[Old Version] Who Would Be Kings of Germany Today?

today I'm gonna answer the question who would be the kings of Germany today if Germany were to restore its monarchies in earlier videos I looked at who would be the king of France today and who would be the Tsar of Russia today and since then I've received numerous requests to do a similar video about Germany so that's what this video is going to be about but before I begin I would like to point out that my purpose in making videos like this is not to support any particular monarchist movements I make these what-if videos simply because it's an interesting way to learn a bit of history and since in this video I'll be mentioning a few individuals who fought alongside the Nazis in World War two I would like to make it absolutely clear that I do not support Nazism in any way shape or form most of the members of the German nobility did not fight in World War two but a few did so I thought I'd make my position clear so with that out of the way the next thing I need to point out is the fact that I've used the word King's plural instead of just king of Germany that's because before Germany became a republic it actually had four kings not just one to explain let's quickly look at a map of the German Empire prior to World War one the German Empire was made up of a bunch of different German states four of which were kingdoms the largest by far was the Kingdom of Prussia which had existed since the Year 1701 but there are also three smaller kingdoms the kingdom of Bavaria the kingdom of Saxony and the kingdom of württemberg these three were formed around 1806 which is when the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved it was also during the time when Napoleon was ruling most of Europe in 1871 these four kingdoms joined together along with a bunch of other smaller states like grand duchies duchies principalities and free cities all which are shown here in the yellow they all joined together to form the German Empire and that Empire existed from 1871 to 1918 the King of Prussia because he ruled the largest territory also held the title of German Emperor or Kaiser Kaiser being related to the word Caesar so we're going to look at all four of the monarchies the Prussian monarchy which belonged to the House of Hohenzollern the Bavarian monarchy which belonged to the house of Wittelsbach the Saxon monarchy which belonged to the house of wettin and the monarchy of wuertenberg all four of these monarchies were dissolved at the end of World War one in 1918 but their lines continued to this day so let's start with Prussia the last King of Prussia and the last German Kaiser was wilhelm ii after his defeat in World War one he lived in the Netherlands until 1941 where he died at age 82 the kaisers firstborn son also named Wilhelm became head of the house next several of Williams brothers and Sons fought alongside the Nazis in World War two in fact his firstborn son died while fighting in France in 1940 although he had actually given up his succession rights earlier in order to marry a woman of unequal rank so when the former crown prince died in 1951 the leadership of the House passed to his second son Prince Louis Ferdinand unlike other members of his family louis ferdinand was opposed to the nazis and had spent much of his youth in america in fact he was imprisoned at Dachau near the end of the war because Hitler did not trust him he lived until 1994 and had four sons however the first two sons married outside the nobility so the line passed through his third son but that son died before him in 1977 and therefore when Prince Louis Ferdinand died the title of head of house went directly to his grandson Prince George Friedrich so if there were to be a German Kaiser today or a King of Prussia it would be this individual here who would be the best candidate for that job next up Bavaria the last king of Bavaria was Ludwig the third he married maria theresa of austria este who was heir to the throne of Great Britain according to the alternative Jacobite succession and therefore the next three individuals in this line were both heirs to the throne of Bavaria as well as Jacob ight pretenders if you want more information about the Jacobite succession I've got a separate video on that which I'll link to in the description Ludwig the third died shortly after World War one in 1921 the former crown prince and his family opposed Hitler during World War two and had to escape to other countries some of them were captured and kept in dec how with Prince Louis Ferdinand the current head of the House is Franz who holds the title Duke of Bavaria he never married and has had no children so therefore when he dies the title will pass to his younger brother Prince max max has five daughters but no sons so once these two individuals pass on what will happen next is this the Jacobite succession will pass to Max's eldest daughter Sophie who is currently the hereditary princess of leaked enstein this is because the Jacobites follow British succession rules which allow for female monarchs however German noble houses do not tend to allow female heirs so the title of duke of bavaria will go to the next most senior male-line descendant of ludwig the third that individual would be Prince Aleut polled and he has three sons so the line will continue through his family in the future now let's look at Saxony the last King of Saxony was Frederick Augustus the third he died in 1930 - but because his eldest son the former Crown Prince had become a Catholic priest his titles passed to his second son Frederick Christian and then to his firstborn son maria emmanuel don't be confused by this name this is a male not a female he was opposed to Hitler during World War two and in fact was captured and sentenced to death for this at age 18 however he escaped and went on to live until 2012 after that the succession gets a bit tricky Marya didn't have any legitimate children so he adopted his sister's son so that the line could continue through him that would be Prince Alexander but when he died his younger brother Albert inherited his titles for a few months before he himself passed away and Albert preferred a different successor he chose Prince rüdiger who is a direct male line descendent of the last king of Saxony so there is currently a dispute within the family over who is the actual head of the house with these two individuals being the two main candidates finally we have lerton Berg the last king of wuertenberg died in 1921 with no surviving sons and therefore his titles passed to a distant cousin named Albert Albert died in 1939 just as World War two was starting the line continued through his son and then on to his grandson Carl who is the current duke of württemberg and head of the house his son Frederick was to inherit his titles but Frederick actually died just a few months ago in a car accident that makes his eldest son also named Frederick the heir so that covers the former kings of Germany and their current heirs support for return to a monarchy is low in Germany and therefore it is extremely unlikely that any of these individuals will ever become a monarch if you'd like to download an electronic version of this chart I will post a link in the description thanks for watching and be sure to subscribe to the channel for more historical family tree charts

Channel: UsefulCharts

Views: 1,092,036

Keywords: who would be kaiser today, who would be kasier of germany, king of prussia, king of bavaria, king of saxony, germany monarchy, german monarchy, german monarchies, german monarchist, kaiser wilhelm ii, kaiser wilhelm family tree, kaiser family tree, hohenzollern family tree, house of hohenzollern

Id: z3j81Ed1fpc

Length: 9min 6sec (546 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 12 2018