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

1918/ 1919年的革命不仅终结了普鲁士王国和德意志帝国，也终结了其他德意志君主制。从一开始，新政府就必须处理前朝家庭未来生活的财政问题和住房问题。在20世纪20年代，德国各州与这些家族达成协议，允许后者获得某些资金和宫殿，这些资金和宫殿现在已成为私有财产。在巴伐利亚，1923年成立的“wittelschbacher ausgleichsfunds”代表了一种截然不同的解决方案。到目前为止，WAF根据公法持有财产作为基础（宫殿，艺术品，还有森林和其他形式的房地产），而经济利润则使前统治者Wittelsbach的成员受益。该项目旨在系统地调查1918年至1933年WAF的建立和发展，并将利用Wittelsbach家族档案中的新资源。首先，该项目将WAF作为新共和国的稳定因素，赋予巴伐利亚州合法性和连续性。其次，维特尔斯巴赫一家开始了企业家的新生活，这在某种程度上成为了共和德国高级贵族的典型代表。第三，WAF通过在博物馆中展示前君主制财产的方式，将传统的和新的君主制形象和想象带入公众的脑海。虽然君主制本身已经不复存在，但巴伐利亚人民却与旧政权及其代表有着某种矛盾的亲密关系。该研究项目将结合文化、经济、政治和法律历史的各种方法。作为一本“后君主政体的历史”，这本书将对魏玛共和国的传统和变化提供新的视角。

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.