Wilhelm II (1859 - 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, reigning from 1888 until his abdication in November 1918. [1] He dismissed Otto von Bismarck in 1890 and pursued an assertive foreign policy and naval expansion that strained Germany's relations with Britain, France and Russia. [2] His government's support for Austria-Hungary in July 1914 was a decisive step toward the First World War, in which German defeat ended the monarchy.
Birth and upbringing
Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert was born on 27 January 1859 at the Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin, the eldest son of the future Emperor Frederick III and of Victoria, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of Queen Victoria of Britain. [1] A difficult breech birth left him with a permanently damaged and shortened left arm, and his childhood involved painful attempts at correction.
He was educated at the Friedrichsgymnasium in Kassel and then at the University of Bonn, and was trained in the Prussian army, whose outlook and ceremony he embraced. Relations with his liberal-minded English mother were strained, and he gravitated toward the conservative military and court circles around his grandfather Wilhelm I. [2]
Accession and personal rule
In 1888, the so-called Year of Three Emperors, Wilhelm I died and Frederick III succeeded him only to die of throat cancer after ninety-nine days. Wilhelm II came to the throne in June at the age of twenty-nine. [1] Within two years he forced the resignation of Chancellor Bismarck, whose system of alliances had kept France isolated, and allowed the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia to lapse.
The resulting Weltpolitik sought colonies, prestige and a battle fleet capable of challenging the Royal Navy. The naval laws promoted by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz from 1898 onwards triggered an arms race with Britain and pushed London toward understandings with France and Russia. [2] Wilhelm's impulsive public statements repeatedly created crises, notably the 1908 Daily Telegraph affair, which damaged his standing at home. German rule in South West Africa during his reign included the campaign against the Herero and Nama peoples from 1904, now widely recognised as a genocide. [1]
The First World War
After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914, Wilhelm and his government assured Austria-Hungary of German backing, a commitment that encouraged Vienna to act against Serbia and helped convert a regional crisis into a continental war. [3] Once mobilisation began, the Kaiser's attempts to pull back had little effect on military timetables.
During the war his practical authority declined steadily. From 1916 the Supreme Army Command under Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff exercised what historians have described as a de facto military dictatorship, with the Kaiser reduced largely to a figurehead. [2] The decision for unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917 brought the United States into the conflict.
Abdication and exile
With the German front collapsing and revolution spreading through the country, Wilhelm's abdication as emperor and king was announced on 9 November 1918 and he crossed into the neutral Netherlands the following day. [1] The Allies sought his trial as a war criminal under the Treaty of Versailles, but the Dutch government refused extradition.
He spent the rest of his life at Huis Doorn, writing memoirs that blamed others for the war and expressing antisemitic views along with hopes for a monarchical restoration that the Nazi leadership never entertained. [2] Wilhelm II died at Doorn on 4 June 1941. Historians continue to debate how far his personality shaped German policy and how far he was the product of the militarised system he presided over. [3]
