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 | |
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Common terms and phrases
27 January able AdHH Schloss Fasanerie Albedyll April asked August Austria Battenberg believe Berlin Bonn BPHA Rep Bülow Charlotte to Schweninger Countess court Crown Prince Crown Princess Darmstadt dear December declared diary entry doctors Dona Duke Emperor England English Erzieher unserer Kinder Eulenburg father favour February feel folder Erzieher unserer Fritz German Görtz GStA Merseburg hand Heinrich Herbert Bismarck Hinzpeter Hinzpeter's Holstein Papers hope husband Ibid January Kaiser Wilhelm Kaiser Wilhelm II Kaiserin Augusta Kassel King Koblenz later letter Liebenau Mackenzie Mama March marriage matter Meisner military mother November October opinion Papa parents person political Potsdam Prince and Crown Prince to Crown Prince Wilhelm Princess to Crown Princess to Prince Princess to Queen Prussian Queen Victoria Radolinski reported Rudolf Russia Schweninger Papers September 1879 Stockmar Stoecker things throne Tsar tutor Vicky Waldersee Papers Waldersee's Wegner wife wish wrote young