The German nobles who won't go away

To write this post, we enlisted an author who descends from a long line of kings - just because.

It has been almost one hundred years since Germany abolished the monarchy and its nobility with it. To soften the blow, German nobility was allowed to keep their former titles as part of the rebranded "civil" names.

This, obviously, meant that some individual nobles would encourage use of the "title" part in everyday life. As laziness, tradition, and deference would have it, even 100 years later, you can find oddly noble sounding headlines in the German press outside of the royal watching old ladies magazines.

Similar to the royal baby waves which sweep the US every few years - depending on the libido of the royals and the current need for mindless entertainment - segments of the German population follow royals faithfully.

This can explain the latest mainstream headline "Is the Prince a fraudster?" about a German man who happens to come from a family that sported a "Prince" at the time of the dissolution of the monarchy.

To be fair, many of the remaining German nobles (the particles "von" or "zu" tend to give away the game) don't make a fuss about their heritage. Some have dropped the noble paraphernalia altogether, others don't use them in everyday life.

A "von" or "zu" still opens doors in 21st century Germany, and we are not talking about dungeon doors - well, some dungeons maybe, but describing these in detail is better left to some adult site.

The German military after WW II boasted a higher proportion of former nobility than the rest of society, and some big companies had "reserved positions" that were given only to von/zu particle carriers as late a decade ago.

It appears German reunification may have boosted the standing of the tenacious local nobles, if you take articles in major papers like DIE WELT about the wedding of the Prince of Prussia in 2011 as one measure.

And for those of you who love to be creeped out, we posted about one of the craziest conspiracy theories ever: an alleged underground movement of nobility plotting for the return of monarchy in the country. Read The weirdest German Kaiser conspiracy theory ever if you need to know.

At the end of the day, though, maybe it is more about cherishing roots than clinging to power a century after you lost it.

Even avid republicans sometimes can't help watching.

That's it for today, time to check on how the princess is doing.