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For want of a Car Crash: Restoring Hanover

Alex Richards

Domesday Clock update: 1.5 Williams till Midknight
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Derbyshire
So a bit of context for things to start off with. Historically, after the Kingdom of Hanover was annexed by Prussia as one of the defeated powers of the Austro-Prussian war, King Georg V (only son of Ernst August and a cousin of Victoria) fled to Austria where he settled in the town of Gmunden, dying in 1878. His only son, Ernst Augustus, maintained his claim to the throne of Hanover, married the youngest daughter of Christian IX of Denmark in 1878, and in 1884 claimed the Duchy of Brunswick as the next in line by Salic succession rules after the death of Duke Wilhelm. Becuase of the maintained claim to Hanover, however, this was blocked by the Reichsrat (as was a proposal in 1906 for Ernst August and his eldest son Georg Willhelm to abdicate in favour of younger son Ernst August) and a series of Prussian regents were appointed instead.

Matters changed in 1912, however, when Georg Wilhelm was killed in a car crash in the forest near Nackel, Brandenburg. The Kaiser sent a message of conoldence, and heartened by the freindly gesture Ernst August Sr. sent Ernst August Jr. off to Berlin to convey his thanks. While there, Ernst August Jr. met the only daughter of Wilhelm II, Princess Viktoria Luise, and in 1913 they were married ending the rift between the House of Hanover and the German Empire. Later that year Ernst August Sr. formally renounced his claims to Brunswick (though not Hanover) and Ernst August Jr. formally acceded to the Duchy of Brunswick to serve as its last reigning Duke. Having sided with Germany in WWI, Ernst August Sr. was stripped of his title of Duke of Cumberland in 1917 and remained in Austira until his death in 1923. The family eventually returned to Hanover with the restoration of various properties in 1924 (though many of these were then lost in 1945).

Without that car crash and the subsequent reconcillation, however, things get interesting. War with Britain and Germany on opposite sides seems almost inevitable at this point, and with two of Ernst August's daughters married to the heir presumptive of Baden and Grand Duke of Mecklenberg-Schwerin, it's still quite possible he decides to align with the Kaiser, but equally family links with Britian remained quite strong and the prospect of petitioning London to get at least some of his rights back in a peace deal might have appealed. In this he'd probably have limited support in Westminster (and pretty quickly top the list of 'annoying letter writers) but would almost certainly have the backing of Russia, who somewhat quixotically kept suggesting an independent Hanover could be restored throughout WWI. And for those of the view that Germany needed to be destroyed, or at least removed of their ability to project power into the North Sea, it would certainly have been tempting.

An interesting question is when it got to the renunciation of titles in 1917, should such a thing still be required. Would the claimant titles of Hanover and Brunswick be excluded from this as they were being claimed in opposition to the German government? A potentially awkward domestic situation there.

And of course in the post-war era actually enforcing an independent Kingdom of Hanover would be difficult- there would probably be little desire for British troops to prop it up, the political movement that had existed in the 2nd Empire and would continue through the Weimar Republic was more autonomist in nature than desirious of actual independence, and there could well be issues between a potentially autocratic-leaning Ernst August and the desire for democracy in the German public. In this, it may well be that Georg Wilhelm might have better luck making a name for himself, if he ever gets to the throne. And of course if Hanover is made independent then we can virtually guarantee that there would be a desire to bulk up the territory a bit and remove any German coastal exclaves- adding Lippe-Detmold, Schaumburg-Lippe, Waldeck-Pyrmont and the area of Minden/Bielfeld might be relatively straightforward, but Oldenburg could pose issues and Bremen would almost certainly have to be granted extensive autonomy, if it's not just made an independent Free City instead. Maybe it lasts, maybe it falls apart, maybe it just votes to join Germany at some point in the late 20s/early 30s (although if things go relatively similarly to OTL I can totally see them trying to push the 'first victim' narrative Austria did historically).

There's a very slim possibility of course that this doesn't really have any impact on WWI, but does lead to a decision to just reacreate Hanover as an independent state after WWII, but that's much less likely.
 
Does anyone know what the Guelph Party types' actual policies were beyond restoration? Presumably that would give a hint at what might happen in the kingdom.
 
Does anyone know what the Guelph Party types' actual policies were beyond restoration? Presumably that would give a hint at what might happen in the kingdom.

They formed a working relationship with Zentrum IIRC.
 
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