Young Wilhelm: The Kaiser's Early Life, 1859-1888This rich and compelling volume describes the life of Kaiser Wilhelm II from his birth in 1859 to his accession to the Prusso-German throne in 1888, a story so extraordinary that it will fascinate anyone interested in the psychology and the throng of personalities of the period. Its aim is to set the characters on the stage and let them speak for themselves, which in their letters and diaries the Victorians and Wilhelminians did with quite extraordinary clarity and persuasive power. The central theme is the bitter conflict between the handicapped Prince and his liberal parents, and in particular with his mother, the eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and the utter failure of a daring educational experiment intended to turn the young Prince into a liberal Anglophile. |
Contents
Its alive and its a prince | 1 |
Disorder and early sorrow | 19 |
Ambivalent motherhood | 54 |
An English princess at the Prussian court | 82 |
Blood and history | 97 |
Education fit for a king | 116 |
The Doctor | 143 |
Trials and tribulations | 174 |
Prince Wilhelm and the Battenberg conspiracy | 516 |
The Crown Princes nightmares | 547 |
The gradual seizure of power | 570 |
Waldersee and the world conflagration | 599 |
the Crown Prince on the eve of catastrophe | 630 |
The flight of the Crown Prince in the face of death | 645 |
Prince Wilhelm and Queen Victorias Jubilee | 674 |
Crisis in San Remo | 690 |
Experiment at Kassel | 201 |
Spring dreams and awakening | 229 |
Coming of age | 253 |
The Student Prince | 274 |
the innerear illness of Kaiser Wilhelm II | 306 |
Cabal and love | 325 |
The estrangement | 367 |
Politics | 396 |
Prince Wilhelm between England and Russia | 422 |
Eros and Austria | 452 |
WilhelmWedelWaldersee | 490 |
The Stoecker Meeting and the break with the Bismarcks | 713 |
Prince Wilhelm and the War Party | 741 |
Preparing for power | 759 |
The macabre race for the throne | 773 |
Impotence and agony | 790 |
Notes | 826 |
List of archival sources | 957 |
959 | |
967 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
able AdHH Schloss Fasanerie already asked August become believe Berlin Bismarck BPHA Rep cause Chancellor completely considered continued Count course court Crown Prince Crown Princess dear December diary entry doctors England English expressed fact father February feel Foreign Friedrich Fritz future German give given GStA Merseburg hand head Herbert Bismarck Highness Hinzpeter Holstein hope interest Italy January Kaiser Kaiser Wilhelm Kaiserin Kaiserin Augusta King later letter Liebenau look March marriage matter military mother nature never noted November October Office opinion parents person political position possible present Prince to Crown Prince Wilhelm Prince's Princess to Crown Prussian Queen Victoria received Reich reported Royal Russia seems September soon things thought throne took turn Vicky Waldersee wanted wife wish write wrote young