Monday, July 15, 2019

Georg Friedrich seeks right to live in Cecilienhof


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Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia, the head of the house of Hohenzollern, has filed a claim with Germany, "demanding a permanent right of residency for his family in Cecilienhof, now a museum or one of two other palaces formerly occupied by his family," reports the Irish Times.

Cecilienhof, which was built in 1917, was named for Georg Friedrich's great-grandmother, Crown Princess Cecilie, the wife of Crown Prince Wilhelm, eldest son of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who abdicated in November 1918 as the German Empire had collapsed from the weight of its defeat and the changing political tide that was steamrolling through Europe.

The palace was the site where the Allied nations, celebrating their victory over Germany and fascism, held the Potsdam Conference in 1945, where President Harry S. Truman, Prime Minister Clement Atlee and Josef Stalin met to finalize the establishment of a post-World War II, which included the division of Europe and the path toward what would be known as the Cold war.

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 After the conference was over, Soviet troops used Cecilienhof as a clubhouse.  Potsdam was in the eastern sector of Germany, later the German Democratic Republic.

The palace is now open to the public, as a part of the Preussische-Schlösser und Gärten in Berlin-Brandenburg.

Georg Friedrich has been involved in "discreet talks" for five years but "negotiations  have reached an impasse."   He has canceled "long-term loans of family art works in Berlin and Potsdam."  He has also demanded the return of the "family library and 1000 letters" to and from his great-great-grandmother, Empress Auguste Viktoria, the consort of Wilhelm II.

The letters were  found during a "recent renovation" of the Neues Palais, also in Potsdam.

Prince Georg Friedrich, 43, succeeded his grandfather, Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia. as head of the Imperial House.

http://www.potsdam-park-sanssouci.de/cecilienhof-palace.html

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/the-fall-of-the-house-of-hohenzollern-1.3956448?mode=amp&fbclid=IwAR1DAHQQLzah7WgGYNZctdec-99zat5tZo_uSZqK7nDBxS8_XoPq-J-UiZE

https://www.dw.com/en/german-kaisers-heir-wants-seized-artifacts-back/a-49576011-0

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/07/15/descendants-german-kaisers-bid-reclaim-artworks-palaces/

https://www.spsg.de/en/palaces-gardens/object/cecilienhof-palace/

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