Did German courts enforce the Prussian succession laws?
That is certainly the way the case has been portrayed in the press. But it is apparent that the case is only a matter of inheritance law and enforcement of a specific type of testamentary clause. In this instance, Wilhelm designated as Nacherbe the eldest male descendant of Louis-Ferdinand who met the equal-marriage requirement. The legal question, which was a pure question of civil or private law, was whether the designation was valid, and the exclusion of unequally-married or -born offspring was valid. The matter decided was not “headship of the house” but inheritance of a certain estate; indeed, the phrase “head of house” or some equivalent doesn’t even appear in the press release. The issue was a contract which set up a specific rule of transmission. The court decided a case of inheritance, and decided that the clause which Wilhelm had created in his testament was valid, because of the right to dispose of one’s estate. Had Wilhelm decided to impose a religious requirement, or a hei
