Susan Symons

Schloss III Susan Symons

Schloss III is the author's third book about the fascinating royal history of German castles. It visits 25 beautiful castles and palaces in central Germany and tells the colourful stories of the royal families associated with them. It also looks at how these wonderful buildings have survived the century since the monarchy fell and how they are being used today. The historical royal stories in the book include the prince who defied his family to marry a pharmacist's daughter and then bought the rank of royal princess for her; the prince cheated out of his inheritance by his elder brothers after their father's will disappeared; and the princess whose illegitimate birth may have been covered-up and who married the heir to the Russian throne. Schloss is the German word for castle or palace. The schlösser (plural of schloss) in the book range in time from the twelfth-century hilltop palace that was home to St Elisabeth and inspired an opera by Richard Wagner; to a nineteenth-century make-believe medieval castle on the Rhine, holiday home of a Prussian king. Many of them are not well-known to overseas visitors and some rarely see an english speaker. Schloss III has more than 80 illustrations and 15 family trees; it should appeal to anyone who likes history or sightseeing, or is interested in people's personal stories. After a thousand years of monarchy, the Kaiser abdicated in 1918, at the end of World War I, and Germany became a republic. Until then, the country was a patchwork of smaller royal states each with its own ruling family. These German dukes and princes were passionate builders; the beautiful castles and palaces they built, and their fascinating personal stories, are explored in this author's books. Her four other Schloss books are also available on Amazon.