User:Vincent Gray/William II
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| William II | |
| German Emperor, King of Prussia | |
 In this photo of William, his right hand is holding the withered one, concealing it. |
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| Reign | 1888-1918 |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 January 1859 |
| Birthplace | Berlin, Germany |
| Died | 4 June 1941 |
| Place of death | Doorn, Netherlands |
| Predecessor | Frederick III |
| Successor | None (monarchy abolished) |
| Consort | Augusta Viktoria |
| Issue | Crown Prince Wilhelm Prince Eitel Friedrich Prince Adalbert Prince August Wilhelm Prince Oskar Prince Joachim Princess Viktoria Luise |
| Royal House | House of Hohenzollern |
| Father | Frederick III |
| Mother | Victoria, Princess Royal |
William II or Wilhelm II (born Frederick William Albert Victor; German: Friedrich Wilhelm Albert Victor) (27 January 1859–4 June 1941), was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia (German: Deutscher Kaiser und König von Preußen), ruling both the German Empire and Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918.
The role of William II in German history is controversial in historical scholarship. He was initially seen as an important but embarrassing figure in German history until the late 1950s. In subsequent years, the dominant view held he had little influence on German policy that led up to the First World War. The former view resurfaced in the late 1970s espoused by scholars like Professor John C. G. Röhl who saw William II as the key figure in understanding the recklessness and subsequent downfall of Imperial Germany.[1]
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[edit] Early years
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William was born in Berlin to Prince Frederick William of Prussia and his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom. As the son of the Crown Prince of Prussia, William was, from 1861, second in the line of succession to Prussia, and to the German Empire, after 1871.
[edit] Birth trauma
A traumatic breech birth left him with a withered left arm due to Erb's palsy. A breech birth occurs when the baby's head is near the top of the uterus instead of the usual head-down position. In adulthood, he tried to conceal his left arm with some success. He is seen in many photos carrying a pair of white gloves in his left hand to make the arm seem longer. In others, he places his crippled arm on the hilt of a sword or a cane. Recent analysis of records of his birth in the Imperial Archives have also suggested that he may have experienced some brain trauma, possibly leading to damage. Historians are divided on whether such brain damage may have contributed to his aggressive temperament evident in his personal and political life. Such an approach marred German policy under his leadership, most notably in his dismissal of the cautious Otto von Bismarck.
[edit] Upbringing
Victoria called her sons by their Anglicised names. Thus William was used instead of Wilhelm. Growing up, William had a difficult relationship with his mother, who was cold towards him. She felt guilty for his deformity, and tried to eliminate it through rigorous exercise. William's relationship with his father was ambigious. Although he admired his father's role in German unification, lack of close emotional contact with this father prevented a proper relationship. As result, William had ambivalent feelings towards his father.
William was educated at the Friedrichsgymnasium and the University of Bonn. He took an interest in science and technology of the age. Though sophisticated in conversation, he held absolute monarchy in higher esteem.[citation needed] From early age, William was exposed to and influenced by Prussian militarism. This exposure shaped his political ideals and his public life. He was accused of megalomania as early as 1894, by German pacifist Ludwig Quidde.
[edit] Ascension to the thrones
William I, his grandfather and German Emperor, died in Berlin on March 9, 1888, and his father assumed the title as Frederick III. Frederick was suffering from an incurable throat cancer and spent three months on the throne before his death. On June 15, 1888, William became the German Emperor and King of Prussia as William II.
[edit] Break with Bismarck
William admired Otto von Bismarck in his youth, but William's characteristic impatience soon brought him into conflict with Bismarck, the dominant figure in the foundation of the German Empire. William preferred vigorous and rapid expansion over Bismarck's careful foreign policy. In the late 1870s, Bismarck, after gaining a favorable majority toward his policies in the Reichstag, decided to make permanent laws that aimed to stem social democracy. The Anti-Socialist Laws outlawed the Social Democratic Party in 1878. In the following decade, Bismarck marginalized The Catholic Centre Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Progressive Party. Even though the Social Democratic Party was outlawed, social democrats continued to gain seats in the Reichstag and socialism gained popularity. Bismarck attempted to create an alliance with the Catholic Centre Party but William interrupted this process. Although the emperor favored imperialism and militarism over socialsim, he disagreed with Bismarck's methods and subordination. In 1890, William forced Bismarck to retire. He was succeeded as Chancellor of Germany and Minister-President of Prussia by Leo von Caprivi, who in turn was replaced by Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst in 1894.
[edit] The New Course
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Towards the new century, William hoped to exert a greater influence in governing the empire. This period is known as the New Course. Although the extent of William's success in unclear, chancellors no longer exerted great influence like that of Bismarck although they remained senior civil servants. Upon his enforced retirement, Bismarck remained a bitter critic of William's policies but had no political power to oppose them. However, Bismarck was able to propagate the "Bismarck myth".[citation needed] The myth claimed the dismissal of Bismarck effectively destroyed Germany's chances of erecting a stable and effective government.
William dismissed Hohenlohe in 1900 and appointed Prince Bernhard von Bülow as chancellor. William hoped Bülow would use his political and diplomatic adeptness to carry out the emperor's agenda. Over the decade, William became disillusioned with his choice, and following Bülow's opposition to the Emperor over a series of issues including the Daily Telegraph Affair, William dismissed him in 1909 in favour of Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg. However, during the terms of both chancellors, William played a limited role in domestic policy since both chancellors had more political power than Caprivi and Hohenlohe.
[edit] Foreign policy
[edit] Britain
In the Kruger telegram of 1896, William congratulated President Kruger of the Transvaal for suppressing of the Jameson Raid, which aggravated British public opinion. The raid was intended to trigger an uprising by British expatriate workers but resulted in 30 raiders being killed and the rest surrendered.
[edit] Russia
Germany and Russia had signed a secret treaty in 1887 that expired in 1890. William refused to renew this agreement, which guaranteed Russian neutrality in the event of an attack by France. Russia, in response, formed an alliance with France in 1892. William believed that his personal relationship with his cousin-in-law Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was sufficient to prevent war between the two powers. At a private meeting in Björkö in 1905, William and Nicholas created a treaty of alliance, without first consulting with Bülow, the chancellor. A similar situation confronted Tsar Nicholas on his return to St. Petersburg, and the treaty was ineffective. In a chivalrous fidelity to the Austro-German alliance, William informed the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph in 1889 that "the day of Austro-Hungarian mobilisation, for whatever cause, will be the day of German mobilisation too".[citation needed] Given that Austrian mobilisation for war would most likely be against Russia, a policy of alliance with both powers was not possible.
[edit] France
The Moroccan Crisis of 1906 occurred when William was persuaded to visit Tangier, in Morocco. William's presence in the country was seen as an assertion of German interests in Morocco and in a speech he made certain remarks in favour of Moroccan independence. This led to friction with France, which had colonial interests in Morocco. Theodore Roosevelt sought to mediate this crisis during the Algeciras Conference.
[edit] Daily Telegraph affair
The Daily Telegraph Affair of 1908 originated from the publication of some of William's statements in the British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph. William saw it as an opportunity to promote his views and ideas on Anglo-German friendship. Instead, due to his emotional outbursts, William alienated the British, French, Russians, and Japanese. He implied Germans hated the British and the French and Russians attempted to instigate Germany to intervene in the Second Boer War. He also added German naval buildup was targeted against the Japanese, not Britain. In Germany, there were calls for his abdication in the press. In response, William kept a very low profile for many months after the Daily Telegraph affair. During this time, William sufferred from depression and dismissed his prime minister, Bulow for publically criticizing him.
[edit] Naval expansion
Pursuing naval expansion caused the greatest reaction from the international community. Two events convinced William to expand the navy. The first was William's frustration over his fleet's poor showing at the Fleet Review at his grandmother Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The second was Germany's inability to exert influence in South Africa following the dispatch of the Kruger telegram. William appointed Alfred von Tirpitz to the head of the Reich Naval Office in 1897. The new admiral conceived the "Risk theory" or the Tirpitz Plan, which asserted Germany could force Britain to accede to Germany's demands in the international arena through the threat posed by a powerful battlefleet concentrated in the North Sea. Tirpitz received William's support in his advocacy of the naval bills of 1897 and 1900, which resulted in a German navy that could contend with that of the United Kingdom. Naval expansion under the Fleet Acts eventually led to severe financial strains in Germany by 1914.
[edit] World War I
[edit] The Sarajevo crisis
After the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on June 28, 1914, William offered support to Austria-Hungary in crushing Young Bosnia, the secret organization that had plotted the assassination. He wanted to remain in Berlin until the crisis was resolved, but his courtiers persuaded him instead to go on his annual cruise of the North Sea on July 6, 1914. It was realised William's presence would be a hindrance to German politicians who wished to exploit the crisis to increase German prestige, even at the risk of general war. William attempted to stay on top of the crisis via telegram, and when the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum was delivered to Serbia, he hurried back to Berlin. He reached Berlin on July 28th, read a copy of the Serbian reply, and wrote on it:
"A brilliant solution--and in barely 48 hours! This is more than could have been expected. A great moral victory for Vienna; but with it every pretext for war falls to the ground, and [the Ambassador] Giesl had better have stayed quietly at Belgrade. On this document, I should never have given orders for mobilization."[2]
Unknown to William, Austro-Hungarian ministers and generals had already convinced the 84-year-old Francis Joseph of Austria to sign a declaration of war against Serbia.
[edit] July 30-31, 1914
On the night of July 30-31, when handed a document stating that Russia would not cancel its mobilization, William wrote a lengthy commentary containing the startling observations:
- "For I no longer have any doubt that England, Russia and France have agreed among themselves--knowing that our treaty obligations compel us to support Austria--to use the Austro-Serb conflict as a pretext for waging a war of annihilation against us. ... Our dilemma over keeping faith with the old and honorable Emperor has been exploited to create a situation which gives England the excuse she has been seeking to annihilate us with a spurious appearance of justice on the pretext that she is helping France and maintaining the well-known Balance of Power in Europe, i.e. playing off all European States for her own benefit against us." [Michael Balfour, "The Kaiser and his Times," Houghton Mifflin (1964) pp. 350-51]
When it had became clear that the United Kingdom would enter the war if Germany attacked France through Belgium, the panic-stricken William attempted to switch the main attack against Russia. When Helmuth von Moltke (the younger) told him that this was impossible, William said: "Your uncle would have given me a different answer." [Emil Ludwig, "Wilhelm Hohenzollern: The Last of the Kaisers," G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York (1927) p. 453]
[edit] The Great War
Though William had ambitions for the German Empire to be a world power, it was never William's intention to conjure a large-scale conflict to achieve such ends. As soon as his better judgment dictated that a world war was imminent, he made strenuous efforts to preserve the peace. In opposition, military officials of Germany and the German Foreign Office were successful in persuading him to sign the mobilisation order and initiate the Schlieffen Plan. Although historians acknowledge William was not fully responsible for the war, his own support of militarism and endorsement of the German military establishment pushed the German Empire into an armaments race with competing European powers.
[edit] The "Shadow-kaiser"
As the war progressed, his influence receded and inevitably his lack of ability in military matters led to an increasing reliance upon his generals to an extent that after 1916, the Empire had effectively become a military dictatorship under the control of Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. Increasingly cut-off from reality and the political decision-making process, he remained a useful figurehead, and toured the lines and munitions plants, awarded medals and gave encouraging speeches. Nevertheless, William still retained the ultimate authority in matters of political appointment.
[edit] Abdication and flight
William was at the Imperial Army headquarters in Spa, Belgium, when the uprisings in Berlin and other centers occurred in late 1918. There was mutiny among the ranks of the Kaiserliche Marine and the Imperial Navy. After the outbreak of the German Revolution, William's abdication both as Emperor of the German Empire and King of Prussia was abruptly announced by the Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, on November 9, 1918. William consented to the abdication only after Ludendorff's replacement, General William Groener, had informed him that the officers and men of the army would march back in good order under Paul von Hindenburg's command, but would not fight for William's throne on the home front.[citation needed]
The following day, William II crossed the border by train and went into exile in the Netherlands, which had remained neutral throughout the war. Upon the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles in early 1919, Article 227 provided for the prosecution of William "for a supreme offence against international morality and the sanctity of treaties", but Queen Wilhelmina refused to extradite him, despite appeals from the Allies. William first settled in Amerongen, but was subsequently provided with a small castle in the municipality of Doorn, which became his home for the remainder of his life. From this residence, Huis Doorn, William absolved his officers and servants of their oath of loyalty to him; however he himself never formally relinquished his titles, and hoped to return to Germany in the future.
[edit] October 1918 Telegrams
The telegrams that were exchanged between the General Headquarters of the Imperial High Command, Berlin, and President Wilson are discussed in Ferdinand Czernin's "Versailles, 1919," G.P. Putnam's & Sons (1964).
The following telegram was sent through the Swiss government and arrived in Washington, D.C. on October 5, 1918 [p. 6]:
- "The German Government requests the President of the United States of America to take steps for the restoration of peace, to notify all belligerents of this request, and to invite them to delegate plenipotentiaries for the purpose of taking up negotiations. The German Government accepts, as a basis of peace negotiations, the Program laid down by the President of the United States in his message to Congress of January 8, 1918, and his subsequent pronouncements, particularly in his address of September 27, 1918.
- In order to avoid further bloodshed the German Government requests to bring about the immediate conclusion of an armistice on land, on water, and in the air.
- Max, Prince of Baden, Imperial Chancellor"
In the subsequent two exchanges, Wilson's allusions "failed to convey the idea that the Kaiser's abdication was an essential condition for peace. The leading statesmen of the Reich were not yet ready to contemplate such a monstrous possibility." [p.7]
The third German telegram was sent on October 20. Wilson's reply on October 23 contained the following:
- "If the Government of the United States must deal with the military masters and the monarchical autocrats of Germany now, or if it is likely to have to deal with them later in regard to the international obligations of the German Empire, it must demand not peace negotiations but surrender. Nothing can be gained by leaving this essential thing unsaid." [Emil Ludwig, Wilhelm Hohenzollern, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York (1927), p. 489]
According to Czernin [p. 9]:
- "... Prince Hohenlohe, serving as councilor in the German Legation in Berne, Switzerland, cabled the German Foreign Office that 'a confidential informant has informed me that the conclusion of the Wilson note of October 23 refers to nothing less than the abdication of the Kaiser as the only way to a peace which is more or less tolerable.'"
The abdication of William was necessitated by the popular perceptions that had been created by the Entente propaganda against him, which had been picked and further refined when the U.S. declared war in April 1917.
A much bigger obstacle, which contributed to the five-week delay in the signing of the armistice and to the resulting social deterioration in Europe, was the fact that the Entente Powers had no desire to accept the Fourteen Points and Wilson's subsequent promises. As Czernin points out [p. 23]:
- "The Allied statesmen were faced with a problem: so far they had considered the 'fourteen commandments' as a piece of clever and effective American propaganda, designed primarily to undermine the fighting spirit of the Central Powers, and to bolster the morale of the lesser Allies. Now, suddenly, the whole peace structure was supposed to be built up on that set of 'vague principles,' most of which seemed to them thoroughly unrealistic, and some of which, if they were to be seriously applied, were simply unacceptable."
[edit] Life in exile
In 1922 William published the first volume of his memoirs, a slim volume in which he revealed a remarkable memory. He asserted he did not initiate the Great War, and defended his conduct throughout his reign. For the remaining twenty years of his life, the emperor became a country squire and regularly entertained guests. During this period, he regained an admiration of Britain and his first reported desire upon entering exile was for "a cup of good English tea".[citation needed] No longer hiring a court barber, and desiring to disguise his features, William grew a beard and allowed his famous moustache to droop.
The former emperor had several hobbies. He spent a lot of time chopping wood, a hobby he began upon his arrival at Doorn. He deforested a significant part of his estate, the land only now beginning to recover. [citation needed] William continued archaeology, a hobby he had acquired during his vacations in Corfu. He also hunted. When bored, he sketched plans for grand buildings and battleships, although experts in construction saw his ideas as grandiose and impractical.
In the early 1930s, William hoped the ascension of the National Socialist German Workers Party would stimulate interest in reviving the monarchy. His second wife, Hermine, petitioned the Nazi government on her husband's behalf. On the contrary, Adolf Hitler felt William II had contributed to Germany's humiliating loss in the First World War. Though he hosted Hermann Göring at Doorn on many occasions, William distrusted Hitler, though he admired Hitler's success in the opening months of the Second World War. To this note, he sent a congratulatory telegram when Paris fell. Nevertheless, after the Nazi conquest of the Netherlands in 1940, William retired completely from public life.
[edit] Death
William II died of a pulmonary embolism in Doorn, Netherlands on June 5, 1941. He was buried in a mausoleum in the grounds of Huis Doorn, which has since become a place of pilgrimage for German monarchists, though there is concern at its growing popularity with adherents of the extreme right. Hitler hoped to bring William's body back to Berlin for a state funeral, which Hitler could use for propaganda purposes, demonstrating to Germans the direct succession of the Third Reich from the old Kaiserreich.[3] William's wishes of never returning to Germany until the restoration of the monarchy were respected, and the Nazi occupation authorities granted a small military funeral, the mourners at which included the hero of the First World War August von Mackensen, along with a few other military advisors. William's request that the swastika and other Nazi regalia not be displayed at the final rites was ignored however.
To this day, small but enthusiastic numbers of German monarchists gather at Huis Doorn every year on the anniversary of his death to pay their homage to the last German Emperor.
[edit] Marriages and issue
William and his first wife, Princess Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein, were married on February 27, 1881. They had seven children: Crown Prince Wilhelm, Prince Eitel Friedrich, Prince Adalbert, Prince August Wilhelm, Prince Oskar, Prince Joachim, Princess Viktoria Luise.
Augusta died on April 11, 1921. The following January, William received a birthday greeting from a son of Prince Johann Georg of Schönaich-Carolath. He invited the boy and his mother, Princess Hermine Reuss zu Greiz, daughter of Prince Henry XXII of Reuss, to Doorn. William found her very attractive, and greatly enjoyed her company. By early 1922, he was determined to marry her and the couple was eventually wed on November 9, 1922 despite dissent from William's monarchist supporters and the objections of his children.
[edit] Alleged extramarital affairs
Prior to his marriage, William fell in love with his cousin, Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, daughter of his aunt Alice, and wrote her a series of love poems. Elizabeth was initially intrigued, but soon found him intolerable. During the Great War, he tried to aid Elizabeth in escaping from Russia, but she refused to leave and stayed there until she was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Although she rejected his hand in marriage, as an old man, he confessed that he never forgot her.[citation needed]
William was implicated in the scandal over his aide and friend, Philip Fürst zu Eulenburg-Hertefeld, which revealed homosexual activities that occurred within William's inner circle. Bismarck, among others, suggested that there was an inappropriate relationship between William and Eulenburg. There is no conclusive evidence to prove that the Emperor and Eulenburg's relationship went beyond friendship.
[edit] Notable facts and common misconceptions
- William, the first grandchild of Queen Victoria, was at his maternal grandmother's deathbed, holding her in his arms as she passed away. For this, he won some lasting affection from the British public which was unfortunately snuffed out in 1914.
- William owned a vast collection of uniforms and costumes. He wore different ones for each occasion, often 4 or more a day. This habit made people joke about it, saying that when eating plum pudding the emperor would dress as a British Admiral (an honorary rank he had been awarded by his grandmother in 1889).
- William had his summer palace in Stuttgart. When in residence, he held a parade every Sunday at noon. In full military dress, the Emperor, his officers and cavalry, marched up and down the main street; the townsfolk being encouraged to attend.
- The Emperor loved all things Norwegian. He often spent his summer holidays on his yacht, cruising Norway's coast. When the city of Ålesund was demolished by a great fire in 1904, he oversaw and partially financed its restoration in Jugendstil architecture.
- He had a yacht called the Meteor, which was outpaced in a regatta at Kiel in 1900 by the famous mining entrepreneur Whitaker Wright.
- Prior to the outbreak of the First World War, the young Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands visited William II who boasted to the child-Queen that "my guards are seven feet tall and yours are only shoulder high to them." Wilhelmina smiled politely and replied: "Quite true, Your Majesty, your guards are seven feet tall. But when we open our dikes, the water is ten feet deep!" After the armistice ending the Great War, William had to swallow his pride and seek Wilhelmina's aid in the Netherlands, this time as a political exile.
- William paid for a marble sarcophagus for the Muslim hero Saladin. Although it is in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, next to the old tomb, Saladin's remains are not interred in it, but lie in the original wooden coffin in which he was interred.
- Through Queen Victoria, William was a first cousin to many of the crowned heads of Europe with whom he went to war, most notably George V of the United Kingdom and Nicholas II (through his consort, the Empress Alexandra). All three spoke English fluently and called each other Georgie, Willy and Nicky respectively.
- Upon hearing that his cousin George V had changed the name of the British royal house to Windsor, he remarked that he planned to see Shakespeare's play "The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha".
- Prior to the outbreak of hostilities of WWI, William hosted Theodore Roosevelt in a review of the German army on parade. Roosevelt is purported to have said to the future adversary, "My God, if I had an army like that, I could rule the world!"[citation needed]
- William II ranks at No. 130 on the Unsere Besten list of greatest Germans.
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Michael Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964.
- E. F. Benson, The Kaiser and English Relations, London: Longmans, Green, 1936.
- Lamar Cecil, Wilhelm II: Prince and Emperor, 1859-1900, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989.
- Lamar Cecil, Wilhelm II: Emperor and Exile, 1900-1941, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
- Isabel V. Hull, The Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II, 1888-1918, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
- Thomas A. Kohut, Wilhelm II and the Germans: A Study in Leadership, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
- Giles Macdonogh, The Last Kaiser: William the Impetuous, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001.
- Annika Mombauer & Wilhelm Deist (eds), The Kaiser: New Research on Wilhelm II's Role in Imperial Germany, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
- Alan Palmer, The Kaiser: Warlord of the Second Reich, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1978.
- James Retallack, Germany in the Age of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Basingstoke: St. Martin's Press, 1996.
- John C. G. Röhl & Nicholaus Sombart (eds), Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations - the Corfu Papers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982 (reprinted 2005).
- John C. G. Röhl, Young Wilhelm: The Kaiser's Early Life, 1859-1888, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998 (Volume I of Röhl's massive new biography).
- John C. G. Röhl, The Kaiser's Personal Monarchy, 1888-1900, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004 (Volume II of Röhl's masive new biography).
- John Van der Kiste, Kaiser Wilhelm II: Germany's Last Emperor, Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1999.
- Tyler Whittle, The Last Kaiser: A Biography of William II, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, London: Heinemann, 1977.
- Wilhelm II, My Memoirs: 1878-1918, London: Cassell & Co., 1922.
- Alkan, Necmettin. Die deutsche Weltpolitik und die Konkurrenz der Maechte um das osmanische Erbe. Die deutsch-osmanischen Beziehungen in der deutschen Presse 1890-1909, Lit Verglag, Münster 2003.
- Robert K. Massie (1991). Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War. New York: Random House, ISBN 0-394-52833-6.
- Ludwig, Emil. Wilhelm Hohenzollern: The Last of the Kaisers, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1927 (translated by Ethel Colburn Mayne). (1970 edition, Ames Press). ISBN 0-404-04067-5.
- Röhl, John C. G.. The Kaiser and His Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany, trans. Terence F. Cole, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-521-40223-9.
[edit] External links
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Vincent Gray/William II
Born: 27 January 1859 Died: 4 June 1941 |
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| Regnal titles | ||
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| Preceded by Friedrich III |
German Emperor 1888-1918 |
Succeeded by Abolition of Monarchy |
| King of Prussia 1888-1918 |
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| Titles in pretence | ||
| Preceded by None |
— TITULAR — German Emperor 1918-1941 |
Succeeded by Crown Prince Wilhelm |
| — TITULAR — King of Prussia 1918-1941 |
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