Huis Doorn

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The bust of William II at Huis Doorn

Gatehouse of Huis Doorn

Huis Doorn ("Doorn Manor") is a small manor house that lies outside Doorn, a small town near Utrecht, the Netherlands. The 15th-century house was radically rebuilt in the late 18th century in a conservative taste, then redecorated in the mid-19th century, when the surrounding park was laid out as an English landscape garden. Baroness Ella van Heemstra (b. 1900, d. 1984), the mother of actress Audrey Hepburn, spent most of her childhood living in the house. The house was purchased in 1919 by William II, the last German Emperor, as his residence-in-exile (1920-1941) after World War I. During his years in exile the former emperor kept in shape by sawing down the estate's trees by the tens of thousands over the years and splitting the logs into vast stacks of firewood, denuding the matured landscape. The Dutch government seized the manor house and its household effects in 1945 as German property. Many new trees were planted, so that after 60 years the wooded parkland is recovering.

William II's asylum in the Netherlands was based on family ties with Queen Wilhelmina, whom he embarrassed by his politicized statements. He died at Huis Doorn, June 4, 1941, with the Nazi occupiers on guard at the gates of the estate. He is buried there in a small mausoleum on the lawn, awaiting his return to Germany upon the restoration of the Prussian monarchy, according to the terms of his will; his wish that no swastikas be displayed at his funeral was not heeded. The house is open as a museum, just as Wilhelm left it, with marquetry commodes, tapestries, paintings by German court painters, porcelains and silver. Wilhelm's collections of snuffboxes and watches that belonged to Frederick the Great are the most interesting collections.

Five of Wilhelm's beloved dachshunds are buried in the park. A stone is dedicated to the memory of Senta who accompanied the Kaiser during all of World War I and died in 1927 at age 20.

In June each year a devoted band of German monarchists still come to pay their respects and lay wreaths, accompanied by marchers in period uniforms and representatives from modern monarchist organizations, such as Tradition und Leben of Cologne.