Are there any German groups who advocate restoration of the monarchy and/or the old Imperial flag?
Apparently:
(from Wikipedia).
A problem for the Germans is that their monarchy lasted less than 50 years.
McDonalds has a longer history than the Second Reich.
That’s pretty lame.
Well, there was the Holy Roman Empire[of German Nations, at least that’s what it’s called in German schools]–962-1806–which makes all you young whipper-snapper nations seem pretty young alright. We could definitely try and get that back.
But the HRC sort of became the Austro-Hungarian Empire - so it’s probably *Austrian *monarchists we should be asking about.
This was my thought too. Other than Hohenzollern itself (a small exclave in Bavaria), the lands of Prussia before 1800 are all in what became the USSR, Poland, and East Germany. (They only held Westphalia and the Rhineland durin g the 19th century.) I would say there is not much popular support for the Hohenzollerns.
Similar comments could be made about the Wittelsbachs of Bavaria, the Hannoverians, and the other assorted princely houses of pre-2nd Reich Germany. There are no doubt loyalists for each, but my hunch is that taken together they would not fill an opera house.
The Habsburgs, on the other hand, have a relatively small but persistent ongoing support, owing to their active work for European unity during the 20th century. Their multinational empire and their active pushing of pan-Europeanism have kep them on the fringes of newsworthiness for over 90 years now.
There is an organisation, Tradition und Leben, which exists to campaign for the restoration of a German monarchy.
Their website says that their magazine, Erbe und Auftrag, sells 700 copies, so I’m guessing that they’re not a mass movement.
Then again, there are the on-off plans to rebuilt (parts of) the palaces in Berlin and Potsdam. Those are driven by much, much more than mere nostalgia for the Hohenzollerns but do nevertheless say something about a post-1989 revival of interest in their cultural legacies. Partly that’s possible because an actual restoration of the monarchy is so improbable.
The drives to rebuild the Berlin and Potsdam palaces have the purpose of restoring features of the cityscape, not to put actual monarchs inside. There are a lot of palaces maintained with public money in Germany, but as public buildings or as museums. For example the university I went to was headquartered in the palace of the Hanoverian royal house (that went into exile after they came off second best against the Prussians in 1866).
The vast majority of the German Right is small-r- republican of some kind, and the centre and left wholly so. The Wilhelmine age 1871-1914 is sometimes fondly remembered as a long period of peace and increasing prosperity (the latter with some notable setbacks), but the Hohenzollerns’ political reputation is tainted by Wilhelm II foolishly leading German into disaster. The regional and national feudal history is very prominent in teaching and presenting history up to the 20th century, but as fact, not affirmatively.
All of which I’m fully aware.
Advocating (or parading with) the Imperial flag is often used by the Far-Right as a surrogate for the National Socialist flags and symbols (which it is illegal to display in any form).
Well, that and their amazing jaws. Always nice to have a monarch capable of taking it on the chin for his people.
Swabia :). The Hohenzollerns, like the Hapsburgs ( and earlier, the medieval imperial house of Hohenstaufen ), originated in Swabia in southwestern Germany. Beautiful Hohenzollern Castle.
Genealogical quibble: The House of Habsburg went extinct (due in part to excessive inbreeding) in 1780 upon the death of Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia; her father, Emperor Charles VI (d. 1740), was the last male Habsburg. Maria Theresa had a large number of children (including Marie Antoinette “let them eat cake”) who carried a “Habsburg-Lothringen” surname and whose living descendants still call themselves “Archduke” or “Graf von Habsburg”, but the Habsburg surname was a fiction intended to keep the dead dynasty alive.
The rise of Prussia coincides closely with the unsuccessful reign of Empress Maria Theresa.
Accurate but not relevant. I’ll accept the point that the modern “Habsburgs” aren’t really Habsburgs, since descent was through the female line, if you can get H.M. the Duchess of Edinburgh, who married into the House of Mountbatten, to drop me a note saying that’s the right way to look at such cases. 
It is relevant, and Queen Elizabeth of the UK actually proves it. She’s a member of the House of Windsor/Saxe Coburg and Gotha, and not the House of Hannover. The only reason Prince Charles has the name Windsor is because of an order by Queen Elizabeth saying that her descendants who are princes or princesses will take the name Windsor, but any cadet branches will be called “Mountbatten-Windsor”. Prince Charles is a member of the House of Oldenburg through the cadet House of Glücksburg.
I’m not sure what your claim of “irrelevance” means. Although I stated it as a genealogical “quibble,” in fact succession of German (and many nearby) titles followed a variation of “Salic rules” and did not pass through daughters. When previous HRE Dynasties had gone extinct, a new Emperor was elected. Even in this case, a Wittelsbach served as Emperor between Maria Theresa and her father (though that Wittelesbach was also a Habsburg’s son-in-law).
Inheritance of title or surname from a mother may be common in some countries – Winston Churchill himself came from a line of male Spencers, one of whom appended his mother’s surname. But not in the German Empire. The surname “Habsburg-Lothringen” was a fiction and it was adopted (along with a fabricated ancient pedigree) in an effort to defy the Salic inheritance rules and keep the Empire in the possession of the heirs of the last true-Habsburg Emperor.
Except West Berlin.
Speaking of the Hapsburgs, its head is now 98 and was born in the days of Austria-Hungary.
You couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting SOME German province back before WWI. Even excluding the few kingdoms, you had all of those duchies, principalities, grand duchies, grand principalities, arch duchies etc. Most of European royalty is German, at least by ethnicity.
You mean Crown Prince Otto von Habsburg? He’s officially renounced any claim he had to the throne.
(Notice there’s a picture of him with Emperor Franz-Josef.)
Oh, and Curtis – I’m not saying that you’re wrong in that he’s not head of the family. I was just pointing out that he’s not campaigning for a return of the monarchy.
Got it thanks.