On March 14, 1903, the city council decided to dedicate a street in the Mitte district to the son of Emperor Wilhelm II, Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1882-1951).

Wilhelm of Prussia was born on May 6, 1882 in Potsdam as the son of the then Crown Prince Wilhelm and his wife Crown Princess Auguste Viktoria. From attending lower secondary school in 1896, he lived in the so-called Prinzenhaus in Plön. From 1901 to 1903, Wilhelm von Preußen studied constitutional and administrative law in Bonn. In 1911, he took command of the 1st Leib-Husaren Regiment No. 1 in Danzig. During the First World War, he was nominally commander of the 5th Army. After the German capitulation in 1918, William of Prussia resided in the Netherlands and returned to Germany as a private citizen in 1923.

The Crown Prince had probably been close to the All-German Alliance since around 1910. Anti-Semitic and anti-democratic statements by William of Prussia have already been recorded in early statements after the 1918 revolution. The former crown prince publicly blamed Jews for the decline of the German Reich and the revolution.

At the same time, he maintained relations with the Jewish upper class until at least 1933. However, these relationships did not lead Wilhelm to publicly reject the National Socialist persecution and murder of Jews. After his father's abdication, the former crown prince had already been on the far right since his time in exile in the Netherlands. Wilhelm of Prussia was convinced that Germany needed a dictator, at the latest with the rise of Italian fascism from 1924.

Another indicator of the former crown prince's enthusiasm for fascism was his membership of the pro-fascist Society for the Study of Fascism. Among other things, networks were established here and anti-democratic concepts were discussed.

Wilhelm von Preußen's political agenda was consistently based on the restoration of the Hohenzollern monarchy, even if there were no concrete and realistic plans for this project. In 1929, von Preußen joined the "Stahlhelm". He had already become increasingly close to the organization of old front-line fighters, which was regarded as the largest anti-republican military association in the Weimar Republic. Wilhelm von Preußen also regularly appeared at public events organized by the "Stahlhelm - Bund der Frontsoldaten".

The conservative milieu had been putting the crown prince forward as a candidate for the Reichstag since 1930 at the latest. He had a large network and good contacts in the Reichswehr leadership and the German National People's Party (DNVP). Over the course of the 1930s, Wilhelm von Preußen also intensified his relationships with the politically ascendant NSDAP. For example, he cultivated contacts with Hermann Goring and probably met Adolf Hitler at Cecilienhof Palace as early as 1926. During the 1932 election campaign, Wilhelm von Preußen had himself photographed alongside NSDAP members with Nazi propaganda posters. He also lobbied Reichswehr and Interior Minister Wilhelm Groener (non-party) against the ban on the SA and SS.

Wilhelm of Prussia sought proximity to the state leadership at the end of the Weimar Republic because he himself wanted to play a role in the changing political climate. In this endeavor, Adolf Hitler as leader of the National Socialists also had to come into the crown prince's field of vision. The relationship between Hitler and William of Prussia became closer, but the crown prince did not see Hitler as the only political option for his agenda; he was also prepared to cooperate with the conservative politicians. Wilhelm of Prussia acted carelessly, however, so that Hindenburg, among others, had no interest in working with him. After January 30, 1933, Wilhelm of Prussia offered himself as the "royal figurehead" of the "Third Reich".

Wilhelm of Prussia's new self-image after the National Socialists "seized power" became particularly clear on the so-called Day of Potsdam on March 21, 1933, when the regime publicly staged the closing of ranks between the elites of the old empire, the Reichswehr and the new Hitler's Germany. Wilhelm of Prussia and his family took part in the state ceremony for the opening of the newly elected Reichstag and in parades. The family was always prominently and visibly placed.

Wilhelm von Preußen also publicly promoted Hitler and the National Socialists abroad. There is evidence in his correspondence that he defended the anti-Semitic "measures" of the Nazi regime to foreign politicians and celebrities. Von Preußen made similarly positive comments about Hitler in the American press, for example.

Wilhelm von Preußen not only publicly supported Hitler and the regime, he was also involved in Nazi organizations. He joined the National Socialist Motorists' Corps (NSKK) in May 1933. In January 1934, he became a member of the Motor SA. As a member of these organizations, the former crown prince made a number of public appearances in which he was photographed wearing a swastika armband and presented himself alongside Nazi celebrities such as SA leader Ernst Röhm and SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler.

Despite this ingratiation, Wilhelm von Preußen lost political significance after the National Socialists seized power and with the "Gleichschaltung" and the ousting of the old power elites from the state administration. Public appearances became increasingly rare.

After the end of the war, Wilhelm von Preußen was arrested in Austria and taken to Hechingen, where he was placed under arrest by the Allies for several years. Von Preußen was interrogated by the American prosecutor Robert Kempner during the Nuremberg trials, but was not prosecuted. In Nuremberg, but also in press interviews, the former crown prince now presented himself as a strict opponent of Adolf Hitler and National Socialism. Wilhelm of Prussia died in Hechingen on July 20, 1951.

The historical commission appointed by the city council in 2020 to review traffic areas, buildings and facilities named after people in the state capital of Wiesbaden recommended that the name of Kronprinzenstraße be removed due to Wilhelm von Preußen's membership of the NSKK and the Motor-SA. Even before 1933, he was active in nationalist groups through his membership of the "Stahlhelm" and the Society for the Study of Fascism.

Wilhelm von Preußen supported the Nazi regime immaterially through public appearances at home and abroad and through his appearance at the "Day of Potsdam".

He trivialized the anti-Semitic measures of the National Socialists in the national and international press and thus publicly articulated the National Socialist ideology.
After the end of Nazi rule, Wilhelm von Preußen relativized and trivialized the crimes of the Nazi regime and relativized his own role with euphemistic and exculpatory intent.

At its meeting on February 1, 2024, the Mitte local advisory council followed the recommendation of the expert commission and decided to rededicate Kronprinzenstraße.