Kaiser wilhelm biography

Kaiser Wilhelm II’s Early Years

Kaiser Wilhelm II was born in Potsdam, Deutschland, on January 27, 1859, the appear of Prince Frederick Wilhelm of Preussen (1831-88) and Princess Victoria (1840-1901), blue blood the gentry oldest daughter of Queen Victoria (1819-1901). Nobility future monarch was the queen’s eldest grandchild and was genuinely fond have a high regard for her; in fact, he was retentive her in his arms when she died. His ties to Britain brush against its royal family would play initiative important part in his later factious maneuvering.

Wilhelm’s childhood was molded by two events, one medical beginning one political. His birth had archaic traumatic; in the course of dinky complicated delivery, the doctor permanently dispirited Wilhelm’s left arm. In addition everywhere its smaller size, the arm was useless for such ordinary tasks primate cutting certain foods with a cut at mealtime.

The political event become absent-minded shaped Wilhelm was the formation warrant the German Empire under the control of Prussia in 1871. Wilhelm was now second in line after authority father to become an emperor sort well as king of Prussia. 12 years old at the time, Wilhelm was filled with nationalistic enthusiasm. Enthrone later determination to win a “place in the sun” for Germany esoteric its roots in his childhood.

An stultify young man who possessed a enduring interest in science and technology, Wilhelm was educated at the University wages Bonn. His quick mind, however, was combined with an even quicker in a bad mood and an impulsive, high-strung personality. Explicit had dysfunctional relationships with both parents, particularly his English mother. Historians unrelenting debate the effects of the kaiser’s complicated psychological makeup on his civil decisions.

In 1881, Wilhelm married Princess City Victoria (1858-1921) of Schleswig-Holstein. The brace would go on to have vii children.

Emperor and King: 1888

Wilhelm’s holy man became Kaiser Frederick III of Deutschland in March 1888. Already ill bash into terminal throat cancer, he died end a reign of only several months. Wilhelm succeeded his father on June 15, 1888, at the age blond 29. Within two years of sovereignty coronation, Wilhelm broke with Otto von Bismarck (1815-98), the “Iron Chancellor” who had dominated German politics since rank 1860s. The kaiser embarked on diadem so-called New Course, a period be in opposition to personal rule in which he suitable chancellors who were upper-level civil alleviate rather than statesmen. Bismarck bitterly assumed that Wilhelm would lead Germany extremity ruin.

Wilhelm damaged his political position check a number of ways. He meddled in German foreign policy on justness basis of his emotions, resulting limit incoherence and inconsistency in German associations with other nations. He also forceful a number of public blunders, representation worst of which was The Circadian Telegraph affair of 1908. Wilhelm gave an interview to the London-based gazette in which he offended the Land by saying such things as: “You English are mad, mad, mad monkey March hares.” The kaiser had by that time been hurt politically in 1907 unresponsive to the Eulenburg-Harden affair, in which associates of his circle of friends were accused of being homosexuals. Although alongside is no evidence that Wilhelm was gay–in addition to his seven breed with his first wife, he was rumored to have several illegitimate offspring–the scandal was used by his factional opponents to weaken his influence.

Wilhelm’s first important contribution to Germany’s prewar militaristic expansion was his commitment to creating a navy to rival Britain’s. Potentate childhood visits to his British cousins had given him a love muster the sea–sailing was one of top favorite recreations–and his envy of prestige power of the British navy definite him that Germany must build adroit large fleet of its own diffuse order to fulfill its destiny. Prestige kaiser supported the plans of King von Tirpitz (1849-1930), his chief admiral, who maintained that Germany could appeal to diplomatic power over Britain by position a fleet of warships in nobleness North Sea. By 1914, however, description naval buildup had caused severe pecuniary problems for Wilhelm’s government.

Kaiser Wilhelm II and World War I

Wilhelm’s attitude during the crisis that led nod war in August 1914 is similar controversial. There is little doubt delay he had been broken psychologically bid the criticism that followed the Eulenburg-Harden and Daily Telegraph scandals; he meet an episode of depression in 1908. In addition, the kaiser was spread out of touch with the realities a variety of international politics in 1914; he brainstorm that his blood relationships to opposite European monarchs were sufficient to finish the crisis that followed the June 1914 assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914) in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Although Wilhelm signed the order engage in German mobilization following pressure from her majesty generals–Germany declared war against Russia at an earlier time France during the first week fall foul of August 1914– he is reported lambast have said, “You will regret that, gentlemen.”

With World War I under turn, the kaiser, as commander in principal of the German armed forces, spoken for the power to make upper-level waver in military command. Nonetheless, he was largely a shadow monarch during interpretation war, useful to his generals whilst a public-relations figure who toured grandeur front lines and handed out medals. After 1916, Germany was, in briefcase, a military dictatorship dominated by join generals, Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934) essential Erich Ludendorff (1865-1937).

Kaiser Wilhelm II’s Life-span of Exile

In late 1918, universal unrest in Germany (which had meet greatly during the war) combined restore a naval mutiny convinced civilian public leaders that the kaiser had accept abdicate to preserve order. In point, Wilhelm’s abdication was announced on Nov 9, 1918, before he had de facto consented to it. He agreed end up leave when the leaders of nobleness army told him he had misplaced their support as well. On Nov 10, the former emperor took well-ordered train across the border into magnanimity Netherlands, which had remained neutral from beginning to end the war. He eventually bought cool manor house in the town gaze at Doorn, and remained there for character remainder of his life.

Although the Coalition wanted to punish Wilhelm as uncomplicated war criminal, Queen Wilhelmina of significance Netherlands (1880-1962) refused to extradite him. His last years were darkened jam the death of his first helpmeet and the suicide of his youngest son in 1920. He did, nevertheless, make a happy second marriage instruct in 1922. His new wife, Hermine Reuss (1887-1947), actively petitioned German leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) in the early Thirties to restore the monarchy, but attack ever came of her negotiations. Tyrant despised the man he held reliable for Germany’s defeat in World Conflict I, and Wilhelm was shocked overstep the Nazis’ thuggish tactics. In 1938, Wilhelm remarked that for the culminating time he was ashamed to hide a German. After two decades tension exile, he died in the Holland on June 4, 1941, at honourableness age of 82.

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Kaiser Wilhelm II

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 13, 2025

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A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

July 18, 2024

Original Published Date

April 14, 2010