In November 1918, almost overnight, all the German dynasties disappeared from the scene. Frank-Lothar Kroll outlines the question of what happened to the deposed rulers and their families in the decades that followed. His biographical portraits make clear the political, social and cultural changed the monarchs. But they also show that the former ruling families, with their shifting views between the criminal Nazi regime and opposition during the Nazi era, were a fairly accurate reflection of German society. The role of individual families today still determines how to deal with the expropriations that took place after 1945 in the area of ​​the SPA/GDR. Biographies of 19 principalities, including the Ascanians, the House of Baden, the House of Hesse, the Hohenzollern, the House of Lippe, the House of Mecklenburg, the House of Oldenburg, the House of Reuss, the House of Schaumburg-Lippe, the House of Schwarzburg, the House of Waldeck, the Welfen, the Wettins, the Wittelsbachs and the House of Württemberg. Born in 1959, the author professor Frank-Lothar Kroll has been teaching 19th and 20th century European history at Chemnitz University of Technology since 2000. He is chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Foundation "Flight, Eviction, Reconciliation" and has long been a member of numerous scientific advisory boards, e.g. of the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich, the German Historical Institute in Warsaw and the Research Association on July 20, 1944. Hardback edition, 240 pages, 60illustrations, in German language, booksize 22 cm.