"Cut the Gordian knot in the Hohenzollern complex"

In the long-standing dispute over unresolved questions of ownership and compensation payments for 4,000 works of art, the waiver by Hohenzollern chief Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia has met with a positive response from the federal government and the Brandenburg state government.

Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) told the "Spiegel" that it was "an important step if Mr. Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia is now ready to separate historical questions from questions about the future handling of the cultural heritage of the House of Hohenzollern". She assumes that the Prince of Prussia will "withdraw all lawsuits under the Compensation Act" after his announcements.

It was about property expropriated after 1945 in what later became the GDR and a large number of works of art and other objects. Among other things, the House of Hohenzollern had demanded around 1.2 million euros from the state of Brandenburg for property expropriated after 1945. At the heart of the legal dispute was the question of whether representatives of the House of Hohenzollern had significantly abetted National Socialism. Compensation payments would have been legally excluded in that case.

The head of the House of Hohenzollern had previously said exclusively in WELT that withdrawing the claims was his personal decision, which he had made "regardless of possible chances of success".

When assigning the works of art, the question is relevant "whether my great-grandfather, Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, 'encouraged the National Socialists' through his behavior". With the end of the procedure he wanted to clear the way for an "unencumbered debate". He has "no problem at all with critically examining the history of my family". He will announce his decision during a family history event planned in Berlin today.

It was absolutely right to "take a critical look at Crown Prince Wilhelm," said the Prince of Prussia. It is "not clearly verifiable" that he gave the National Socialists advantages, "even if he should have wanted it himself". But he had "clearly sought proximity to the Nazi regime". As a person who had "ingratiated himself with right-wing extremism", he "could not be able to create tradition for our house".

Brandenburg's Finance Minister Katrin Lange (SPD) also welcomed the announcement. "Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia, as head of the House of Hohenzollern, has now spoken a word of power and made a courageous decision," she explained in Potsdam: "I think that it is also the right decision." Hohenzollern complex has been penetrated". In addition, a “highly involved debate about compensation claims of various kinds, which in detail can hardly be understood by outsiders, is ended”.

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