Greiz

Greiz was the capital of a country where every prince was named Heinrich. The principality of Reuss Elder Line — one of the empire's smallest sovereign states — numbered its Heinrichs by century, ruled from this Vogtland valley until 1918, and left its residence town a disproportionate inheritance: the Oberes Schloss crowning its crag above the Weiße Elster, the Unteres Schloss in the town's heart, and the summer palace in the park — an ensemble that earned Greiz its title, "pearl of the Vogtland".

The Sommerpalais holds the singular treasure: the princely library's Satiricum, Germany's notable collection of caricature and satirical graphics — English masters like Gillray and Rowlandson beside German broadsides and GDR-era cartoons, wit archived under Rococo ceilings, shown in changing exhibitions and a triennial of contemporary satire. Around it spreads the Greizer Park, an English landscape garden of national rank along the river, its lake and specimen trees the town's serene living room.

Greiz's later prosperity wove itself in wool — the textile barons' Gründerzeit and Jugendstil villas still line the streets, a stone diary of the "Vogtland Manchester" — and its most consequential daughter married spectacularly: Princess Hermine of Reuss became the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II's second wife. The Elstertal's wooded slopes, the steam-hauled Elstertalbahn viaducts nearby and the compact old town complete a residence in miniature: many Heinrichs, one pearl, and satire kept in the palace where it belongs.