The last German Emperor, the Empress, and their Personal Physician: Wilhelm II and his wife Auguste Victoria in Exile (1919-1924) and the diary of Dr. med. Alfred Haehner (1880-1949) - an edition

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Ute Planert
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 445509005

The aim of the project is the edition (including a commentary) of the complete diary of Dr. med. Alfred Haehner (1880-1949). Haehner was the personal physician of the German Emperor Wilhelm II and his wife Auguste Victoria in the early years of their exile in the Netherlands (1919-1924). In the context of the history of monarchy in exile and postwar times, the edition will contribute to the research on the Hohenzollern's antisemitism and their fight for the revocation of the Weimar Republic. As part of this history, it will stimulate the research on the Empress Auguste Victoria and the transnational and diplomatic relations between Germany and the Netherlands at the end of the First World War. Haehners diary, written in five smaller volumes, has survived the collapse of the Cologne Communal Archive in 2009. It is one of the rare eyewitness documents describing and commenting the Hohenzollern court in exile at Amerongen and Doorn. Vacillating between sympathy and critical distance, it provides an exceptional perspective on the German Imperial couple and their court in exile by a physician and catholic who intended to present his memories a wider public one day. Partly a word by word protocol, Haehner's diary documents the doctor's conversations with Wilhelm II, his wife, and other the royal family members (for example crown prince Wilhelm). In it, Haehner noticed the historical narrations constructed to excuse the monarch and the politics of his entourage to reestablish the German monarchy, at times with irritation, at times with approval. Besides, Haehner's diary is also a medical file, full of intimate observations focussing on the Empress during her severe illness and long expected death. As it enables to examine the history of Monarchy in exile from a medicine, body, and gender historical perspective, the edition of the Haehner diary will also contribute to the understanding of the cultural history of the 1918-postwar period in Germany. Even though the diary actually is a non-autobiographical document, its edition will help to focus on the physician Alfred Haehner and his wife Sophie, both scions of two important Cologne families influencing the communal life from the times of Imperial Germany until the early years of the Federal Republic. The history of the Haehner Archive, which further includes correspondence with - for example - the Hohenzollern crown prince Wilhelm, Victoria Luise, the only daughter of Wilhelm II and Auguste Victoria, and famous politicians of the Weimar Republic, will additionally elucidate the politics of history of the Federal Republic of Germany: The first attempt to publish the Haehner diary failed because of the editor's reservations; he feared to demolish the monarch's reputation. Against the background of the current debate on the Hohenzollern's litigation with the German state, the printed and digital publication of the Haehner diary will both attract an academic and a wider public.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants