The German language at the Royal British Court

In the nineteenth century, German played an important role at the royal British court in three main areas:
 

In the Court’s libraries
Besides English and French publications, books in German comprised part of the basic collection of the court’s larger libraries, for example the courtowned Royal Library in Windsor Castle and the two private libraries of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, which are to be found at Buckingham Palace. This reflected the importance of book production in Germany in both scientific and literary fields. For his library, Albert had engaged a Germanspeaking librarian whose job it was to systematically acquire books in German. A number of duplicates were passed on to London Library. The librarian also served as Albert’s private German secretary and was responsible for his correspondence in German. He was also used to tutor the royal children. Queen Victoria also corresponded in German with Ernst Becker from Darmstadt, who held this position from 1851 to 1860. The 1843 catalogue of Queen Victoria’s private library records a relatively small number of German books (66 of 1268 titles). She additionally owned a collection of 44 German fairy-tale and children’s books, which had presumably been purchased for the royal children.
 
In Royal correspondence
In corresponding with her numerous German relatives, Queen Victoria used their language as a rule. This was a means of expressing the British royal family’s particular closeness to the ruling houses in Germany. After all, she herself came from the House of Hanover, while Albert and their children belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
 
In the family
Victoria and Albert normally spoke German to one another. Schooling of their children also included tuition in the German language. Clearly they became so proficient in the language that their parents were able to conduct their conversations with their children in German. Apart from the fact that this paid tribute to the father’s German heritage and the family’s affiliation with the nobility in Germany, this also served to shield the innermost family circle from the rest of the court, few members of which had an active command of German.