Republic or monarchy - which is better?

Photo by Dan on Unsplash

The Story

The death of Queen Elizabeth was met with a level of sorrow in Germany that took me by surprise. Among the sombre newspaper headlines, one that stuck out claimed in all seriousness that: “we will never see her like again.” The Bundestag held a minute’s silence; Chancellor Scholz said her passing was a loss for the whole world.

Only the left-wing Taz newspaper dared to puncture the public mood by declaring on its front page that Charles at 72 "is finally getting his first job."

To me at least, this was a jarring reaction in a country that threw off its own monarchical rule at the end of the First World War after Kaiser Wilhelm II had dragged them into the worst catastrophe to befall Europe since the 30 Years War.

Why the mourning over a woman who herself was descended from one of the provincial German princes who the British historian AJP Taylor so memorably described as either half-witted or mad?

But the German love of Queen Elizabeth II has deep roots.

I …