Why did Germany decide not to restore the Hohenzollern dynasty to the throne of a German Empire after the defeat of Hitler in World War Two?
score:25
SUMMARY: Because Hohenzollern dynasty and the general conception of Prussia as a kingdom, or Germany as an empire, had already been "destroyed" in minds.
Detailed answer:
Prussia officially unified the states of Germany and created the Second Reich in 1871, after its successful war against France. This creation was sustained until 1918, when hungry Germans led a riot close to a revolution against the Empire, forcing the Emperor to abdicate and exile in the Netherlands. After a civil war, notably against the communist Spartakists, the Republic of Weimar was installed.
And this is this republic that was overthrown by Hitler in 1933 (technically, there were elections but you know the context of brutal events, lies, and violence as a pressure on the population). The name "Third Reich" was given, after the Second Reich, but Hitler's government and institutions were those of a dictatorship rather than a monarchy: especially, it relied on ideology a lot.
When in 1945 the Third Reich fell, Germany was split in two and the Allies wanted to secure the future from a new German expansion. Installing a new kingdom was certainly not a good idea in that regard. So the Soviets installed a soviet-style republic, the German Democratic Republic, and the Western allies an "Occidental-style" republic, the German Federal Republic.
Upvote:10
In addition to the other answers, it may also be of interest that even in Germany, few people would have wanted that. (The following points are mostly based on the recent book "Die Hohenzollern und die Nazis" by Stephan Malinowski (https://www.ullstein.de/werke/die-hohenzollern-und-die-nazis/hardcover/9783549100295), which extensively deals with the activities of the Hohenzollerns, in particular the former crown prince, during the 20s and early 30s.)
In the Weimar republic, many people, in particular on the political right, rejected the republic. Additionally, there was a widespread general nostalgia for kingdom(s) and empire. However, there never was a significant political movement for a restoration of the 1871 empire, for various reasons such as
- re-establishing all the (nominally more or less sovereign) states within Germany was unpopular,
- even many people on the right favoured a more egalitarian society without the hereditary privileges of the aristocracy (a notion which had significant racial components in the Volksgemeinschaft),
- and the natural candidates for emperor, former emperor Wilhelm (II.) and former crown prince Wilhelm, were discredited (by the flight to the Netherlands, by their general behaviour during the war and later) among conservative royalists.
So one reason for conservatives (including the Hohenzollerns) for collaborating with the Nazis was to overthrow the republic, with the idea that the house of Hohenzollern may be restored to some kind of reformed imperial throne, but actually, that was never particularly popular even in 1930.
So after the war, a restoration was never seriously considered AFAIK. (Of course, the allies didn't want that anyway.)
Upvote:19
@totalMongot's third paragraph is a good start. None of the victors wanted a recidivist Germany or even (at the time) a united Germany. Creating a new Kingdom of Germany was for that reason a non-starter.
Additionally, the US did not see any benefit for Germany of a restored Hohenzollern dynasty. The US was staunchly democratic, believed a limited republic to be the best form of government, and so (along with Britain) set up a federal republic for the parts of Germany it controlled -- pretty much the opposite of a centralized kingdom. (The USSR was also anti-monarchy, of course, for its own ideological reasons.)
Beyond that, the original question asks "Why did Germany decide not to restore..." and @Moishe Kohan correctly notes that Germany was not in a position to decide anything even if it had wanted the Hohenzollerns back.
And did any significant number of Germans even want that?
More post
- π Did Noah Webster ever state why he Americanized spelling?
- π During World War 1, were any policies in place to handle large scale troop mutiny?
- π Why did the Nazis collaborate with the UstaΕ‘e?
- π Was Nazi Germany still burning books in 1935?
- π Why didn't America "rent" parts of China?
- π What were the factors behind the lowest AAA corporate interest rate in U.S bond history during 1946?
- π Where did Otto von Bismarck say "lying awake all night, hating"?
- π Why was most of Europe against communism right from the start?
- π Which of Hitler's peers had no more education than him?
- π Were there punishments in the Roman Empire for not believing in the official religion?
- π How long would it have taken to sail from Boston to Nova Scotia in 1775?
- π Was Ludwig von Mises a holocaust survivor?
- π What were the differences between mortars and other artilleries in world war I?
- π Age of Finnish soldiers in Winter War and Continuation War
- π When has the U.S. refused to pay its debts?
- π What exactly is the US national anthem?
- π How was the Ancient Egyptian name 'God is Gracious' written?
- π Did Japan use reconnaissance balloons in WWII?
- π Who really put to flight American hostages in America's embassy in Tehran in 1979?
- π Why did the US, Britain, France, Denmark and Sweden vote against the UN resolution that condemned Nazism and SS glorification?
- π Language of Franks vs later French
- π Why didn't trench warfare produce a similar stalemate on the eastern front in World War I?
- π Why did Pausanias travel to Greece?
- π What was the role of state sacrifices and music in Ming China?
- π What is the origin of these assertions about The Palaces of Qin shih Huang?
- π Do British peers have a special way of signing their names?
- π Why was Scipio the Younger accused of wishing to abolish Tiberius Gracchus laws?
- π US "destroyed" Libya: how viable is this as a reading of the history?
- π How did philosophical and scientific knowledge in Christian Europe in 1085 compare to the body of knowledge contained in the library of Toledo?
- π What is the first recorded instance of jet lag?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- π Why did Germany decide not to restore the Hohenzollern dynasty to the throne of a German Empire after the defeat of Hitler in World War Two?
- π Why did Germany not join the United Nations until 1973?
- π Why Marcus Aurelius did not restore the Roman Republic?
- π Why did the Ottoman Empire not industrialize like France, Germany or Belgium?
- π Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- π Why did Canada not join the American Revolution?
- π Why did the Western Roman Empire collapse but not the Eastern Roman Empire?
- π Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- π Why did Germany officially acknowledge the contents of the Zimmerman telegram?
- π Why did Europe not see Roman-era numbers of men participating in battles until the 17th century?
- π Why did the United States not resort to nuclear weapons in Vietnam?
- π Why did Hitler not order the use of poison gas in combat?
- π Why did Italy abandon its alliance with Germany in WW1 and join the Allied side?
- π Historically, why did the US station their nuclear weapons in Germany for delivery through German pilots?
- π Why did the United States not invade North Vietnam?
- π Why did Jews not immigrate to the Muslim world?
- π Why did the Chinese Nationalist party members go to the island of Taiwan and not to any other island?
- π Why did the person in charge of a principality not just declare themself king?
- π Why did the Soviet Union not "grant" Inner Mongolia to Mongolia after World War Two?
- π Why did the British not introduce the sterling in India?
- π Why did the Germans not encircle and besiege Stalingrad?
- π Why did Hitler send Manstein's army (and not some other) to Leningrad in the summer of 1942?
- π Why did the Soviets not shoot down US spy satellites during the Cold War?
- π Why did the rest of the Eastern Bloc not invade Yugoslavia?
- π Why did everyone try getting to the Pole via the Ross Sea, not the Weddell Sea?
- π Why did the states that were born out of the Louisiana purchase adopt a common law system, and not a civil law system?
- π Why did the Ottomans not change their capital to an Arab city?
- π Why did China decide to support Poland in 1956, but not Hungary?
- π Why did Hitler not claim the German-majority areas of Schleswig?
- π Before entering WW II, why was the US so against Japanese aggression in China but did nothing about Germany in Europe?