Hohenzollern on Historians Day? How the nobles want to save their battered image

Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia, head of the Hohenzollern, apparently wants to polish up his battered image at the upcoming Historikertag in Munich, which has suffered badly in the dispute over compensation with the state. His media lawyer Markus Hennig is to speak there.

A correspondence between Hennig, the Association of German Historians (VHD) and Martin Sabrow, Director of the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History Research in Potsdam, confirms this unusual concern. The correspondence is available to SPIEGEL.

The Hohenzollern representative then asked the VHD on December 21 to grant him "a guest's right to speak" in Munich. In the letter, he accused some historians of spreading "false factual claims for which the term 'disinformation' seems permissible", ie deliberate misleading, about the former imperial family. In his guest appearance, Hennig probably wants to correct the alleged distorted picture.

Claims on a few thousand works of art

Scientists such as Stephan Malinowski, Karina Urbach or Sabrow had sometimes criticized the Hohenzollerns sharply. The nobles demand compensation from the public sector for properties that were expropriated by the Soviets after 1945, and they claim several thousand works of art from the federal government, the states of Berlin and Brandenburg. Read the detailed SPIEGEL piece here. The total value of the receivables is probably in the three-digit million range.

More at SPIEGEL +

BabiradpictureHohenzollern want art treasures back from the tribe Take

The Prince of Prussia had acted legally against the historians - and had thus sparked another argument. Sabrow accused him of attacking the "freedom of science" and exposing the subject of contemporary history to a "culture of intimidation".

In mid-December, the Association of Historians condemned the Hohenzollern's legal action "emphatically" and decided to put the Hohenzollern conflict in Munich on the agenda. Using the example of the imperial descendants, the "use of law in the defense against historical knowledge formation and dissemination" will be discussed.

Theme at the Historikertag: "interpretive struggles"

The Historians' Day is one of the largest humanities congresses in Europe. In Munich it is under the motto "interpretive struggles". The section on the Hohenzollern will be headed by Sabrow, who also decides on the right to speak.

He has already written to Hennenz, the Hohenzollern representative, that he "is happy" to offer him participation, including the right to speak. However, under one condition: The Hohenzollerns should neither "be in a legal dispute with him nor with the other historians who have presented them".

In other words, the Hohenzollerns should end their legal campaign against the scientists. It is uncertain whether Prince of Prussia will agree to this. His lawyer Hennig could not be reached for a statement to SPIEGEL.