History
On Wednesday, November 28, 1918, Wilhelm II, Emperor of the German Empire and King of Prussia, signed his declaration of renunciation of the throne and thus formally abdicated. This did not happen in Berlin or in the former military headquarters in Spa, Belgium - but in Amerongen in the Netherlands, where Wilhelm had found asylum.
Not long afterwards, the former emperor bought a small castle nearby with an extensive park, orangery, service building and a large kitchen garden: House Doorn. He redesigned the castle according to his needs and had another house built at the entrance to the site: the gate building with offices, guards and apartments. In Huis Doorn, as the locals call the property, Wilhelm II spent his last years from moving in in May 1920 until his death on June 4, 1941. The former emperor experienced both the outbreak of World War II and the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany there.
But the history of Huis Doorn neither began with the entry of the former emperor nor did it end with his death. Although the history of the castle is comparatively well documented in the archives and diaries of Sigurd von Ilsemann in the "Wilhelmine period", it is much longer and looks back over several centuries with extensive structural changes.
It was first mentioned as belonging to the Utrecht cathedral provosts as early as the late 13th century. Except for the residential tower and the remains of the canal, this moated castle bore little resemblance to today's complex. It was only in the 18th century that the building, which had since fallen into disrepair, was roughly given its current shape.
When William II bought the castle, it was owned by Baroness Heemstra de Beaufort. Wilhelm initiated some modifications, for example the installation of an elevator for Empress Auguste Viktoria, who was already seriously ill, or a vestibule at the main entrance. The most striking change on the property was the construction of the gate building, which now houses the cash register and offices. In Wilhelm's time, the court marshal's office, offices and guest apartments were located here.
Huis Doorn has been a museum for a long time. A comparatively short time after the emperor's death, visitors were strolling through the area, which was officially designated as a museum, which probably also had tax reasons.
After the war, the house, actually the property of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, became the property of the Netherlands in a very complicated and highly controversial process on the part of the Hohenzollerns. Only the mausoleum remains in the family's possession, where the former emperor was reburied a year after his burial in the small chapel. The key point in this process, which lasted years, was that, from the Dutch perspective, the conditions did not exist for the Crown Prince to issue a so-called declaration of de-hostility/No-enemy. This would have given the head of the Hohenzollerns the opportunity to have at least part of the property officially restored. Various articles, reports and books have been written about the pros and cons of this part of history.
Today's museum houses a large part of the original furnishings, as Wilhelm designed them from the holdings of the former properties in Germany. This and the historical significance of many paintings, porcelain pieces and other furnishings make a visit particularly interesting, but not only for those interested in art history.