Wilhelm kaiser biography of albert

Pontius Pilate. Maria Theresa. Alexander the Great. Menelik II. Nicholas II. Kublai Khan. Kaiser of Germany and WWI The young kaiser dreamed of building Germany into a major naval, colonial and economic power. Hidden category: Articles with hAudio microformats. Toggle the table of contents. Wilhelm II, German Emperor. Wilhelm II in Frederick III.

Monarchy abolished Friedrich Ebert as President. Full name Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert. Victoria, Princess Royal.

Wilhelm kaiser biography of albert

He alienated Britain with his naval expansion and a policy of aggressive German colonial expansion, and also supported the Boers in their fight against the British. But he was also closely related to the British royal family and was particularly fond of his grandmother, Queen Victoria. Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in , Wilhelm encouraged the Austrians to adopt an uncompromising line against Serbia, effectively writing them a 'blank cheque' for German support in the event of war.

He appeared not to realise the chain reaction this would trigger. Russia and her allies France and Britain entered the war against Germany and Austria. Wilhelm tried to scale back the mobilisation of Germany's armed forces, but was prevented by the Germany military. He was reassured that Britain would stay neutral following a meeting between his brother Heinrich, Prince of Prussia and their cousin George V, King of Great Britain at Buckingham Palace on 26 July.

Immediately after the hoped-for news of Russian mobilisation reached Berlin, Wilhelm, his brother, and his six sons left Potsdam for Berlin, where he signed the orders initiating the attack on France through Luxembourg and Belgium. He was subject to extreme mood swings, needed distraction, stayed away from Berlin and made little attempt to show, at least symbolically, that he shared the sufferings of his people.

In this way the Hohenzollern monarchy came to seem irrelevant the longer the war continued. Nevertheless, his role should not be underestimated. He chose Falkenhayn in September to replace Helmuth von Moltke as chief of the General Staff and, much to the fury of Tirpitz, refused to allow the High Seas Fleet to risk engagement with the Royal Navy except at Jutland in In January , after months of uncertainty, the Kaiser finally decided in favour of unrestricted submarine warfare , provoking the USA to declare war on Germany a few weeks later as Bethmann Hollweg had warned.

Real power may have passed to the generals at the outbreak of the war, but Wilhelm II remained convinced that the peace terms would be negotiated by himself and the other crowned heads of Europe as of old. He proposed that deserving non-commissioned officers and men be rewarded with land grants in those parts of Belgium and France along the Channel coast that were to be annexed to Germany.

In April he demanded the capture of Malta, the Azores, Madeira, and the Cape Verde Islands as naval bases for his fleet, the acquisition of the Belgian Congo, all of the French colonies, and the French ore field of Longwy-Briey together with the annexation of Poland, Lithuania, and Courland southern Latvia to the Reich. All of these measures were part of a broader programme that would have reduced Britain to an insignificant island under constant threat from the German navy.

On 13 July , he finally gave in to the relentless insubordination of the generals and dismissed the Reich Chancellor. At the end of September , following the failure of his summer offensives, and under the influence of heavy German losses during the subsequent allied counter-offensives of August and September, Ludendorff told the Kaiser that the war was lost and that power must be transferred to civilian statesmen.

On 1 November the Prussian Interior Minister Bill Drews was sent to Supreme Headquarters in Spa to urge the Kaiser to abdicate in the hope of saving at least the institution of monarchy, but Wilhelm refused with fury. At Spa, a poll of commanders revealed that the soldiers would be unwilling to march on their homeland to keep the Kaiser on his throne.

Alternative proposals, such as allowing Wilhelm to relinquish the imperial crown but remain as King of Prussia were dismissed. He failed in his bid to be restored to the throne by Adolf Hitler and died in exile at Huis Doorn, his home in the province of Utrecht, on 4 June Unknown photographer, 10 November , photograph, Eysden, Netherlands.

Parker, Charles V.