Philip Kirill Prinz von Preussen, a Lutheran pastor, has called for the restoration of the German monarchy. He told Die Zeit newspaper that the sovereign would be "financially independent" and would not need to accept gifts from friends. This latter action left to German President Christian Wulff's recent resignation.
"A king is invulnerable to such cases," Pastor Prinz von Preussen said. "Either he would have old family property or an appanage, and it would be beneath his dignity to accept presents from friends."
He added: "And there are no reporters on the level of sniffing around European royal families."
He did consider Roman Herzog and Richard von Weizsäcker to be good examples as German heads of state. But he added: "This level of words is necessary, but they do not move people inside. When our hearts are touched, we change. During the past football World Championships there emerged so much uncomplicated national consequences that nose-wrinkling intellectuals no longer understood their country.
"Emotions are the field on which a royal family can play. They do not have to think up some program, it goes to the hearts that they are simply there."
Philip Prinz von Preussen acknowledged that the "personal and private lives" of German politicians are seen as private, but the lives of royals are were "legitimately public."
"Of course a king should have a happy marriage. Of course the heir to the throne should marry." He also pointed out the joy of royal births. "When, as now in Sweden, a member of the royal family is born, what a joy goes through the country! Even the prime minister spoke of a happy day. The heart has a much more intensive influence than the appeal of the family minister for better framework conditions to combine family and career."
He also said that failed marriages within a royal house can be good because the media "scandalizes bad behavior conducted by royals."
A royal family, he argued, also provides a country with stability, as they cannot be "thrown out by a vote of confidence or swept from office by their immunity from prosecution being lifted. That does a country good."
Unfortunately, for Pastor Philip Prinz von Preussen, he would not be the one put on the throne if German politicians were to vote to restore the monarchy. He is the eldest son of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia and his first wife, the late Waltraud Freytag. Friedrich Wilhelm is the eldest son of late Prince
Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, who succeeded his father, Crown Prince Wilhelm, as head of the German Imperial family.
Philip Prinz von Preussen is a pastor in Zehdenick, which is north of Berlin. He is a great-grandson of Wilhelm II.
Friedrich Wilhelm renounced his rights when he married Philip's mother, a commoner. The head of the family is Philip's first cousin, Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia, the only son of the late Prince Louis Ferdinand, Jr., and Countess Donata zu Castell-Rüdenhausen. Friedrich Wilhelm's second brother, Prince Michael, also lost his rights when he married a commoner, leaving the succession to the third son, Prince Louis Ferdinand, who died as the result of injuries suffered in a military accident in 1977.
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120314-41325.html
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