Europe 1 with AFP 08:55, March 29, 2023

King Charles III is expected in Germany on Wednesday for his first state visit, an opportunity to trace his genealogy back to his Germanic origins. But if the royal family can congratulate itself on the post-war German-British reconciliation, it would prefer to forget its acquaintances with the Third Reich.

The history of the Windsor royal family, rooted in the United Kingdom, is also closely linked to Germany where King Charles III is on an official visit from Wednesday. Here are some examples:

"From Saxe-Coburg-Ghota"

Without the First World War, the British royal family would still bear this Germanic-sounding name. She adopted him in 1840, when Queen Victoria married Albert, a native of this line of minor nobility located in northeastern Bavaria. But 77 years later, their grandson George V will renounce this surname become cumbersome while his country fights Germany, made at the time largely responsible for the Great War.

Faced with an increasingly anti-Germanic public opinion, this very British king, who suddenly became suspicious because of his heredity, decided to cut ties with Germany and adopted the name of a famous castle, royal residence, near London. Windsor House was born.

Religion and Christmas tree

The very first German king to be crowned King of Great Britain was George 1st, in 1714. Born from the House of Hanover in northern Germany, not speaking English, he owes his accession to the throne only to his religion: Catholics having been excluded from the succession, he is the closest Protestant relative of the late Queen Anne. Queen Victoria is one of his descendants.

After his marriage to Albert, the family changed its name from Hanover to Saxe-Coburg-Ghota. The prince consort is credited with popularizing the tradition of Christmas trees on the island. But above all, he contributed to the influence of the country by engaging in the organization of the Universal Exhibition of 1851.

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A breeding ground for sovereigns

A mother of nine children, themselves parents of numerous offspring, Victoria forged kinship throughout Europe by marrying her descendants with other members of the continent's nobility. Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Charles' parents, were distant cousins among other things because of their kinship with the one nicknamed the "grandmother of Europe".

"When in Britain, Spain or France, a king reigned, there were at least thirty regional sovereigns in Germany. "Since they could only marry each other, the choice was often fought" to German nobles, Michael Hartmann, a sociologist specializing in elites at the Technical University of Darmstadt, told AFP. As a result, "virtually all European royal dynasties are linked to Germans."

Hitler salute

In 2015, a rare photo shocked the public: We see the young Elisabeth, aged 6 or 7, seeming to practice the Hitler salute with her mother and sister, apparently encouraged by her uncle Edward VIII. The image published by "The Sun" is taken from an amateur film, never made public before, of about twenty seconds, shot in 1933 or 1934, in the summer home of the royal family, the Scottish castle of Balmoral. For the newspaper, the images offer "a fascinating glimpse into Edward VIII's twisted prejudices", whose precise nature of ties to the Nazis is still debated in Britain.

Edward met Hitler in Germany in 1937, a year after he abdicated so he could marry a divorced American, Wallis Simpson. A photo shows him and his wife wearing a radiant smile and shaking hands with the Führer.

Reconciliation

Queen Elizabeth II was highly regarded in Germany, notably for her commitment to "German-British reconciliation after the horrors of the Second World War", as Chancellor Olaf Scholz recalled after her death last year. The Queen visited for the first time in 1965 a Berlin separated by the wall. Coming from the Danish-German house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, her husband Philip necessarily had very close ties with the country where he also completed a large part of his schooling.

King Charles III, who speaks German well, also seems attached to it. He often went there, on public visits or incognito. Charles "never denied his German ancestry," his distant cousin, Prince Edward of Anhalt, told AFP. "Even if it's not very popular among many English people."