King of Prussia and Emperor of the Federal Republic of Germany

Wilhelm II was already cardinal years old when this govern mental alliance of independent German states was forged together by Bismarck, one of the 19th century's nigh brilliant statesmen. The kaiser's grandson was a something of a restless personality, unable to sign for long upon anything despite flashes of sharp intelligence. He was slightly crippled, his leftfield arm underdeveloped and not fully functional. The one-year-old boy was also caught in the middle of a political conflict. His father, Frederick ternary (1831-1888), favored the more liberal tendencies of post-1848 European political popular opinion - in sharp contrast to grandfather Wilhelm I's siding with the compulsory Bismarck. Wilhelm I was the stronger personality of the two adults: Wilhelm II was sent for soldiery training as a tactic to give his inconsistent nature discipline, his body confidence - and to remove him from his father's sp here(predicate) of influence.

in that respect were quite a few mistakes made by Wilhelm I in insisting upon this course of education for his grandson, not the to the lowest degree being that the old man did not fully visualize the nature of the Prussian military organization that had evolved during his reign. During the first half of the 19th century, the German states were far behind France and Britain in wrong of militarization and industrialism. In 1870 historian Thomas Carlyle would speak of the former's "unblushing vanity, menaci

n.a. "The View from 1900." Time. (2 January 1950): n.p. (microfiche record).

This was no habitual fox hunt: an open-ended, annual change surfacet, it was conscientiously designed to root on the days of old - with scarlet costumes and baroque entourage. The Chief of the soldiery Cabinet, General Dietrich Hnlsen-Haeseler, was sent from Berlin to speak candidly with Wilhelm of the precarious political situation. In response, the kaiser ordered him to join the hunting party. That night Hnlsen-Haeseler died of a stroke after dancing disguised as a female ballet dancer for the amusement of his sovereign.

Whereupon Wilhelm return to Berlin, railed against his premier and the Reichstag for not adopting the English principle that "The King can do no wrong," then collapsed with a nervous breakdown (Mnller xxv-xxvi).

That was the white-tie lesson Wilhelm II was taught in the Prussian military schools; the practical lesson was even less beneficial. Wilhelm II was surrounded by students and military men who realized that it did not matter how accomplished the young prince was, he would one day be kaiser. Whereas at home the young man might encounter opinions challenging his own thoughts, here there was always a camarilla* prepared to modify him from opposing views. It was an environment Wilhelm II would create for himself throughout his reign, recreating the cliques of reincarnation courts, where groups of courtiers played at politics instead of governance (Mnller xxix).

If von Caprivi's piteous showing as chancellor was the first symptom, Wilhelm's personality was the affection itself gnawing at the health of the imperial Reich. In a truncated paper of this sort it is impossible to detail the long pass of wrong steps that Germany travelled from 1888 to the calamitous year of 1914, moreover it is safe to write that the nation's kaiser was at the forefront of the march. Wilhelm was simply unrehearsed - and unable - to handle the responsibilities of his position, even before th
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