20. See O. von Bismarck, Die Gesammelten Werke, ed. G. Ritter and R. Stadelmann, 15 vols. (Berlin, 1932), vol. 2, Erinnerung und Gedanke, p. 489.
21. Gall, Bismarck, vol. 2, pp. 202–9.
22. Bismarck, Erinnerung und Gedanke, vol. 2, p. 495.
23. R. Lucius von Ballhausen, Bismarck-Erinnerungen des Staats-ministers Freiherrn Lucius von Ballhausen (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1921), p. 505.
24. V. Ullrich, Die nervöse Grossmacht. Aufstieg und Untergang des deutschen Kaiserreichs (Frankfurt, 1997), p. 114.
25. Ballhausen, Bismarck-Erinnerungen, p. 505.
26. L. Cecil, Wilhelm II, 2 vols. (Chapel Hill, NC, and London, 1988), vol. 1, Prince and Emperor, 1859–1900, p. 133.
27. Wilhelm II, Oath to the Imperial Constitution, 25 June 1888, doc. 224, in Huber (ed.), Dokumente, vol. 2, p. 311.
28. W. J. Mommsen, Bürgerstolz und Weltmachtstreben. Deutschland unter Wilhelm II. 1890 bis 1918 (Berlin, 1995), p. 105.
29. Pflanze, The Period of Fortification, pp. 335–7.
30. Lieven, Nicholas II, pp. 77–80.
31. P. Eulenburg, memoir of January 1914, cited in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 1, pp. 406–7, n. 3.
32. Pflanze, The Period of Fortification, p. 332.
33. Cabinet Order of 8 September 1852 relating to the position of the minister president, in Huber (ed.), Dokumente, vol. 2, p. 9.
34. Bismarck, Erinnerung und Gedanke, vol. 2, p. 500.
35. In general, see N. Elias, Die höfische Gesellschaft. Untersuchungen zur Soziologie des Königtums und der höfischen Gesellschaft (Neuwied, 1969); on Friedrich Wilhelm III and IV, see C. M. Clark, ‘The Friedrich Wilhelms of Nineteenth-century Prussia’, Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, 15 (1993), pp. 3–13.
36. C. Schmitt, ‘Der Zugang zum Machthaber. Ein zentrales verfassungsrechtliches Problem’, in idem, Verfassungsrechtliche Aufsätze aus den Jahren 1924–1954 (Berlin, 1958). For an excellent discussion of this issue in relation to the early nineteenth-century Prussian monarchy, see B. P. Simms, The Impact of Napoleon: Prussian High Politics, Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Executive, 1797–1806 (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 16–17, 46–55.
37. Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden to the federal princes, Potsdam, 20 June 1888, in W. P. Fuchs (ed.), Grossherzog Friedrich I von Baden und die Reichspolitik 1871–1907, 4 vols. (Stuttgart, 1968–80), vol. 2, doc. 881, p. 559.
38. Ibid. On this aspect of the grand duke’s policy, see also Gall, Bismarck, vol. 2, p. 214.
39. Fuchs, Grossherzog Friedrich I., vol. 2, pp. 694–5, n. 4.
40. Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein to Turban, Berlin, 31 January 1890, ibid., doc. 1009, p. 700.
41. Ibid., doc. 1004, p. 697, n. 3.
42. Friedrich von Holstein to Eulenburg, Berlin, 28 September 1889, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 1, doc. 235, p. 351.
43. See, for example, Eulenburg to Wilhelm II, Oldenburg, 25 October 1859, in ibid., vol. 1, doc. 241, p. 360 and doc. 249, p. 369; Röhl, Germany Without Bismarck, pp. 46–8.
44. Cited in Pflanze, The Period of Fortification, p. 332. For a fuller account of the circumstances surrounding Bismarck’s departure, see J. C. G. Röhl, Wilhelm II. Der Aufbau der persönlichen Monarchie (Munich, 2001), pp. 314ff; E. Engelberg, Bismarck, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1988), vol. 2, Das Reich in der Mitte Europas, pp. 557ff; L. Gall, Bismarck. Der weisse Revolutionär (Frankfurt/Main, 1980), pp. 684ff.
45. G. A. Ritter, Arbeiter im deutschen Kaiserreich 1871 bis 1914 (Bonn, 1992), especially p. 383; J. Frerich and M. Frey, Handbuch der Geschichte der Sozialpolitik in Deutschland, 3 vols. (Munich and Vienna, 1993), vol. 1, Von der vorindustriellen Zeit bis zum Ende des Dritten Reiches, especially pp. 130–32, 141–2.
46. Holstein to Eulenburg, [Berlin], 1 March 1890, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 1, doc. 327, p. 459.
47. Eulenburg to Holstein, Wangeroog, 6 August 1889, ibid., doc. 230, p. 345.
48. Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, vol. 3, p. 998.
49. M. Hank, Kanzler ohne Amt. Fürst Bismarck nach seiner Entlassung 1890–98 (Munich, 1977), p. 86.
50. W. Pöls, ‘Bismarckverehrung und Bismarcklegende als innenpolitisches Problem der wilhelminischen Zeit’, Jahrbuch für die Geschichte Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands, 20 (1971), pp. 183–201.
51. R. Stöber, ‘Bismarcks geheime Presseorganisation von 1882’, Historische Zeitschrift, 262 (1996), pp. 423–51; Hank, Kanzler ohne Amt, pp. 122–62, 284–6; Pflanze, The Period of Fortification, pp. 382–7; W. Stribrny, Bismarck und die deutsche Politik nach seiner Entlassung, 1890–1898 (Paderborn, 1977); a classic discussion from the older literature is H. Rothfels, ‘Bismarcks Sturz als Forschungsproblem’, in Preussische Jahrbücher, 191 (1923), pp. 1–29.
52. Cited in Gall, White Revolutionary, vol. 2, p. 225.
53. Eulenburg to Kuno von Moltke, on the Vienna–Berlin railway, 15 June 1895, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 2, doc. 1112, p. 1508.
54. See e.g. Eulenburg to Holstein, 12 April 1891, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 1, p. 664; Kiderlen-Wächter to Eulenburg, Berlin, 20 November 1893, ibid., vol. 2, p. 1144.
55. Eulenburg to Holstein, Liebenberg, 8 May 1890, ibid., vol. 1, p. 536; Eulenburg to Caprivi, Munich, 13 November 1893, ibid., vol. 2, p. 1131.
56. Pflanze, The Period of Fortification, p. 394.
57. Hank, Kanzler ohne Amt, pp. 287–8.
58. H. Schlitter (ed.), ‘Briefe Franz Josefs I. und Kaiser Wilhelms II. über Bismarcks Rücktritt’, Österreichische Rundschau, 58 (1919), pp. 98–108; Hugo Graf Lerchenfeld, Erinnerungen und Denkwürdigkeiten (Berlin, 1935), p. 371.
59. Eulenburg to Holstein, Rominten, 7 October 1893, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 2, p. 1131.
60. Hank, Kanzler ohne Amt, p. 603.
61. Notes by Eulenburg on a conversation with Wilhelm, Lärdalefjord, 12 July 1896, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 3, p. 1704; for an earlier almost identical statement, see Holstein, diary entry of 4 February 1888, in Rich and Fisher (eds.), Holstein Papers, vol. 2, p. 363.
62. H. Pogge von Strandmann, ‘Der Kaiser und die Industriellen. Vom Primat der Rüstung’, in Röhl (ed.), Der Ort, pp. 111–29, here p. 119.
63. See Holstein to Eulenburg, Berlin, 26 December 1895, in Röhl, Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 2, p. 1624.
64. Ullrich, Nervöse Grossmacht, p. 145.
65. Pflanze, The Period of Fortification, p. 156; E. Zechlin, Staatsstreichpläne Bismarcks und Wilhelms II. 1890–1894 (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1929), p. 112.
66. Zechlin, Staatsstreichpläne, pp. 32–3, 69.
67. M. Weber, ‘Parliament and Government in Germany under a New Political Order. Towards a Political Critique and the Party System’ (April–June 1917), in P. Lassman and R. Speirs (eds.), Weber. Political Writings (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 130–271, here p. 135.
68. Waldersee, diary entry of 19 December 1890, in H. O. Meisner (ed.), Denkwürdigkeiten des General-Feldmarschall Alfred Graf von Waldersee, 3 vols. (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1922), vol. 2, p. 168.
69. Notes by Eulenburg, on board the royal yacht Hohenzollern, 3 July 1892, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 2, p. 906.
70. Remark reported in Eulenburg to Bülow, on board the royal yacht Hohenzollern, 26 July 1899, ibid., vol. 3, p. 1961.
3. GOING IT ALONE
1. J. N. Retallack, Germany in the Age of Kaiser Wilhelm II (Basingstoke, 1996), p. 39; J. Radkau, Das Zeitalter der Nervosität (Munich and Vienna, 1988), passim; W. J. Mommsen, Bürgerstolz und Weltmachtstreben. Deutschland unter Wilhelm II. 1890 bis 1918 (Berlin, 1995), p. 187.
2. Waldersee diary, 20 March 1890, H. O. Meisner (ed.), Denkwürdigkeiten des General-Feldmarschall Alfred Graf von Waldersee, 3 vols. (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1922), vol. 2, p. 119.
3. Speech to the Brandenburg Provincial Assembly, text given in J. C. G. Röhl (ed.), Philipp Eulenburgs Politische Korrespondenz, 3 vols. (Boppard, 1976–83), vol. 2, p. 780, n. 3.
4. H.
-U. Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, 5 vols. (Munich, 1995), vol. 3, Von der ‘deutschen Doppelrevolution’ bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges 1849–1914, p. 905.
5. J. Sperber, The Kaiser’s Voters. Electors and Elections in Imperial Germany (Cambridge, 1997), ch. 1.
6. On changes in Conservative Party organization and policy, see J. N. Retallack, Notables of the Right. The Conservative Party and Political Mobilization in Germany (Winchester, MA, 1988); idem, ‘Conservatives contra Chancellor: Official Responses to the Spectre of Conservative Demagoguery from Bismarck to Bülow’, Canadian Journal of History, 20 (1985), pp. 203–36. On the impact of anti-Semitic agitation in 1890–92, see G. Eley, ‘Anti-Semitism, Agrarian Mobilization, and the Conservative Party. Radicalism and Containment in the Founding of the Agrarian League, 1890–93’, in J. N. Retallack and L. E. Jones, Between Revolution, Reaction and Reform (Providence, RI and Oxford, 1993), pp. 187–227.
7. G. Eley, The Reshaping of the German Right. Radical Nationalism and Political Change after Bismarck (New Haven, CT, 1980).
8. T. Nipperdey, Die Organisation der deutschen Parteien vor 1918 (Düsseldorf, 1961).
9. Quotations are from G. Eley, ‘Notable Politics, the Crisis of German Liberalism and the Electoral Transition of the 1890s’, in K. Jarausch and L. E. Jones (eds.), In Search of a Liberal Germany. Studies in the History of German Liberalism from 1789 to the Present (New York, Oxford and Munich, 1990), pp. 187–216, here pp. 192, 193; see also D. Black-bourn, Class, Religion and Politics in Wilhelmine Germany: the Centre Party in Württemberg before 1914 (New Haven, CT, and London, 1980), p. 18. For outlines of the transformation debate, see R. G. Moeller, ‘The Kaiserreich Recast?’, Journal of Social History, 17 (1984), pp. 655–83; D. G. Schilling, ‘Politics in a New Key: The Late Nineteenth-Century Transformation of Politics in Northern Bavaria’, German Studies Review, 17 (1994), pp. 33–57; G. Eley, ‘Is There a History of the Kaiserreich?’ in idem (ed.), Society, Culture and the State in Germany 1870–1930 (Ann Arbor, 1996), pp. 1–42; Retallack, Germany, pp. 51–2; idem, ‘Demagoghentum, Populismus, Volkstümlichkeit. Überlegungen zur “Popularitätshascherei” auf dem politischen Massenmarkt des Kaiserreichs’, in Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, 48 (2000), pp. 309–25; Mommsen, Bürgerstolz, pp. 116–34.
10. D. Blackbourn, ‘The Politics of Demagogy in Imperial Germany’, in idem, Populists and Patricians. Essays in Modern German History (London, 1987), pp. 217–45, here pp. 222–3.
11. R. Stöber, ‘Bismarcks geheime Presseorganisation von 1882’, Historische Zeitschrift, 262 (1996), passim.
12. Eulenburg to Holstein, Braunschweig, 28 February 1890, and Bülow to Eulenburg, Bucarest, 2 March 1890, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 1, pp. 458, 472.
13. See e.g. Holstein to Eulenburg, Berlin, 14 November 1890, ibid., vol. 1, p. 595.
14. Holstein to Eulenburg, [Berlin, 18 April 1897], ibid., vol. 3, p. 1815.
15. Cited in W. J. Mommsen, War der Kaiser an allem Schuld? Wilhelm II. und die preussisch-deutschen Machteliten (Munich, 2002), p. 44.
16. See T. Benner, Die Strahlen der Krone. Die religiöse Dimension des Kaisertums unter Wilhelm II. vor dem Hintergrund der Orientreise 1898 (Marburg, 2001), p. 357. On the emperor’s efforts to cultivate a better relationship with the papacy, see S. Samerski, ‘Papst und Kaiser’, in idem (ed.), Wilhelm II. und die Religion. Facetten einer Persönlichkeit und ihres Umfeldes (Forschungen zur brandenburgischen und preussischen Geschichte, Beiheft 5), (Berlin, 2001), pp. 199–233. On Wilhelm’s understanding of the ‘Gottesgnadentum’ as an injunction to humility, see M. Friedrich, ‘Die Religion im Erziehungsprogramm Hinzpeters’, in Samerski (ed.), Wilhelm II und die Religion, pp. 59–90, especially p. 69.
17. See A. W. Daum, Wissenschaftspopularisierung im 19. Jahrhundert: Bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, 1848–1914 (Munich, 1998).
18. Count Robert Zedlitz-Trützschler, diary entry of 21 February 1904, in idem, Zwölf Jahre am deutschen Kaiserhof (Berlin and Leipzig, 1924), pp. 60–61.
19. W. König, Wilhelm II. und die Moderne. Der Kaiser und die technisch-industrielle Welt (Paderborn, 2007), p. 9.
20. On all these aspects of the reign, see ibid., pp. 56ff, 75ff, 83ff, 87ff, 112, 116, 129, passim.
21. Wilhelm II to Hartwich, 2 April 1885, cited in J. C. Albisetti, Secondary School Reform in Imperial Germany (Princeton, NJ, 1983), p. 175; Wilhelm II, My Early Life (London, 1926), pp. 103, 108–9.
22. L. Elkind (ed. and trans.), The German Emperor’s Speeches. Being a Selection from the Speeches, Edicts, Letters and Telegrams of the Emperor William II (London, 1904), pp. 159–66.
23. Ibid., p. 161.
24. Cited in L. Cecil, Wilhelm II, 2 vols. (Chapel Hill, NC, and London, 1988), vol. 1, Prince and Emperor, 1859–1900, p. 197.
25. Elkind, Emperor’s Speeches, p. 166.
26. H. Günther-Arndt, ‘Monarchische Präventivbelehrung oder curriculare Reform? Zur Wirkung des Kaiser-Erlasses vom 1. Mai auf den Geschichtsunterricht’, in K. E. Jeisman (ed.), Bildung, Staat und Gesellschaft im 19. Jahrhundert. Mobilisierung und Disziplinierung (Stuttgart, 1989), pp. 256–75, here p. 258.
27. Elkind, Emperor’s Speeches, pp. 160–61.
28. Albisetti, Secondary School Reform, p. 237.
29. König, Wilhelm II. und die Moderne, pp. 113–14.
30. Brauer to Turban, Berlin, 7 December 1891, in W. P. Fuchs (ed.), Grossherzog Friedrich I von Baden und die Reichspolitik 1871–1907 (Stuttgart, 1980), vol. 3, p. 36.
31. Wilhelm II, speech of 17 December 1891, in Elkind, Emperor’s Speeches, p. 167.
32. Eulenburg to Wilhelm II, Munich, 2 February 1892, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 2, p. 756.
33. Eulenburg to Holstein, 14 February 1892, ibid., p. 769.
34. Count Robert Zedlitz-Trützschler, diary entry of 14 November 1904, in idem, Zwölf Jahre, p. 92.
35. Caprivi to Eulenburg, 9 February 1892, cited in J. C. G. Röhl, Germany Without Bismarck. The Crisis of Government in the Second Reich, 1890–1900 (London, 1967), p. 80.
36. On the background to Zedlitz’s appointment, see ibid., p. 78, n. 2.
37. Reported in Holstein to Eulenburg, Berlin, 18 February 1892, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 2, p. 775.
38. See Röhl, Germany Without Bismarck, pp. 80–81; also idem (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 2, pp. 747, 748, 756, 767, 772, 775, 777–8, 783, 790.
39. See Mommsen, Bürgerstolz, p. 151.
40. Ibid., pp. 149–50; J. Alden Nichols, Germany After Bismarck (Cambridge, MA, 1958), pp. 180–81.
41. Röhl, Germany Without Bismarck, p. 86.
42. Cited in Cecil, Wilhelm II, vol. 1, p. 199.
43. See Brauer to Turban, Berlin, 1 February 1892, in Fuchs (ed.), Grossherzog Friedrich I, vol. 3, pp. 101–2.
44. Waldersee diary, 16 March 1892, in Meisner (ed.), Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 2, p. 235. Relations between Wilhelm and Waldersee cooled after the latter criticized the former’s handling of troops during annual manoeuvres. Waldersee’s successor as chief of the General Staff was Count Schlieffen.
45. Cited in J. Haller, Philip Eulenburg: The Kaiser’s Friend, trans. E. C. Mayne, 2 vols. (London, 1930), vol. 1, pp. 206–7.
46. Cecil, Wilhelm II, vol. 1, pp. 198–9.
47. Eulenburg, notes on a conversation with Wilhelm II, aboard the royal yacht Hohenzollern, 3 July 1892, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 2, p. 906.
48. Röhl, Germany Without Bismarck, pp. 110–11.
49. Cecil, Wilhelm II, vol. 1, p. 204; Wilhelm II, My Early Life, p. 206.
50. Eulenburg, notes on a conversation with Wilhelm II, aboard the royal yacht Hohenzollern, 3 July 1892, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 2, p. 906.
51. Waldersee diary, 3 January 1893, in Meisner (ed.), Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 2, p. 274.
52. E. M. Hucko (ed.), The Democratic Tradition. Four German Constitutions (Le
amington Spa, Hamburg and New York, 1987), pp. 139, 141.
53. On army expenditure as a ‘structural weakness’ in the constitutional system of the empire, see E. R. Huber, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte, 8 vols. (Stuttgart, 1969), vol. 4, Struktur und Krisen des Kaiserreichs, pp. 545–9.
54. See e.g. Cecil, Wilhelm II, vol. 1, p. 207.
55. Mommsen, Bürgerstolz, pp. 108–9, 172.
56. Cecil, Wilhelm II, vol. 1, pp. 133–4.
57. A sanitized version of the speech is given in H. Schulthess, Europäischer Geschichtskalender (Munich, 1894), p. 139.
58. Nichols, Germany After Bismarck, p. 343.
59. Philipp Eulenburg outlined the debate for Wilhelm in Eulenburg to Wilhelm, Munich, 30 August 1894, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 2, pp. 1334–5.
60. For an outline of the conflict, see Röhl, Germany Without Bismarck, pp. 110–17; R. W. Lougee, ‘The Anti-Revolution Bill of 1894 in Wilhelmine Germany’, Central European History, 15 (1982), pp. 224–40.
61. Conversation reported by Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein in Marschall to Eulenburg, Berlin, 6 October 1894, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 2, p. 1366.
62. Holstein to Eulenburg, Berlin, 15 October 1894, ibid., vol. 2, p. 1382.
63. M. Weber, ‘Parliament and Government in Germany under a New Political Order. Towards a Political Critique and the Party System’ (April–June 1917), in P. Lassman and R. Speirs (eds.), Weber. Political Writings (Cambridge, 1994), p. 242.
64. Conversation with Wilhelm reported in Eulenburg to Bernhard von Bülow, 17 October 1894, in Röhl (ed.), Politische Korrespondenz, vol. 2, p. 1386.
65. Cited in Lougee, ‘Anti-Revolution Bill’, p. 231.
66. See e.g. J. C. G. Röhl, ‘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); K. Lerman, The Chancellor as Courtier. Bernhard von Bülow and the Governance of Germany (1900–1909) (Cambridge, 1990), p. 6.
67. M. Stürmer, Das ruhelose Reich (Berlin, 1983), pp. 256–7.
68. Röhl, Germany Without Bismarck, p. 85.
69. See e.g. N. Elias, Die höfische Gesellschaft. Untersuchungen zur Soziologie des Königtums und der höfischen Gesellschaft (Neuwied, 1969), pp. 181–2.
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