Dinner menu for a Royal Hunt at the Royal Hunting Lodge, Göhrde Jagdschloss, hosted by His Imperial and Royal Majesty Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Prussia with His Imperial and Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz-Ferdinand.
A serving of Russian caviar kicked-off this nine course dinner hosted by the Kaiser at one of his array of hunting palaces, the Göhrde Jagdschloss.
Menus for the Kaiser’s Royal Hunts were especially designed to depict scenes from the hunting estate where the royal shooting party was based.
As these were ‘men only’ events, only the Kaiser’s imperial arms adorn the menu, unlike normal imperial menus which also included the royal arms of his wife the Kaiserin.
This menu is historically significant for two reasons: the royal shoot was in honour of a visit by the Crown Prince of Austria Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination just 8 months later triggered World War I. Franz-Ferdinand was a keen hunter who is credited with having brought down more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime. Additionally, this menu is from the last royal hunt that would ever take place at the Göhrde Jagdschloss which was one of the Kaiser’s favorite hunting estates located in northern Hanover.
In just one day on this hunt, the royal shooting party brought down 447 game. At the Göhrde Jagdschloss so called `granted hunts' were held that permitted the shooting of a large number of animals within a few hours. It was also the favored hunting place of the Kaiser’s grandfather, Wilhelm I, and of the Dukes of Brunswick and the Kings of Hanover.
