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Wilhelm II of Prussia and Germany, Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albrecht von Hohenzollern (January 27, 1859 - June 4, 1941) was the
last German Emperor (Kaiser) and
the last King (König) of Prussia from 1888 - 1918.
He was born in Berlin to Crown Prince Friedrich and his wife, Britain's Princess
Royal, Victoria. His mother was the aunt of Empress
Alexandra (the wife of Tsar Nicholas II), and the
sister of King Edward VII. Queen
Victoria was his grandmother. A
traumatic breech birth damaged him physically, leading to a withered left
arm, which he tried with some success to conceal. In the photograph opposite, for example, one hand is holding the withered
one, concealing it. In many other photos he carries a pair of white gloves in his left hand to make the arm seem longer.
(Franklin D. Roosevelt similarly and successfully
concealed the fact that he was wheelchair-bound, while Eamon de
Valera when President of Ireland concealed his own
almost total blindness by 'pretending' to see!)
Recent analyses of records of his birth in the former Imperial Archives have also suggested that he may have experienced some
brain trauma, possibly leading to some brain damage. Historians are divided on whether such a mental incapacity may have
contributed to his frequently aggressive, tactless, headstrong and occasionally bullying approach to problems and people, which
was evident in both his personal and political lives. Such approach certainly marred German policy under his leadership, most
notably in his dismissal of his cautious chancellor, Otto von
Bismarck, while he had a strikingly poor relationship with his mother. (See also the entry on the German pacifist Ludwig Quidde, who already in 1894 accused
Wilhelm of being a megalomaniac.)
Wilhelm was educated at Kassel Gymnasium and the
University of Bonn. On the death of Wilhelm I on March 9, 1888, his father was crowned Emperor as
Friedrich III, but he was dying of throat cancer and in June that same year Wilhelm II succeeded him as Emperor.
His rule was noted for his militaristic push to assert German power. He sought to expand German colonial holdings, "a place in
the sun". Under the Tirpitz Plan, through the Naval Bills of
1897 and 1900, the German navy was built up to
contend with that of the United Kingdom. His personality and policies
oscillated between antagonizing and amusing Britain, France, and Russia. He dismissed Otto von Bismarck in 1890 and abandoned the Chancellor's careful
policies, replacing him with Leo Graf von Caprivi, who in turn was replaced by Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst in
1894. He was followed by Prince Bernhard von Bülow in 1900
and Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg in
1909. All of these Chancellors were senior civil servants and not politicians like Bismarck. Wilhelm wanted to preclude the
emergence of another Bismarck.
Despite his attitude it is difficult to say that he sought World War I,
although he did little to halt it. He had allied with Austria-Hungary
and encouraged their hard-line in the Balkans, and although he lost his nerve at the last minute it was too late, and he soon
recovered to push his generals for great achievements. During the war he was Commander in Chief but he soon lost all control of
German policy and his popularity plunged.
As a result of the explosion of the German Revolution, the
Kaiser's abdication was announced by Max von Baden on November 9, 1918. Wilhelm went into exile in the
Netherlands. The Dutch Queen Wilhelmina refused to extradite Wilhelm as a war criminal. He had married Augusta Viktoria, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein, in 1881. They had seven children. Following her death, while living in exile, in 1922 he married Hermine von Schoenaich, the widowed Princess Reuss. During
the 1930s, he had apparently harboured hopes that the Nazis would revive the monarchy but this did not come about.
Kaiser Wilhelm II died in Doorn on June 5,
1941 with the German occupiers on guard at the gates of his estate. He is buried in Huis
Doorn, Doorn, Netherlands. His wish that no swastikas be displayed at his funeral
was not heeded.
His heir was Crown Prince Wilhelm of
Germany (1882-1951).
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