Kaiser Wilhelm II

by Christopher Clark

  Notes

  PREFACE

  1. J. C. G. Röhl, Germany Without Bismarck. The Crisis of Government in the Second Reich, 1890–1900 (London, 1967); idem, ‘The “Kingship Mechanism” in the Kaiserreich’, in idem, The Kaiser and His Court. Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany, trans. T. F. Cole (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 107–30; H.-U. Wehler, Das deutsche Kaiserreich, 1871–1918 (Göttingen, 1973), pp. 60–69.

  2. See e.g. Röhl, The Kaiser and His Court, pp. 1–8; idem, ‘Introduction’, in J. C. G. Röhl and N. Sombart (eds.), Kaiser Wilhelm II. New Interpretations (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 1–22; I. V. Hull, ‘ “Persönliches Regiment” ’, in J. C. G. Röhl (ed.), Der Ort Kaiser Wilhelms II. in der deutschen Geschichte (Munich, 1991), pp. 2–23; G. Eley, ‘The View from the Throne: the Personal Rule of Kaiser Wilhelm II’, Historical Journal, 28 (1985), pp. 469–85; R. J. Evans, ‘Wilhelm II’s Germany and the Historians’, in idem, Rethinking German History (London, 1987), pp. 24–32; W. J. Mommsen, ‘Kaiser Wilhelm II and German Politics’, Journal of Contemporary History, 25 (1990), pp. 289–316, esp. pp. 294–6; G. Schöllgen, ‘Wer machte im Kaiserreich Politik? Zwischen “persönlichem Regiment” und “polykratischem Chaos” ’, Neue Politische Literatur, 25 (1980), pp. 79–97; J. N. Retallack, Germany in the Age of Kaiser Wilhelm II (Basingstoke, 1996), pp. 39–40, 92–4.

  3. Cf. Mommsen, ‘Kaiser Wilhelm II and German Politics’; L. Cecil, Wilhelm II, 2 vols. (Chapel Hill, NC, and London, 1989), vol. 1, Prince and Emperor, 1859–1900, pp. 260–61; Röhl, Germany Without Bismarck; idem, ‘The “Kingship Mechanism” ’, p. 116.

  4. See, for example, the second volume of Röhl’s biography of the Kaiser, Wilhelm II. Der Aufbau der persönlichen Monarchie (Munich, 2001). But the shift in language should not distract from a fundamental continuity in the arguments. In Der Aufbau der persönlichen Monarchie, Röhl describes Wilhelm II as an ‘almost invincible’ monarch, whose ‘pernicious influence’ and ‘explosive force’ transformed German politics; by the later 1890s, Röhl suggests, both the Reich and the Prussian governments were ‘mere administrative organs’ carrying out the Kaiser’s ‘imperial commands’.

  5. See, for example, M. Kohlrausch, Der Monarch im Skandal. Die Logik der Massenmedien und die Transformation der wilhelminischen Monarchie (Berlin, 2005); J. Rebentisch, Die vielen Gesichter des Kaisers. Wilhelm II. in der deutschen und britischen Karikatur (Berlin, 2000). On the Kaiser’s image across the English channel, L. Reinermann, Der Kaiser in England. Wilhelm II. und sein Bild in der britischen Öffentlichkeit (Paderborn, 2001).

  1. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

  1. For a discussion along similar lines of Friedrich Wilhelm III, who was sixteen at the death of his great-uncle Friedrich the Great in 1786, see T. Stamm-Kuhlmann’s superb biography König in Preussens grosse Zeit. Friedrich Wilhelm III. der Melancholiker auf dem Thron (Berlin, 1992), pp. 14–15.

  2. Crown princess to Queen Victoria, Berlin, 5 April 1865, in R. Fulford (ed.), Your Dear Letter. Private Correspondence of Queen Victoria and the Crown Princess of Prussia 1865–1871 (London, 1971), p. 22.

  3. Cited in L. Cecil, Wilhelm II, 2 vols. (Chapel Hill, NC and London, 1989), vol. 1, Prince and Emperor, 1859–1900, p. 15.

  4. Crown princess to Queen Victoria, Isle of Föhr, 14 August 1865, in Fulford (ed.), Your Dear Letter, p. 31.

  5. Crown princess to Queen Victoria, Berlin, 24 March 1861, in R. Fulford (ed.), Dearest Child. Private Correspondence of Queen Victoria and the Crown Princess of Prussia 1858–1861 (London, 1964), p. 313.

  6. The Alvensleben Convention of 1863 renewed Prussian friendship with Russia at the expense of the oppressed Poles, with whose cause the crown prince and his wife were broadly sympathetic.

  7. Crown princess to Queen Victoria, Neues Palais, 8 July 1862, in R. Fulford (ed.), Dearest Mama. Private Correspondence of Queen Victoria and the Crown Princess of Prussia 1861–64 (London, 1968), p. 90.

  8. Crown princess to Queen Victoria, Berlin, 31 January 1863, in ibid., pp. 169–71.

  9. L. Gall, Bismarck. The White Revolutionary, trans. J. A. Underwood, 2 vols. (London, 1986), vol. 1, p. 228.

  10. Crown princess to Queen Victoria, Putbus, 3 July 1863, in Fulford (ed.), Dearest Mama, pp. 241–2.

  11. J. C. G. Röhl, Die Jugend des Kaisers 1859–1888 (Munich, 1993), p. 134.

  12. Crown princess to Queen Victoria, Neues Palais, 11 September 1867, in Fulford (ed.), Your Dear Letter, p. 150. The appointment of the first tutors is treated in detail by Röhl, Jugend, pp. 136–57. The best account of the crown princess’s travails at court can be found in H. Pakula, An Uncommon Woman. The Empress Friedrich, Daughter of Queen Victoria, Wife of the Crown Prince of Prussia, Mother of Kaiser Wilhelm (London, 1996), pp. 106, 109, 138, 139, 141, 151, 154, 190.

  13. Crown princess to Queen Victoria, Berchtesgaden, 27 August 1872, in R. Fulford (ed.), Darling Child. Private Correspondence of Queen Victoria and the Crown Princess of Prussia 1871–1878 (London, 1976), p. 57.

  14. D. C. B. Lieven, Nicholas II. Emperor of All the Russias (London, 1993), p. 41.

  15. Röhl, Jugend, pp. 216, 218.

  16. Crown princess to Queen Victoria, Neues Palais, 5 September 1874, in Fulford (ed.), Darling Child, p. 150.

  17. Cited in Röhl, Jugend, p. 193.

  18. Cecil, Wilhelm II, vol. 1, p. 60.

  19. Cited in Röhl, Jugend, p. 433. On the Kaiser’s attitude to the Spanish journey, see Friedrich von Holstein to Herbert von Bismarck, Berlin, 29 October 1883, in W. Bussmann, Staatssekretär Graf Herbert von Bismarck. Aus seiner politischen Korrespondenz (Göttingen, 1964), p. 178.

  20. Cecil, Wilhelm II, vol. 1, p. 61.

  21. J. C. G. Röhl, Young Wilhelm. The Kaiser’s Early Life, 1859–1888, trans. J. Gaines and R. Wallach (Cambridge, 1998), p. 366.

  22. Friedrich von Holstein, diary entry of 6 June 1884, in N. Rich and M. H. Fisher (eds.), The Holstein Papers, 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1957), vol. 2, Diaries, p. 154.

  23. Alfred von Waldersee, diary entry of 10 June 1884, in H. O. Meisner (ed.), Denkwürdigkeiten des General-Feldmarschall Alfred Graf von Waldersee, 3 vols. (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1922), vol. 1, p. 242.

  24. Waldersee, diary entries of 19 and 28 May 1884, ibid., pp. 237–9.

  25. Wilhelm to Tsar Alexander III, 25 May and 19 June 1884, cited in Röhl, Jugend, p. 440. This letter is also discussed in P. Kollander, ‘Politics for the Defence? Bismarck, Battenberg and the Origins of the Cartel of 1887’, German History, 13 (1995), pp. 28–46, but misdated to a later Russian visit of 1886. On advice regarding Britain, see Röhl, Jugend, p. 450.

  26. For a full discussion of the Battenberg crisis and Wilhelm’s role in it, see Röhl, Jugend, pp. 517–46. On Battenberg, see E. C. Conti, Leben und Liebe Alexanders von Battenberg (Graz, 1949); a useful analysis of the political context can be found in Kollander, ‘Politics’.

  27. Crown princess to Queen Victoria, 28 June 1883, cited in Röhl, Jugend, p. 525. For a good discussion of the crown princess’s views on the Battenberg question, which were more nuanced than a brief summary can convey, see Pakula, An Uncommon Woman, pp. 407–31.

  28. The Kaiser and many others also took the view that the Battenbergs were not of sufficiently lofty lineage to be eligible for marriage to a Prussian princess.

  29. Röhl, Jugend, p. 529; Herbert von Bismarck to Otto von Bismarck, Berlin, 23 September 1886, in Bussmann, Staatssekretär Graf Herbert von Bismarck, pp. 377–8.

  30. Crown prince to Otto von Bismarck, 12 August 1886, cited in Röhl, Jugend, p. 570.

  31. A telegram to this effect (quoted here) was drawn up by F. von Holstein of the Foreign Office and the crown prince’s high chamberlain before being approved and sent to Bismarck by Friedrich Wilhelm. Text in Holstein, diary entry of 16 August 1886, in Rich and Fisher (eds.), Holstein Papers, vol. 2, p. 295.

  32. Telegram, Bismarck to Kaiser Wilhelm I, 17 August 1886, transcribed in Holstein, diary entry of 17 August 1886, ibid., pp. 296–7.

  33. Cited in Röhl, Jugend,
p. 576.

  34. Quoted in B. P. Simms, The Impact of Napoleon: Prussian High Politics, Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Executive, 1797–1806 (Cambridge, 1997), p. 2.

  35. Wilhelm had been pressing for a more active role in the making of foreign policy since his first trip to Russia in 1884, and was encouraged in this ambition by the Bismarcks; see Röhl, Jugend, pp. 584–97.

  36. Crown prince to Bismarck, Portofino, 28 September 1886, cited in Otto von Bismarck, Erinnerung und Gedanke, ed. G. Ritter and R. Stadelmann (Berlin, 1932), pp. 455–6.

  37. Reported in Herbert von Bismarck to Kuno von Rantzau, Berlin, 20 December 1886, in Bussmann, Staatssekretär Graf Herbert von Bismarck, p. 415.

  38. Crown princess to Queen Victoria, Berlin, 22 April 1887, in F. E. G. Ponsonby (ed.), Letters of the Empress Friedrich (London, 1928), p. 214.

  39. Waldersee, diary entry of 16 January 1885, in Meisner (ed.), Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 1, pp. 249–50.

  40. Waldersee’s role in tidying up after Wilhelm’s amorous entanglements is unearthed in Röhl, Jugend, pp. 494–508. On the Union Club episode, see ibid., pp. 508–16; Cecil, Wilhelm II, vol. 1, pp. 63, 124.

  41. Waldersee, diary entries of 23 January and 22 August 1886, in Meisner (ed.), Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 1, pp. 281, 296.

  42. Röhl, Jugend, pp. 599–616; Waldersee, diary entries of 29 October and 16 November 1886 in Meisner (ed.), Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 1, pp. 300, 303; W. Canis, Bismarck und Waldersee. Die aussenpolitischen Krisenerscheinungen und das Verhalten des Generalstabes 1882 bis 1890 (Berlin, 1980), p. 245.

  43. Waldersee, diary entry of 12 December 1887, in Meisner (ed.), Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 1, p. 342.

  44. Holstein, diary entry of 17 May 1887 – the day on which Holstein learned of the cancer diagnosis – in Rich and Fisher (eds.), Holstein Papers, vol. 2, p. 343.

  45. Waldersee, diary entry of 21 May 1887, in Meisner (ed.), Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 1, p. 327.

  46. Herbert von Bismarck, memoir dated autumn 1890, cited in Röhl, Jugend, p. 711.

  47. See O. Pflanze, Bismarck and the Development of Germany, 3 vols. (Princeton, NJ, 1990), vol. 3, The Period of Fortification 1880–1898, pp. 285–6, 297–8.

  48. On this episode, see O. v. Bismarck, Gedanken und Erinnerungen, ed. H. Granier (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1928), p. 595.

  49. J. Alden Nichols, The Year of the Three Kaisers. Bismarck and the German Succession 1887–1888 (Chicago, 1987), p. 111.

  50. Holstein, diary entry of 4 February 1888, in Rich and Fisher (eds.), Holstein Papers, vol. 2, p. 363.

  51. These words were spoken in Bismarck’s presence, but are thought to have been addressed to Wilhelm; Cecil, Wilhelm II, vol. 1, p. 108.

  52. Empress Victoria to Queen Victoria, 10 March 1888, cited in Nichols, Year of the Three Kaisers, p. 174.

  53. Holstein, diary entry of 13 May 1888, in Rich and Fisher (eds.), Holstein Papers, vol. 2, p. 374.

  54. Cecil, Wilhelm II, vol. 1, p. 119.

  55. Crown princess to Queen Victoria, Berlin, 7 March 1887, in A. Ramm (ed.), Beloved and Darling Child. Last Letters between Queen Victoria and Her Eldest Daughter 1886–1901 (Wolfeboro Falls, NH, 1991), pp. 45–6. Crown princess to Queen Victoria, Berlin, 22 April 1887, in Ponsonby (ed.), Letters of the Empress Friedrich, p. 214.

  56. Waldersee, diary entry of 23 January 1887, in Meisner (ed.), Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 1, p. 311.

  57. The early psychological literature is discussed in T. Kohut, Wilhelm II and the Germans. A Study in Leadership (New York and Oxford, 1991), pp. 225–8.

  58. E. Ludwig, Kaiser Wilhelm II, trans. E. C. Mayne (London, 1926), pp. 27, 271.

  59. Cited in Kohut, Wilhelm II, p. 227.

  60. Ibid., pp. 7–15.

  61. J. C. G. Röhl, Kaiser Wilhelm II. ‘Eine Studie über Cäsarenwahnsinn’ (Munich, 1989), pp. 31–6; Röhl, Jugend, pp. 35, 70–71, 149–57, 166–87.

  62. J. M. Hartley, Alexander I (London and New York, 1994), p. 20.

  63. See Holstein to Eulenburg, Dresden, 10 January and 19 April 1891, Holstein to Fischer, Berlin, 17 March 1891, in J. C. G. Röhl (ed.), Philipp Eulenburgs Politische Korrespondenz, 3 vols. (Boppard, 1976–83), vol. 1, pp. 626, 656, 670–71.

  64. L. Quidde, Caligula. Eine Studie über römischen Cäsarenwahnsinn (Munich, 1894); J. Radkau, Das Zeitalter der Nervosität (Munich and Vienna, 1998), pp. 275–6.

  65. See J. C. G. Röhl, ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes: a Character Sketch of Kaiser Wilhelm II’, in J. C. G. Röhl and N. Sombart (eds.), Wilhelm II. New Interpretations (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 23–61; N. Sombart, ‘The Kaiser in His Epoch’, in ibid., pp. 287–311;Röhl, Jugend; idem, Cäsarenwahnsinn; I. V. Hull, The Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II 1888–1918 (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 18–22, 63–5, 109–11; Kohut, Wilhelm II. For the speculation that Wilhelm’s ‘notorious speeches and irrational actions’ can be ‘attributed to the gene of George III’, see J. C. G. Röhl, M. Warren and D. Hunt, Purple Secret. Genes, ‘Madness’ and the Royal Houses of Europe (London, 1998).

  66. Röhl, Cäsarenwahnsinn, pp. 14–15.

  2. TAKING POWER

  1. Wilhelm II, Oath to the Imperial Constitution, 25 June 1888, doc. 224 in E. R. Huber (ed.), Dokumente zur deutschen Verfassungsgeschichte, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, 1964), vol. 2, Deutsche Verfassungsdokumente 1851–1918, p. 310.

  2. For the text of the Reich Constitution of 1871 and useful commentary, see E. M. Hucko (ed.), The Democratic Tradition. Four German Constitutions (Leamington Spa, Hamburg and New York, 1987), p. 121. All quotations are from this translation.

  3. Reich Constitution of 1871, Article 6, ibid., p. 123.

  4. D. C. Umbach, Parlamentsauflösung in Deutschland. Verfassungsgeschichte und Verfassungsprozess (Berlin and New York, 1989), p. 226.

  5. J. C. G. Röhl, Germany Without Bismarck. The Crisis of Government in the Second Reich 1890–1900 (London, 1967), pp. 23–4; K. Lerman, The Chancellor as Courtier. Bernhard von Bülow and the Governance of Germany (1900–1909) (Cambridge, 1990), p. 43.

  6. Cited in P. J. Pulzer, ‘From Bismarck to the Present’, in M. Pasley (ed.), Germany. A Companion to German Studies, 2nd edn, (London and New York, 1982), pp. 259–401, here p. 262.

  7. On ‘unfinished federalism’, see K. Möckl, ‘Der “unvollendete” Föderalismus des zweiten deutschen Kaiserreiches’, in J. C. G. Röhl (ed.), Der Ort Kaiser Wilhelms II. in der deutschen Geschichte (Munich, 1991), pp. 71–6.

  8. Bamberger cited in H.-U. Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, 5 vols. (Munich, 1995), vol. 3, Von der ‘deutschen Doppel-revolution’ bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges 1849–1914: quotations, pp. 373–4; discussion of ‘charismatic rule’, pp. 368–76.

  9. For a lucid and concise analysis of Bismarck’s political role, see K. Lerman, ‘Bismarckian Germany and the Structure of the German Empire’, in M. Fulbrook and J. Breuilly (eds.), German History Since 1800 (London, 1997), pp. 147–67; or at greater length in K. Lerman’s forthcoming contribution to this series.

  10. D. C. B. Lieven, Nicholas II Emperor of All the Russias (London, 1993), p. 117.

  11. K.-H. Börner, Wilhelm I. Deutscher Kaiser und König von Preussen. Eine Biographie (Berlin, 1984), p. 221.

  12. Ibid., p. 223.

  13. Quotations from M. Stürmer, Das ruhelose Reich (Berlin, 1983), p. 238.

  14. D. Blackbourn and G. Eley, The Peculiarities of German History (Oxford and New York, 1984), pp. 275–6.

  15. The classic exposition of ‘parliamentarization’ is M. Rauh, Die Parlamentarisierung des deutschen Reiches (Düsseldorf, 1977). For general discussion of these questions, see especially V. R. Berghahn, Imperial Germany 1871–1914. Economy, Society, Culture and Politics (Providence, RI, and Oxford, 1994), pp. 190–96, 201–10; W. J. Mommsen, ‘The German Empire as a System of Skirted Decisions’, in idem, Imperial Germany, 1867–1918. Politics, Culture and Society in an Authoritarian State, trans. R. Deveson (London, 1995), pp. 1–19 and idem, ‘A Delaying Compromise: the Division of Authority in the German Imperial Co
nstititution’, ibid., pp. 20–40; T. Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte 1866–1918, 3 vols. (Munich, 1992), vol. 2, Machtstaat vor der Demokratie, pp. 491–4; Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, vol. 3, pp. 864–6.

  16. Reported by Holstein in a diary entry of 9 November 1887, in N. Rich and M. H. Fisher (eds.), The Holstein Papers, vol. 2, Diaries (Cambridge, 1957), p. 356.

  17. J. C. G. Röhl, Die Jugend des Kaisers 1859–1888 (Munich, 1993), pp. 734–8.

  18. Reichsanzeiger, 2 October 1889, cited in J. C. G. Röhl (ed.), Philipp Eulenburgs Politische Korrespondenz, 3 vols. (Boppard, 1976–83), vol. 1, p. 352, n. 2.

  19. L. Gall, Bismarck. The White Revolutionary, trans. J. A. Underwood, 2 vols. (London, 1986), vol. 2, pp. 199–200; O. Pflanze, Bismarck and the Development of Germany, 3 vols. (Princeton, NJ, 1990), vol. 3, The Period of Fortification 1880–1898, pp. 317–19.