rdeveloped and not fully functional. The young boy was also caught in the middle of a political conflict. His father, Frederick III (1831-1888), favored the more liberal tendencies of post-1848 European political thought - in sharp contrast to grandfather Wilhelm I's siding with the autocratic Bismarck. Wilhelm I was the stronger personality of the two adults: Wilhelm II was sent for military training as a tactic to give his inconsistent nature discipline, his body confidence - and to remove him from his father's sphere of influence.
There were quite a few mistakes made by Wilhelm I in insisting upon this course of education for his grandson, not the least being that the old man did not fully understand the nature of the Prussian military organization that had evolved during his reign. During the first half of the 19th century, the German states were far behind France and Britain in terms of militarization and industrialism. In 1870 historian Thomas Carlyle would speak of the former's "shameless vanity, menacing, long-continued arrogance" while praising the "peace-loving, brave, industrious, firm and noble race of Germans" (Nelan 32). That assessment was based upon the Romantic traditions of Goethe, Schiller, et al., with little comprehension of the tight-knit, sharply disciplined military machine Bismarck and Wilhelm I had encouraged the Prussian generals to develop. It is questionable whether Wilhelm I understood the full implications of what he had taken a part in creating. In any event, the military training he ordered for Wilhelm II was a far more rigid, narrowly-focussed education than the aging kaiser had undergone. Wilhelm I was autocratic, but practical - familiar with the compromises a political leader must make, conscientious of the duties a ruler has to his subjects. Wilhelm II, by contrast, was taught to see the world in terms of military hierarchies, where commands are given and obeyed without question, a wo...