The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1922-11-22

try sents or the parks and forests. He
does not ever know whether he owns
n stick Of furniture In his former pal
ace. He cannot call the easy chair
in his library his own nor could he
promise his bride a single ladle from
|. the once royal Kitchens.
Estates Not Settled.
The ex-kalser. however, is not alone
in his lack of information concerning
his former estates. Members Of the
present government, who have been
struggling since the revolution to de-
termine what should be done with the
Hohenzollern estates, are still prob.
ing the recesses of historical libraries
and scanning ancient documents to
find the rightful title holder. Political
parties are %wrangllng over the proce-
dure to be adopted In reaching any
settlement. And in the meantime the
government is bearing the burden of.
upkeep, which is about 10c,0O0,000
marks a year.
The castles themselves have fallen
far from their former pomp and SPLEEN
dor. Some retain a semblance Of dig
nifty as museums; others have become
plice buildings for crowded govern,
nent departments, while through the
greater mes gaping tourists file, lusty
lunged guides filling them to the brlm
with mislnformation and fctitious
anecdotes.
I Crowded housing conditions have
forced residents into certain wings of
the palaces who In pre-war times
never could have crossed the TIRES
holds.
The Hohenzollerns have made re
peated demands for the return of their
property. especially personal belong
ings such as art, jewelry and private
real estate. In return the radicals
have presented counter demands for
conflscatlon OF the entire holdings
Hence the government Is trying 10
reach n solution to which all can
agree. Tho delay In final settlement
If the entire question Is complicated
by many other than political angles.
Snarls of a Century. ,
THE fault dates back to the year
100" said President Otto Braun OF
the Prussian ministry, up to that
time there was no clear distinction as
TO what constituted the treasure OF
the Brandenburgian Kur Prince, who
was later the Prusslan regent, and
what belonged to the state. Since
then there have developed distinctions
between private property and state
treasure, but the dividing line is still
dim"
The question never really arose un-
I'll after the revolution Of 1918, when
the government had to ~untangls the
snarlS of a century.
ut all would. have been very sim.
pie" said Ministry President Braun,
"if at that time. in view of the doubt
full titles, the state had declared all
the crown property TO be state pos
rfNNlNiS anu klNti Ant ilpiltiiLNlltIH
family a fixed sum to meet their pri-
vate needs. Instead the government
decided to prove ~concluslvely which
property belonged to the royal family
and to take the remainder.
"To do this Justly employees OF the
ministry became involved In an exten.
sive historical research. They had 10
dig from ancient, dusty documents the
details Of the purchase and sale of
each separate castle and art object.
It was n gigantic task. The comp,l.
Gated Investigations even now are not
completed, but 1t appears that ther,
arc no more serious obstacles In the
way of a complete settlement"
The president of the mlnistr, he.
clared that on account of the compli.
cations in compiling an exact list, 1t is
difficult TO determine the exact extent
of the Hohenzollern property, but be-
lieves that a fair estimate would be
twenty billion marks at the present