The Assets of the High Nobility. The Hanover Dynasty, 1913-1953

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Using the example of the House of Hanover, which belonged to the Guelphs and ruled until 1918, the project examines how the noble dynasty succeeded after the end of the monarchy and the loss of legal and social privileges as well as large assets. It investigates how the family managed to socially assert themselves in three different political systems and which material foundation and social as well as, broadly speaking, cultural strategies they used.The investigation is planned as a dissertation, which is settled at the interface between European aristocratic history, transnational family biography and a social history of wealth. It methodologically combines social, cultural and economic historical approaches. Next to the traditions from public archives, the study relies especially on comprehensive access to the files of the Guelphs’s archives.The study focuses on the family of Ernst August III. (1887-1953), a grandson of the last king of Hanover, who ascended the throne of the Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg upon marriage in 1913. It systematically and consecutively investigates the familiy’s tapestry of relations between international relatives, consultants and helpers, the methods and practices of asset preservation and the resulting legal disputes.The work is based on a by now completed project, which examined the "Nazi business of the Guelphs". However, in terms of time, content and concept, it goes far beyond the questions dealt with in the project. By using the example of the House of Hanover the study tries to clarify how noble the circles and how transnational the business transactions of noble families were and what significance their (intra-familial) relationships had on the permanent aristocratic aspiration “oben zu bleiben” (to stay on top). It ultimately aims at contributing to the economic, social and cultural history of rich families in the 20th century.