Royals and the Reich The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany

by Petropoulos, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9780195161335
• ISBN10: 0195161335
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-05-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The link between Hitler's Third Reich and European royalty has gone largely unexplored due to the secrecy surrounding royal families. Now, in Royals and the Reich, Jonathan Petropoulos uses unprecedented access to royal archives to tell the fascinating story of the Princes of Hesse and theimportant role they played in the Nazi regime. Princes Philipp and Christoph von Hessen-Kassel, great-grandsons of Queen Victoria of England, had been humiliated by defeat in WWI and, like much of the German aristocracy, feared the social unrest wrought by the ineffectual Weimar Republic. Petropoulos shows how the princes, lured by prominentpositions in the Nazi regime and highly susceptible to nationalist appeals, became enthusiastic supporters of Hitler. Prince Philipp, son-in-law to the King of Italy, became the highest-ranking prince in the Nazi state and developed a close personal relationship with Hitler and Hermann Goring.Prince Christoph was a prominent SS officer and head of one of the most important intelligence agencies in the Third Reich. In return, the princes made the Nazis socially acceptable to wealthy, high-society patrons. Prince Philipp even introduced Goring to Mussolini at a critical stage in the NaziParty's development and later served as a liaison between Hitler and the Italian dictator. Permitted access to Hessen family private papers and the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, Petropoulos follows the story of the House of Hesse through to its tragic denouement--the princes' betrayal and persecution by an increasingly paranoid Hitler and prosecution and denazification by theAllies. Royals and the Reich is a startling and unique portrait of the vanished world of prewar aristocrats and a royal family caught in one of the most tumultuous periods in history.

Author Biography

Jonathan Petropoulos is the John V. Croul Professor of European History at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author of The Faustian Bargain (OUP), which was named one of the 25 Books to Remember in 2000 by the New York Public Library. He was a Research Director on the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets and has served as an expert witness in cases involving Holocaust victims' assets. He lives in Claremont, California.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
A Note about Nomenclature	xvii
Abbreviations	xviii
Introduction	1	(15)
The Interconnectedness of the Nobility: Strategies to Preserve Privilege Through the Great War	16	(34)
The Princes von Hessen during the Weimar Republic: Tribulations, the High Life, and Fascist Flirtations	50	(47)
Nazi High Society: Making Hitler ``salonfahig'' and Helping the Nazis to Power	97	(39)
A Place in the Reich: Princely Careers in the Nazi State	136	(40)
Roles in an Increasingly Radical Regime	176	(94)
Miscalculation and Misfortune	270	(52)
Postwar Justice: Denazification and (Partial) Dispossession	322	(30)
Rebuilding a Life: Schloss Fasanerie, Financial Viability, and Burdens of the Past	352	(19)
Conclusion: Understanding German Princes in the Twentieth Century	371	(9)
Appendix 1: High Nobility in the Nazi Party	380	(10)
Appendix 2: Geneological Tree of the Princes von Hessen-Kassel in the Twentieth Century	390	(1)
Notes	391	(80)
Bibliography	471	(25)
Index	496