THE LAST GERMAN EMPEROR AND THE LAST KING OF PRUSSIA,WILHELM II (1859 – 1941) WAS ENGLAND'S QUEEN VICTORIA'S FIRST GRANDSON.WILLIAM II RULED GERMANY AND PRUSSIA FOR 30 YEARS.HE LED GERMAN FORCES DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR UNTIL HIS ADDICTION IN NOVEMBER 1918,HE WENT TO THE EXILE TO NETHERLANDS.
German Emperor Wilhelm II or William II,with his wife Augusta Victoria von Schleswig- Holstein.Wilhelm’s father was Frederick III, who was briefly the kaiser of
Germany and king of Prussia (Wilhelm’s grandfather, Wilhelm I, ruled
between January 1871–March 1888). His mother was Victoria, the eldest
daughter of British Queen Victoria.
In 1859, Prince Frederic William and Princess Victoria, who was a daughter of Queen Victoria of England, had got a boy called Willhelm. He would later be the Kaiser Wilhelm II who led Germany in World War I.Wilhelm was born genius. His intelligent could be seen from his behavior and speech. Unfortunately, he was suffering from unstable temper that sometimes made him lose control.Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert von Hohenzollern, Wilhelm II of Prussia, Germany, (27 January 1859– 1941) was the last German Emperor and the last King of Prussia, ruling from 1888 to 1918. He went to live in the Netherlands and abdicated (resigned) as King and Emperor. He died at Huis Doorn and is buried there because he ordered that he did not want to be buried in Nazi Germany. Wilhelm died on June 4, 1941.Kaiser Wilhelm II was born on January 27, 1859. He was the oldest child in his family. His father was Prince Frederick of Prussia. His mother was Princess Victoria, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. He was born with a disabled arm. He got married in 1881. His wife was Augusta Victoria. They had seven children. He first studied at the Kassel Gymnasium. Secondly, he studied at the University of Bonn. He became leader of Germany in 1888. He became the leader after his father died.Wilhelm was a strong military man. He believed in strengthening Germany’s armed forces. He led the German armed forces during the war.When Wilhelm was 29, his father died. That was the time that Wilhelm should take over his father’s power. He was announced as Kaiser Wilhelm II and in the end he was the last emperor in Germany.It was hard time for Kaiser Wilhelm II. As he was powerful and intelligence, he knew what strategy he should use to control the power. However, his unstable emotions took over his intelligence. He often lose control and did everything out of control.Wilhelm, from six years of age, was tutored and heavily influenced by the 39-year old teacher Georg Hinzpeter. As a teenager he was educated at Kassel at the Friedrichsgymnasium and the University of Bonn, where he became a member of Corps Borussia Bonn. Wilhelm possessed a quick intelligence, but unfortunately 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.Crown Prince Frederick was viewed by his son with a deeply felt love and respect. His father's status as a hero of the wars of unification was largely responsible for the young Wilhelm's attitude, as in 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, given the perceived 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".In many ways, Wilhelm was a victim of his inheritance and of Otto von Bismarck's machinations. Both sides of his family had suffered from mental illness, and this may explain his emotional instability. When Wilhelm was in his early twenties, 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. The German Emperor Wilhelm I died in Berlin on March 9, 1888 and Prince Wilhelm's father was proclaimed Emperor as Frederick III. He was already suffering from an incurable throat cancer and spent all 99 days of his reign fighting the disease before dying. On June 15 of that same year, his 29-year-old son succeeded him as German Emperor and King of Prussia.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 with the determination that he was going to rule as well as reign, unlike his grandfather, who had largely 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.
Auguste Viktoria Friederike Luise Feodora Jenny von Schleswig-Holstein -Sonderburg-Augustenburg with daughter Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, Berlin (1911).Princess
Victoria Louise of Prussia, Duchess of Brunswick (Victoria Louise
Adelaide Matilda Charlotte (1892 1980) - the only daughter and the
seventh child of Wilhelm II.
Wilhelm II's wife Auguste Viktoria von Schleswig- Holstein,Augusta’s mother was Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the daughter of Princess Feodora of Leiningen, Queen Victoria’s half-sister (Victoria’s mother remarried after the death of her father Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent). Therefore Augusta was a half-cousin to Wilhelm, the grandson of Queen Victoria by her eldest daughter Princess Victoria “Vicky”, who was born three months after Augusta in January 1859.Augusta’s education was entrusted to a protestant minister, so she never developed a depth of political understanding, but was deeply conservative, which made her a good match for Wilhelm.When she first met Wilhelm they were only 10 years old. Both would have their hearts broken by other loves before they came together.As a teenager Augusta fell deeply in love with her cousin Prince Ernst of Saxe-Meiningen, but her parents disapproved of the romance and sent Augusta to England to discourage it. Wilhelm was smitten by his cousin Princess Elisabeth of Hesse, writing her love poetry and visiting her often. In 1878 he proposed to her but she turned him down.In 1878 Augusta and Wilhelm met again and began to fall in love. Some people opposed a marriage because Augusta was of a lesser royal rank. But the couple found a supporter in German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who believed the marriage would resolve the simmering dispute between Prussia and Schleswig-Holstein. They were married on February 27, 1881, in Berlin.Augusta was known as "Dona" within the family. She had a somewhat lukewarm relationship with her mother-in-law, Victoria, who had hoped that Dona would help to heal the rift between herself and Wilhelm; this was not to be the case. The Empress was also annoyed that the title of head of the Red Cross went to Dona, who had no nursing or charity experience or inclination (though in her memoirs, Princess Victoria Luise paints a different picture, stating that her mother loved charity work). Augusta often took pleasure in snubbing her mother-in-law, usually small incidents, such as telling her that she would be wearing a different dress than the one Victoria recommended, that she would not be riding to get her figure back after childbirth as Wilhelm had no intention of stopping at one son, and informing her that Augusta's daughter, Victoria, was not named after her (though, again, in her memoirs, Victoria Luise states that she was named after both her grandmother and her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria).When "Dona", as she was called in family circles, became German Empress she threw herself into the traditional duties of a consort, hosting foreign guests, presiding at parties and working with the Red Cross and numerous charities; which she thoroughly enjoyed. Relations between her and her mother-in-law warmed somewhat though she was careful to guard her children from Vicky's ever-staunch liberalism. However, she was right beside Vicky when she died in 1901 and from that moment was the uncontested "first lady" of Germany. She was probably as close to a perfect match for Wilhelm II as possible. The Kaiser, with his notoriously stressed and eratic personality, could always find calm and comfort with Dona who would attend to his every need and invite him to pray with her. Sometimes this meant that she neglected herself. It was commented on that when the Kaiser would take his meals she would spend most of the time attending to him rather than eating herself and by the time she started her husband would be finished and call for her to walk with him, which she would, leaving many to wonder how she was able to keep from going hungry.Dona certainly did her duty in securing the succession as well, giving Wilhelm 6 sons and 1 daughter. She was most attached to her youngest boy, Prince Joachim, whom she constantly worried over as he was born early following a fiery argument the Kaiserin had with Princess Sophie after she told Dona she would be converting to Greek Orthodoxy to marry the Crown Prince of the Hellenes. A very devout and committed Evangelical, Dona told her she would go to hell if she did so and the confrontation went down-hill from there. Amongst the German people Dona was adored as no one else in the Imperial family, even more consistently than the Kaiser. The war was a terrible strain on her, probably more so because of the strain it put on her husband. For the Kaiser, the chaos of a losing war put added stress on a structure that wasn't exactly up to code to start with. Nonetheless, she did all she could to give aid and comfort to her family, the soldiers and the German people.Dona's health had started to fail even before the revolutions that brought down the German monarchy and she followed her husband into exile in the Netherlands but everyone noticed that all the upheaval had taken their toll on her. She was weak enough when word came of the suicide of her beloved Prince Joachim and most pointed to that event as being the last straw for her. She died on April 11, 1921. Her body was sent back to Germany for burial, the Kaiser having to say his last farewell at the Dutch border and even in the new republican Germany her loss was an occasion of great mourning and displays of monarchist sentiment. Augusta and her mother-in-law grew closer for a few years when Wilhelm became emperor, as Augusta was often lonely while he was away on military exercises and turned to her mother-in-law for companionship of rank, although she never left her children alone with her lest they be influenced by her well-known liberalism. Nevertheless, the two were often seen out riding in a carriage together. Augusta was at Victoria's bedside when she died of breast cancer in 1901.Augusta also had less than cordial relationships with some of Wilhelm's sisters, particularly the recently married Crown Princess Sophie of Greece. In 1890, when Sophie announced her intention to convert to Greek Orthodoxy, Dona summoned her and told her that if she did so, not only would Wilhelm find it unacceptable as the head of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces, but she would be barred from Germany and her soul would end up in Hell. Sophie replied that it was her business whether or not she did. Augusta became hysterical and gave birth prematurely to her son, Prince Joachim, as a result of which she was overprotective of him for the rest of his life, believing that he was delicate. Evidently, so did Wilhelm; he wrote to his mother that if the baby died, Sophie would have murdered it.Later lifeIn 1920, the shock of exile and abdication, combined with the breakdown of Joachim's marriage and his subsequent suicide, proved too much for Augusta's health. She died in 1921, in House Doorn at Doorn in the Netherlands. Wilhelm, still reeling over the same losses, was devastated by her death. The Weimar Republic allowed her remains to be transported back to Germany, where they still lie in the Temple of Antiquities, not far from the New Palace, Potsdam. Because he was not permitted to enter Germany, Wilhelm could accompany his wife on her last journey only as far as the German border.Although not politically well-informed, Augusta was Wilhelm’s confidante during political crises. As the nation headed to war, the Kaiser often consulted her. However, her conservatism and anti-British bias helped push the country toward war. During WWI she threw herself into more charity work and became head of the German arm of the Red Cross, but was also there to side with the Kaiser and the military against the elected parliament in times when the war was going badly.Toward the end of the war Augusta’s health deteriorated. By the time they fled to the Netherlands in 1918, their personal problems compounded the stress. When she died in 1921 thousands of people lined railway lines to watch the train carry her body through Germany to its resting place.The Kaiser deeply mourned her passing, but he was not allowed to attend her funeral. When he died in 1941 his body remained in the Netherlands and to this day Germany refuses to allow his remains to return.
The Nine Sovereigns at Windsor for the funeral of King Edward VII, photographed on 20 May 1910. Standing, from left to right: King Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferdinand of the Bulgarians, King Manuel II of Portugal and the Algarve, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Prussia, King George I of the Hellenes and King Albert I of the Belgians. Seated, from left to right: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King George V of the United Kingdom and King Frederick VIII of Denmark.
Kaiser Wilhelm II actually had six sons and one daughter.Crown Prince Wilhelm Born 6 May 1882 Died 20 July 1951.Crown Prince Wilhelm was active in politics before the First World War and very keen on expanding German colonies. In the war he was named commander of the 5th Army in August 1914. However, under the well-established Prussian/German General Staff model then in use, inexperienced nobles who were afforded commands of large army formations were always provided with (and expected to defer to the advice of) experienced chiefs of staff to assist them in their duties. As Emperor, Wilhelm's father instructed the Crown Prince to defer to the advice of his experienced chief of staff Konstantin Schmidt von Knobelsdorf.From August 1915 onwards, Wilhelm was given the additional role as commander of the Crown Prince's Corps. In 1916 his troops began the Verdun Offensive, a year long effort to destroy the French armies that would end in failure. Wilhelm relinquished command of the 5th Army in November of that year, but remained commander of the Crown Prince's Corps for the rest of the war.After the outbreak of the German Revolution in 1918, both Emperor Wilhelm II and the Crown Prince signed the document of abdication. Initially in exile he returned to Germany in 1923. Under an agreement with the state, he and his immediate descendants were allowed to live in Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam, just outside Berlin.Adolf Hitler visited Wilhelm at Cecilienhof in 1926, in 1933 and in 1935. Wilhelm joined the Stahlhelm which merged in 1931 into the Harzburg Front, a right-wing organisation of those opposed to the democratic republic. Wilhelm planned to run against Hindenburg as Reichspräsident but opposition from his father killed this idea.In 1934, his friend Kurt von Schleicher, the former Chancellor, was murdered in the Night of the Long Knives. Wilhelm’s friendship with Hitler cooled and he withdrew from all political activities. He took no active part in World War II, but in 1944 Hitler had him watched by the Gestapo.After the war, the palace of Cecilienhof was seized by the Soviets and used to host the Potsdam conference. Fearing the Soviets, Wilhelm fled to Austria, where he was captured by French Moroccan troops. He was interned as a (World War I) war criminal and then kept under house arrest. He died in 1951 of heart failure.Prince Eitel Friedrich Born 7 July 1883 Died 8 December 1942.Prince Eitel fought in the front line from the beginning of World War I and was wounded at Bapaume, where he commanded the Prussian First Foot Guards. The following year, he was transferred to the Eastern Front. During the summer of 1915, he was out in a field in Russia when he had a chance encounter with Manfred von Richthofen, who had just crashed with his superior officer, Count Holck. The two men were hiding in a nearby tree line from what they thought was the advancing Russian army and who turned out to be the grenadiers, guardsmen, and officers of Prince Eitel.After the war he joined the Stahlhelm paramilitary organization. In 1921, the Berlin criminal court found him guilty of the fraudulent transfer of 300,000 Marks and sentenced him to a fine of 5000 Marks. He took no part in World War 2 and dies in 1942.Prince Adalbert Born 14 July 1884 Died 22 September 1948.Prince Adalbert joined the Kaiserliche Marine in the first World War. He rose to command SMS Danzig on 1917, and SMS Dresden in 1918. He died in 1948 in Switzerland.Prince August Wilhelm Born 29 January 1887 Died 25 March 1949.During the First World War, August Wilhelm was made district administrator (Landrat) of the district of Ruppin in Brandenburg, northwest of Berlin. August was gay and apparently had a relationship with Hans Georg von Mackensen. This relationship brought about an end to his marriage to Princess Alexandra Victoria. There was one son from the marriage.After the war, August joined the nationalist veteran's group "Stahlhelm". He joined the Nazi party in 1930. In 1931 he was made a "Standartenführer" in the paramilitary SA. His ingratiation with the National Socialists and his adoration of Adolf Hitler made August Wilhelm often the subject of mockery by the left-wing press, politicians ("Hanswurst" i.e. "Hans the Brown Sausage" by André François-Poncet), and from National Socialists themselves (Joseph Goebbels referred to him as "good-natured, but slightly gormless boy").As a representative of the erstwhile Prussian royal dynasty and German imperial dynasty, August Wilhelm was deliberately used by the National Socialists to gain votes in elections such as the lead candidate of the NSDAP for election to the Prussian Landtag in April 1932 or as an election speaker alongside Hitler, whom he accompanied on flights across Germany at the same time. Through his appearances at mass rallies of the National Socialists, he addressed himself to sections of the population that were lukewarm towards National Socialism and convinced them "that Hitler was not a threat, but a benefactor of the German people and the German Empire.In 1939 he was made an SA-Obergruppenführer, the second highest rank in the SA, but after making derogatory remarks about Joseph Goebbels in private, he was denounced in 1942. From then on, he was completely sidelined and was also banned from making public speeches.After the War August was arrested by United States soldiers put om trial where he was sentenced to two and a half years' hard labour. He died in 1948.Prince Oskar Born 27 July 1888 Died January 1958.In World War I Oskar commanded Grenadierregiment "Konig Wilhelm I." in the field as its colonel. His bravery in the attack on Virton, Belgium at the start of the War won him the Iron Cross, Second Class. In September 1914 at Verdun, Oskar again led his men in a successful assault into heavy combat, and was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class. He was wounded , but later recovered to fight on the Eastern Front.He did not participate in politics in the 1930s or in World War 2. His son was killed in the invasion of Poland.He died of stomach cancer in 1958.Prince Joachim Born 17 December 1890 Died 18 July 1920.In World War I Joachim served as 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards.Some Irish leaders wanted him as King of a newly independent Ireland. Patrick Pearse and Joseph Plunkett thought a non English speaking king from an established European Royal Family would give legitimacy to their efforts.After the War Joachim was depressed at the fall in the fortunes of his family and committed suicide in 1920.Princess Victoria Louise Adelheid Mathilde Charlotte born 1892 Died 1980.Victoria was the seventh and last child of Wilhelm 2 and the only daughter.In May 1913 she married Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick. The marriage was extravagant with 1,200 guests. The guests included King George V of England, a first cousin of Wilhelm II through their common grandmother Queen Victoria, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia also a first cousin to Wilhelm II through their common grandmother Queen Louise of Denmark. It was the last time the cousins would meet before Europe was plunged into war.Princess Victoria would survive both wars and live until 1980.Upon hearing that his cousin George V had changed the name of the British royal house to Windsor, Wilhelm remarked that he planned to see Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Wilhelm's role in wartime was of ever-decreasing power as he increasingly handled awards ceremonies and honorific duties. The high command continued with its strategy even when it was clear that the Schlieffen plan had failed. By 1916 the Empire had effectively become a military dictatorship under the control of Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff. Increasingly cut off from reality and the political decision-making process, Wilhelm vacillated between defeatism and dreams of victory, depending upon the fortunes of his armies. Nevertheless, Wilhelm still retained the ultimate authority in matters of political appointment, and it was only after his consent had been gained that major changes to the high command could be effected. Wilhelm was in favour of the dismissal of Helmuth von Moltke the Younger in September 1914 and his replacement by Erich von Falkenhayn. In 1917, Hindenburg and Ludendorff decided that Bethman-Hollweg was no longer acceptable to them as Chancellor and called upon the Kaiser to appoint somebody else. When asked whom they would accept, Ludendorff recommended Michaelis, a nonentity he barely knew. The Kaiser did not know Michaelis, but accepted the suggestion. The Kaiser's support exploded with new energy in October–November 1918 in the civilian government, and in German public opinion, as peace negotiations being considered and eventually began as well as the proclamation of the October Constitution which he reluctantly signed.Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was forced to abdicate on November 9, 1918,Kaiser Wilhelm II then moved to Netherlands soon after the war ended. He spent his entire life there. His death was caused by pulmonary embolism. Wilhelm died on June 4th, 1941 in Huis Doorn, Utrechtse Heuvelrug, Netherlands.
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was forced to abdicate on November 9, 1918,Kaiser Wilhelm II then moved to Netherlands soon after the war ended. He spent his entire life there. His death was caused by pulmonary embolism. Wilhelm died on June 4th, 1941 in Huis Doorn, Utrechtse Heuvelrug, Netherlands.
