About Me
William II (German: Wilhelm II) (born Prince Frederick William Victor Albert of Prussia; (27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling both the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918.
William II was born in Berlin to Prince Frederick William of Prussia and his wife, Victoria, Princess of Prussia (born Princess Royal of the United Kingdom), thus making him a grandson of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. He was Queen Victoria's first grandchild. As the son of the Crown Prince of Prussia, William 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. As with most Victorian era royalty, he was related to many of Europe's royal families.
The Princess Victoria, Wilhelm's mother - Princess Royal of the United Kingdom, Empress of Germany, and Queen of Prussia
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, or has his crippled arm on the hilt of a sword or clutching a cane to give the effect of the limb being posed at a dignified angle.
young Willy with his father, Frederick III
William was educated at Kassel at the Friedrichsgymnasium and the University of Bonn. William was possessed of a quick intelligence, but unfortunately this was often overshadowed by a cantankerous temper. William also took a certain interest in the science and technology of the age, but though he liked to pose, in conversation, as a man of the world, he remained convinced that he belonged to a distinct order of mankind, designated for monarchy by the grace of God.
As a scion of the royal house of Hohenzollern, William was also exposed from an early age to the military society of the Prussian aristocracy. This had a major impact on him and in maturity William was seldom to be seen out of uniform. The hyper-masculine military culture of Prussia in this period did much to frame William's political ideals as well as his personal relationships.
William I, German Emperor & grandfather of Wilhelm
The German Emperor William I died in Berlin on March 9, 1888, and Prince William'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.
Frederick III, Wilhelm's father,& German Emperor for only 99 days
Although in his youth he had been a great admirer of Otto von Bismarck, William'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 William II and his chancellor soon poisoned the relationship between the two men. Bismarck believed that William was a lightweight who could be dominated, and he showed scant respect for William'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.
Bismark
Bismarck resigned at William 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 zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst in 1894.
In appointing Caprivi and then Hohenlohe, William 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 William 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. William 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.
William's involvement in the domestic sphere was more limited in the early twentieth century than it had been in the first years of his reign. In part, this was due to the appointment of Bülow and Bethmann—arguably both men of greater force of character than William's earlier chancellors—but also because of his increasing interest in foreign affairs.
German foreign affairs policy under William II was faced with a number of significant problems. Perhaps the most apparent was that William 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. After the murder of the German ambassador during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, a regiment of German troops was sent to China. In a speech of 27 July 1900, the Emperor exhorted these troops:
"Just as the Huns under their king Etzel created for themselves a thousand years ago a name which men still respect, you should give the name of German such cause to be remembered in China for a thousand years ..."
Though its full impact was not felt until many years later, when Entente and American propagandists shamelessly lifted the term Huns out of context, this is another example of his unfortunate propensity for impolitic public utterances. This weakness made him vulnerable to manipulation by interests within the German foreign policy elite, as subsequent events were to prove.
Following his dismissal of Bismarck, William and his new chancellor Caprivi became aware of the existence of the secret Reinsurance Treaty with the Russian empire, which Bismarck had concluded in 1887. William's refusal to renew this agreement which guaranteed Russian neutrality in the event of an attack by France was seen by many historians as the worst offense committed by William in terms of foreign policy. In reality, the decision to allow the lapse of the treaty was largely the responsibility of Caprivi, though William supported his chancellor's actions.
Wilhelm had a "love-hate" relationship with the United Kingdom and in particular with his British cousins. He returned to England in January 1901 to be at the bedside of his grandmother, Queen Victoria, and was holding her in his arms at the moment of her death. Open armed conflict with Britain was never what William had in mind—"a most unimaginable thing", as he once quipped—yet he often gave in to the generally anti-British sentiments within the upper echelons of the German government, conforming as they did to his own prejudices toward Britain which arose from his youth. When war came about in 1914 William sincerely believed that he was the victim of a diplomatic conspiracy set up by his late uncle, Edward VII, in which Britain had actively sought to "encircle" Germany through the conclusion of the Entente Cordiale with France in 1904 and a similar arrangement with Russia in 1907. This is indicative of the fact that William had a highly unrealistic belief in the importance of "personal diplomacy" between European monarchs, and could not comprehend that the very different constitutional position of his British cousins made this largely irrelevant. A reading of the Entente Cordiale shows that it was actually a attempt to put aside the ancient rivalries between France and Great Britain rather than an "encirclement" of Germany.
funeral of Edward VII - Kaiser Wilhelm & cousin George V ride together
Similarly, he believed that his personal relationship with his cousin-in-law Nicholas II of Russia (see The Willy-Nicky Correspondence) was sufficient to prevent war between the two powers. At a private meeting at Björkö in 1905, William concluded an agreement with his cousin which amounted to a treaty of alliance, without first consulting with Bülow. A similar situation confronted Czar Nicholas on his return to St. Petersburg, and the treaty was, as a result, a dead letter. But William believed that Bülow had betrayed him, and this contributed to the growing sense of dissatisfaction he felt towards the man he hoped would be his foremost servant. In broadly similar terms to the "personal diplomacy" at Björkö, his attempts to avoid war with Russia by an exchange of telegrams with Nicholas II in the last days before the outbreak of the First World War came unstuck due to the reality of European power politics. His attempts to woo Russia were also seriously out of step with existing German commitments to Austria-Hungary. In a chivalrous fidelity to the Austro-Hungarian/German alliance, William informed the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in 1889 that "the day of Austro-Hungarian mobilisation, for whatever cause, will be the day of German mobilisation too". Given that Austrian mobilisation for war would most likely be against Russia, a policy of alliance with both powers was obviously impossible.
The Kaiser & Czar Nicholas II
Nothing William II did in the international arena was of more influence than his decision to pursue a policy of massive naval construction. In 1895 he opened the Kiel Canal, an event that was captured by British director Birt Acres in his film The Opening of the Kiel Canal.
A powerful navy was William'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". William'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 William taking definitive steps toward the construction of a fleet to rival that of his British cousins. William 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 Reich Naval Office in 1897.
The Kaiser with Alfred von Tirpitz
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 William'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 William had committed his navy to construction of the much larger, more expensive Dreadnought type of battleship.
The Kaiser & Archduke Franz Ferdinand
William was a friend of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este, and he was deeply shocked by his assassination on 28 June 1914. William 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. It was perhaps realised that William's presence would be more of a hindrance to those elements in the government who wished to use the crisis to increase German prestige, even at the risk of general war — something of which William, for all his bluster, was extremely apprehensive.
William 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:
"A brilliant solution—and in barely 48 hours! This is more than could have been expected. A great moral victory for Vienna; but with it every pretext for war falls to the ground, and [the Ambassador] Giesl had better have stayed quietly at Belgrade. On this document, I should never have given orders for mobilisation."
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.
On the night of July 30–31, when handed a document stating that Russia would not cancel its mobilisation, William wrote a lengthy commentary containing the startling 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 honorable 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."
When it had become clear that the United Kingdom would enter the war if Germany attacked France through Belgium, the panic-stricken William attempted to redirect the main attack against Russia. When Helmuth von Moltke (the younger) told him that this was impossible, William said: "Your uncle would have given me a different answer!!."
The Kaiser and Helmuth von Moltke
It is difficult to argue that William actively sought to unleash the First World War. Though he had ambitions for the German Empire to be a world power, it was never William's intention to conjure a large-scale conflict to achieve such ends. As soon as his better judgment dictated that a world war was imminent, he made strenuous efforts to preserve the peace—such as The Willy-Nicky Correspondence mentioned earlier, and his optimistic interpretation of the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum that Austro-Hungarian troops should go no further than Belgrade, thus limiting the conflict. But by then it was far too late, for the eager military officials of Germany and the German Foreign Office were successful in persuading him to sign the mobilisation order and initiate the Schlieffen Plan. On signing the mobilization order, William is reported as having said "You will regret this, gentlemen", he had encouraged Austria to pursue a hard line with Serbia, was an enthusiastic supporter of the subsequent German actions during the war and reveled in the title of "Supreme War Lord".
The role of ultimate arbiter of wartime national affairs proved too heavy a burden for William to sustain. As the war progressed, his influence receded and inevitably his lack of ability in military matters led to an ever-increasing reliance upon his generals, so much that after 1916 the Empire had effectively become a military dictatorship under the control of Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. Increasingly cut-off from reality and the political decision-making process, William vacillated between defeatism and dreams of victory, depending upon the fortunes of "his" armies. He remained a useful figurehead, and he toured the lines and munitions plants, awarded medals and gave encouraging speeches.
Nevertheless, William 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. William was in favour of the dismissal of Helmuth von Moltke the Younger in September 1914 and his replacement by Erich von Falkenhayn. Similarly, William was instrumental in the policy of inactivity adopted by the High Seas Fleet after the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Likewise, it was largely owing to his sense of grievance at having been pushed into the shadows that William attempted to take a leading role in the crisis of 1918. At least in the end he realised the necessity of capitulation and did not insist that the German nation should bleed to death for a dying cause. Upon hearing that his cousin George V had changed the name of the British royal house to Windsor, William remarked that he planned to see Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
Hindenburg, the Kaiser, & Ludendorff
William 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, William 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 claim was revealed when, for the sake of preserving some form of government in the face of anarchy, William's abdication both as German Emperor and King of Prussia was abruptly announced by the Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, on November 9, 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). William 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 William'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.
The following day, the now-former German Emperor William II 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 William "for a supreme offence against international morality and the sanctity of treaties", but Queen Wilhelmina refused to extradite him, despite appeals from the Allies. The erstwhile Emperor first settled in Amerongen, and then subsequently purchased a small castle in the municipality of Doorn on 16 August 1919 and moved in 15 May 1920, which was to be his home for the remainder of his life. From this residence, Huis Doorn, William 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 William 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.
In 1922 William published the first volume of his memoirs—a disappointingly slim volume which nevertheless revealed the possession of a remarkable memory (William had no archive on which to draw). In them, he asserted his claim that 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 aging Emperor regularly entertained guests (often of some standing) and kept himself updated on events in Europe. Much of his time was spent chopping wood (a hobby he discovered upon his arrival at Doorn) and observing the life of a country gentleman. It would seem that his attitude towards Britain and the British finally coalesced in this period into a warm desire to ape British custom. On his arrival from Germany at Amerongen Castle in the Netherlands in 1918, the first thing William said to his host was, "So what do you say, now give me a nice cup of hot, good, real English tea". No longer able to call upon the services of a court barber, and partly out of a desire to disguise his features, William grew a beard and allowed his famous moustache to droop. William even learned the Dutch language.
In the early 1930s, William apparently hoped that the successes of the Nazis 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 whom he believed contributed to Germany's greatest defeat, and his own desire for power would prevent William's restoration. Though he hosted Hermann Göring at Doorn on at least one occasion, William grew to distrust 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!"
William II died of a pulmonary embolus in Doorn, the Netherlands on June 4, 1941, with German soldiers at the gates of his estate. Hitler, however, was reportedly angry that the former monarch had an honour guard of German troops and nearly fired the general who ordered them there when he found out. Despite his personal animosity toward William, Hitler, ever the canny politician, nonetheless hoped to bring William's body back to Berlin for a State funeral for propaganda purposes. (Hitler felt this would demonstrate to Germans the direct succession of the Third Reich from the old Kaiserreich.)[26] However, William's wishes of never returning to Germany until the restoration of the monarchy were nevertheless respected, and the Nazi occupation authorities granted a small military funeral with a few hundred people present, the mourners at which included the hero of the First World War August von Mackensen, along with a few other military advisors. William's request that the swastika and other Nazi regalia not be displayed at the final rites was ignored, however, and they feature in the photos of the funeral that were taken by a Dutch photographer.
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