Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Hitler planning to restore monarchy?

 
October 26, 1936


German Chancellor Adolf Hitler is planning to "re-establish a German monarchy to perpetuate Nazis, " reports the Associated Press, based on a Berne dispatch from the Swiss newspaper L'Information.

The dispatch cited "closely informed sources on German affairs," for the report.

Chancellor Hitler has apparently decided on Prince Ernst August of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg in preference to one of the sons of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who lives in exile in the Netherlands.

Hitler believes that a monarchy is the "best means of perpetuating the Nazi regime."  The Duke has apparently promised to make Hitler "Chancellor for life," and will guarantee continued Nazi power.

Prince Ernst August was married in 1913 to Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, the only daughter of the former Kaiser Wilhelm II.  He was born at Penzing, near Vienna, in 1887, the third but only surviving son of Prince Ernst August, Duke of Cumberland, and Princess Thyra of Denmark.

He is a grandson of King Georg V, the last king of Hanover, and a first cousin of the late King George V of the United Kingdom.

The Duke and Duchess have five children, Prince Ernst August, Prince Georg Wilhelm,  Prince Christian, Prince Welf Heinrich, and Princess Frederika.  They live in Gmunden, Austria.

Hitler "discarded" the Hohenzollerns and the Wittelsbachs as he felt that the former might be "a serious obstacle to his ambitions," and the latter dynasty "contained many Catholics."


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