Wilhelm II (27 January 1859 - 4 June 1941) held two titles simultaneously during the majority of his adult life: king of Prussia and emperor of the federal republic of Germany. These dual titles explain both the source of strength and Achilles heel of vulnerability of the man who was to be only the third - and last - German kaiser of the First Reich. There have been no kaisers since Wilhelm II's abdication in 1918. The First Reich died with his abdication: to be succeeded by the incompetent Weimar Republic, then the horrors of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, finally muddling through a history of Cold War split-mended-and-recovering political entities that are sorting themselves out today. Still, it surprised other nations of the world when the German monarchy ceased to exist so suddenly. It should not have. The Reich was not invented until 1871; Germany as a united nation was still a new creation even as it entered The Great War as a world power; as an institution, the Prussian/German kaiser rested on no firmer foundation than the will of individual men. Kaiser Wilhelm II's "tragedy," if such a word may be used for a man who never quite understood his position or responsibilities, was a result of the simple fact that he was not one of those singular men of history around whom nations rally and institutions rely.
The Reich was legally established in April 1871 with the creation of the North German Confederation by Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), chancellor to the king of Prussia, Wilhelm I (1797-1888), who was to become the first kaiser (Flenley 280-281). Wilhelm II was already twelve years old when this political alliance of independent German states was forged together by Bismarck, one of the 19th century's most brilliant statesmen. The kaiser's grandson was a something of a restless personality, unable to concentrate for long upon anything despite flashes of sharp intelligence. He was slightly crippled, his left arm unde...