This made me laugh:
Image credit: A Pakistani in the Bundesrepublik
Perched on a steep hilltop in southern Germany, the striking turrets of Hohenzollern Castle rise in contrast to the rolling countryside that surrounds them. The fortress is the ancestral seat of Germany’s last imperial family. If the country still had a monarchy today, the castle’s owners would be its royal family, led by Georg Friedrich, whose ceremonial title is also his legal surname: Prince of Prussia.
Inside, the would-be Kaiser Prince Georg cranes his neck towards an ornate family tree painted on the wall behind him. He proudly describes his lineage, which traces back through centuries of kings and queens who ruled over Prussia (a once-vast area that included parts of modern-day Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Russia and Denmark) through German monarchs like his great-great-grandfather, the Kaiser who led the country into World War I.
But, along with the castle and the wealth, Prince Georg has also inherited a very public and, at times, ugly legal battle with authorities to reclaim a family fortune confiscated after the fall of the Nazis. According to Prince Georg, the vast collection of more than 10,000 items includes everything from priceless artworks to the opulent heirlooms of German history’s most powerful and important family. [CNN/Style]
But there is an interesting question coming out of this mess: how do property rights propagate from one political system to the next?
A property right, to my mind, is defined by the political system in which it exists. It defines the rights and responsibilities that go along with it. But what happens if the political system which is defining it is replaced by another political system?
Are property rights greater than political systems? I think the answer is no. Consider the change from monarchy to communism in Russia, where property rights almost disappeared – although under the monarchy, it wasn’t much different for the peasantry.
Therefore, the replacement political system gets to define how property transfers between political systems as suits its needs. That means finding rationales for its rules which fit the philosophy buttressing the political system.
In this particular case of this Prince Georg, I would tell him to go make his own way in the world. His family constituted a monarchy for centuries, and monarchies were not famed for their progressive property rights views – that is, much of what he claims is his was probably acquired through ethically dubious means. Ahem.
Then there’s the little matter of the last Kaiser, who led his nation into an utterly disastrous and unnecessary war. For this crime, if nothing else, the family fortune should be forfeit.
