Wilhelm II, German Emperor (For Want of a Telegram)

Wilhelm II or William II (German: Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert von Preußen; English: Frederick William Victor Albert of Prussia; 27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941) was the penultimate German Emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 4 June 1941. He was the eldest grandchild of the British and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe.

Crowned in 1888, he dismissed the Chancellor,, in 1890 and launched Germany on a bellicose "New Course" in foreign affairs that culminated in his support for Austria-Hungary in the that led in a matter of days to the First World War. Bombastic and impetuous, he sometimes made tactless pronouncements on sensitive topics without consulting his ministers, culminating in a disastrous Daily Telegraph interview in 1908 that cost him most of his influence. His leading generals, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war-time leader, he lost the support of the army, though Germany's victory in June 1918 boosted his popularity significantly.

The 1920s proved to be a period of prosperity for Germany, for which the Kaiser was largely given credit, despite his role in government being largely ceremonial. The Great Depression of 1929, however, significantly dented both his popularity and the popularity of successive Chancellors. In 1933, Wilhelm appointed the leader of the far-right Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler to be Chancellor. Hitler quickly assumed the powers of a dictator, leaving the Kaiser on the periphery of government and rarely consulting the monarch on government policy. Wilhelm's own antipathy toward Hitler was well-known, and the Emperor conspicuously distanced himself from many of the more overtly authoritarian and anti-semitic aspects of the regime. Nevertheless, Wilhelm publicly supported Hitler's annexations of Austria and Grand Est in 1938 and 1939, respectively, as well as the German invasion of Russia in 1940 that precipitated World War II. Wilhelm died in in June 1941, and was succeeded as Emperor by his son Wilhelm III.