“Kaiser Wilhelm II: A Life in Power”, by Christopher Clark

 

‎ 300 pages, Penguin UK, ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0141039930

This is the third book by Christopher Clark that I have read: the first being Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (reviewed on July 23^rd, 2014) and the other The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (reviewed on January 7^th, 2023). And so when I saw that he had also written a biography about Kaiser Bill, I snatched it up. Kaiser Wilhelm II: A Life in Power is what you would expect from a book by Christopher Clark: well-documented, engaging and thorough – but the title should have told me that it was not what I thought it was going to be; namely, a biography of this most perplexing of modern(ish) rulers. This is because it is written from a political point of view with all the action going on in the Deutscher Reichstag, the fights occurring in the Bundesrat, relations between the Prussian political parties, the goings on between the German States and reforms (or lack thereof) over the course of the Kaiserreich.

Consequently, there is very little written about Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert – Kaiser Bill to us Yanks – concerning his private life, or his family and backgrounds, which I find very disappointing. There were, however, two revelations that were most useful. The first was that, while Wilhelm loved playing the soldier (especially dressing up in all of those uniforms) he was lousy at actual soldiering. All of those virtues one expects from a soldier – Duty, Honor, Loyalty, Competence, Selflessness, Integrity, to name a few – were not for him. It was mostly just show, and he loved playing his part. The second was that he was not a Nazi. Not that there has ever been a serious claim that the Last Kaiser sported a swastika, but Clark makes it clear that Wilhelm’s early cheerleading of the victory of German arms – especially over the French – was due to patriotism and not to championing the Little Corporal and his thugs.

There are other personal revelations, as well: his never-ending conflicts with his Anglophile parents, his envy of Bismarck and all that he accomplished, his love/hate attitude towards England and, especially, his uncle, King Edward VII, his increasing lack of any authority as the First World War progressed; all are amongst the intriguing facts that Clark brings to front. But make no mistake: this is a biography of His Imperial and Royal Majesty Wilhelm II, By the Grace of God, German Emperor and King of Prussia, Margrave of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of Hohenzollern, Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz…and so on and so forth. As for Willy (as he was called in the family) there is precious little, which is a damn shame, for I would truly have loved to learn more of the private man with the shrunken arm who, while reviled as a warmonger, always sought a peaceful resolution to conflict. THAT is a man worth reading about.