The Kaiser Played with Fire | The Life & Times of Wihlelm II

Right after World War One was a hell of a time for democracy in Europe, y’know the Great War was a tragedy but on the other end of it look at all these new Republics! Germany’s a Republic now, Austria-Hungary’s split up into independent nations, Turkey’s a Republic, the USSR is a bunch of Republics… in theory. And y’know it’s tempting to say “Well of course, right, because with better communication people are going to become better informed and more willing to band together to demand reform, but why 1917-1922? I mean in 1848 there were huge revolutions across the continent, and at the risk of underselling them because they were a big deal, the only place they got rid of the monarchy was in France, and then they elect Napoleon 2 electric boogaloo over here to be president, he serves one term and makes himself an emperor! But after reading about Kaiser Wilhelm II, I have to wonder… how much of the reason all these monarchies died out after the Great War is because the monarchs in question were a bunch of chumps? Today I want to look at Kaiser Wilhelm II, because when he came to power he inherited one of the most pre-eminent powers in Europe with one of the world’s most accomplished statesmen at his beck-and-call, and then managed to do nearly everything in his power to upset his neighbors, jump headfirst into a war on two fronts, and leave office with Germany in a spiral of debt, inflation, and eventually N*zis.

Music (in order of appearance):
Kevin Macleod - Call to Adventure
Kevin Macleod - Conflicted
Kevin Macleod - Hidden Past
Engelbert Humperdinck - Moorish Rhapsody II. Tanger (a Night in a Moorish Coffee House)
Kevin Macleod - Shades of Spring
AShamaluevMusic - News
Kevin Macleod covering Grieg - In the Hall of the Mountain King
Secession Studios - Demise of a Nation
Kevin Macleod - Conflicted
Joshua Finnie covering Grieg - In the Hall of the Mountain King

[state_song_xprt]

Getting Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Italy, and the US on the same side is one of the greatest geopolitical achievements of the 20th century. It takes a truly remarkable gift to fail at diplomacy enough to the the Russian to ally with the Japanese, the British with the French, and the British with the Russians. He even managed to get Italy against him even though they were a German ally. It's astonishing.

[GorbTheGorbening]

a fun bit about Wilhelm's death - he was very disillusioned about Adolf and the Nazi party by the time of his death, and as a final snub to Hitler, wrote in his will that he was to be buried on the spot that he died, and neither his body nor any of his stuff would go back to Germany. This greatly angered the nazi's, who wanted to use his funeral as a huge PR stunt and build up Hitler as the rightful successor to the Kaiser.

[lugydxdone]

When Wilhelm went to a hunt with the then Austrian heir Rudolf he told him "I cant wait for your empire to crumble so that I can take the german part" and meant it as a compliment.

[MrTheBaron]

One last thing, tho everyone probably knows this by now, he is buried in The Netherlands, where he will stay until Germany returns to the monarchy. Some said he's still waiting.

[starwarsnerd]

"In Hitler's eyes, Wilhelm was a loser who dragged Germany down with him" well isn't that the pot calling the kettle black.

[KonigHoff]

If only Kaiser Wilhelm II could have used Skillshare to grow his monarchial skills, or used NordVPN to conceal the Zimmermann Telegram

[michaelsinger]

He had a remarkable talent for pissing people off.

To call his diplomacy a “massive failure” would be a huge understatement.

[JackRackam]

Hi all, you might notice that at 4:29 the French flag is totally wack. Unfortunately as I've been bouncing around history the way France bounced through governments, when I received that batch of chalkboard images and when it came time to make all my last minute corrections, my brain saw the flag of the Bourbon Restoration and went "Yeah that's France". My sincere apologies for this blunder, I done goofed

[PineappleLiar]

Forgot to mention he also pissed off the Russians by goading Nicholas into starting the Russo-Japanese war, which was such a catastrophic blunder for the Russians it left Nicholas with a permanent chip on his shoulder against the Kaiser, which is especially bad because Nicholas was one of the few people the Kaiser *hadn’t* completely pissed off.

[TheManFromWaco]

Sure, Alexander the Great benefitted from his father practically gift-wrapping a stable political system, full treasury, and the world's most modern army, so it's fair to say that his accomplishments should be understood with the caveat that he was given an exceptionally good starting position even for a monarch.

But man, our boy Willy here had those same advantages and look at all he did with them.

[KaiserDeclan]

I’m surprised you never mentioned his crippled arm, or the time he had to go through electroshock therapy, or the scandal involving a lot of his friends being gay.

[brokenbridge]

The former Kaiser in his last will an testament degreed that he wanted to be buried in the place he lived in after he'd been deposed. All so he could deny Hitler a much beloved propaganda piece. He seemed to have gotten wise to Hitler near the end.

[JusticeMildenberg]

Wilhelm to Bismark- "so I hear you're pretty great at your job"
Bismark- "well I am the main reason why this empire exists and am a master statesman"
Wilhelm- " cooool welp I just got made the emperor, and have no government experience"
Bismark -" ok so you want me to mentor you?
Wilhelm - " hahaha oh goodness no, you're fired"

[beanofknowledge]

The weirdest thing about Wilhelm II too me is how modern monarchists seem to almost religiously worship him, despite easily being the second worst leader Germany ever had. Like if you have too be a monarchist in the 21st century, pick a better one.
Edit: Shout out to the people in the replies proving me right

[J_Gamer_Mapping]

I get that these videos have to be short, but I think this time it's too short. Wilhelm II was a kinda tragic figure but also dumb and overall not fit to run Germany. Would have been interesting to hear more about his realtionship to Queen Victoria or his Cousins and his thoughts after being dethroned.

[agonzalez]

you should follow this up for one following the biggest figures in the fall of Austria Hungary, the Ottomans and Tsar Nicholas II for Russia if you haven't already done one on them

[eldorados_lost_searcher]

"... You don't have that in writing."

Ah, yes. Truly a mastermind whose attempts at overcompensating for his own shortcomings will never come back to haunt him

[CiarnaK]

I fell in love with this channel for showing how bonkers history is. This one takes the cake! Anytime "In the Hall of the Mountain King" can be squeezed in, you know something is about to go down for real. 😂

[pyroreaperssecondaccount]

The imperial Germany train has reached its final stop

[vorynrosethorn]

You managed to make him sound a lot more internally consistent than he actually was, he had actually wanted an alliance with Russia and he already had one, but he let it expire because he had an alliance with Russia and surely the fact that it had now ended would not change the interests that lead to that the Russians made an alliance with France because what would you do when your highly militaristic neighbour let your alliance lapse.

He also thought that building up the navy would give him leverage in making and alliance with Britain....which...no, it made them insanely paranoid.
He also supported the Boer's for absolutely no gain, and the price of the permanent enmity of the common populous of the world's largest Empire.

He claimed the Asians were going to take everything over, and encouraged Tsar Nicholas II to start the Russo-Japanese war....I'm sure the advice was truly appreciated by the end of it.

He made bizarre comparisons of the Germans to the Huns, surely flattering considering the Roman influence of basically all European states.

He decided he didn't like the Nazi's in the end due to there anti-Semitism being too extreme, which begs the question of what he thought their party line was in the first place.

He also managed to scupper an arms deal in the later stages once by slapping the Prince of Bulgaria on the bum and refusing to apologise, with the contract going to a French company instead of the German one it had been promised to.