Wilhelm II's Address to the German People (Wilhelm II Speech)(English Subtitles)

Given by Kaiser Wilhelm II (last German Emperor) in Berlin on August 6th 1914, to inform the German people of the newly created first world war. Made with Microsoft Clipchampion.

[Wilhelm-Von-Hohenzollern]

Thank you for Watching. Please Excuse any mistakes in the subtitles, I did my best. Please also keep controversial or political comments to yourself. Thanks :)

[Permafrost]

1:02: "but now they want to humiliate us" - he was right. That was the real intention of France and UK against Germany.

[brianoneil]

Thank you for posting. It's a bit eerie to hear that voice, knowing that at that moment nobody had any idea what was really coming.

[gunbun]

Germans uniting to form such a powerful empire from a broken hopeless Holy roman empire is something the Europeans never dreamt of, this led to paranoia among the other large european powers and paranoia among the germans themselves about their neighbours. It was a war caused due to fear more than hate and the soldiers who took part in the Great war often came to realization about this when facing the enemy, that they were no different than them.

2:26 Perfectly describes the mentality of the European powers at that time.

[h_kostadinov]

WWI - the war in which every participating country saw themselves as defenders. And if you think about it, every country at the beginning of the war in 1914 actually had a point in that regard.

[douglasvanderpool]

This was before radio was invented so very few actual Germans would have heard this to begin with.

[HawkThunder]

Ironic how he gave his best to preserve peace and his cousin George wanted it more or less. But the worst were the polititians and military.

[MikeGibson]

Thank you so much for uploading very rare audio. 🎉❤❤❤

[lawrencewood]

Amazing historical "document". I had no idea this existed. Truly fabulous to understand the historical sentiment.

[CoolBCeltic]

Always interesting to hear the voices of historical figures from before the era of broadcasting and sound films.

[gameswithkobralo]

Fun Fact: This is not the Recording the German People got to hear back then. There are several versions of this recording, because Willhelm II. had to do them all over again a few times. The Actual recording the People had heard is lost, but this version which was one of the "Test" versions was recovered.

[bradvincet]

He sported a cool looking mustache that made him look distinguished.

[joepalooka]

This is an incredibly important speech in the history of mankind, but often forgotten or overlooked. The Kaiser is expressing the emotions and grievances of almost all Germans of his day, and also millions of Austrians like the young Adolf Hitler. Today the Kaiser is seen as an irrelevant, ineffective, weak leader, eventually deposed and forced to leave Germany, to spend his final years in obscurity in Holland. But at the time he gave his speech, millions of cheering Germans and Austrians like Hitler, gathered in the streets, eager to go to war on the Kaiser's behalf. Rightly or wrongly, the Kaiser expressed the virtually unanimous agreement of Germans and Austrians against their perceived enemies and oppressors. This speech made WW1 happen, and laid the foundations for Hitler's rise to power and WW2.

[paulleckner]

Archduke Franz Ferdinand should never went on that peace mission to Sarajevo. You should never go where you are not welcomed.

[JamesRichards-mjkw]

Germany never wanted war in 1914 or in 1939, unlike France and the British Empire.

[johndavis]

This was a great Emperor. He got ran out of Germany overnight.

[trojanette]

People forget he is English by birth. The grandchild of Victoria. Probably, may not have necessarily had German spoken w/in the confines of his personal 'nuclear' family. Even to an untrained ear one can tell he is slightly struggling w/ speaking German. My opinion. No haters, please.

[mikeor-]

Why does Kaiser Wilhelm's vice sound so clear, whereas Franz Joseph is so difficult to understand? The only recording of Franz Joseph I heard is from 1910, only four years before this one. How could recording quality have come this far in four years, especially if both years were more than a century ago?

[Btester]

And with these words millions would die in the mud and the blood of the trenches.

[MatthewFloydMarston]

Uncle Wilhelm 2❤ I need courage to speak German to my People