If
you ever find yourself in the Netherlands near Arnheim...
… be
sure not to miss Huis Doorn (in the town of Utrechtse Heuvelrug), a
beautifully sited moated castle first mentioned in1289, though the
actual building dates to the eighteenth century. Placid waters, green lawns and venerable shade trees constitute the estate's
handsome English-style park, the perfect backdrop for the quaint yet
picturesque residence.
Huis
Doorn was rescued from certain obscurity when Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia, chose this small castle, in truth more a
manor than a royal dwelling, as his residence-in-exile after
Germany’s defeat in 1918. The kaiser was staying at his
headquarters in the eponymous Belgian town of Spa when revolution
broke out in Kiel and Berlin. With vivid recollections of the fate of
his cousin the czar,
Wilhelm
II deemed it wise to solicit an invitation from Count Godard van
Aldenburg-Bentinck
to lodge at his château of Amerongen in the neutral Netherlands.
After some eighteen uneventful months at Amerongen and not desiring
to overstay his welcome, the emperor resigned himself to the task of
finding a new, permanent home. Huis Doorn was purchased from Baroness
Heemstra de Beaufort to serve as Wilhelm II's
Saint-Helena
and renovations began in 1920.
 | |
| Kaiser Wilhelm II |
His
wife, Empress Auguste Victoria, still feeling insecure and slightly
awkward about the unfortunate abdication business, for which nobody
wanted to be blamed, was relieved to occupy herself with furnishing
the new imperial and royal household. Naturally, nothing could
diminish the couple's chagrin at the loss of 65 castles and palaces
scattered about Germany, but the former imperial staff in Berlin
cleverly selected and carefully packed 59 freight cars worth of
paintings, furniture, objets d'art, tapestries, carpets and personal
belongings to help ease their adjustment to newly reduced
circumstances.
 | |
| The dining room |
These highlights of the imperial apparat allowed
Auguste Victoria to create a faint but comforting simulacrum of the
exceedingly opulent Prussian palaces they had once called home but
were forced to flee. In time the little court-in-exile—headed
by Wilhelm II, who halfheartedly assumed the rôle of gentleman
farmer—fell
into a placid routine far removed from any official demands or
obligations, a fact rather minded by the emperor and his wife, who
were—not unlike the Stuart pretenders ensconced at St-Germain by
an obliging Louis XIV—convinced that soon enough, with patience,
their countries would see reason and their exile would be recognized
as folly and life would return to its normal and natural order.
Alas, the royalist press reported, the lingering new order—although
temporary—nonetheless broke and finally stilled the empress’
heart (her son Joachim's suicide did nothing to make things better)
and her funeral in Potsdam in 1921 was a sombre, belated monarchist triumph.
 | |
| Empress Auguste Victoria |
Devastated,
Wilhelm II was obliged to remain at
Huis Doorn; he had neither received permission to return to Germany
nor was he interested in trodding on republican soil. The
spectacular, theatrical outpouring of public grief rekindled the
emperor’s hopes of also returning home—but triumphant and alive,
of course. This hope too dissipated over time and the tiny
court was forced to concede that an immediate restoration was not in
the offing and that it would be best to make do with life at Huis
Doorn for the time being. Considering Germany's hyper-inflation and
the poverty and desperation left in the wake of crushing defeat,
court life in Huis Doorn appeared relatively pleasant in comparison, if at times
claustrophobic.
 | |
| A sitting room |
To
enliven the daily routine, a new marriage for the widowed emperor was
concocted behind the scenes, and like a deus
ex machina,
young princess Hermine von Schönaich-Carolath appeared one day at
the door. Daughter of Heinrich XXII Reuss, she was issue of a former
reigning family and thus held the perfect pedigree for the match,
having grown up in a tiny though independent princely state, the
court of Greiz. Decidedly not beautiful, she nonetheless had
interesting features, retainers remarked hopefully. Her youth, her
determination, her slightly unconventional manners (notably her
shockingly avant-garde views on women’s rights), as well as her
erudition brought a spark of life and wit to the aging court upon
their marriage in 1922.
 |
| Hermine, Wilhelm II's second wife |
Like the emperor, Hermine was a stickler for
etiquette and reveled in court protocol, insisting on being addressed
as empress—a presumption that scandalized German monarchists, who
believed it dishonored the emperor’s first wife. Clever as she
was, Hermine had insisted on a prenuptial agreement assuring her the
right to regularly visit her vast properties in Silesia, where she
ran her affairs with great knowledge and business acumen. Initially
considered a marriage of convenience, the relationship grew to become
a great success and for almost twenty years Huis Doorn was a
contented home for the last kaiser and his second wife.
 |
| The Emperor's study |
Though
furnished in the early 1920s, the residence is still redolent of the
decorative sensibilities of the Victorian age, most notably its
horror vaccui. Wilhelm II was Queen Victoria’s favorite grandson;
she died in his arms in London in 1901 and much of his taste was
influenced by his many youthful visits to England. The halls, salons
and smaller rooms of Huis Doorn are crammed with Prussian heirlooms,
heralds of former glory; every wall is covered and desks bow under
the weight of picture frames, and despite an undeniable grandeur, the
interiors have an almost bourgeois coziness about them reminiscent of
certain English country houses. The spirit of its former inhabitants
still seems to reign over this small and strangely enchanted and
enchanting kingdom.
