Wilhelm II or
William II (; ) (27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941) was the last
German Emperor (''Kaiser'') and
King of Prussia, ruling the
German Empire and the
Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was a grandson of the British
Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe. Crowned in 1888, he dismissed the Chancellor, Prince
Otto von Bismarck, in 1890 and launched Germany on a bellicose "New Course" in foreign affairs that culminated in his support for
Austria-Hungary in the
crisis of July 1914 that led to
World War I. Bombastic and impetuous, he sometimes made tactless pronouncements on sensitive topics without consulting his ministers. He was humiliated by the ''Daily Telegraph'' affair in 1908 and lost most of his power. His generals dictated policy during World War I with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the
Netherlands.
Wilhelm was born on 27 January 1859 at the
Crown Princes Palace, Berlin to
Prince Frederick William of Prussia (the future Frederick III) and his wife,
Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom. He was the first grandchild of
Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert, but more importantly, as the first son of the Crown Prince of Prussia, Wilhelm was (from 1861) the second in the line of
succession to Prussia, and also, after 1871, to the German Empire, which, according to the
constitution of the German Empire, was ruled by the Prussian King. He was related to many royal figures across Europe, and as war loomed in 1914, Wilhelm was on friendly terms with his cousins the
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and
King George V of the United Kingdom. He often tried to bully his royal relatives.
A traumatic breech birth left him with a withered left arm due to Erb's palsy, which he tried with some success to conceal. In many photos he carries a pair of white gloves in his left hand to make the arm seem longer, holds his left hand with his right, or has his crippled arm on the hilt of a sword or holding a cane to give the effect of a useful limb posed at a dignified angle. Historians have suggested that this disability affected his emotional development.
Wilhelm, from six years of age, was tutored and heavily influenced by the 39-year old teacher Georg Hinzpeter. As a teenager he was educated at
Kassel at the
Friedrichsgymnasium and the
University of Bonn, where he became a member of ''Corps Borussia Bonn''. Wilhelm possessed a quick intelligence, but unfortunately this was often overshadowed by a cantankerous temper.
As a scion of the Royal house of Hohenzollern, Wilhelm was exposed from an early age to the military society of the Prussian aristocracy. This had a major impact on him and, in maturity, Wilhelm was seldom seen out of uniform. The hyper-masculine military culture of Prussia in this period did much to frame his political ideals and personal relationships.
Crown Prince Frederick was viewed by his son with a deeply felt love and respect. His father's status as a hero of the wars of unification was largely responsible for the young Wilhelm's attitude, as in the circumstances in which he was raised; close emotional contact between father and son was not encouraged. Later, as he came into contact with the Crown Prince's political opponents, Wilhelm came to adopt more ambivalent feelings toward his father, given the perceived influence of Wilhelm's mother over a figure who should have been possessed of masculine independence and strength. Wilhelm also idolised his grandfather, Wilhelm I, and he was instrumental in later attempts to foster a cult of the first German Emperor as "Wilhelm the Great".
In many ways, Wilhelm was a victim of his inheritance and of Otto von Bismarck's machinations. Both sides of his family had suffered from mental illness, and this may explain his emotional instability. When Wilhelm was in his early twenties, Bismarck tried to separate him from his parents (who opposed Bismarck and his policies) with some success. Bismarck planned to use the young prince as a weapon against his parents in order to retain his own political dominance. Wilhelm thus developed a dysfunctional relationship with his parents, but especially with his English mother. In an outburst in April 1889, Wilhelm angrily implied that “an English doctor killed my father, and an English doctor crippled my arm – which is the fault of my mother”, who allowed no German physicians to attend to herself or her immediate family.
The German Emperor
Wilhelm I died in Berlin on 9 March 1888, and Prince Wilhelm's father was proclaimed Emperor as Frederick III. He was already suffering from an incurable
throat cancer and spent all 99 days of his reign fighting the disease before dying. On 15 June of that same year, his 29-year-old son succeeded him as German Emperor and King of Prussia.
Although in his youth he had been a great admirer of Otto von Bismarck, Wilhelm's characteristic impatience soon brought him into conflict with the "Iron Chancellor", the dominant figure in the foundation of his empire. The new Emperor opposed Bismarck's careful foreign policy, preferring vigorous and rapid expansion to protect Germany's "place in the sun." Furthermore, the young Emperor had come to the throne with the determination that he was going to rule as well as reign, unlike his grandfather, who had largely been content to leave day-to-day administration to Bismarck.
Early conflicts between Wilhelm II and his chancellor soon poisoned the relationship between the two men. Bismarck believed that Wilhelm was a lightweight who could be dominated, and he showed scant respect for Wilhelm's policies in the late 1880s. The final split between monarch and statesman occurred soon after an attempt by Bismarck to implement a far-reaching anti-Socialist law in early 1890.
It was during this time that Bismarck, after gaining an absolute majority in favour of his policies in the Reichstag, decided to make the anti-Socialist laws permanent. His ''Kartell'', the majority of the amalgamated Conservative Party and the
National Liberal Party, favoured making the laws permanent, with one exception: the police power to expel Socialist agitators from their homes. This power had been used excessively at times against political opponents, and the National Liberal Party was unwilling to pass the expulsion clause in the first place. Bismarck would not give his assent to a modified bill, so the ''Kartell'' split over this issue. The Conservatives would support the bill only in its entirety and threatened to and eventually did veto the entire bill.
As the debate continued, Wilhelm became increasingly interested in social problems, especially the treatment of mine workers who went on strike in 1889. Following his policy of active participation in government, he routinely interrupted Bismarck in Council to make clear where he stood on social policy. Bismarck sharply disagreed with Wilhelm's policy and worked to circumvent it. Even if Wilhelm supported the altered anti-Socialist bill, Bismarck pushed for his support to veto the bill in its entirety, but when Bismarck's arguments failed to convince Wilhelm, the Chancellor (uncharacteristically) blurted out his motive for having the bill fail: he wanted the Socialists to agitate until a violent clash occurred, which could be used as a pretext to crush them. Wilhelm replied that he would not open his reign with a bloody campaign against his subjects. "But it would be terrible if I had to stain the first years of my reign with the blood of my subjects. Everyone who means well by me will do his outmost to avert such a catastrophe. I intend to be ''le roi des gueux''! My subjects shall know that their King is concerned for their welfare."
The next day, after realising his blunder, Bismarck attempted to reach a compromise with Wilhelm by agreeing to his social policy towards industrial workers and even suggested a European council to discuss working conditions, presided over by the German Emperor.
Despite this, a turn of events eventually led to his distance from Wilhelm. Bismarck, feeling pressured and unappreciated by the Emperor and undermined by ambitious advisors, refused to sign a proclamation regarding the protection of workers along with Wilhelm, as was required by the German Constitution, to protest Wilhelm's ever-increasing interference with Bismarck's previously unquestioned authority. Bismarck also worked behind the scenes to break the council that Wilhelm held so dear. The final break came as Bismarck searched for a new parliamentary majority, with his ''Kartell'' voted from power due to the anti-Socialist bill fiasco. The remaining powers in the Reichstag were the Catholic Centre Party and the Conservative Party. Bismarck wished to form a new bloc with the Centre Party, and invited Ludwig Windthorst, the party's parliamentary leader, to discuss a coalition.
Wilhelm was furious to hear about Windthorst's visit. In a parliamentary state, the head of government depends on the confidence of the parliamentary majority and has the right to form coalitions to ensure his policies a majority, but in Germany, the Chancellor had to depend on the confidence of the Emperor, and Wilhelm believed that the Emperor had the right to be informed before his ministers' meeting. After a heated argument at Bismarck's estate over Imperial authority, Wilhelm stormed out. Bismarck, forced for the first time into a situation he could not use to his advantage, wrote a blistering letter of resignation, decrying Wilhelm's interference in foreign and domestic policy, which was published only after Bismarck's death. When Bismarck realised that his dismissal was imminent:
}}
Although Bismarck had sponsored landmark social security legislation, by 1889–90, he had become disillusioned with the attitude of workers. In particular, he was opposed to wage increases, improving working conditions, and regulating labour relations. Moreover the ''Kartell'', the shifting political coalition that Bismarck had been able to forge since 1867, had lost a working majority in the Reichstag. Bismarck also attempted to sabotage the council that the Kaiser was organising. In March 1890, the dismissal of Bismarck coincided with the Kaiser's opening of the Labour Conference in Berlin. Subsequently, at the opening of the Reichstag on 6 May 1890, the Kaiser stated that the most pressing issue was ''the further enlargement of the bill concerning the protection of the labourer.'' In 1891, the Reichstag passed the Workers Protection Acts, which improved working conditions, protected women and children and regulated labour relations.
Bismarck resigned at Wilhelm II's insistence in 1890, at age 75, to be succeeded as Chancellor of Germany and Minister-President of Prussia by
Leo von Caprivi, who in turn was replaced by
Chlodwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, in 1894. Following the dismissal of Hohenlohe in 1900, Wilhelm appointed the man whom he regarded as "his own Bismarck",
Bernhard von Bülow.
In foreign policy Bismarck had achieved a fragile balance of interests between Germany, France and Russia—peace was at hand and Bismarck tried to keep it that way despite growing popular sentiment against Britain (regarding colonies) and especially against Russia. With Bismarck's dismissal the Russians now expected a reversal of policy in Berlin, so they quickly came to terms with France, beginning the process that by 1914 largely isolated Germany.
| type | Monarchical |
|---|
| name | German Emperor Wilhelm II, King of Prussia |
|---|
| reference | His Imperial and Royal Majesty |
|---|
| spoken | Your Imperial and Royal Majesty |
|---|
| alternative | Sire}} |
|---|
In appointing Caprivi and then Hohenlohe, Wilhelm was embarking upon what is known to history as "the New Course", in which he hoped to exert decisive influence in the government of the empire. There is debate amongst historians as to the precise degree to which Wilhelm succeeded in implementing "personal rule" in this era, but what is clear is the very different dynamic which existed between the Crown and its chief political servant (the Chancellor) in the "Wilhelmine Era". These chancellors were senior civil servants and not seasoned politician-statesmen like Bismarck. Wilhelm wanted to preclude the emergence of another Iron Chancellor, whom he ultimately detested as being "a boorish old killjoy" who had not permitted any minister to see the Emperor except in his presence, keeping a stranglehold on effective political power. Upon his enforced retirement and until his dying day, Bismarck was to become a bitter critic of Wilhelm's policies, but without the support of the supreme arbiter of all political appointments (the Emperor) there was little chance of Bismarck exerting a decisive influence on policy.
Something which Bismarck was able to effect was the creation of the "Bismarck myth". This was a view—which some would argue was confirmed by subsequent events—that, with the dismissal of the Iron Chancellor, Wilhelm II effectively destroyed any chance Germany had of stable and effective government. In this view, Wilhelm's "New Course" was characterised far more as the German ship of state going out of control, eventually leading through a series of crises to the carnage of the First and Second World Wars.
In the early twentieth century Wilhelm began to concentrate upon his real agenda; the creation of a German navy that would rival that of Britain and enable Germany to declare itself a world power. He ordered his military leaders to read Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan's book, ''The Influence of Sea Power upon History'', and spent hours drawing sketches of the ships that he wanted built. Bülow and Bethmann Hollweg, his loyal chancellors, looked after domestic affairs and Wilhelm began to spread alarm in the chancellories of Europe with his increasingly eccentric views on foreign affairs.
Wilhelm II was an enthusiastic promoter of the arts and sciences, as well as public education and social welfare. He sponsored the
Kaiser Wilhelm Society, for the promotion of scientific research; it was funded by wealthy private donors and the state and comprised a number of research institutes in both pure and applied sciences. The
Prussian Academy of Sciences, however, was unable to avoid the Kaiser's pressure and lost some of its autonomy when it was forced to incorporate new programs in engineering, and award new fellowships in engineering sciences as a gift from the Kaiser in 1900.
Wilhelm II supported the modernisers as they tried to reform the Prussian system of secondary education, which was rigidly traditional, elitist, politically authoritarian, and unchanged by the progress in the natural sciences. As hereditary Protector of the Order of Saint John, he offered encouragement to the Christian order's attempts to place German medicine at the forefront of modern medical through its system of hospitals, nursing sisterhood and nursing schools, and nursing homes throughout the German Empire. Wilhelm continued as Protector of the Order even after 1918, as the position was in essence attached to the head of the House of Hohenzollern.
Historians have frequently stressed the role of Wilhelm's personality in shaping his reign. Thus,
Thomas Nipperdey concludes he was:
:"gifted, with a quick understanding, sometimes brilliant, with a taste for the modern,—technology, industry, science—but at the same time superficial, hasty, restless, unable to relax, without any deeper level of seriousness, without any desire for hard work or drive to see things through to the end, without any sense of sobriety, for balance and boundaries, or even for reality and real problems, uncontrollable and scarcely capable of learning from experience, desperate for applause and success,—as Bismarck said early on in his life, he wanted every day to be his birthday—romantic, sentimental and theatrical, unsure and arrogant, with an immeasurably exaggerated self-confidence and desire to show off, a juvenile cadet, who never took the tone of the officers’ mess out of his voice, and brashly wanted to play the part of the supreme warlord, full of panicky fear of a monotonous life without any diversions, and yet aimless, pathological in his hatred against his English mother."
Historian David Fromkin states that Wilhelm had a love-hate relationship with Britain. According to Fromkin:
}}
Langer et al. (1968) emphasize the negative international consequences of his erratic personality:
}}
German foreign policy under Wilhelm II was faced with a number of significant problems. Perhaps the most apparent was that Wilhelm was an impatient man, subjective in his reactions and affected strongly by sentiment and impulse. He was personally ill-equipped to steer German foreign policy along a rational course. It is now widely recognised that the various spectacular acts which Wilhelm undertook in the international sphere were often partially encouraged by the German foreign policy elite. There were a number of key exceptions, such as the famous
Kruger telegram of 1896 in which Wilhelm congratulated President
Paul Kruger of the
Transvaal Republic on the suppression of the
Jameson Raid, thus alienating British public opinion.
Wilhelm invented and spread fears of a yellow peril trying to interest other European rulers in the perils they faced by invading Chinese; few other leaders paid attention. After the murder of Clemens von Ketteler during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, German troops were sent to China.
Under Wilhelm Germany attempted to develop its colonies in Africa and the Pacific, but few became self-supporting and all were lost during World War I. In Namibia a native revolt against German rule led to the Herero and Namaqua Genocide, although Wilhelm eventually ordered it be stopped.
One of the few times Wilhelm succeeded in personal diplomacy was when he supported Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in marrying Sophie Chotek in 1900 against the wishes of Emperor Franz Joseph.
One domestic triumph for Wilhelm was when his daughter Victoria Louise married the Duke of Brunswick in 1913; this helped heal the rift between the House of Hanover and the House of Hohenzollern after the 1866 annexation of Hanover by Prussia.
One of Wilhelm II's diplomatic blunders sparked the
Moroccan Crisis of 1905, when Wilhelm made a spectacular visit to
Tangier, in Morocco. Wilhelm's presence was seen as an assertion of German interests in Morocco, in opposition to France. In his speech he even made certain remarks in favour of Moroccan independence. This led to friction with France, which had expanding colonial interests in Morocco, and led to the
Algeciras Conference, which served largely to further isolate Germany in Europe.
Perhaps Wilhelm's most damaging personal blunder in the arena of foreign policy had a far greater impact in Germany than internationally. The episode cost him much of his prestige and power. The ''
Daily Telegraph'' Affair of 1908 involved his publication of an interview with a British daily newspaper that included wild statements and diplomatically damaging remarks. Wilhelm saw it as an opportunity to promote his views and ideas on Anglo-German friendship, but instead, due to his emotional outbursts during the course of the interview, he ended up further alienating not only the British people, but also the French, Russians, and Japanese all in one fell swoop by implying, among other things, that the Germans cared nothing for the British; that the French and Russians had attempted to incite Germany to intervene in the
Second Boer War; and that the German naval buildup was targeted against the Japanese, not Britain. One memorable quotation from the interview was, "You English are mad, mad, mad as March hares." The effect in Germany was quite significant, with serious calls for his abdication. Wilhelm kept a very low profile for many months after the ''Daily Telegraph'' fiasco, and later exacted his revenge by forcing the resignation of Prince Bülow, who had abandoned the Emperor to public scorn by not editing the transcript of the interview before its publication.
The ''Daily Telegraph'' crisis deeply wounded Wilhelm's previously unimpaired self-confidence, so much so that he soon suffered a severe bout of depression from which he never really recovered (photographs of Wilhelm in the post-1908 period show a man with far more haggard features and greying hair), and he lost much of the influence he had previously exercised in domestic and foreign policy. British public opinion had been quite favourable toward the Kaiser in his first 12 years in office, but turned sour in the late 1890s. During the World War, however, he became the central target of British anti-German propaganda as the personification of a hated enemy.
Nothing Wilhelm II did in the international arena was of more influence than his decision to pursue a policy of massive naval construction. A powerful navy was Wilhelm's pet project. He had inherited from his mother a love of the British
Royal Navy, which was at that time the world's largest. He once confided to his uncle,
Edward VII, that his dream was to have a "fleet of my own some day". Wilhelm's frustration over his fleet's poor showing at the
Fleet Review at his grandmother
Queen Victoria's
Diamond Jubilee celebrations, combined with his inability to exert German influence in South Africa following the dispatch of the Kruger telegram, led to Wilhelm taking definitive steps toward the construction of a fleet to rival that of his British cousins. Wilhelm was fortunate to be able to call on the services of the dynamic naval officer
Alfred von Tirpitz, whom he appointed to the head of the Imperial Naval Office in 1897.
The new admiral had conceived of what came to be known as the "Risk Theory" or the Tirpitz Plan, by which Germany could force Britain to accede to German demands in the international arena through the threat posed by a powerful battlefleet concentrated in the North Sea. Tirpitz enjoyed Wilhelm's full support in his advocacy of successive naval bills of 1897 and 1900, by which the German navy was built up to contend with that of the United Kingdom. Naval expansion under the Fleet Acts eventually led to severe financial strains in Germany by 1914, as by 1906 Wilhelm had committed his navy to construction of the much larger, more expensive dreadnought type of battleship.
In 1889 Wilhelm II reorganised top level control of the navy by creating a Navy Cabinet (Marine-Kabinett) equivalent to the German Imperial Military Cabinet which had previously functioned in the same capacity for both the army and navy. The Head of the navy cabinet was responsible for promotions, appointments, administration and issuing orders to naval forces. Captain Gustav von Senden-Bibran was appointed as its first head and remained so until 1906. The existing Imperial admiralty was abolished and its responsibilities divided between two organisations. A new position (equivalent to the supreme commander of the army) was created, chief of the high command of the admiralty (Oberkommando der Marine), being responsible for ship deployments, strategy and tactics. Vice Admiral Max von der Goltz was appointed in 1889 and remained in post until 1895. Construction and maintenance of ships and obtaining supplies was the responsibility of the State Secretary of the Imperial Navy Office (Reichsmarineamt), responsible to the Chancellor and advising the Reichstag on naval matters. The first appointee was Rear Admiral Eduard Heusner, followed shortly by Rear Admiral Friedrich von Hollmann from 1890 to 1897. Each of these three heads of department reported separately to Wilhelm II.
In addition to the expansion of the fleet the Kiel Canal was opened in 1895 enabling faster movements between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
Wilhelm was a friend of
Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, and he was deeply shocked by his assassination on 28 June 1914. Wilhelm offered to support Austria-Hungary in crushing the
Black Hand, the secret organization that had plotted the killing, and even sanctioned the use of force by Austria against the perceived source of the movement—
Serbia (this is often called "the blank cheque"). He wanted to remain in Berlin until the crisis was resolved, but his courtiers persuaded him instead to go on his annual cruise of the North Sea on 6 July 1914. Wilhelm made erratic attempts to stay on top of the crisis via telegram, and when the
Austro-Hungarian ultimatum was delivered to Serbia, he hurried back to Berlin. He reached Berlin on 28 July, read a copy of the Serbian reply, and wrote on it:
}}
Unknown to the Emperor, Austro-Hungarian ministers and generals had already convinced the 84-year-old Francis Joseph I of Austria to sign a declaration of war against Serbia. As a direct consequence, Russia began a general mobilization to attack Austria in defense of Serbia.
July 1914
On the night of 30 July, when handed a document stating that Russia would not cancel its mobilization, Wilhelm wrote a lengthy commentary containing these observations:
"''...For I no longer have any doubt that England, Russia and France have agreed among themselves—knowing that our treaty obligations compel us to support Austria—to use the Austro-Serb conflict as a pretext for waging a war of annihilation against us... Our dilemma over keeping faith with the old and honourable Emperor has been exploited to create a situation which gives England the excuse she has been seeking to annihilate us with a spurious appearance of justice on the pretext that she is helping France and maintaining the well-known Balance of Power in Europe, i.e. playing off all European States for her own benefit against us.''"
More recent British authors state that Wilhelm II really declared, "Ruthlessness and weakness will start the most terrifying war of the world, whose purpose is to destroy Germany. Because there can no longer be any doubts, England, France and Russia have conspired them selves together to fight an annihilation war against us".
When it became clear that Germany would experience a war on two fronts and that the United Kingdom would enter the war if Germany attacked France through neutral Belgium, the panic-stricken Wilhelm attempted to redirect the main attack against Russia. When Helmuth von Moltke (the younger) (who had chosen the old plan from 1905, made by the former German general von Schlieffen for the possibility of German war on two fronts) told him that this was impossible, Wilhelm said: "''Your uncle would have given me a different answer!''" Wilhelm is also reported to have said, "''To think that George and Nicky should have played me false! If my grandmother had been alive, she would never have allowed it.''" In the original Schlieffen plan, Germany would attack the (supposed) weaker enemy first, meaning France. The plan supposed that it would take a long time before Russia was ready for war. Defeating France had been easy for Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. At the 1914 border between France and Germany, an attack at this more southern part of France could be stopped by the French fortress along the border. However, Wilhelm II got Helmuth Moltke (the younger) to also not invade the Netherlands.
Wilhelm's role in wartime was of ever-decreasing power as he increasingly handled awards ceremonies and honorific duties. The high command continued with its strategy even when it was clear that the Schlieffen plan had failed. By 1916 the Empire had effectively become a military dictatorship under the control of Field Marshall
Paul von Hindenburg and General
Erich Ludendorff. Increasingly cut off from reality and the political decision-making process, Wilhelm vacillated between defeatism and dreams of victory, depending upon the fortunes of his armies. Nevertheless, Wilhelm still retained the ultimate authority in matters of political appointment, and it was only after his consent had been gained that major changes to the high command could be effected. Wilhelm was in favour of the dismissal of Helmuth von Moltke the Younger in September 1914 and his replacement by
Erich von Falkenhayn. In 1917, Hindenburg and Ludendorff decided that Bethman-Hollweg was no longer acceptable to them as Chancellor and called upon the Kaiser to appoint somebody else. When asked whom they would accept, Ludendorff recommended Michaelis, a nonentity he barely knew. The Kaiser did not know Michaelis, but accepted the suggestion. Upon hearing in July 1917 that his cousin George V had changed the name of the British royal house to
Windsor,}} Wilhelm remarked that he planned to see
Shakespeare's play ''
The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha''.The Kaiser's support collapsed completely in October–November 1918 in the army, in the civilian government, and in German public opinion, as President
Woodrow Wilson made clear the Kaiser could no longer be a party to peace negotiations.
Wilhelm was at the Imperial Army headquarters in
Spa, Belgium, when the uprisings in Berlin and other centres took him by surprise in late 1918.
Mutiny among the ranks of his beloved
Kaiserliche Marine, the imperial navy, profoundly shocked him. After the outbreak of the
German Revolution, Wilhelm could not make up his mind whether or not to abdicate. Up to that point, he was confident that even if he were obliged to vacate the German throne, he would still retain the Prussian kingship. The unreality of this belief was revealed when, in the hope of preserving the monarchy in the face of growing revolutionary unrest, Wilhelm's abdication both as German Emperor and King of Prussia was abruptly announced by the Chancellor,
Prince Max of Baden, on 9 November 1918. Prince Max himself was forced to resign later the same day, when it became clear that only
Friedrich Ebert, leader of the
SPD could effectively exert control.
Wilhelm consented to the abdication only after Ludendorff's replacement, General Wilhelm Groener, had informed him that the officers and men of the army would march back in good order under Paul von Hindenburg's command, but would certainly not fight for Wilhelm's throne on the home front. The monarchy's last and strongest support had been broken, and finally even Hindenburg, himself a lifelong royalist, was obliged, with some embarrassment, to advise the Emperor to give up the crown, thus ending the dynasty's rule.
The fact that the High Command might one day abandon the Kaiser had been foreseen in December 1897, when Wilhelm had visited Otto von Bismarck for the last time. Bismarck had again warned the Kaiser about the increasing influence of militarists, especially of the admirals who were pushing for the construction of a battle fleet. Bismarck's last warning had been:
}}
Subsequently, Bismarck had predicted accurately:
}}
On November 10 Wilhelm Hohenzollern, private citizen, crossed the border by train and went into exile in the Netherlands, which had remained neutral throughout the war. Upon the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles in early 1919, Article 227 expressly provided for the prosecution of Wilhelm "for a supreme offence against international morality and the sanctity of treaties", but Queen Wilhelmina refused to extradite him, despite appeals from the Allies. King George V wrote that he looked on his cousin as "the greatest criminal in history", but opposed Prime Minister David Lloyd George's proposal to "hang the Kaiser". President Wilson rejected extradition, arguing that punishing Wilhelm for waging war would destabilize international order and lose the peace.
The erstwhile Emperor first settled in Amerongen, and then subsequently purchased a country house in the municipality of Doorn on 16 August 1919 and moved in on 15 May 1920. This was to be his home for the remainder of his life. From this residence, Huis Doorn, Wilhelm absolved his officers and servants of their oath of loyalty to him; however, he himself never formally relinquished his titles, and hoped to return to Germany in the future. The Weimar Republic allowed Wilhelm to remove twenty-three railway wagons of furniture, twenty-seven containing packages of all sorts, one bearing a car and another a boat, from the New Palace at Potsdam.
On 2 December 1919, Wilhelm wrote to Field Marshal
August von Mackensen, denouncing his abdication as the "deepest, most disgusting shame ever perpetrated by a person in history, the Germans have done to themselves […] egged on and misled by the tribe of
Judah... Let no German ever forget this, nor rest until these parasites have been destroyed and exterminated from German soil!" He advocated a "regular international all-worlds pogrom à la Russe" as "the best cure" and further believed that Jews were a "nuisance that humanity must get rid of some way or other. I believe the best would be gas!"
In 1922, Wilhelm published the first volume of his memoirs—a very slim volume that insisted he was not guilty of initiating the Great War, and defended his conduct throughout his reign, especially in matters of foreign policy. For the remaining twenty years of his life, the former Emperor regularly entertained guests (often of some standing) and kept himself updated on events in Europe. He grew a beard and allowed his famous moustache to droop. He also learned the Dutch language. Wilhelm developed a penchant for archaeology during his vacations on Corfu, a passion he retained in his exile. He had bought the former Greek residence of Empress Elisabeth after her murder in 1898. He also sketched plans for grand buildings and battleships when he was bored. In exile, one of Wilhelm's greatest passions was hunting, and he bagged thousands of animals, both beast and bird. Much of his time was spent chopping wood and thousands of trees were chopped down during his stay at Doorn.
In the early 1930s, Wilhelm apparently hoped that the successes of the German Nazi Party would stimulate interest in the revival of the monarchy. His second wife, Hermine (see below), actively petitioned the Nazi government on her husband's behalf, but the scorn which Adolf Hitler felt for the man who he believed contributed to Germany's greatest defeat, and his own desire for power, would prevent Wilhelm's restoration. Though he hosted Hermann Göring at Doorn on at least one occasion, Wilhelm grew to mistrust Hitler. He heard about the Night of the Long Knives of 30 June 1934 by wireless and said of it, "What would people have said if I had done such a thing?" and hearing of the murder of the wife of former Chancellor Schleicher, "We have ceased to live under the rule of law and everyone must be prepared for the possibility that the Nazis will push their way in and put them up against the wall!" Wilhelm was also appalled at the Kristallnacht of 9–10 November 1938 saying, "I have just made my views clear to Auwi [Wilhelm's fourth son] in the presence of his brothers. He had the nerve to say that he agreed with the Jewish pogroms and understood why they had come about. When I told him that any decent man would describe these actions as gangsterisms, he appeared totally indifferent. He is completely lost to our family..." He also stated, "For the first time, I am ashamed to be a German."
In the wake of the German victory over Poland in September 1939, Wilhelm's adjutant, General von Dommes, wrote on his behalf to Hitler, stating that the House of Hohenzollern "remained loyal" and noted that nine Prussian Princes (one son and eight grandchildren) were stationed at the front, concluding "because of the special circumstances that require residence in a neutral foreign country, His Majesty must personally decline to make the aforementioned comment. The Emperor has therefore charged me with making a communication." Wilhelm stayed in regular contact with Hitler through General von Dommes, who represented the family in Germany. Wilhelm greatly admired the success which Hitler was able to achieve in the opening months of the Second World War, and personally sent a congratulatory telegram on the fall of Paris stating "Congratulations, you have won using ''my'' troops." In a letter to his daughter Victoria Louise, the Duchess of Brunswick, he wrote triumphantly, "Thus is the pernicious Entente Cordiale of Uncle Edward VII brought to nought." Nevertheless, after the Nazi conquest of the Netherlands in 1940, the aging Wilhelm retired completely from public life. In May 1940, when Hitler invaded Holland, Wilhelm declined an offer from Churchill for asylum in the UK, preferring to die at ''Huis Doorn''.
During his last year at Doorn, Wilhelm believed that Germany was the land of monarchy and therefore of Christ and that England was the land of Liberalism and therefore of Satan and the Anti-Christ. He argued that the English ruling classes were "Freemasons thoroughly infected by Juda". Wilhelm asserted that the "British people must be ''liberated'' from ''Antichrist Juda''. We must drive Juda out of England just as he has been chased out of the Continent." He believed the Freemasons and Jews had caused the two world wars, aiming at a world Jewish empire with British and American gold, but that "Juda's plan has been smashed to pieces and they themselves swept out of the European Continent!" Continental Europe was now, Wilhelm wrote, "consolidating and closing itself off from British influences after the elimination of the British and the Jews!" The end result would be a "U.S. of Europe!" In a letter to his sister Princess Margaret in 1940, Wilhelm wrote: "The hand of God is creating a new world & working miracles... We are becoming the U.S. of Europe under German leadership, a united European Continent." He added: "The Jews [are] being thrust out of their nefarious positions in all countries, whom they have driven to hostility for centuries." Also in 1940 came what would have been his mother's 100th birthday, of which he ironically wrote to a friend "Today the 100th birthday of my mother! No notice is taken of it at home! No 'Memorial Service' or... committee to remember her marvellous work for the... welfare of our German people... Nobody of the new generation knows anything about her." This sympathy for his mother is in sharp contrast to the intense animosity he expressed for her during most of her life.
Wilhelm II died of a
pulmonary embolus in Doorn, Netherlands on 3 June 1941 aged 82, just weeks before the
German invasion of the Soviet Union. German soldiers had been guarding his estate. Adolf Hitler, however, was reportedly angry that the former monarch had an honor guard of German troops and nearly fired the general who ordered them there when he found out. Despite his personal animosity toward Wilhelm, Hitler wanted to bring Wilhelm's body back to Berlin for a state funeral, as Wilhelm was a symbol of Germany and Germans during World War I. Hitler felt this would demonstrate to Germans the direct succession of the
Third Reich from the old
Kaiserreich. However, Wilhelm's wishes of never returning to Germany until the restoration of the monarchy were respected, and the Nazi occupation authorities granted a small military funeral with a few hundred people present, the mourners including August von Mackensen, along with a few other military advisers. Wilhelm's request that the
swastika and other Nazi regalia not be displayed at the final rites was ignored, however, and they are featured in the photos of the funeral that were taken by a Dutch photographer.
He was buried in a mausoleum in the grounds of Huis Doorn, which has since become a place of pilgrimage for German monarchists. Small but enthusiastic and faithful numbers of them gather at Huis Doorn every year on the anniversary of his death to pay their homage to the last German Emperor.
Three trends have characterized the writing about Wilhelm. First, the court-inspired writers who considered him a martyr and a hero. Often they uncritically accepted the justifications provided in the Kaiser's memoirs. Second, those who judged Wilhelm as completely unable to handle the great responsibilities of his office and one who was too reckless to deal with power. Third, after 1950, scholars sought to transcend the passions of the 1910s and attempted objective portrayal of Wilhelm II and his rule.
On 8 June 1913, The New York Times had published a special supplement devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Kaiser's coronation. The banner headline at the top read: KAISER, 25 YEARS A RULER, HAILED AS CHIEF PEACEMAKER. The accompanying story called him "the greatest factor for peace that our time can show"--and credited Wilhelm with frequently rescuing Europe from the brink of war. Until the late 1950s the Kaiser was depicted by most historians as man of considerable influence. Partly that was a deception by German officials. For example, President Theodore Roosevelt believed the Kaiser was in control of German foreign policy because Hermann Speck von Sternburg, the German ambassador in Washington and personal friend of Roosevelt, presented messages of Chancellor von Bülow to the president as messages from the Kaiser. Then historians downplayed his role, arguing senior officials learned to work around him. More recently historian John C. G. Röhl has portrayed Wilhelm II as the key figure in understanding the recklessness and downfall of Imperial Germany. Thus the argument is made that the Kaiser played a major role in promoting the policies of naval and colonial expansion that caused the sharp deterioration in Germany's relations with Britain before 1914. Another recent reassessment focuses on the choices made by small coteries, in various countries, whose separate and distinct agendas contributed to the outbreak of the war.
Wilhelm and his first wife,
Princess Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein, were married on 27 February 1881. They had seven children:
# HI&RH; Crown Prince Wilhelm (1882–1951). On 6 June 1905, he married Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (20 September 1886 – 6 May 1954) in Berlin. Cecilie was the daughter of Frederick Francis III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1851–1897) and Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia (1860–1922). They had six children. Their eldest son Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1906–1940) was killed in World War II.
# HRH Prince Eitel Friedrich (1883–1942). On 27 February 1906, he married Duchess Sophia Charlotte of Oldenburg (2 February 1879 Oldenburg, Germany – 29 March 1964 Westerstede, Germany) in Berlin, Germany. They were divorced 20 October 1926 and had no children.
# HRH Prince Adalbert (1884–1948). On 3 August 1914, he married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (16 August 1891 – 25 April 1971) in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. They had three children.
# HRH Prince August Wilhelm (1887–1949). On 22 October 1908, he married Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (21 April 1887 Germany – 15 April 1957 France). They had one child.
# HRH Prince Oskar (1888–1958). On 31 July 1914, he married Countess Ina Marie von Bassewitz (27 January 1888 – 17 September 1973). It was a morganatic marriage, so Ina-Marie was created Countess von Ruppin. In 1920, she and her children were granted the title Prince/ss of Prussia with the style ''Royal Highness''. They had four children. His eldest son Prince Oskar Wilhelm Karl Hans Kuno of Prussia was killed in 1939 in World War II.
# HRH Prince Joachim (1890–1920). On 11 March 1916, he married Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt (10 June 1898 – 22 May 1983). They had one son. Joachim's great grandson Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia, Prince of Prussia (born 1981) is a pretender to the Russian throne.
# HRH Princess Viktoria Luise (1892–1980). In 1913, she married Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick (1887–1953). They had five children.
Empress Augusta, known affectionately as "Dona", was a constant companion to Wilhelm, and her death on 11 April 1921 was a devastating blow. It also came less than a year after their son Joachim committed suicide—unable to accept his lot after the abdication of his father, the failure of his own marriage to Princess Marie–Auguste of Anhalt, and the severe depression felt after his service in the Great War.
The following January, Wilhelm received a birthday greeting from a son of the late Prince Johann George Ludwig Ferdinand August Wilhelm of Schönaich-Carolath. The 63-year-old Wilhelm invited the boy and his mother,
Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz, to
Doorn. Wilhelm found Hermine very attractive, and greatly enjoyed her company. The couple were wed on 9 November 1922, despite the objections of Wilhelm's monarchist supporters and his children. Hermine's daughter,
Princess Henriette, married the late Prince Joachim's son, Karl Franz Josef, in 1940, but divorced in 1946. Hermine remained a constant companion to the aging Emperor until his death.
27 January 1859 – 9 March 1888: ''His Royal Highness'' Prince Wilhelm of Prussia
9 March 1888 – 15 June 1888: ''His Imperial and Royal Highness'' The German Crown Prince, Crown Prince of Prussia
15 June 1888 – 18 November 1918: ''His Imperial and Royal Majesty'' The German Emperor, King of Prussia
''
William II. – The last days of the German Monarchy'' (original title: "Wilhelm II. – Die letzten Tage des Deutschen Kaiserreichs"), about the abdication and flight of the last German Kaiser. Germany/Belgium, 2007. Produced by seelmannfilm and German Television. Written and directed by
Christoph Weinert.
Barry Foster plays Kaiser William II in several episodes of the 1974 BBC TV series ''Fall of Eagles''.
Rupert Julian played Kaiser William II in the 1918 Hollywood propaganda film ''The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin''.
Robert Stadlober plays a young crown prince Wilhelm and friend of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria in the acclaimed 2006 film The Crown Prince (Kronprinz Rudolf).
Kaiserlicher Yacht Club
Navy League (Germany)
List of people on the cover of Time Magazine: 1920s – 28 June 1926
Research Materials: Max Planck Society Archive
Rulers of Germany family tree. He was related to every other monarch of Germany.
Wilhelminism
Alesund, a Norwegian city rebuilt by Wilhelm II after it had been almost completely destroyed by fire in 1904.
.
.
.
, 299 pp.; 12 scholar essays.
.
.
.
.
, 432 pp.; popular narrative.
.
.
.
.
.
, Archive.org.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
, translated in .
.
.
.
.
.
.
, 1310 pp.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Clark, Christopher M. ''Kaiser Wilhelm II.'' (2000) 271 pp. short biography by scholar
Eley, Geoff. "The View From The Throne: The Personal Rule of Kaiser Wilhelm II," ''Historical Journal,'' June 1985, Vol. 28 Issue 2, pp. 469–85.
Kohut, Thomas A. ''Wilhelm II and the Germans: A Study in Leadership'', New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. ISBN 978-0-19-506172-7.
Mommsen, Wolfgang J. "Kaiser Wilhelm II and German Politics." ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 1990 25(2–3): 289–316. ISSN 0022-0094.
Retallack, James. ''Germany in the Age of Kaiser Wilhelm II'', Basingstoke: St. Martin's Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-333-59242-7.
Van der Kiste, John. ''Kaiser Wilhelm II: Germany's Last Emperor'', Sutton Publishing, 1999. ISBN 978-0-7509-1941-8.
Waite, Robert GL ''Kaiser and Führer: A Comparative Study of Personality and Politics'' (1998) 511 pp. Psychohistory comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
''The German Emperor as shown in his public utterances''
, Google Books.
''The German emperor's speeches: being a selection from the speeches, edicts, letters, and telegrams of the Emperor William II''
Commemorative Silk Bookmark of William II from 1913.
William II tried to stop the bombing of Belgrade: , as History of Ultimatum to Serbia repeated.
Category:1859 births
Category:1941 deaths
Category:19th-century German people
Category:Attempted assassination survivors
Category:Burials in the Netherlands
Category:Crown Princes of Prussia
Category:Deaths from pulmonary embolism
Category:German emperors
Category:German Lutherans
Category:German people of English descent
Category:German racehorse owners and breeders
Category:Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Category:House of Hohenzollern
Category:Kings of Prussia
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Military William Order
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
Category:Knights of Justice of the Order of St John
Category:Knights of the Elephant
Category:Knights of the Garter
Category:Knights of the Golden Fleece
Category:Knights of the Order of the Most Holy Annunciation
Category:Knights of the Order of the Norwegian Lion
Category:People from Berlin
Category:People of the Edwardian era
Category:Pretenders to the German throne
Category:Protestant monarchs
Category:Recipients of the Iron Cross
Category:Recipients of the Military Order of Max Joseph
Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Andrew
Category:Recipients of the Order of the Black Eagle
Category:Recipients of the Royal Victorian Chain
Category:University of Bonn alumni
Category:Antisemitism
af:Wilhelm II van Duitsland
ar:فيلهلم الثاني
an:Guillén II d'Alemanya
ast:Guillermo II d'Alemaña
az:II Vilhelm
be:Вільгельм II Гогенцолерн
be-x-old:Вільгельм II
bg:Вилхелм II
bs:Vilim II, car Njemačke
br:Gwilherm II (Alamagn)
ca:Guillem II de Prússia
cs:Vilém II. Pruský
cy:Wiliam II, ymerawdwr yr Almaen
da:Wilhelm 2. af Tyskland
de:Wilhelm II. (Deutsches Reich)
et:Wilhelm II
el:Γουλιέλμος Β΄ της Γερμανίας
es:Guillermo II de Alemania
eo:Vilhelmo la 2-a (Germanio)
eu:Gilen II.a Alemaniakoa
fa:ویلهلم دوم
fo:Wilhelm II
fr:Guillaume II d'Allemagne
fy:Willem II fan Dútslân
ga:Uilliam II na Gearmáine
gv:Illiam II ny Germaan
gd:Ceusair Uilleam II
gl:Guillerme II de Alemaña
ko:빌헬름 2세
hy:Վիլհելմ II
hi:कैसर विल्हेम द्वितीय (जर्मनी)
hr:Vilim II., njemački car
io:Wilhelm 2ma
id:Wilhelm II
is:Vilhjálmur 2. Þýskalandskeisari
it:Guglielmo II di Germania
he:וילהלם השני, קיסר גרמניה
ka:ვილჰელმ II (გერმანიის იმპერია)
sw:Kaisari Wilhelm II
ku:Wilhelm II.
la:Gulielmus II (Imperator Germaniae)
lv:Vilhelms II Hohencollerns
lb:Wilhelm II. vun Däitschland
lt:Vilhelmas II
li:Wilhelm II van Duutsjland
hu:II. Vilmos német császár
mk:Вилхелм II (Германија)
mr:प्रशियाचा दुसरा विल्हेल्म
ms:Wilhelm II, Maharaja Jerman
mn:II Вильхелм, Германы эзэн хаан
nl:Wilhelm II van Duitsland
ja:ヴィルヘルム2世 (ドイツ皇帝)
no:Vilhelm II av Tyskland
nn:Vilhelm II av Tyskland
pl:Wilhelm II Hohenzollern
pt:Guilherme II da Alemanha
ro:Wilhelm al II-lea al Germaniei
ru:Вильгельм II (германский император)
sa:कैसर विल्हेम द्वितीय (जर्मनी)
scn:Gugghiermu II di Girmania
simple:Wilhelm II of Germany
sk:Viliam II. (Nemecko)
sl:Viljem II. Nemški
sr:Вилхелм II Немачки
sh:Wilhelm II
fi:Vilhelm II (Saksa)
sv:Vilhelm II av Tyskland
tl:Wilhelm II, Emperador ng Alemanya
ta:இரண்டாம் வில்லியம் (செருமனி)
th:สมเด็จพระจักรพรรดิวิลเฮล์มที่ 2 แห่งเยอรมนี
tr:II. Wilhelm
uk:Вільгельм II Гогенцоллерн
vi:Wilhelm II của Đức
fiu-vro:Wilhelm II
wa:Wiyåme II d' Prûsse
war:Wilhelm II, Emperador han Alemanya
zh:威廉二世 (德国)
