The Kaiser's heirs claimed thousands of artworks and compensation, dropped the suits over the Nazi question, and settled after 99 years

Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in November 1918 and went into exile at Doorn in the Netherlands. A 1926 agreement between the Prussian state and the Hohenzollerns divided the royal property. After 1945 Soviet authorities expropriated the family's estates in eastern Germany. A 1994 German law allowed compensation, except for people who had "substantially aided" the Nazi system. From 2014 the head of the house, Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia, sought compensation and the return of thousands of objects in Berlin and Brandenburg museums. Historians disputed whether his great-grandfather, Crown Prince Wilhelm, had aided the Nazis. In March 2023 he withdrew the compensation lawsuits. In May 2025 the family, the federal government, Berlin and Brandenburg agreed to place disputed objects in a new foundation, with public representatives in the majority, and the family dropped most money claims. Georg Friedrich had himself inherited only after a 2004 Federal Constitutional Court ruling on his grandfather's will, which excluded sons who married women of unequal rank^†.