What Crown Prince Wilhelm Left Behind

you to before this story can really begin. The first is Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia. That's his legal last name, Prince von Prussen. Germany is no longer a monarchy today, but if it were, Georg Friedrich would be its leader. The forty four year old head of the House of Hohenzo Learn is the great great grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm the Second, the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, who abdicated both of those titles in nineteen eighteen following

Germany's defeat in World War One. Up until then, the hohens O Learned family had ruled in modern day Prussia for over three hundred years. Looking at Georg Friedrich, you wouldn't necessarily think that he's royal. He looks like any other attractive, wealthy person in his forties. He could be

a stockbroker or a member of the local school board. Still, he is a direct descendant of Queen Victoria, which makes him technically two hundred second in line for the British throne, although I've seen that number as low as one hundred and seventy Yet. The second German Man you need to know for this story is the German equivalent of John Stewart back when he was hosted The Daily Show, a man named Jan Boorman. Jan is the host of a late night television show called Neo Magazine Royal. Like any

political satire, the show is no stranger to controversy. Jan has launched a handful of national scandals in the press and dealt with about as many lawsuits. Last year in Jan air to segment that brought a little known legal

battle to national attention. For years, Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia, had secretly been embroiled in negotiations with the German government in an effort to reclaim thousands of pieces of art and other priceless historical artifacts and to regain his family's claim to a number of castles and other properties, a

negotiation worth hundreds of millions of euros. When the Soviets claimed East Germany after World War two, and half the country fell under communism, much of the Holland or Land family property fell on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. But then the Berlin Wall came down and in German parliament passed a law which allowed Germans the right to reclaim property that had been seized in the Soviet occupation.

But that law had one major caveat. You had the right to family property, but that right was automatically forfeited if your ancestors significantly contributed to the rise of the Nazi Party. This is where things get slightly sticky for Georg Friedrich, the Kaiser abdicated in eighteen after Germany's defeat in World War One, and he spent the rest of his life in exile in the Netherlands to avoid being

extradited by the Allies. But his son, former Crown Prince will Home, did return to Germany, and there are a number of more than uncomfortable photos of the former Crown Prince wearing a Nazi uniform, saluting, smiling and laughing next to Adolf Hitler like they're the best friends in the world. Georg Friedrich's negotiations with the German government over the art and the property had almost been entirely private until beyond Borman segment, in which the comedian dubbed Georg Friedrich in

German hashtag print stupid. Young Gorman said that for bringing the case at all, for trying to reclaim any of the property that was currently being displayed to the public as museums, meant that Georg Friedrick had and I quote, I are ashall balls of steel for Georg Friedrich. I imagine it's not just a matter of money, though it does seem like quite a bit of money, but of family,

honor and shame. Whatever pride he might take in being able to trace his lineage back past Queen Victoria is permanently overshadowed by those photos of his great grandfather proudly wearing a swatsticka But those photos, embarrassing as they are, can't tell a full story, and so millions of euros are at stake in a legal battle in which historians have been enlisted on both sides to answer a seemingly simple question, did Crown Prince Wilholm significantly help the Nazis?

I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble blood. Crown Prince Wilhelm was the son of the last Kaiser. He was actually the son of a man with two titles, Kaiser of Germany and King of Prussia. Until eighteen seventy one, Prussia was one of a number of sovereign states within the German Confederation. In eighteen seventy one, the states became the German Empire and the Hohenzollern family became its emperors.

Kaiser Wilhelm the second went to war against two of his first cousins, the King and Czar of England and Russia respectively, in World War One, and his oldest son, Crown Prince Wilholm, was obviously expected to show his bravery and composure on the battlefield in a leadership position. The Crown Prince was in his thirties when World War One began, and he patriotic as any German, was thrilled at the notion of expansion and the sharing of Teutonic glory all

over Europe. As a prominent noble He was, of course given command of an entire field army, regardless of the fact that he was completely unqualified and had done nothing with his twenties more notable than having an affair with the opera singer Geraldine Farrar. Crown Prince Wilhelm had the misfortune of being born as a prince while the idea of monarchy in Europe was facing a major reckoning. Famously, the devastation of World War One can be in part

attributed to nineteenth century tactics and twentieth century technology. A similar mismatch was at play with Europe's royal families at the time. Crown Prince will Holm had the lineage and ego of the absolute monarchs in a country no longer willing to give him any real power, and so though Crown Prince will Holm was technically the commander of the military's fifth Army, he had a chief of staff with actual experience who would be actually, you know, doing the work.

It was understood and expected that Crown Prince Wilhelm would defer to his chief of staff on all important military decisions. But the Crown Prince still about to wear the sash

and badges of a commander. The most noteworthy thing that Crown Print Wilhelm was actually involved in in the war, for my money, is having an affair with the performer known as Mata Harri, who would be offered a million francs by the French military for German secrets, attempt to double cross them with the Germans, and then face execution by a French firing squad when the Germans left her

out to dry. Now, this would be a much longer and a much different podcast if I were to go into all of the details about the military maneuvers of the First World War. Those details are fascinating, and I encourage you to read more about them, but for now, I think it suffices to say that at the end of the war, Germany was in free fall. A generation of young men had been wiped out in the senseless bloodshed of trench warfare. Three million Germans percent of Germany's

men were killed. While the German army stood facing the precipice of true and genuine defeat, It's demoralized soldiers began to splinter in revolt against the aristocrats who had put them in that position to begin with. First, there was a mutiny at sea by naval officers then coming in from the coasts. The masses demanded change. A socialist uprising was bubbling within Germany. The nation was going to become

a republic at any cost. On November nine, with a crowd gathering in Berlin, the Kaiser and his closest advisers realized that they had no choice. The Kaiser resigned his royal title, as did his son, the Crown Prince. Privately, the former Kaiser believed that even though he had technically abdicated his title as Kaiser, he could still hold some

power as the King of Prussia. It's the type of naivety that almost looks adorable in retrospect, like someone on the Titanic asking to make sure their tea is still out by the time they get back. Both the former Kaiser and former Crown Prince had to flee Germany in order to protect themselves from their own people's revolt. They went through Belgium and rode a train across the border to the Netherlands, a country that was neutral under Queen Wilhelmina.

The Allied powers tried in Vain to extradite the former Kaiser in order to charge him for war crimes, but Queen Wilhelmina was neutral and wanted to make a clear point to the rest of Europe adds to her nation's autonomy, and so the Kaiser would go on to buy a big house, endured, and live in exile in the Netherlands for the rest of his life, stewing about his wrongful forced eviction and blaming the Jews for sabotage in Germany

during World War One. From within. One more interesting thing happened to the former Kaiser, not entirely relevant to the story, but I think worth mentioning just because it seems surreal to me that Ben Affleck hasn't made it into a movie yet. In January nineteen nineteen, a former Tennessee senator named Luke Lee, who had just been serving as a colonel in France, attempted to kidnap the former Kaiser and

bring him to justice. Like most American soldiers, Lee was frustrated that Kaiser Bill as he called him, was just going to get away with it, to have caused so much death and then just go on to live a quiet life in a pastoral Dutch village somewhere. It seemed unimaginable. After the war, Lee happened to stumble into a party where he met the Duke of Connacht, the uncle of

both King George five and the Kaiser. With the blase attitude of the blue blooded, the Duke mentioned off handedly that no one was going to make a real fuss about the Kaiser now that he was an exile. Of course, they were all embarrassed by the Kaiser. The British royal family had changed their last name in v from sax Coburg Gotha to the more neutral sounding Windsor in order to avoid the as pesky German associations. But nobility was nobility.

The noble, like the wealthy, like to protect their own or at least to try to prevent them from ever facing any actual consequences. But Luke Lee was a good Southern boy who instinctively bristled against the insular camaraderie of the elite, and so he took matters into his own hands.

With absolutely no permission from any authority whatsoever. Lee gathered a handful of other officers from his unit, and the group of them used fake civilian passports to sneak into Holland in a seven passenger Winston Car Lee didn't tell the other men what their mission was going to be until they were already across the border. We're here to kidnap Kaiser Bill and bring him to Paris, where they're having peace talks. They can bring him to justice, he said.

Anyone who doesn't want to come along doesn't have to leave now. None of the men left. Instead, the seven American soldiers drove through the January night to the seventeenth century castle where the Kaiser was living with his wife. The gate was locked, but Lee leapt from the car and rattled at the railing until a guard approached. I demand to see the man in charge here, Lee shouted

in terrible German. The guard, no doubt deeply uncomfortable by the rowdy strangers, nevertheless, brought them inside and escorted them to the castle's library. After fifteen minutes, a man entered. It wasn't the Kaiser. It was a Dutch nobleman named Count Bentinck, wearing a full coat and tails, state or business. The Count said the Americans were silent. Benton left the library and slammed the doors behind him. From the other side of the library doors, the Americans listened as the

Count and the Kaiser talked quickly back and forth. Suddenly the count reappeared. If you don't have official business with the Kaiser, I'm afraid you must leave now. He said. We're nephews of the German count. One of the Americans ad libbed. Lee shook his head. Their mission was over and their next move was written on his face aboard. Before anyone could say another word, Lee and the Americans ran from the castle and jumped back into their car. They drove away as they saw Dutch troops coming up

the road. Finally, when it seemed like the coast was clear, one of the men pulled a silver ashtray out from his pocket. At least we got a souvenir, he said. The ash tray was embossed with the German coat of arms and the initial W I Wilhelm Imperator. The former Kaiser would file a formal complaint about the illegal Americans and their burglary of a priceless stolen astray, but in the end, Colonel Lee and his cohorts would receive what amounted to nothing more than a slap on the wrists.

Was the cost of an astray really worth the cost in damages? The Kaiser had caused to Europe. Perhaps the former Kaiser realized that it wasn't worth asking for anything from the international community. Any attention you received at that point would probably lead to trouble for him. He had gotten away with it with everything he did. He had his life and his freedom, and now he just needed to keep his mouth shut. Sometimes you need to quit

while you're ahead. But while the former Kaiser was more or less comfortable in xt style, the former Crown Prince was not. In N three, the former Crown Prince, who from now on will just call Wilhelm, made a deal with the Chancellor that he would be allowed to return to Germany as long as he didn't get involved in politics. It didn't take him too long to break that promise. From here we have to do a little bit of speculation to draw conclusions about motivations and ideologies about which

historians on both sides of the issue argue. How did Wilhelm feel about Adolf Hitler, the rising star of German politics in the twenties. Well, we know that Wilhelm shared a hatred of Jews and communists. He would write a column published in a New York newspaper stating that Hitler was a quote clear sighted and energetic leader, and commenting that the Jews and Communists were the ones to blame

for Germany's lowered status on the world stage. Wilhelm wrote glowing letters to Hitler and he joined Der Staalholm, a World War One veterans group that then went on to become the far right Harsburg Front. And then, when Hitler and his party were celebrating the reopening of the new Reichstock after the Reichstag fire, Crown Prince Wilhelm was the guest of honor. He marched in the day of Potsdam Parade with three of his four surviving brothers with a

swastika on his arm. For Hitler, the location and date of the celebration were of massive symbolic importance. Potsdam in Prussia was the seat of power for Frederick the Great and the center of the Second Reich under Otto von Bismarck. The date Hitler chose, March twenty one, was the anniversary of the opening of the First Reichstock. Everything that Hitler did was meant to convey the continuity and greatness of Germany under his party, a return to its former glory

and the Crown Prince was essential in that vision. Not only did Wilhelm's acceptance of Hitler ingratiate the politician among the aristocratic elites, but his very presence at the parade afforded it a legitimacy. Here was the heir of the Hohenzolern family, the people who had ruled Germany for hundreds

of years, throwing his weight behind Adolf Hitler. Here's the problematic part for Georg Friedrich, the head of the Hohenzolelern family today, at least in terms of public image, there is no shortage of photographs of Crown Prince Wilhelm wearing the stormtrooper Nazi uniform in boots, or standing across from Adolf Hitler looking genial like he seeing an old friend. They are the type of damning photos of an ancestor that, to me would make someone want to change their last

name altogether. But was being on Hitler's side publicly enough to constitute a quote significant contribution to the Nazi Party. Some argue that Wilhelm was just cozying up to Hitler because he secretly believed that the Nazi Party might restore the monarchy. In fact, once it became obvious that Hitler had zero intention of sharing power with anyone. Will Holm cold towards him, But does it make a difference why

someone supported Hitler? I only supported Nazis for a selfish reason, is, to my ears, not an incredibly compelling line of defense. Christopher Clark, a professor at Cambridge who was hired by the Hollandzo Learned, initially argued in favor of restoring the holandz Learned prop pretty. He wrote that even though it was undeniable that the Crown Prince did support Hitler, he wasn't politically adept or intelligent enough for that support to

be politically meaningful. It's as I like to think of it, the don junior defense. Professor. Clark says that he has since changed his mind on the issue since coming across new evidence. But the Hollins O Learns have another historian, will from Peter at the University of Stuttgart, who argues that privately, Crown Prince Wilhelm actually rejected the Nazi system. But for the most part, the historians that I read, at least the translations of the internal reports that Comedian

Jan Bowerman leaked, paint a very clear picture. As the German historian Peter Brant wrote, it cannot be denied that will Holm, especially in the dissolution phase of the Weimar Republic and in the consolidation phase of the Third Right, steadily and significantly, contributed to the transfer of power to the Nazi Party and to its consolidation. This happened in full awareness and in agreement with the path to dictatorship, combined with the hope of a more prominent place in

the new circumstances. Once Hitler was fully in power, Wilhelm almost fully withdrew from public life. He lived at his palace in Potsdam, Secilianhoff, separated from his wife, until the end of the war, when it was seized by the Red Army. That palace was actually used to host the Potsdam Conference, which you might remember from a famous photo they showed us in a p u S History class of Winston Churchill, Harriet Strumman, and Joseph Stalin all sitting

side by side. After World War Two, Wilhelm was captured by French Moroccan troops and placed under house arrest under the pretense of being a World War One criminal. He died of a heart attack in nineteen fifty one at age sixty nine, and he was buried at Hohenzollern Castle, where his great grandson Georg Friedrich now lives for part

of the year. The legal demands that Gaeorg Friederick is making today are for the typical random assortment of landed gentry property, paintings by German masters, historically important letters, the chair where Frederick the Great died, you know, classic things. But he also requested the right for him and his family to live for free at the palace sicilian Hof, which Germany recently restored with taxpayer money to turn into

a museum. Georg Friederich said that he hoped he and the government would reach a quote amicable settlement, but presumably to speed that alone in he and his family began withdrawing pieces of art that they did own outright but had been lending to public museums. Other nobles whose property had been forfeited under communism have made quiet settlement already. The Prince von seckend Weimar Eisenach was generous enough to accept eighteen point two million dollars for his assorted art

pieces and castle inventory. There's so much on the line now between the German government and the Hohenzolen family that neither side wants to risk actually going to court and accepting the consequences of an all or nothing outcome. In August, both sides agreed to a year long delay in court proceedings in order to try to negotiate a mutually acceptable compromise. The way Gayeric Friedrich describes it, he is simply upholding

his family legacy. He's fighting not out of financial greed, but out of familial obligation to take the things that belong to the holland to Learn. At its inception, the idea of feudal nobility and monarchy was almost meant to be mutually beneficial, that a king or nobleman would protect his serfs in return for their loyalty. One has to wonder, at what point does someone no longer earn the honor or dignity that society at large still ascribes to a title.

At what point do they no longer remain entitled to the extreme wealth that went along with it. It's not as though gay Org Friederich, who owned three fourths of the Home to Learn, castle, to Wineries, and an island outright among his many other properties, is hard up for cash, drawing attention to yourself and your great grandfather in a Nazi uniform to ask for millions of euros in objects and properties that are currently being given to the public takes,

as Jan Bowerman would say, here a stale. Being a monarch at the best of times puts a target on your back. Sometimes you need to quit while you're ahead. In German culture, the date November nine is massively significant. It's called shiksaws Dog or the day of fate. November nine was the day that Kaiser Wilhelms Chancellor announced the Kaiser's abdication, and then five years later, it's the day that his son, the former Crown Prince, chose to return

to Germany. It's the day of Hitler's failed beer hall putch and the horrific Crystal knach In when Jewish shops and synagogues were destroyed and hundreds of Jewish were murdered. And then in nine it was the day the Berlin Wall fell, ending the German separation. All of the seeds of the story that led to the Kaiser's great great grandson demanding compensation from the German government for the castles that the Communists took We're all planted in a steady

row on different November nine. I'm only sorry that this podcast is just a little early. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. The show was written and hosted by Danis Schwartz and produced by Aaron Manky, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about the

show over at Noble blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.