4. September 1987 - FROM TIME NO. 37 / 1987
I feel as if a herd of lunatics are ruling us.
Max Weber
Shortly after the outbreak of the great war in the summer of 1914, a Prussian officer in Brazil wrote to a friend in Heidelberg that it was finally decided that Kaiser William II was called to be a “world designer”. He had greater greatness than Bismarck and Moltke, a greater fate than Napoleon. He exclaimed enthusiastically: “Who is this emperor, whose rule of peace was so full of offense and laborious work? ... Who is this emperor who suddenly throws away these doubts, pulls up his visor, exposing a titan's head and facing the world? ... I misunderstood this emperor, I took him for a procrastinator. He is a Jupiter, lightning in his hand on Mount Olympus of his iron-staring power. At this moment he is God and the Lord of the world ... The figure of Wilhelm II will rise up out of history in a monster. ”The officer was wrong. To date, there is not a single full biography of Kaiser Wilhelm II from the pen of a German historian. Worse still: The current research direction in the Federal Republic of Germany rejects any preoccupation with it - even with personalities in history in general - as a personalistic relapse into long outdated methods of writing history. The “new orthodoxy” writes the history of the Empire without the Kaiser, that of Wilhelminism without Wilhelm.
And yet: There are good reasons to become familiar with this "mythical creature of our time" (J. Daniel Chamier) deal. First, his peculiar personality is a fascinating mystery to himself. Then Wilhelm II ruled over the most powerful and dynamic state in Europe, for thirty years - that is longer than Bismarck and two and a half times as long as Hitler. And even if no one would claim that his abundance of power is to be equated with that of the Iron Chancellor or the "Führer", it is absurd to see the complex decision-making process in this "heroic-aristocratic warrior state" (Karl Alexander von Müller) to understand without taking into account the role of the monarch, who represented his political and social center both in theory and in practice, who had absolute command in the military field and had the right to make all personnel decisions himself. At any rate, contemporaries saw it differently than historians. “There is no stronger power in present-day Germany than the empire,” wrote Friedrich Naumann in 1900. Two years later Maximilian Harden stated: “The emperor is his own imperial chancellor. All of the important political decisions of the past twelve years were made by him. ”Kaiser Wilhelm II was easy for foreign observers, too "The most important man in Europe"
A third reason to concern oneself with the emperor lies in the fact that Wilhelm II embodied the political culture of his epoch to a very unusual degree. He was king by the grace of God and at the same time always parvenu; a knight of the Middle Ages in shimmering defense and creator of that miracle of modern technology, the great battle fleet; a junker reactionary and also - at least temporarily - "the socialist emperor". Like the society he ruled over, Wilhelm was both brilliant and bizarre, aggressive and insecure. He was like most Germans of his time wanted him to be. During the 25th anniversary of the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm in June 1913 Friedrich Meinecke in front of the assembled Freiburg University: "We demand a guide ... for whom we can go through fire."
Yes, even after his reign, Wilhelm can actually serve as a “key figure” for understanding the hubris and nemesis of the German nation-state in general. His life spanned the history of the German Empire from the founding of the Reich by Bismarck to the self-destruction under Hitler for almost every year. His love-hate relationship with his mother, Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, reflects exactly the German-English antagonism which found its clearest expression in the armaments competition between the battle fleets and which culminated in the terrible European civil war of 1914-1918. Defeat, revolution and abdication brought about a fanatical radicalization of Wilhelm's hatred of his - real and imagined - enemies, which can hardly be distinguished from the revolutionary anti-Semitism and the nationalism of Adolf Hitler. Had he lived a few weeks longer, he would certainly have sent the "Führer" an enthusiastic telegram of congratulations on the attack on Russia, similar to those on the occasion of the victories over Poland in 1939 and France in 1940.
But the best reason to deal with the emperor is simply that the archives Europe are full of letters from him, to him and about him - letters that have not been seen in many cases by anyone. The historian has more than a right to uncover and exploit these rich sources: he has the duty. If he does not do so, the myths that have been circulating for generations through a mixture of wishful thinking and deliberate propaganda remain undisputed. In this short sketch, I would like to share a little of my enthusiasm for discovery when I enclose the seal on a package of letters in an archive in the GDR Queen Victoria to her grandson Willie, or even my horror, high in one Castle tower in Württembergwhen I made the terrible anti-Semitic expectorations of the emperor found the exile time.
Who, then, was this emperor who inherited the “most powerful throne in the world” in 1888 at the age of 29? Ten years after his accession to the throne, Bernhard von Bülow, who was then at least State Secretary of the Foreign Office: “I attach my heart more and more to the Kaiser. He is so important !! Along with the great king and the great elector, he is by far the most important Hohenzoller who ever lived. In a way that I have never seen, it combines the most genuine and original genius with the clearest bon sens. He has a fantasy that lifts me up above all the little things with eagle wings, and at the same time the most sober view of what is possible and attainable. And what energy! What memory! What speed and security of the view! This morning in the Privy Council I was downright overwhelmed! ”Now, the existence of these impressive characteristics of the emperor highlighted by Bülow cannot be denied. The problem was, however, that these good qualities went hand in hand with others, which, with a few exceptions, could be kept secret from the public, but aroused the greatest concern among the few initiated. Even Bülow's optimism could not survive long contact with reality.
What was this reality? Let's start with a list of characteristics that made the biggest impression on Wilhelm's closest circle of friends.
1. Any sketch of his character must begin with the statement that he never matured. At the end of his 30-year reign he was still considered "young", as "childlike-genius" Emperor (Bülow). He seemed unable to learn from the experience. Philipp Eulenburg, who knew him better than anyone else, wrote at the turn of the century that during the eleven years of his reign the Kaiser had "calmed down very much in his outward being." “Spiritually, however, not the slightest change has taken place. It is unchanged in its explosive nature. Even harder and more sudden experience matured in a sense of self that is not experience. His individuality is stronger than the effect of experience. "
More than thirty years later, when Eulenburg and Bülow were both dead and the Kaiser 72 years old, his adjutant von Ilsemann wrote in his diary in Doorn: “I have now read through almost all of the second volume of the Bülow memoir, and have to keep reading I note how little the emperor has changed since that time. Almost everything that happened then is repeated today, with the only difference that his actions then were of grave importance and had consequences, whereas today they do not cause harm. Bülow also repeatedly emphasizes the many good qualities of this strange, peculiar person, this so complex nature of the emperor. "
Why? The American historian Isabel Hull in her brilliant study of the imperial environment put forward the thesis that the emperor's restlessness, his constant travel, the compulsion to always speak for himself, which turned every "dialogue" into a hectic monologue, his need to always have people around him have, even while he was reading - that this restlessness was a “conspiracy against selfunderstanding ", a defense tactic against a confrontation with his own personality represented. This is very important. What is certain is that such a restless way of life has made the process of maturing into personal autonomy and ego-integrity very difficult.
2. Wilhelm's notorious high-handedness, the gross overestimation of his own abilities, which his contemporaries call "Caesar madness" (Ludwig Quidde) or foil d'empereur criticized, also prevented the inclusion of constructive criticism. How should the emperor learn if he despised his ministers, seldom received them, and seldom listened to them; if he was convinced that his diplomats were so “fed up” that the whole Wilhelmstrasse stinked to heaven; when he himself addressed the war minister and the head of the military cabinet from “You old asses” and said to a meeting of admirals: “You all know nothing. Only I know something, only I decide. ”Even before the accession to the throne, he warned:“ Woe to me if I have to give orders! ”Even before Bismarck was dismissed, he threatened to“ crush ”any opponent. It was said in May 1891 that he alone was master of the kingdom, he would not tolerate anyone else. He said to the Prince of Wales: “I. am the sole matter of German policy and my country must follow me wherever I go. " Ten years later, in a private letter to an Englishwoman, he declared: “As for having to sink my ideas and feelings at the bidding of the people, that is a.thing unheard of in Prussian history or traditions of my house! What the German Emperor, King of Prussia thinks right and best for bis people he does. "
In September 1912 he sent Prince Lichnowsky to London against the advice of the Reich Chancellor with the words: “I am only sending one ambassador to London, the My Has confidence My Willed, My Carries out orders. ”And still in the World War he maintained:“ I don't care what the public says about it. I decide based on my conviction, but then I expect my officials to do their part to counter erroneous views of the people in an appropriate form. ”No wonder, after such a catalog of self-glorification, that people in Vienna told the joke that Kaiser Wilhelm wanted be the stag on every hunt, the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral!
3. The emperor had a very unusual ability to see the world, not as it was, but as he wanted to see it. In the summer of 1903 Eulenburg wrote about his trip to the Nordland to Chancellor von Bülow: “For weeks ... to be in contact with the dear gentleman opens the eyes of the less initiated - and even he is shocked by the fact that SM Things and People only viewed and judged from their personal point of view. Objectivity is completely lost, subjectivity rides on a biting and stamping horse. ”In 1927 the Crown Princess had to ask herself how it was possible that such a clever person“ loses every dimension and tells the most fantastic things and believes herself ? At a certain moment the Kaiser is completely over, his gaze ceases to see any reality and then he believes in the most impossible connections. He is and will remain a mystery. "
The most drastic example of the emperor's ability to adjust the world according to his needs is probably his finding from 1923 that he had made a mistake in his warnings against the “yellow danger”. “I finally know (said he), what future we Germans have, what we are still called to! ... We will be the leaders of the Orient against the Occident. I now have to change my image of the 'peoples of Europe'. We belong on the other side! Once we have taught the Germans that the French and English are not whites at all, but blacks. … Are, then they will take action against the gang! ”Anyone who could consider the English and French to be negroes, of course, had little difficulty calling Jesus of Nazareth a“ non-Semite ”and from“ never… a Jew ”.
4. The emperor raged against anyone who did not do his will and was full of vengeance against those who "betrayed" him. In 1900 Eulenburg noted that Wilhelm saw the murder of the German ambassador in China “as one personal Insult ”, for which he“ by the troops Revenge" wanted to take. Accordingly, he telegraphed to Bülow: “The German envoy will be avenged by my troops. Beijing has to be shaved. ”A few weeks later he gave the order in his most dreadful speech The troops who were embarked to China to behave like the Huns:“Prove the old Prussian proficiency, show yourselves as Christians in the joyful endurance of suffering, may honor and glory follow your flags and arms, set an example of discipline and discipline all over the world. You know it well that you are to fight against a crafty, brave, well-armed, cruel enemy. When you come to him, you will know that pardon will not be given, prisoners will not be taken. Use your weapons so that [211] for a thousand years, no Chinese will dare to look at a German. "
(quoted from wikisource, see here: https://de.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Hunnenrede)
That was not a one time derailment. During the First World War, he ordered the officers of a division not to take prisoners. And in September 1914, after the Battle of Tannenberg, he suggested that the 90 000 Russian prisoners of war should be driven to the Curonian Spit until they were starving and thirsty.
It was no different in domestic politics. In 1899 the Kaiser said: “Before the soldiers of the Social Democratic Party have been brought out of the Reichstag and fusilized, no improvement can be hoped for.” During a strike by Berlin tram workers in 1900, Wilhelm wired the commander of Berlin: “I expect that when the Troop at least 500 people are brought down. ”In 1903 the emperor described how he intended to cope with the coming revolution. He would shoot all the Social Democrats together, he said, but only after they had “properly plundered Jews and the rich” because he had “to take revenge for '48 - Revenge!!!"
His vengeance, of course, became even more dominant after the 1918 revolution drove him from the throne. In the early 1920s, Wilhelm II developed a complete world conspiracy theory according to which the Freemasons, Jesuits and Jews wanted to conquer the world in order to destroy all "German" (ie monarchical) values. His friends in Germany and America regularly received letters from 20 to 30 pages spreading this world conspiracy idea in such a drastic way that while I was reading it I had to fear more and more that one day I would discover the unspeakable. And some time ago I actually found the following passage in a letter from Kaiser Wilhelm: “The deepest, meanest disgrace that has ever brought a people in history, the Germans have perpetrated on themselves. Hounded and seduced by the tribe of Judah they hated, who enjoyed hospitality with them! That was his thanks! No German ever forgets that, and don't rest until these parasites have been eradicated and exterminated from German soil! This toadstool on the German oak tree! ”These words are handwritten and date from December 2, 1919.
Kaiser Wilhelm raged not only against the former "enemies of the empire", but against anyone who opposed his will. After Hindenburg's death in the summer of 1934, in anticipation of an imminent restoration, he exclaimed: "Blood must flow, a lot of blood, from the officers and civil servants, especially from the nobility, from everyone who has left me." It was like Eulenburg once wrote, "as if certain sensations that we assume in others have suddenly disappeared".
Yes, even Wilhelm's family and relatives were not spared. He wanted to "shoot a bullet in the head" of the "damned Pollack" Prince Alexander von Battenberg. “If everything tears apart,” he said in 1887, “I'll kill the Battenberger!” During Queen Victoria's visit that year, Wilhelm declared that it was high time the old woman - his grandmother - died. He now referred to her as “Empress of Hindostan”, his mother and sisters from “English Colony”, the doctors who treated his father's throat cancer from “Jewish louts”, “scoundrels” and “Satan's bones”. All, he claimed, were riddled with “racial hatred” and “anti-Germanism to the brink of the grave”. During the tragic 99-day reign of his father, Wilhelm wrote to Eulenburg: “What I have lived through here in the last 8 days can simply not be described and even mocks the thought! The feeling of deep shame for the diminished reputation of my house, which once stood so high and inviolable, is the strongest! I see this as a test for myself and all of us, and try to bear it with patience! That our family shield is tainted and the empire brought to the brink of ruin by an English princess, who is my mother, that is the most terrible thing! ”A year before the accession to the throne, Wilhelm said one could not have enough hatred of England and warned: "England can watch out when I have something to say."
5. Wilhelm's “humor” often had a hurtful, even sadistic character. Although his right arm was as strong as the left one hung uselessly from his shoulder, he was amused by turning his rings inward - and then squeezing the hand of visitors so tightly until they came to tears. King Ferdinand of Bulgaria left Berlin "white-hot with hatred" after the emperor had publicly given him a heavy blow on the backside. He struck Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia on the back with his marshal's baton. The Emperor pinched and puffed the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, also a grandson of the Queen, in the library "that the poor little Duke actually", as a court marshal confided in his diary, "is really beaten up". Even after the duke's accession to the throne, the emperor ordered him to lie on his back while his majesty sat on the duke's stomach.
The emperor's immediate surroundings were not spared from such "jokes". A diplomat wrote in his diary during a voyage by ship: “In the morning we do 'calisthenics' with the emperor for health reasons ... A funny sight: When all the old crackers of the military have to squat together with contorted faces! Sometimes the emperor laughs out loud and helps with poking his ribs. The old boys then pretend that this award would give them particular pleasure, but clench their fists in their pockets and then rant about the emperor like old women. "
Philipp Eulenburg also repeatedly complains about this “downright disgusting” spectacle: “All old Excellencies and dignitaries (have to) go to gymnastics amid screams and jokes.” From Eulenburg after a particularly annoying day at the Hohenzollern went to sleep at night, at midnight he suddenly heard “the loud laughing, screaming voice of the emperor in front of my door: He chased the old Excellencies Heintze, Kessel, Scholl, etc. through the aisles of the ship Bed". Nothing about that has changed over the years. During the second Moroccan crisis, the head of the naval cabinet noted in his diary: “Great silliness when doing gymnastics in the morning. SM cuts Scholl's suspenders with a pocket knife. "
6. After all, the emperor had a preference for uniforms, historical costumes, jewelry and jewelery, but above all for children's games in male company. One of his closest friends, Count Görtz, made “howling and dancing dervishes and all sorts of bells and whistles” for the emperor. He could also imitate animal noises excellently. For the Liebenberg hunt in the autumn of 1892, Georg von Hülsen Görtz suggested: “I have to show them to trained poodles! - This is a 'hit' like no other. Remember: in the back geschoren (Tricot), long drapery of black or white wool, behind the real Pudelschwanz a marked intestinal opening and, as soon as they 'make beautiful' front a fig leaf. Think how wonderful when you bark, howl to music, shoot a pistol, or make other antics. That's easy Great!!… I can already see SM laughing like us ... I feel like the clown from Knaus' picture “Behind the Scenes”. The same amount! - SM should be satisfied !! ”The brother of Georg Hülsen, Dietrich, general and head of the military cabinet, died in 1908 of a heart attack while in Donaueschingen - dressed in a large feather hat and a tutu - he danced to the emperor.
Our list of the characteristics of Kaiser Wilhelm II has so far yielded a most unpleasant portrait - one that is far removed from the picture that most biographies depict. But was that just a facade? Was there, behind this hard, cruel appearance, a softer, more amiable Wilhelm, as Rathenau, for example, supposed? To answer these questions, we need to shed some light on his private life.
The entire article of John GG Röhl in the TIME of the 4. September 1987 can be found here: https://www.zeit.de/1987/37/aus-dem-leben-eines-fabeltiers/komplettansicht