. For it is Riefenstahl's films themselves that best embody and most reveal her brutal faith in the victory of the strong and beautiful. 'Riefenstahl' is in cinemas now [See also: David Attenborough at 99: 'Life will almost certainly find a way'] Related
