Monarchical Heritage in the Weimar Republic. The "Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds" 1918-1933

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The revolution of 1918/19 brought an end not only to the Prussian kingdom and the German empire, but also to the other German monarchies. From early on, the new governments had to deal with the question of financial propositions and housing for the future life of the former dynastic families. During the 1920s, the German states reached agreements with the families which gave the later access to certain funds and palaces as now private property. In Bavaria, the establishment of the „Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds“ in 1923 represented a rather different solution. Up to now, the WAF holds property as a foundation under public law (palaces, works of art, but also forests and other forms of real estate), while the economic profits benefit the members of the former ruling house of Wittelsbach. The projects seeks to systematically investigate the foundation and development of the WAF from 1918 to 1933 and will make use of new sources available from the Wittelsbach family archives. Firstly, the project places the WAF as a factor of stabilization to the new republic, endowing the Bavarian state with legitimacy and continuity. Secondly, the Wittelsbach family started a new life as entrepreneurs, which became in a way typical for the high aristocracy in republican Germany. And thirdly, the WAF, by way of presenting former monarchical property in museums, put traditional and new images and imaginations of monarchy into the minds of the public. While the monarchy itself was no longer existing, the people of Bavaria paradoxically experienced a certain state of intimacy with the old regime and its representatives.The research project will combine various approaches of cultural, economic, political and legal histories. As a “post- monarchical history of monarchy” the book will shed new light on tradition and change in the Weimar republic.