The Hohenzollerns are usually treated as bookmarks in histories of the two World Wars, with the Kaiser as an essential instigator of the First and laying the groundwork for the Second despite his defenestration. This book picks up his life in exile in the Netherlands as an increasingly anachronistic character unable to handle the need to explain himself even to his own most loyal followers.

That loyalty and blindness extends to his descendants, who remain pretenders to leadership well into the Nazi period and attempt to ride the storm while simultaneously keeping a distance from it, unable to accept that they’re no longer relevant or even respected except in the most superficial ways. It’s as though they want to take credit for Nazi accomplishments and are untroubled by the atrocities as long as it offers the possibility of a return to the throne – and are similarly untroubled by the fact that that thronw would never actually be a real power centre. The Kaiser’s emphasis on the forms over the functions of royalty have a long reach.

The translation is little grating at times, fascinated by the word caesura. But the pace is good and it deals well with the contradictions and (still continuing) attempts to rewrite family history to remove the taint of association with Hitler – while (coincidentally I’m sure) restoring family property.

4/5. Finished Monday 18 August, 2025.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)