This lively and concise book uses a dual approach to introduce students and non-specialists to Wilhelmine Germany (1888-1918). It surveys social, economic, political, cultural and diplomatic developments in an age of tumultuous upheaval. It also explains why historians have so often reversed the interpretative 'switches' guiding research on this period. By highlighting the breadth of historical change under Wilhelm II and the evolution of opposing viewpoints about its significance, this book provides easy access to an epoch - and a debate - characterised more by controversy than consensus.

John C. G. Röhl's acclaimed life of Kaiser Wilhelm II, from his birth in 1859 to his accession to the throne in 1888.

This book explores the personification inherent in the notion of "Wilhelmian Germany" by investigating the psychological dimension of Wilhelm II's leadership of the Germans. Despite his historical reputation, many Germans welcomed the Kaiser's leadership. The years between 1890 and 1914 were known as the Wilhelmian era in Germany, and even critics of Wilhelm II thought it somehow fitting that he should be the German emperor. The author argues that Wilhelm II's personal needs and the needs of Germans in an age of intense nationalism made him the symbol of the nation.

"Wilhelm II (27 January 1959-4 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia. He was the eldest grandson of Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe. Wilhelm became monarch in 1888 and ruled in peace for twenty-five years. Wilhelm's father had been the hero of three wars and his mother the Princess Royal of Great Britain. When his father died prematurely of throat cancer, Wilhelm succeeded him at age twenty-nine and became the icon of the new 'Wilhelminian' age. Germany excelled in commerce, agriculture, trade, science, cars, the arts, and medicine. Already having Continental Europe's greatest army, Wilhelm set about winning world power via overseas colonies and the building of vast Imperial High Seas Fleet that rivaled Britain's. Eventually, he was defeated by the combined forces of the UK, France, Russia and latterly the USA, and driven into exile by the red revolution. This is a fresh look at a much maligned figure, including his relationships with Bismarck, Hindenburg, Tirpitz, King Edward VII and Tsar Nicholas II, all on the precipice of global change. Was Wilhelm a visionary, a fool, or both?" --from flap.

Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859–1941) is one of the most fascinating figures in European history, ruling Imperial Germany from his accession in 1888 to his enforced abdication in 1918 at the end of the First World War. In one slim volume, John Röhl offers readers a concise and accessible survey of his monumental three-volume biography of the Kaiser and his reign. The book sheds new light on Wilhelm's troubled youth, his involvement in social and political scandals, and his growing thirst for glory, which, combined with his overwhelming nationalism and passion for the navy provided the impetus for a breathtaking long-term goal: the transformation of the German Reich into one of the foremost powers in the world. The volume examines the crucial role played by Wilhelm as Germany's Supreme War Lord in the policies that led to war in 1914. It concludes by describing the rabid anti-Semitism he developed in exile and his efforts to persuade Hitler to restore him to the throne.

Kaiser Wilhelm II is one of the key figures in the history of twentieth-century Europe: King of Prussia and German Emperor from 1888 to the collapse of Germany in 1918 and a crucial player in the events that led to the outbreak of World War I. Following Kaiser Wilhelm's political career from his youth at the Hohenzollern court through the turbulent peacetime decades of the Wilhelmine era into global war and exile, the book presents a new interpretation of this controversial monarch and assesses the impact on Germany of his forty-year reign.

A personal and political analysis of the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II using new archival sources.

Many have viewed Kaiser Wilhelm II as having personally ruled Germany, dominating its politics, and choreographing its ambitious leap to global power. But how accurate is this picture? As The Kaiser and the Colonies shows, Wilhelm II was a constitutional monarch like many other crowned heads of Europe. Rather than an expression of Wilhelm II's personal rule, Germany's global empire and its Weltpolitik had their origins in the political and economic changes undergone by the nation as German commerce and industry strained to globalise alongside other European nations. More central to Germany's imperial processes than an emperor who reigned but did not rule were the numerous monarchs around the world with whom the German Empire came into contact. In Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, kings, sultans and other paramount leaders both resisted and accommodated Germany's ambitions as they charted their own course through the era of European imperialism. The result was often violent suppression, but also complex diplomatic negotiation, attempts at manipulation, and even mutual cooperation. In vivid detail drawn from archival holdings, The Kaiser and the Colonies examines the surprisingly muted role played by Wilhelm II in the German Empire and contrasts it to the lively, varied, and innovative responses to German imperialism from monarchs around the world.

What was distinctive—and distinctively "modern"—about German society and politics in the age of Kaiser Wilhelm II? In addressing this question, these essays assemble cutting-edge research by fourteen international scholars. Based on evidence of an explicit and self-confidently "bourgeois" formation in German public culture, the contributors suggest new ways of interpreting its reformist potential and advance alternative readings of German political history before 1914. While proposing a more measured understanding of Wilhelmine Germany's extraordinarily dynamic society, they also grapple with the ambivalent, cross-cutting nature of German "modernities" and reassess their impact on long-term developments running through the Wilhelmine age.

Despite recent studies of imperial Germany that emphasize the empire’s modern and reformist qualities, the question remains: to what extent could democracy have flourished in Germany’s stony soil? In Germany’s Second Reich, James Retallack continues his career-long inquiry into the era of Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II with a wide-ranging reassessment of the period and its connections with past traditions and future possibilities. In this volume, Retallack reveals the complex and contradictory nature of the Second Reich, presenting Imperial Germany as it was seen by outsiders and insiders as well as by historians, political scientists, and sociologists ever since.