In Europe

with the inheritance. The exact relation? I'm the fourth son of Prince Oscar. Oscar was the fifth son of Kaiser Wilhelm II. I'm a prince, yes, a Prussian prince.
    ‘Did I notice the change? I had an absolutely wonderful childhood at Potsdam, I went to school there, and after that I joined the army, the cavalry, because I was crazy about horses. That was in December 1939. The war had already begun.
    ‘My oldest brother Oscar was killed almost immediately. Shortly afterwards my cousin Wilhelm, the crown prince's eldest son, died as well. They organised a huge funeral for him at Potsdam, thousands of people attended. After that all of the kaiser's descendants were brought back from the front, including me. The Nazis did not want another demonstration of imperial loyalty like that. In 1943 we were all actually discharged from military service. The grounds given were: unsuited, due to international family ties. After the war I wanted to attend university, but the British were having none of it. Once again, it was those ‘international family ties’.
    ‘In the long run, through a friend, I found a position at a plant for colourings and flavourings, and together we were able to build that company into an international firm with twenty-two subsidiaries. Later on I'll be picking up my grandchildren at the station in Göttingen. No, I'm doing quite well, thank you.
    ‘The last German emperor, in other words, was my grandfather. From the time I was very young we always spent a week or two each summer at Doorn. He was a true grandfather. He had the special gift of being able to make every grandchild feel that he or she was his favourite. Our life at home was quite spartan, so we hugely enjoyed all that lovely Dutch food he served us. He was the one who introduced us to art and literature. He was interested in everything. As children, we were amazed by that.
    ‘I knew him, in other words, as a very different man from the one you read about in the history books. He probably mellowed as he grew older as well; in any case I never heard him speak an unfriendly word to anyone.
    ‘At first, living at Doorn was extremely difficult for him. The Dutch sheltered and protected him quite chivalrously, but he had fallen from the highest heights to the lowest depths, psychologically as well. Sometime you should read what was written about him at his silver jubilee, and then what they all said about him after the war. When a system of government as huge as that collapses, with everything and everyone in it who bore any responsibility, then the first reaction is to put the blame on the person who was at the top. In this case, that was my grandfather.
    ‘Back then there was also all that pomp and circumstance. They held that against him too. Every period, of course, has its own style – those long-winded communist diatribes from the days of the DDR wouldn't be tolerated any more either – so a lot of it had to do with the spirit of the times. At the same time, my grandfather was truly a man of broad interests. Technical things, scientific discoveries, educational reform, theatre, art, he was engrossed by all of that. Perhaps his interests were a bit too broad. Altogether, in my view, that gave him a certain ambivalence. He saw himself as an heir to the old Prussian rulers, but in actual fact he was much more a representative of the modern Germany, and naturally that created a certain tension.
    ‘The way I see it, the course of events leading up to the First World War had something fateful to it. No single European at that time could have imagined that out of all those little German states, a modern super-power would emerge so quickly. That wasn't particularly pleasant for all the surrounding countries, especially when that new Germany beganbehaving like the nouveau riche. You're right, if Germany had shown a little more caution, it would all have turned out differently.
    ‘I still feel quite a strong bond with my grandfather. These days I see many things differently, but I always try to place his actions in the context of the day in which he lived. You see, the German Empire created in 1871 still had to reach maturity, it still had to adopt a whole new form. Before that, Germany was a quilt of smaller and larger princedoms, and in fact they were not at all keen about becoming united. Furthermore, there was a deep, deep chasm between Protestants and Catholics, and you had the extremely repressive Socialist Act as well, with all the