I have no idea. I'm Austrian and we outlawed the right to use titles and I personally viewed aristocrats with a lot of disdain (particularly the local former aristocracy who likes to come and whine about how they want the state to give back their property).

Apparently it's not the same in Germany? Personally, I never got the impression that aristocrats play any major role politically in Germany. You never hear about them over here. I can't think of a single German politician with an aristocratic name and all the gossip rags I read focus on the Skandinavian or Spanish or English aristocracy. 

 If I read the wikipedia entry right the German aristocracy lost any special rights in the Weimarer Republik (the government before Hitler). The rights were never instanted but people still had the right to keep their names (while in Austria is it illegal to call yourself "von") apparently they had the ability to keep up some mystique. It mentions that in the 10s there was quite a market for aristocratic names where an aristocrat would adopt you for money. 

hm. There's no official aristoracy anymore but unlike in Austria they are allowed to keep their titles as part of their names. I don't think anyone of the aristocrats has a right to be adressed with their titles - but there are a lot of people who are fascinated by aristocracy (all the gossip magazines are full with stories about them). And I guess there still is a certain elitist behaviour among "high profile" aristocrats.

But they don't play a big role in politics as a class. There have been some important politicians who were of aristocratic descent. Most notably Richard von Weizsäcker a former german president (not the same as a president in the US, it's officially the highest political function but has no real power just a representative function)- he still is higly respected -  or Otto Graf Lambsdorff  - a former economic minster - who isn't that respected anymore ;-)