The Kaiser's memoirs, Wilhelm II, emperor of Germany, 1888-1918 by Wilhelm II

In 1863, Wilhelm was taken to England to be present at the wedding of his Uncle Bertie, (later King Edward VII), and Princess Alexandra of Denmark. Historians have suggested that this disability affected his emotional development. His left arm was about 6 inches (15 centimetres) shorter than his right arm. In many photos he carries a pair of white gloves in his left hand to make the arm seem longer, holds his left hand with his right, or has his crippled arm on the hilt of a sword or holding a cane to give the effect of a useful limb posed at a dignified angle. Wilhelm with his father, in Highland dress, in 1862Ī traumatic breech birth left him with a withered left arm due to Erb's palsy, which he tried with some success to conceal. He was the first grandchild of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, but more importantly, as the first son of the Crown Prince of Prussia, Wilhelm was from 1861 second in the line of succession to Prussia, and also, after 1871, to the newly created German Empire, which, according to the constitution of the German Empire, was ruled by the Prussian King. At the time of his birth, his great-uncle Frederick William IV was king of Prussia, and his grandfather and namesake Wilhelm was acting as Regent. Wilhelm was born on 27 January 1859 at the Crown Prince's Palace, Berlin to Prince Frederick William of Prussia (the future Frederick III) and his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of Britain's Queen Victoria.

An ineffective war-time leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the Netherlands. His leading generals, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. Bombastic and impetuous, he sometimes made tactless pronouncements on sensitive topics without consulting his ministers, culminating in a disastrous Daily Telegraph interview in 1908 that cost him most of his influence. He was the eldest grandchild of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe.Ĭrowned in 1888, he dismissed the Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, in 1890 and launched Germany on a bellicose 'New Course' in foreign affairs that culminated in his support for Austria-Hungary in the crisis of July 1914 that led in a matter of days to the First World War. Wilhelm II or William II ( German : Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert von Preußen English : Frederick William Victor Albert of Prussia 27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941) was the last German Emperor ( Kaiser) and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918.

Princess Viktoria Luise, Duchess of Brunswick.

The Kaiser's memoirs, Wilhelm II, emperor of Germany, 1888-1918 by Wilhelm II