The project Hohenzollerns Garten sheds new light on Germany’s Emperor Wilhelm II 21-year exile in Huis Doorn. This is were the Emperor, so Dutch history books tell us, has felled about 30.000 trees.
During WOI the Emperor commanded his army, but after having fled Germany in Doorn he found a new army to command, the trees in its forest. But how much of this tale of the slaughtered landscape is true?
To answer this question Paans studied the diaries kept by Wilhelm during his exile: which tree was felled, in which circumstances, its diameter, its age, all meticulously jotted down by the emperor. We can also read how he imported exotic trees to fill up the empty spaces left behind. Even traces of the world outside of the forest, unexpected yet slight, penetrate these diaries.
Wilhelm’s axing must have influenced the landscape if he indeed felled those 30.000 trees. But do the diaries tell the same story?