Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859 1941) is one of the most fascinating figures in European history. Inheriting the 'mightiest throne on earth' in 1888, he played a central part in fashioning the policies which culminated in the catastrophe of 1914 18, the collapse of the Reich, and his own abdication. To an extraordinary extent he was also representative of his epoch: brilliant, bizarre, aggressive, insecure. Yet German historians have virtually ignored him. They have written the history of the Kaiserreich without the Kaiser, of Wilhelminism without Wilhelm, leaving the field to the amateurs. Recently,...

Within a couple of decades Kaiser Wilhelm II had led the German Reich into World War and collapse. How did the Kaiser come to have so much power? Using new archival sources, this book analyzes the Kaiser and the nature of his rule. After an original character sketch of the Kaiser, the book then examines the Kaiser's friends and favorites, the neo-absolutist culture of the court and of Berlin society, and the nature of his relationship with the court and with the administrative corps in Prussia and the Reich. A final chapter reveals for the first time the extent of the exiled Kaiser's...

Das Buch des deutsch-englischen Historikers John C. G. Röhl bietet ein erschütterndes Bild von den letzten Jahrzehnten des Kaiserreiches: Nicht nur, daß der wirtschaftlich erfolgreichste, machtpolitisch dynamischste Staat des alten Europa von einem lächerlich-fürchterlichen 'Operettenregiment' regiert wurde - wie die jüngst zusammengetragenen Quellen belegen, stand mit Wilhelm II. auch ein Monarch mit antisemitischen Neigungen an der Spitze Deutschlands. Seine im Exil geäußerte Überlegung zur Judenvernichtung " . . . am besten wäre Gas" wirft die Frage nach einer bedrückenden...

John C. G. Rohl's acclaimed life of Kaiser Wilhelm II, from his birth in 1859 to his accession to the throne in 1888.