German Historical Institute London Bulletin, Vol 32, No
German Historical Institute London BULLETIN ISSN 0269-8552 Matthew Stibbe: Monarchy and its Legacies in Germany since 1918. Review Article German Historical Institute London Bulletin, Vol 32, No. 2 (November 2010), pp 25-39 Copyright © 2010 German Historical Institute London. All rights reserved. REVIEW ARTICLE MONARCHY AND ITS LEGACIES IN GERMANY SINCE 1918 Matthew Stibbe LOTHAR MACHTAN, Die Abdankung: Wie Deutschlands gekrönte Häupter aus der Geschichte fielen (Berlin: Propyläen, 2008), 432 pp. ISBN 978 3 549 07308 7. €24.90 THOMAS BISKUP and MARTIN KOHLRAUSCH (eds.), Das Erbe der Monarchie: Nachwirkungen einer deutschen Institution seit 1918 (Frank - furt am Main: Campus Verlag, 2008), 331 pp. ISBN 978 3 593 38727 7. €34.90 I The appointment of Gabriela von Habsburg, sculptor, diplomat, and granddaughter of the last Austrian Emperor, Karl I, to the post of Georgian ambassador to Germany in November 2009, and her formal investiture in March 2010, were occasions for much comment in the German press. The journalist Frank Herold, for instance, wrote in the Berliner Zeitung: The times when the higher nobility dominated the diplomatic service are long gone. The only thing that survives is the extravagant form of speech which is formally reserved for ambassadors. On official occasions the representatives of for- eign states are still addressed, in modern democratic Germany, as ‘Your Excellency’. But even this . would not be appropri- ate for the rank of Gabriela von Habsburg . [she] is an Archduchess and ‘Her Imperial Highness’.1 1 Frank Herold, ‘Blaues Blut und kalter Stahl’, Berliner Zeitung, 2 Mar. 2010, p. 1. 25 Review Article Such comments, together with references to von Habsburg’s ‘celebri- ty’ status as a habituée of Lake Starnberg, the ‘playground of fash- ionable Munich society’,2 speak volumes about contemporary media images of royalty and aristocracy in Germany.
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