The shocking true story of the German monarchy's collaboration with the Nazis – an award-winning bestseller in Germany
The disappearance of the Hohenzollern family from the history of Germany in November 1918 as the Kaiser fled into Dutch exile is one of the most startling, rapid instances of a once all-powerful royal family becoming almost overnight irrelevant and marginal. Except this is not exactly what happened.
Stephan Malinowski’s German bestseller is an extraordinary work of recovery. It suited both the Weimar Republic and then the Third Reich to view the Hohenzollerns with contempt, and yet the royal family’s hatred of the former and approval of the latter were for millions of Germans a significant factor in their own view of their country and its government.
With forensic and often shocking detail, Malinowski shows that, far from being ridiculous, marginal figures the Hohenzollerns lay at the heart of Germany’s ongoing nightmare. Despite formally losing power, the members of the royal family remained prominent, catastrophically allowing many other conservative Germans to stay distanced from the new republic and to eventually betray conservative traditions and values. Battered from both left and right, the Republic collapsed in 1933 in part because conservative forces, fearful of both Communism and Fascism, had abandoned their own principles just as much as the leading members of former royal family had, who were themselves beguiled by and fooled by Hitler.
This is an important and shocking book, as well as a devastating picture of an inadequate and trivial royal family painfully underequipped to fulfil its role.
About the Author
Stephan Malinowski was born in Berlin in 1966 and has studied and taught history in Germany, France, Italy, the United States and Ireland. He is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Edinburgh. He is also the author of Nazis and Nobles- The History of a Misalliance.
Industry Reviews
Stephan Malinowski's brilliant book strikes a balance between the forensic analysis of individual behaviour and a new understanding of how the toxic political culture of a defeated monarchy helped to disrupt democracy in Germany
Christopher Clark
With his great book The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis, Stephan Malinowski has achieved a masterpiece of historical enlightenment
John Röhl
A groundbreaking book... Malinowski tells a large audience how members of the monarchical family became Hitler's stirrup holders
Lothar Müller, Süddeutsche Zeitung
As Stephan Malinowski shows… there can be no doubt that the Hohenzollerns broadly ‘collaborated’ with the Nazi regime
Brendan Simms, The FT
A highly detailed and scrupulously researched book... Malinowksi’s work is a near-masterpiece, relating a story not synthesised in this way before, and about which any number of self-serving myths exist... (he) presents a devastating case why, with regards to their conduct during the Third Reich, the Hohenzollerns were the authors of their own misfortune
Simon Heffer, The Telegraph
A landmark study
Samuel Rubinstein, Englesberg Ideas
Brilliant… at its heart is a detailed investigation of the actions of the former ruling family between 1918 and the consolidation of Nazi power in the 1930s. In places, it reads like a historical novel… [in this] deeply researched and well-written book, Malinowski makes a convincing case that the Hohenzollern family played an important role in the destruction of democracy in Germany, and remained supportive of the regime well into the Second World War…. There is every reason to believe that Malinowski’s fine book has settled the question of Hohenzollern compensation once and for all
Robert Gerwarth, Literary Review
Formidably learned… impressive
Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times, Book of the Week
"compelling… their later attempts to depict themselves as the last hope of principled resistance is… ‘a final flickering of their impressive talent for creating self-serving legends’. Anyone reading this important book will agree
Alexander Larman, Spectator
This work is substantial in every sense of the word and one that historians will find most fascinating... a thoroughly researched book
Hugo Vickers, The Oldie
The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis is a deeply informative book... meticulously researched, brilliantly written and passionately argued [which] vividly illustrates the indispensable role of history
Ian Hughes, The Irish Times
The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis offers a clear-eyed assessment of aristocratic self-interest leading up to and during the Nazi era... Malinowski writes with verve and colour, bringing the period to life... A dense and enormously rich account for anyone keen to read deeply into German and Nazi history
Frieda Klotz, Sunday Independent
A lucid, considered and impeccably researched book delivers the definitive account of the Hohenzollerns during the Weimar and Nazi years, and of the controversy the family have stirred up in the past decade
Nicholas Stargardt, TLS
A deeply researched and very readable book... It should be compulsory reading for everyone interested in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. Its impact on contemporary politics should be no less significant, because this book is not just about history... Malinowski's book is a testimony not only to his fine scholarship and literary gifts, but also to his courage and persistence
Richard J. Evans, BBC History Magazine
