Is there German royals? (now)
 

I know about Princess Caroline's husband, Prince Ernst of Hannover,but I do wonder when one visits Germany, do they have royalty over there, not one that rules like in England, but live quietly, there is a book called "Royal Singles" by Christopher Egerton Thomas, saw German royals in there. very curious, thank you. CR

Hello,<BR><BR>I'm not sure what you mean. If you mean Germans having married into ruling European houses, there are at least two: the wife of the Swedish king and the husband of the Dutch queen.<BR>As for people descending from familes which have been ruling families in Germany before 1918, there are a lot. Before 1918, Germany was a federation made up by about 20 formerly independent states and most of them had a ruling family which stayed in power. If you're looking for kingdoms, there were at least four: Prussia, Bavaria, W&uuml;rttemberg and Saxony. Additionally there are all the families which ruled independent states within the Holy Roman Empire and kept their titles even if they lost their rule after 1805. <BR><BR>As for anyone of them still having a title, many of them would probably agree but actually they use their former title as a normal family name. So Prince Ernst of Hannover is actually Ernst Prince of Hannover (Prince of Hannover being his family name).

Both the British and Norwegian royal families are more or less Germans, I think.

The British royal family was called Saxe-Coburg Gotha before the First World War. Not good names when you’re at war with Germany

There are German Royal families who, whilst no longer heads of any states, still use their titles. Prince Philip, married to Queen Elizabeth, would be a good example.<BR><BR>Germany (which wasn't a unified state until 1870ish) was a collection of loads of little principalities, so there's quite a few dispossessed German Royals kicking around.

The Belgian royal family is also originally from Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha. The first king of Belgium, Leopold I, was elected as king by the Belgian National Congress in 1831. Being a prince originating from what was then a small German principality, and being related to the English Royal Family, was considered both a sign of neutrality and a useful protection for the newly born Belgian nation.<BR>As soon as he sat on the throne, Leopold had to drop all German titles. All references to Saxony have been abandonned.<BR>The third queen of Belgium, Elisabeth, was also German, originally a princess from Bavaria.

Pretty much all European Royals prior to WWI were to a great extend Germans. The Russian Czars for example nearly always arried German princesses (for example Catherine the Great was born Prinzessin Sophie von Anhalt-Zerbst). Because of its fragmented structure, Germany had a lot of noble houses which had the social standing to acceptable for marrying into royalty while at the same time the political weakness of the small states ensured that no major power became involved into the internal politics by dynastic claims. <BR><BR>An interesting sidenote is the Bavarian prince who became the first king of Greece after its independence from the Ottoman Empire. He and his court were very much in love with the classical Greece they had studied at school in Germany and thus recreated many of the power centres of the Golden Greek age when setting up an administration instead of going for the structures having evolved during the two millenia afterwards from Venezian and Turkish influence. Since they knew Greece only from the Classics, they made Athens the capital and Sparta and Theben regional administrative centres, although they weren't the logical choice for these seats of power.

Actually, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is not a good example. While he does have some German blood on his mother's side of the family, he was born a prince of Greece.

I used Google for the words Prince, Germany, and dug up a fine collection of old titles. All are gathered in the list of Former Ruling Houses in the site http://gsteinbe.intrasun.tcnj.edu/royalty/royalty.html: they were living and active, but not ruling, from 1939 to 1945. I think one might mention too Otto von Hapsburg, Member of the European Parliament, who is certainly a man of influence, as well as a man of family. Good republicans will find the list of ruling monarchs at that period depressing, the more so when they think that (though there have been deletions) Spain has been added to that list.

I used Google for the words Prince, Germany, and dug up a fine collection of old titles. All are gathered in the list of Former Ruling Houses in the site http://gsteinbe.intrasun.tcnj.edu/royalty/royalty.html: they were living and active, but not ruling, from 1939 to 1945. I think one might mention too Otto von Hapsburg, Member of the European Parliament, who is certainly a man of influence, as well as a man of family. Good republicans will find the list of ruling monarchs at that period depressing, the more so when they think that (though there have been deletions) Spain has been added to that list.<BR><BR>Ben Haines, London

To answer Caroline's question, yes. You can find all of them in the Almanach de Gotha.

I saw the Prince of Lippe, a small former principality in northern Germany, on the grounds while I was sightseeing at his castle in Detmold this spring. Of course, I wouldn't have recognized him, but my German friends who live near there did. He had to get out to open the gate himself when he drove up (in a BMW or Mercedes, can't remember which). No liveried footmen, and not even an electric gate opener.

Are there...

Sure there are!!! All the descendants of the former kings are still around, and are the legal heirs to their ancestors' thrones. As a matter of fact, a good-looking man in his early 20's would be Kaiser of Germany if the (Prussian) monarchy were reintroduced.