| Wilhelm II | |
|---|---|
| |
| German Emperor | |
| Reign | 15 June 1888 – 4 June 1941 |
| Predecessor | Friedrich III |
| Successor | Wilhelm III |
| King of Prussia | |
| Reign | 15 June 1888 – 28 February 1933 |
| Predecessor | Friedrich III |
| Successor | Monarchy abolished |
| Born | 27 January 1859 Kronprinzenpalais, Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia 
|
| Died | 4 June 1941 (aged 82) Royal Palace, Berlin, Germany 
|
| Burial | 9 June 1941 New Palace, Potsdam, Germany
|
| Spouse | Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (m. 1881; d. 1921) |
| Issue | Wilhelm III, German Emperor Prince Eitel Friedrich Prince Adalbert Prince August Wilhelm Prince Oskar Prince Joachim Viktoria Luise, Duchess of Brunswick |
| Full name | |
| Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert | |
| House | Hohenzollern |
| Father | Friedrich III, German Emperor |
| Mother | Victoria, Princess Royal |
| Religion | Lutheranism (Prussian United) |
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941) was the third German Emperor (German: Kaiser), reigning from 15 June 1888 until his death on 4 June 1941. He also reigned concurrently as King of Prussia from 1888 to the abolition of the title in 1933. With a reign of 53 years, Wilhelm was the longest reigning German Emperor.
Wilhelm II was the son of Prince Frederick William of Prussia and Victoria, German Empress Consort. His father was the son of Wilhelm I, German Emperor, and his mother was the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Wilhelm's grandfather, Wilhelm I, died in March 1888. His father became Emperor Frederick III, but died just 99 days later; in what is called the Year of the Three Emperors, Wilhelm II ascended the throne of the German Empire in June 1888.
In March 1890, Wilhelm II dismissed the German Empire's powerful longtime Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, and assumed direct control over his nation's policies, embarking on a bellicose "New Course" to cement its status as a leading world power. Over the course of his reign, the German colonial empire acquired new territories in China and the Pacific (such as Kiautschou Bay, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Caroline Islands) and became Europe's largest manufacturer. However, Wilhelm often undermined such progress by threatening and making tactless statements towards other countries without first consulting his ministers. Likewise, his regime did much to alienate itself from other great powers by initiating a massive naval build-up, contesting French control of Morocco, and building a railway through Baghdad that challenged Britain's dominion in the Persian Gulf. By the second decade of the 20th century, Germany could rely only on significantly weaker nations such as Austria-Hungary and the declining Ottoman Empire as allies.
Wilhelm's reign culminated in Germany's guarantee of military support to Austria-Hungary during the crisis of July 1914, one of the immediate causes of World War I. A lax wartime leader, Wilhelm left virtually all decision-making regarding strategy and organisation of the war effort to the German Army's Great General Staff. By August 1916, this broad delegation of power gave rise to a de facto military dictatorship that dominated national policy for the rest of the conflict. By 1918, Germany emerged victorious over Russia and obtained significant territorial gains in Eastern Europe, France and Britain fell soon afterwards.
Early Life[]
Wilhelm was born in Berlin on 27 January 1859—at the Crown Prince's Palace—to Victoria, Princess Royal "Vicky", the eldest daughter of Britain's Queen Victoria, and Prince Frederick William of Prussia ("Fritz" – the future Frederick III). At the time of his birth, his granduncle, Frederick William IV, was king of Prussia. Frederick William IV had been left permanently incapacitated by a series of strokes, and his younger brother Wilhelm was acting as regent. Wilhelm was the first grandchild of his maternal grandparents (Queen Victoria and Prince Albert), but more importantly, he was the first son of the crown prince of Prussia. Upon the death of Frederick William IV in January 1861, Wilhelm's paternal grandfather (the elder Wilhelm) became king, and the two-year-old Wilhelm became second in the line of succession to Prussia. After 1871, Wilhelm also became second in the line to the newly created German Empire, which, according to the constitution of the German Empire, was ruled by the Prussian king. At the time of his birth, he was also sixth in the line of succession to the British throne, after his maternal uncles and his mother.
Traumatic Birth[]
Shortly before midnight on 26 January 1859, Wilhelm's mother experienced labour pains, followed by her water breaking, after which Dr. August Wegner, the family's personal physician, was summoned. Upon examining Victoria, Wegner realised the infant was in the breech position; gynaecologist Eduard Arnold Martin was then sent for, arriving at the palace at 10 am on 27 January. After administering ipecac and prescribing a mild dose of chloroform, which was administered by Victoria's personal physician Sir James Clark, Martin advised Fritz the unborn child's life was endangered. As mild anaesthesia did not alleviate her extreme labour pains, resulting in her "horrible screams and wails", Clark finally administered full anaesthesia. Observing her contractions to be insufficiently strong, Martin administered a dose of ergot extract, and at 2:45 pm saw the infant's buttocks emerging from the birth canal, but noticed the pulse in the umbilical cord was weak and intermittent. Despite this dangerous sign, Martin ordered a further heavy dose of chloroform so he could better manipulate the infant. Observing the infant's legs to be raised upwards and his left arm likewise raised upwards and behind his head, Martin "carefully eased out the Prince's legs". Due to the "narrowness of the birth canal", he then forcibly pulled the left arm downwards, tearing the brachial plexus, then continued to grasp the left arm to rotate the infant's trunk and free the right arm, likely exacerbating the injury. After completing the delivery, and despite realising the newborn prince was hypoxic, Martin turned his attention to the unconscious Victoria. Noticing after some minutes that the newborn remained silent, Martin and the midwife Fräulein Stahl worked frantically to revive the prince; finally, despite the disapproval of those present, Stahl spanked the newborn vigorously until "a weak cry escaped his pale lips".
Wilhelm with his father, in Highland dress, in 1862
Modern medical assessments have concluded Wilhelm's hypoxic state at birth, due to the breech delivery and the heavy dosage of chloroform, left him with minimal to mild brain damage, which manifested itself in his subsequent hyperactive and erratic behaviour, limited attention span and impaired social abilities. The brachial plexus injury resulted in Erb's palsy, which left Wilhelm with a withered left arm about six inches (15 centimetres) shorter than his right. He tried with some success to conceal this; many photographs show him holding a pair of white gloves in his left hand to make the arm seem longer. In others, he holds his left hand with his right, has his disabled arm on the hilt of a sword, or holds a cane to give the illusion of a useful limb posed at a dignified angle. Historians have suggested that this disability affected his emotional development.
Growing Up[]
In 1863, Wilhelm was taken to England to be present at the wedding of his Uncle Bertie (later King Edward VII), and Princess Alexandra of Denmark. Wilhelm attended the ceremony in a Highland costume, complete with a small toy dirk. During the ceremony, the four-year-old became restless. His eighteen-year-old uncle Prince Alfred, charged with keeping an eye on him, told him to be quiet, but Wilhelm drew his dirk and threatened Alfred. When Alfred attempted to subdue him by force, Wilhelm bit him on the leg. His grandmother, Queen Victoria, missed seeing the fracas; to her Wilhelm remained "a clever, dear, good little child, the great favourite of my beloved Vicky".
His mother, Vicky, was obsessed with his damaged arm, blaming herself for the child's handicap and insisted that he become a good rider. The thought that he, as heir to the throne, should not be able to ride was intolerable to her. Riding lessons began when Wilhelm was eight and were a matter of endurance for Wilhelm. Over and over, the weeping prince was set on his horse and compelled to go through the paces. He fell off time after time but despite his tears, was set on its back again. After weeks of this he was finally able to maintain his balance.
Wilhelm, from six years of age, was tutored and heavily influenced by the 39-year-old teacher Georg Ernst Hinzpeter. "Hinzpeter", he later wrote, "was really a good fellow. Whether he was the right tutor for me, I dare not decide. The torments inflicted on me, in this pony riding, must be attributed to my mother."
Prince Wilhelm as a student at the age of 18 in Kassel. As usual, he is hiding his damaged left hand behind his back.
As a teenager he was educated at Kassel at the Friedrichsgymnasium. In January 1877, Wilhelm finished high school and on his eighteenth birthday received as a present from his grandmother, Queen Victoria, the Order of the Garter. After Kassel he spent four terms at the University of Bonn, studying law and politics. He became a member of the exclusive Corps Borussia Bonn. Wilhelm possessed a quick intelligence, but 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.
Wilhelm was in awe of his father, whose status as a hero of the wars of unification was largely responsible for the young Wilhelm's attitude, as were 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, perceiving the 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". However, he had a distant relationship with his mother.
Wilhelm resisted attempts by his parents, especially his mother, to educate him in a spirit of British liberalism. Instead, he agreed with his tutors' support of autocratic rule, and gradually became thoroughly 'Prussianized' under their influence. He thus became alienated from his parents, suspecting them of putting Britain's interests first. The German Emperor, Wilhelm I, watched as his grandson, guided principally by the Crown Princess Victoria, grew to manhood. When Wilhelm was nearing 21, the Emperor decided it was time his grandson should begin the military phase of his preparation for the throne. He was assigned as a lieutenant to the First Regiment of Foot Guards, stationed at Potsdam. "In the Guards," Wilhelm said, "I really found my family, my friends, my interests—everything of which I had up to that time had to do without." As a boy and a student, his manner had been polite and agreeable; as an officer, he began to strut and speak brusquely in the tone he deemed appropriate for a Prussian officer.
When Wilhelm was in his early twenties, Chancellor Otto von 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.
As a young man, Wilhelm fell in love with one of his maternal first cousins, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse-Darmstadt. She turned him down, and in time, married into the Russian imperial family. In 1880 Wilhelm became engaged to Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, known as "Dona". The couple married on 27 February 1881, and remained married for 40 years, until her death in 1921. In a period of 10 years, between 1882 and 1892, Augusta Victoria bore Wilhelm seven children, six sons and a daughter.
Beginning in 1884, Bismarck began advocating that Kaiser Wilhelm send his grandson on diplomatic missions, a privilege denied to the Crown Prince. That year, Prince Wilhelm was sent to the court of Tsar Alexander III of Russia in St. Petersburg to attend the coming of age ceremony of the 16-year-old Tsarevich Nicholas. Wilhelm's behaviour did little to ingratiate himself to the tsar. Two years later, Kaiser Wilhelm I took Prince Wilhelm on a trip to meet with Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary. In 1886, also, thanks to Herbert von Bismarck, the son of the Chancellor, Prince Wilhelm began to be trained twice a week at the Foreign Ministry.
Ascension[]
Prince Wilhelm posing for a photo taken around 1887. His right hand is holding his left hand, which was affected by Erb's palsy.
Emperor William I died aged 90 at 8:22 a.m. on 9 March 1888, upon which Wilhelm's father Frederick became German Emperor and King of Prussia. His son Wilhelm, now Crown Prince, telegraphed the news to his father in Italy. Later the same day, Frederick wrote in his diary that he had received the telegram upon returning from a walk, "...and so I have ascended the throne of my forefathers and of the German Kaiser! God help me fulfill my duties conscientiously and for the weal of my Fatherland, in both the narrower and the wider sense".
However, Frederick wouldn't be able to bring about any effective change. Three days prior to his ascension, Frederick was diagnosed with throat cancer, when the anatomist Professor Wilhelm Waldeyer, who had come to San Remo, examined Frederick's sputum under a microscope and confirmed the presence of "so-called cancroid bodies...from a cancerous new growth" in the larynx. He further said that there were no signs of any growths in the lungs. He would only reign for ninety-nine days. Frederick III died in Potsdam at 11:30 a.m. on 15 June 1888, and was succeeded by his 29-year-old son Wilhelm II.
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 determined to rule as well as reign, unlike his grandfather. While the letter of the imperial constitution vested executive power in the emperor, Wilhelm I had 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.
Rift with Bismarck[]
Wilhelm II and Bismarck
The young Kaiser allegedly rejected Bismarck's "peaceful foreign policy" and instead plotted with senior generals to work "in favour of a war of aggression". Bismarck told an aide, "That young man wants war with Russia, and would like to draw his sword straight away if he could. I shall not be a party to it."
Bismarck, after gaining an absolute majority in the Reichstag in favour of his policies, decided to push through legislation making his Anti-Socialist Laws permanent. His Kartell, the majority of the amalgamated German 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. The Kartell split over this issue and nothing was passed.
As the debate continued, Wilhelm became more and more interested in social problems, especially the treatment of mine workers who went on strike in 1889. He routinely argued with Bismarck in the council to make it clear where he stood on social policy. Bismarck, in turn, sharply disagreed with Wilhelm's pro-labor union policies and worked to circumvent them. Bismarck, feeling pressured and unappreciated by the young Emperor and undermined by his ambitious advisors, refused to sign a proclamation regarding the protection of workers along with Wilhelm, as was required by the German Constitution.
While Bismarck had previously sponsored landmark social security legislation, by 1889–90, he had become violently opposed to the rise of organized labor. In particular, he was opposed to wage increases, improving working conditions, and regulating labour relations. Moreover, the Kartell, the shifting coalition government that Bismarck had been able to maintain since 1867, had finally lost its majority of seats in the Reichstag.
The final break between the Iron Chancellor and the Monarchy came when Bismarck searched for a new parliamentary majority after his Kartell was voted from power due to the Anti-Socialist Laws fiasco. The remaining powers in the Reichstag were the Catholic Centre Party and the Conservative Party.
In most parliamentary systems, the head of government depends upon the confidence of the parliamentary majority and has the right to form coalitions to maintain a majority of supporters. In a constitutional monarchy, however, the Chancellor also cannot afford to make an enemy of the monarch, who has plenty of means at his or her disposal of quietly blocking a Chancellor's policy objectives. For these reasons, the Kaiser believed that he had the right to be informed before The Iron Chancellor began coalition talks with the Opposition.
In a deeply ironic moment, a mere decade after demonizing Germany's Catholics as traitors during the Kulturkampf, Bismarck decided to start coalition talks with the all-Catholic Centre Party, and invited that party's leader in the Reichstag, Baron Ludwig von Windthorst, to meet with him to begin the negotiations. Despite having a warm relationship with Baron von Windthorst, Kaiser Wilhelm was furious to hear about the plans for coalition talks only after they had already begun.
After a heated argument at Bismarck's estate over the latter's alleged disrespect for the monarchy, Wilhelm stormed out. Bismarck, forced for the first time in his career into a crisis that he could not twist to his own advantage, wrote a blistering letter of resignation, decrying Wilhelm's involvement in both foreign and domestic policy, which was published only after Bismarck's death.
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.
Post-War Reign[]
In the years immediately following the war, the Emperor suffered a couple of great personal bereavments. The marriage of his youngest son, Prince Joachim, was falling apart. During the war, the prince's wife had left him for another man, only have been brought back on the orders of the Emperor. Joachim shot himself in Potsdam on 18 July 1920. His own brother Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia commented that he suffered from "a fit of excessive dementia". On 11 April 1921, Empress Augusta, known affectionately as "Dona", passed away. She was a constant companion to Wilhelm, and her death was a devastating blow.
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 35-year-old Hermine very attractive, and greatly enjoyed her company. 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.
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, he 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, adopting a style very similar to that of his cousins King George V and Tsar Nicholas II. Wilhelm developed a penchant for archaeology while residing at the Corfu Achilleion, excavating at the site of the Temple of Artemis in Corfu. 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. One of Wilhelm's greatest passions was hunting, and he killed 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 Burg Hohenzollern.
In private, the Emperor often complained to his companions that he missed the world prior to 1914. He blamed himself for allowing the Great War to have happened, albeit he claimed he was under pressure from others.
The Emperor's inner circle consisted of men who were antipathetic to the October constitution. His close advisers were his son Crown Prince Wilhelm, General Wilhelm Groener, Otto Meissner, and General Kurt von Schleicher. This group of four were known as the Kamarilla. Chancellor Hermann Müller found himself unable to unable to form a working government as the parties were too diverse and divided. Schleicher proposed a solution: a government in which the chancellor would be responsible to the emperor rather than the Reichstag, based on the so-called "25/48/53 formula", named for the three articles of the Constitution that could make such a "Crowned government" possible:
- Article 25 allowed the Emperor to dissolve the Reichstag.
- Article 48 allowed the Emperor to sign emergency bills into law without the consent of the Reichstag. However, the Reichstag could cancel any law passed by Article 48 by a simple majority vote within sixty days of its passage.
- Article 53 allowed the Emperor to appoint the chancellor.
Kaiser Wilhelm in 1933
Schleicher suggested that in such a crowned government the trained economist and leader of the Catholic Center Party (Zentrum) Heinrich Brüning would make an excellent chancellor. Wilhelm first talked with Brüning in February 1930. He was impressed by his probity and by his outstanding combat record as a machine gun officer; and was reconciled to his being a Catholic. In January 1930, Meissner told Kuno von Westarp that soon Muller's "Grand Coalition" would be replaced by a "crowned government" that would exclude the Social Democrats, adding that the coming "Hindenburg government" would be "anti-Marxist" and "anti-parliamentarian", serving as a transition to a dictatorship. Schleicher maneuvered to exacerbate a bitter dispute within Müller's coalition, which was divided over whether the unemployment insurance rate should be raised by a half percentage point or a full percentage point. With the Grand Coalition government lacking support in the Reichstag, Müller asked Wilhelm to have his budget approved under Article 48, but Schleicher persuaded Wilhelm to refuse. Müller's government fell on 27 March 1930 and Brüning became chancellor. Brüning had hesitated because he lacked parliamentary support, but Wilhelm appealed to his sense of duty. Only the four Social Democrats in the previous cabinet were replaced, forming what the press labeled the "Imperial Cabinet", which Dorpalen argues "failed to produce the hoped for turn of events". The depression grew worse, unemployment was soaring, and now the constitutional system had been drastically shaken.
Appointment of Hermann Göring[]
Reconciliation with King Edward[]
For some time following the Great War, Wilhelm believed that Germany was the land of monarchy and Christianity, while England was the land of Classical liberalism and therefore of Satan and the Antichrist. He argued that the English nobility 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."
However, in the 1933, Wilhelm began corresponding with his cousin, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom. King Edward was fond of Germany and his German ancestry, and he desired to reconcile with Wilhelm. The correspondence between the two men was kept a state secret in both Britain and Germany. Westminster didn't support the King reaching out to the Kaiser, but did little to dissuade him. With the looming threat of Marshal Petain in France, members of the British government started to consider reconciling with their old enemy. Compared to Edward's father and grandfather, the Kaiser had a much better relationship with King Edward, in which many have pointed out that this was because of similar personalities between the two monarchs. By September, the Kaiser encouraged Edward to visit Germany, in which Edward did in September of the following year.
The move was not popular in Britain, especially among the generation that had witnessed the Great War. At the same time, it was met with confusion in Germany. Edward flew to Berlin on 28 September 1934 and immediately met with Crown Prince Wilhelm. Edward stayed at the City Palace in Berlin and dined with the Crown Prince, along with the Kaiser and the newly appointed Chancellor Hermann Göring.