Wilhelm II, German Emperor

EARLY LIFE 

Kaiser Wilhelm II was born on January 27, 1859 at the Crown Prince's Palace, Berlin, to Victoria, Princess Royal, the wife of Prince Frederick William of Prussia (the future Frederick III).

Portrait of Wilhelm II in 1902, by T. H. Voigt

Victoria was the eldest daughter of Britain's Queen Victoria. Wilhelm was the first grandchild of the English queen and Prince Albert.

He was born with a paralysed arm. This disability was considered shameful, and the attempts at treatment, which included the young Wilhelm having a dead hare placed around his arm – had a severe impact on his relationship with his mother.

His father was honourable, intelligent, and considerate but had neither the will nor the stamina needed to dominate.

Wilhelm with his father, in Highland dress, in 1862

His father's lack of stamina was not shared by Wilhelm's mother, who had acquired from her father (Prince Albert), seriousness of purpose and from her mother, emotion and obstinacy. Her intellect was hopelessly at the mercy of her feelings, and she took rapid likes and dislikes.

Wilhelm was educated at Kassel at the Friedrichsgymnasium and the University of Bonn.

REIGN 

On the death of Wilhelm I on March 9, 1888, his father was crowned Emperor as Frederick III but he was dying of throat cancer, and on June 15, 1888 Wilhelm II succeeded him as Emperor.

Wilhelm was a megalomaniac who liked to be the centre of attention. Archives have suggested that he may have experienced some brain trauma at birth, 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.

He disagreed with his father's long-time Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, and dismissed him in 1890.
The phrase ‘Dropping the Pilot’ meaning to dispense with a valued leader originated in Prussia on March 29, 1890 when a Punch cartoon showed Kaiser Wilhelm II leaning over the side of the ship as Otto Bismarck dressed as a pilot walked down the steps to disembark.

Dropping the Pilot cartoon 

When Queen Victoria died in 1901, Wilhelm II was at her deathbed.

He did much to alienate other Great Powers from Germany by initiating a massive build-up of his country's Navy, challenging French control over Morocco, and backing the Austrian annexation of Bosnia in 1908.

WORLD WAR I 

In 1914 three of the major world leaders were all cousins. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, King George V of England, and Czar Nicholas II of Russia. Their grandmother was Queen Victoria.

Wilhelm was obsessed with everything military and loved dressing up in military uniforms. He adopted the irrational, emotional approach of the rabid enthusiast. He was a military sentimentalist.

Wilhelm II with Nicholas II of Russia in 1905, wearing the military uniforms of each other's army.

During the crisis of 1914, Wilhelm guaranteed military support to Austria-Hungary, which resulted in the outbreak of World War I.

World War I broke out after Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated by a Serbian. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia knowing it had Germany's military support. The ensuing domino effect resulted in the worldwide conflict.

Wilhelm's role in wartime was one of ever-decreasing power as he increasingly handled awards ceremonies and honorific duties. This broad delegation of authority gave rise to a de facto military dictatorship whose authorisation of unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmerman Telegram led to the United States' entry into the conflict in April 1917.

After Germany's defeat in 1918, Wilhelm lost the support of the German army. He abdicated on November 9, 1918,

So many significant events in German history have happened on November 9 that historians have called the date 'The Day of Fate'. Other events that have occurred on this date include the the failed Beer Hall Putsch and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Wilhelm fled to The Netherlands where he purchased a country house in the municipality of Doorn.

PERSONAL LIFE 

Wilhelm married Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg on February 27, 1881. A plain, unimaginative woman with few intellectual interests and no talents, she bored him and encouraged his reactionary tendencies but all the same represented a point of stability in his life.

Philip de László: Empress Augusta Victoria with the Black Eagle (1908)

During their marriage, Augusta gave birth to six sons and a daughter.

Augusta died on April 11, 1921. While living in exile, Wilhelm married Hermine von Schoenaich, the widowed Princess Reuss, the following year.

He corresponded with Tsar Nicholas in fluent English and read P.G. Wodehouse aloud to his entourage, glaring at them when they failed to laugh.

Wilhelm developed a penchant for archaeology during his vacations on Corfu during the 1900s, a passion he harbored even into his exile in Doorn.

One of Wilhelm's greatest passions was hunting, and he bagged thousands of animals, both beast and bird.

Wilhelm had a habit of sketching plans for grand buildings and battleships when he was bored, although experts in construction in both fields saw his ideas as grandiose and unworkable.

His palace at Potsdam had 84 bedrooms, central heating and electric lighting throughout.

The American-made schooner Meteor III was the largest yacht in the world when built for Wilhelm II.

HEALTH 

A traumatic breech birth damaged Kaiser Wilhelm physically, leading to a withered left arm due to Erb's Palsy, which he tried with some success to conceal. In many photos he carried a pair of white gloves in his left hand to make the arm seem longer or he held his left hand with his right hand.

Prince Wilhelm posing for a photo taken around 1887.

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.

LAST YEARS AND DEATH 

After World War I, the defeated German Kaiser Wilhelm II fled to The Netherlands in exile. The first thing he asked for when arrived at his destination was a cup of English tea.

Wilhelm II  lived to see the rise of Adolf Hitler and the first two years of World War II, When Hitler took Paris, he wrote a telegram, writing "Congratulations, you have won using my troops."

After the German conquest of the Netherlands in 1940, Wilhelm retired completely from public life.

Kaiser Wilhelm II died of pneumonia 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.

Hitler granted him a small military funeral but allowed only a few lower-grade officers to attend. Wilhelm's wish that no swastikas be displayed during the service was not heeded.