WILLIAM 



6292 



WILLIAM 



every means to promote the prosperity of the 

 Fatherland, yet he fastened upon the German 

 states the severest military system that has 

 ever been known, and it destroyed him. In 

 1914 the belief prevailed that he might have 



FOR THIRTY YEARS WILLIAM II 



With his Kultur and his "Gott" he could not 

 dominate the world. Once the most powerful man 

 in Europe; now an exile. 



prevented the War of the Nations, because 

 Germany's ally, Austria-Hungary, could not 

 have ventured upon it alone. William insisted 

 that the struggle was forced upon him. From 

 the testimony of eminent Germans after 1914 

 the world has learned that Germany forced the 

 war upon the world. The emperor, in the light 

 of events, could not escape the harsh judgment 

 of mankind ; he was branded as the leader in a 

 murderous, imperialistic design. 



William II was born January 27, 1859, the 

 son of Frederick III and the grandson of Wil- 

 liam I, who with the genius of Bismarck erected 

 the German Empire upon the foundations 

 which existed in the North German Confedera- 

 tion. His father ruled only three months, but 

 throughout his public career, both before and 

 after he became emperor, he made known his 

 desire for a truly parliamentary government. 

 He was saddened by the autocratic tendencies 

 of his eldest son William, who as crown prince 

 had shown himself domineering and headstrong. 



Dismisses Bismarck. William II reached the 

 throne while Bismarck was yet Chancellor. 

 The great German had been placed in that post 

 by William's grandfather and had been re- 



tained by his father; he was the idol of the 

 people. The emperor lost no time in letting it 

 be understood that he ruled by divine right. 

 An early statement made his mission clear: 

 "It is a tradition of our House [Hohenzollern] 

 to consider ourselves as designed by God to 

 govern the peoples over which it is given us 

 to reign." His grandfather, William I, on 

 ascending the throne in 1861, had declared that 

 he ruled "by the favor of God and of no one 

 else." William II venerated his grandfather, 

 and it is on record that he despised the oppo- 

 site attitude of his liberal, cultivated father. 



Friction at once developed between the "Iron 

 Chancellor" and the young monarch. The 

 former had been the virtual ruler of the Em- 

 pire which he had done so much to create, and 

 the new emperor grew more and more restive 

 under the dominating will of the older man. 

 In March, 1890, a crisis in their relations was 

 reached when the Chancellor declared that the 

 emperor should not act directly through any 

 of his Ministers, but only through the Chan- 

 cellor. Bismarck's resignation was demanded 

 because of this attitude, and he retired from 

 public life. The emperor wrote a letter to Bis- 

 marck regretting the necessity of the act, but 

 declaring it "ordained of God." 



Between that date and November, 1918, seven 

 men held the post of Chancellor; they were 

 Caprivi, from 1890 to 1894; Hohenlohe, 1894 to 

 1900; Von Billow, 1900 to 1909; Bethmann- 

 Hollweg, 1909 to July, 1917;- Michaelis, from 

 July to November, 1917, Von Hertling and 

 Prince Maximilian succeeding. Each in turn 

 proclaimed his responsibility to the emperor 

 alone. 



Development within the Empire. Upon his 

 accession Emperor William found Germany 

 largely agricultural; he turned it to a remark- 

 able degree into an industrial country, and it 

 naturally followed that political considerations 

 began to occupy the minds of the people. 

 Capital and labor problems disturbed the na- 

 tion, and because they were not handled wisely 

 Germany within the space of a few years be- 

 came the leading Socialist community of Eu- 

 rope. The emperor had no patience with the 

 increasing power of the Socialists, and as he 

 saw them grow strong enough to elect over a 

 hundred members of the Reichstag and conse- 

 quently able to embarrass his program he 

 referred to them as "a horde of men unworthy 

 to bear the name of Germans." 



He fostered the means of elementary educa- 

 tion, but was sorely disappointed in the schools. 



