THE GROOM looks familiar, yet few Germans can place the man who will tie the knot in Potsdam’s Church of Peace today.
Had Germany’s monarchy not ended in 1918 the groom, Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia — the great-great-grandson of Wilhelm II — would today be kaiser, and Germany would be celebrating an imperial wedding.
The Prussian monarchy is no more but the prince’s marriage to Princess Sophie von Isenburg is a chance for German monarchists to dream of what might have been.
"We've just had the weddings of Kate and William, and Charlene and Albert in Monaco, so a little bit of that royal spark has crossed over and we're happy to have our own imperial wedding to celebrate," said Count Alexander von Schönburg, society columnist with the tabloid Bild.
As the house no longer rules, few big royal names are expected at the ecumenical ceremony — the bride is Catholic, the groom is Protestant — followed by a reception in Potsdam’s Sanssouci Palace.
Not everyone is thrilled by the nuptials: the church was stink-bombed on Wednesday, while the Left Party has described today’s three-hour television broadcast as a waste of licence-fee money.
Public broadcaster RBB and historians disagree. “He represents a 500-year tradition in this region and country, but the fact of this history has made him a very modest person,” said Jörg Kirschstein, the Prussian royal house historian.
Georg Friedrich became head of the house of Hohenzollern at 18 when his father was killed in an accident; two uncles challenged his appointment in a lengthy and bitter legal battle. They have been invited to the ceremony, reflecting an uneasy family truce.
Today the 35-year-old businessman and his 33-year-old wife are not often seen in the society columns. In rare interviews, the prince expresses satisfaction and optimism about renewed interest in the history and legacy of Prussia and his family. “But I have no political role as head of the house of Hohenzollern,” he said in 2005. “Nor have I any ambitions in that respect.”
Yesterday, on the lawn where Berlin’s Prussian palace once stood, sunbathers showed little interest in today’s nuptials. “It’s all the same to me,” said Anja, in her 20s. “It’s all over, the Prussian thing, isn’t it?”
Architect Björn Merten said: “I never knew there was a great-great-grandson of the last kaiser, let alone that he was getting married.”