King Charles trip adds to British monarchy's long history with Germany

Berlin and Hamburg will host first state visit of new king's reign

People near Brandenburg Gate wait to welcome Britain's King Charles in Berlin, Germany. Reuters

The postponement of King Charles III’s visit to France means the first state visit of his reign will take him to Germany, adding a chapter to its centuries-old links to the British monarchy.

The king will visit sites steeped in Anglo-German history, from the trading docks of Hamburg to a memorial to the Kindertransport that rescued Jewish children from the Nazis.

His mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, made several trips to Germany, including one in 1965 that cemented Britain and Germany’s post-war reconciliation, and another in 2015 that proved to be her last state visit.

But the links go back much farther, with the king descended from German royalty on both sides of his family, and the British royals remain a subject of popular interest in Germany.

House of Hanover

England solved a succession problem in 1701 by inviting Sophia, Electress of Hanover, a German princess descended from British royalty, to take the throne.

She died before she could do so, but her son became Britain’s King George I. Speaking more German than English, he spent much of his time in Hanover – consolidating the power of parliament and the cabinet in London.

When King George II was crowned in 1727, the German-born composer Georg Frederick Handel was commissioned to write the anthem Zadok the Priest, played at every British coronation since.

King George II’s heirs spent more time in England but remained the rulers of Hanover until 1837, when Queen Victoria took the British throne but German law barred a woman from inheriting Hanover.

Victoria and Albert

The German link was soon restored, however, as Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840.

Born and raised in Germany, Albert presided over the Great Exhibition of 1851 and is credited with popularising the Christmas tree in Britain. After he died in 1861, aged 42, Queen Victoria wore black until her death in 1901.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Buckingham Palace. Getty

Their nine children and many grandchildren earned Victoria the nickname Grandmother of Europe. One of her grandsons was the future Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, with whom Britain and Russia — ruled over by other grandsons — would be at war by 1914. King Charles III is a great-great-great grandson of Victoria and Albert.

Britain’s King George V decided to drop the family’s German-sounding name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and rename it the House of Windsor in 1917.

Prince Philip

After another world war had ended, Britain’s Princess Elizabeth – the future queen – married Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark in 1947.

His family was descended from German royalty and had likewise dropped the Germanic name of Battenberg, replacing it with Mountbatten.

Prince Philip, left, and Queen Elizabeth II, second right, on a visit to divided Berlin in 1987. AP

Prince Philip was educated in Germany for a time, but his school’s founder was expelled by the Nazis in 1933 and both he and the prince eventually resettled at Gordonstoun in Edinburgh.

In subsequent years, almost 10,000 children were removed from Nazi-controlled territory by the Kindertransport effort and taken to safety in Britain. King Charles is expected to lay flowers in their memory on Friday.

The sprawling family tree means today's British royals are related to minor German princes and aristocrats descended from once-mighty houses.

One such relative, Eduard, Prince of Anhalt, hopes to speak to King Charles during this week's ceremonies.

Queen Elizabeth II

The queen’s visit to West Germany in 1965 was a milestone in post-war atonement, at a time when Britain was technically still an occupying power.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier last year called it an “immeasurably important sign of reconciliation after two devastating world wars”.

The queen made further state visits in 1978, 1992, 2004 and 2015, and official trips to Berlin in 1987 and 2000.

In 2015 the late queen visited Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during a state visit to Germany. PA

Reflecting in 2015 on the half-century since her first visit, the queen paid tribute to British architect Sir Norman Foster’s refurbishment of the Reichstag building in Berlin, a symbol of the reunited Germany.

She said Britain and Germany’s reconciliation had been “one of the irreversible changes for the better in my lifetime”.

Charles, as Prince of Wales, spoke partly in German when he addressed MPs in Berlin in 2020, marking 75 years since the end of the Second World War.

He said the relationship between Britain and Germany would be “defined by the enduring connections between our people” despite the UK’s exit from the European Union.

On Thursday, he will address the parliament again as king.