Family of Prussian kings settles century-old dispute with Germany over royal treasures
The German government and the states of Berlin and Brandenburg have settled a 100-year-old dispute with descendants of the Hohenzollerns, the kings of Prussia, over the ownership of royal treasures including art, furniture, porcelain, glass and books in museum collections in Berlin and Potsdam.
Thousands of the long-contested items will be transferred to the ownership of a new charitable foundation called Stiftung Hohenzollernscher Kunstbesitz (Foundation for Hohenzollern Art Property), which will be controlled by state entities, the Culture Ministry said in a statement on 12 May.
The objects include Lucas Cranach the Elder’s portrait of Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg, Baroque ivory furniture created for Elector Frederick William and a dinner service that belonged to Frederick the Great.
According to the Culture Ministry’s statement, the objects will remain in the collections of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the German Historical Museum. The new foundation’s nine-member board will include three representatives of the Hohenzollern family; the other six members all represent public authorities.
Wolfram Weimer, who took office as culture minister earlier this month, described the agreement in a statement as “an enormous success for Germany’s heritage and for art audiences”. “For 100 years, there was perpetual uncertainty about objects that are central to the history of art and collecting by Prussia—and therefore, to German history,” he continued. “With this agreement we have ended a conflict that has cost both sides time, money and energy over many years.”
Who were the Hohenzollerns?
The Hohenzollerns ruled Brandenburg-Prussia, Prussia and then Germany for 500 years. Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last emperor of Germany and by far the richest man in the country before World War I, abdicated in 1918. He remained very wealthy, holding onto a considerable amount of furniture, art, porcelain and silver in exile in the Netherlands, as well substantial cash reserves and dozens of palaces, villas and other properties.
But after World War II, the Hohenzollerns’ land and homes in East Germany were seized in Communist land reforms, and thousands of works and historical objects were transferred to the collections of state-owned museums.
The family first claimed for restitution after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Georg Friedrich Prinz von Preussen, the current head of the Hohenzollern dynasty, began negotiating with officials in 2014, but the talks broke down in 2022 and the dispute headed to court. Then in 2023, Prinz von Preussen said he would withdraw his claim for thousands of objects; the court proceedings were dropped and the parties returned to the negotiating table.
Under the new agreement, the Hohenzollern family retains ownership of seven tobacco boxes and a number of other items on a so-called “C-List”. Some of the most valuable of the disputed items will become the direct property of the state rather than going to the foundation, the Culture Ministry said.
The agreement will take effect as soon as the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the German Historical Museum have formally approved it, the Culture Ministry said.
