I hear some people blaming multiculturalism and other 'things' for Germany's downfall. Let's remember, Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced into exile by Ludendorf and Hindenburg (You can't get more German than these two) and Germany was led into war by a jingoistic military staff and their Austrian-German speaking neighbours. Germans again started the 2nd World War by the invasion of Poland. Given, the Germans were entitled to reclaim lost territory and Alsace-Lorraine but not invade France or Poland.
The older Kaiser Wilhelm II would have made a far better Kaiser than the younger Kaiser Wilhelm II. In his youth, he was self-serving, arrogant, an egotist and a jingoist with an inflated world-view of himself and the German state. The older Wilhelm from his journal entries was a clairvoyant, humble and experienced. If that Kaiser Wilhelm II had ruled the German nation, the outlook of Europe would be different today,with Germany being the largest European nation and still a great military power
Still the Monarch's of Europe were closely related, and regardless of their differences, came to the aid of one another personally. It is factual evidence that Kaiser Wilhelm II came to the aid of Nicholas II of Russia, and paid high ransom and established Brest-Litovsk to demand their lives saved and delivered unharmed. The British did too! There is also evidence the Kaiser recognized Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, and he sent his wife, Hermine Reuss of Greiz to see her.
I would not be so quick to ring the Germans death knell.Bismark cobbled together a large group of German states and put them under Prussian rule and formed the original German Empire,or the 2nd Reich,with the first being the thousand year German coalition conquered by Napolean.As far as the multicultural aspect is concerned,no country is more multicultural than America.Germany is the economic engine of Europe.The Kaiser was forced to abdicate by Groener,on orders from Ludendorf and Hindenburgh.
everyone should read "an uncommon woman"...a great book on the life of his mother, princess victoria of england. fascinating woman and a strange relationship with her son. many theories on why he was so mentally unbalanced, from his breach birth...his deformity through a rough delivery...a possible lack of oxygen from the breach birth....even a theory he had an oedipus complex and desired his mother! i could not put the book down. the most fascinating of queen victoria's grandchildren.
Where are all the Germans indeed ! Between Kaiser Bill and Corporal Hitler many millions of them died fighting for ridiculous reasons . How many more "Germans" would be on earth today if their forefathers had an average lifespan.
Thing is it was his own family he fought against. His cousin George V and his cousin Czar Nicholas of Russia. Someone must have made some really bad moves at the last family reunion lol. Its a shame it happened the way it did. If I was George V and I knew a revolution was going down in Russia I would have asked if I could extradite the Romanovs to England. I would have asked the commies to safely send them off to me.
@jlkjiyihjgjgutugjfu No its called looking out for your family and letting change happen while giving a home to the exiled royals in your country, who also happen to be family. I don't see anything wrong with it at all. After all, Queen Elizabeth II's husband came to England as a child and was granted asylum after Greece overthrew their monarchy.
@jlkjiyihjgjgutugjfu I think you are idiotically and cuntingly stupid yourself for not realizing that what I said was thats what I WOULD have done if it were me back then. I know damn well there is no future in it. So please, piss off and go back to licking your mother's cunt.
@TheFirm1899 wow, how can you say something like that? admittedly, hitler killed german culture by killing the smartest of the smartest (which were mostly jewish!), but I don't see how that killed germany alltogether... i'd rather live in an open, multicultural, modern country, than an country run by die-hard fascists, tbh.
@TheFirm1899 Actually, it was already over for the emperor when he made Hindenburg and Luddendorff to OHL. He hadn't the power to trust Falkenhayn and make a consequence politic :(
Who really started WW1? It'a almost impossible to say. But Austro Hungary probably should take more blame than anybody else. They were intent on crushing Serbia even though Serbia gave them virtually everything they demanded. Russia were only supporting their ally, Germany were only supporting their ally. Russia were too quick to mobilize their army, Germany too quick to attack Belgium/France. Germany tried to pull out at the last minute but it was too late - the rest is history.
As Churchill pointed out - for Britain as an island nation a powerful fleet was a necessity, whereas for Germany it was a luxury. Britain was willing to let Germany have land forces supremacy in central Europe but Germany was not content to let Britain have naval supremacy.
Agreed regarding Italy, Russia and Austria Hungary.
France certainly did want Alsace-Lorraine back but I doubt that they would have started hostilities with Germany to get it if they hadn't been attacked by Germany first.
I think that you maybe mixing the positions of Germany and Britain up though. Britain wanted to keep the then current situation. It was Germany that was looking to expand its empire and increase its naval strength to rival Britain.
@AKAKArnott No I dont belive that they would have started hostilites over the territory but it was most certanley a factor in the war and then there where other reasons such as the 1905 and 1911 Moroccan crisis and as you statted the German army was still a threat to France and they did not have a major line of deffences just several forts scattered around the area example Verdun where some of the heviest fighting took place...
@AKAKArnott I may be mistaken but it was my understanding that France never acually decleared war France just mobalised its army and then Germany attacked Beligum as part of the schellifen plan which so nearley worked.
as for your point on Britian and Germany agreed but I think that Britians territorial ambitions where never fufiled.
I suppose what makes this period of history so interesting is that nothing was black or white and the motives behind so many of the actions were often multiple rather than singular.
Germany was most definitely a threat to France prior to 1914 and one which they were helpless to do anything about without their alliances with Britain and Russia to rely on. Had Germany set aside the Schlieffen Plan, simply ignored France and gone straight after Russia the chances are that France ..
..would have taken the chance to retake Alsace-Lorraine from a distracted Germany.
In some ways it was pure chance that the Schlieffen Plan didn't succeed. Were it not for the BEF being in exactly the right place at the right time (largely luck) it may well have worked. It was unlucky for the Germans that the BEF, despite it's relatively small size was such an able & disciplined force. Had the same numbers of French regulars been there instead the outcome may have been different
The fundamental flaw was that Serbia - little more than a band of peasants and gypsies, a festering breeding place for terrorists then like Iran and Iraq are today - was able to bring part of the European nobility and rightful Emperors on their side. Germany, Austria, England Russia, and yes, even France, missed their moral duty to eradicate the Serbian terrorists (and the Red and Brown Socialists!); we might have had a flourishing United Europe in 1914!
For 1 WW2 should not be brought into this!! Kaiser Wilhelm II cometed no crimes, but lets face it all these fucking allies want to exile poeple they dont like when the man was such a great hero to Germany. As coinman said I do to feel the sadness and depression
@SuperTravis898, no crimes? ask the people of belgium! in any case, he was foolish enough to back Austria in their failed war goals. He was responsible to the german people, his desire for conquest was matched by the citizens and they paid for it. His exile was a direct result of his choices. I feel sorry for the man, he was a boy who thought he was a man and played the games meant for Men.
@HuasoPodrido I really do not remeber righting this, but I obvously did. There is the biggiest flaw in a Monarchy, what if you get a man like Wilhelm, unable to rule. Atleast he wasnt as bad as Hitler. in any case a Feel sad for him the same way as you. We must remeber the whole family of the Kaiser sufferd mental illness. He got the Bad card, Exile really sould not have happend, but atleast he didnt get killed like the Romanovs, I hate communism now.
@SuperTravis898 The Tsar should've rushed to Berlin on his private train to meet with his "cousin Willy" to avert the oncoming cataclysm. But he did nothing.
As evidenced by the existence of "Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland" (NSB), the Dutch were always sympathetic to Germany, and apparently believed that appeasement was the key to success. This attitude did not change, despite the invasion. After the war, Beatrix married Claus, a former Hitler Youth and Army officer. The Dutch like Germans, I guess.
if world war 1 was averted there would have been no nazis, and no communism. and europe would still be european. what you are watching above is the death of european civilization.
Nonsense. Rubbish. Unfounded conclusions. Entirely untrue and non-constructive. Most likely, Bolshevism would have been even stronger. And the central ideas of Nazism were rooted anyway, there would be less cattle following Nazism but it's not an unlikely idea that the cattle would have become Bolshevist cattle.
Death of European civilization...uhm, it was the excellerator of economic and thus social development &it was a gateway to current 'so called Democratic' civilization.
If anyone bothered to read about the madness that was his family they'd understand. It is true he did not want a war with anyone, he simply underestimated the Serbs resolve to reject the ultimatum. But Wilhelm spent his entire life with mixed messages, Bismarck and Wilhelm I raised him to be a conservative German monarch.
While his parents and non-German relatives, of whom he was often kept from, grew to resent him because he openly imbrassed his grandfather and Bismarck.
(uhm...what madness? Hail Hohenzollern I say! I'd rather have that Prince of Orange on the Dutch throne than the one that will eventually take it. Even if it's no offspring of Friedrich Wilhelm.)
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
It is a pitty that tha spartakists didn´´t catch and killed him(or at least thrown him in prison) as the bolsjevik did with the tsar. hovever it was wrong to kill the children of the tsar and it would de wrong to kill the kaisers children.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
Poor european people. Nothing to be sorry about this man.I wish many others had a chance to the exile in grand style that was arranged for the kaiser.
@lababoc I know... please bannish me to a castle in the Netherlands.
You fuck up as the authoritarian ruler of a country that invades its neighbours in an attempt to become the world's most dominant military power and that is how they punish you?
Its kinda like O.J. Simpson getting to share a prison cell (circa three bedroom house) with Jessica Simpson for all his troubles.
Obviously WWII was right around the corner and our chance to learn how to hold those responsible for conflicts.
Authoritarian rules...that invades it's neighbour?? That is a somewhat restricted viewpoint. Do you think Wilhelm II could have avoided war? France was on it's way to invading Germany...whoever acted first had the biggest advantage there...and who pulled the German strings in reality? Not Wilhelm II. Yes he did have power and a responsibility, but not the power you accredit him and not the responsibility you think he had. But, hey, whoever loses is wrong anyway.
@PollyX5 Not really man! Do you really believe that France was ready to invade Germany after the schalacking she took at the hands of the Kaiser's troops early in its mechanized days? Fats foward to WWI most of which was fought in France as an attempt by multiple nations to keep Germany from once again overrunning France... there was NO danger of France invading Germany in 1914.
Rethorical questions. And since I'm not prone to superstition, I believe nothing. But Keegan's theories on the matter do sound acceptable enough.
Give me one good reason why the Empire would invade France (other than their high grade bread, cheese, wine, Limousin beef and cooking)...if you've ever been there you know there are no (other) reasons possible. Actually, Germany won: they didn't have to incorporate De Gaulle's homeland.
Btw, most of WWI was fought in Belgium, not France.
@qlaw04 The Treaty of Versailles contained a provision indicating that Kaiser Wilhelm II should be tried for war crimes, but the Netherlands refused to give him up, and the Allies declined to press the matter.
@mindspring57 Funny, the Dutch protected the German ruler when he fled into exile even risking their international reputation by shielding him from standing trial for war crimes then look how the Germans repaid the Dutch just a few short years later!
@KaiserReich98 His words, both in terms of threat and promises contributed to its commencement. His beligerance with Britain during the naval arms race in the early years of the 20th century. They egged on the Boers during the Boer War, they scrambled for colonies in Africa thereby heightening the sense of military urgency amongst the powers.
Sorry "Kaiser" but your peeps were more responsible for the outbreak of hostilities than any other nation.
Bastards fault that europe suffered two world wars.
wicNKWD37 3 weeks ago
@wicNKWD37 Well, the First World War was not really caused by Wilhelm the Second. It was more Austria-Hungary's fault.
starscream372 1 week ago
@starscream372 It was Kaiser Wilhelms incompitance in foreign relations that caused the war.
wicNKWD37 1 week ago
@wicNKWD37 Well yes, he did undo some of Bismarck's hard work.
starscream372 1 week ago
I hear some people blaming multiculturalism and other 'things' for Germany's downfall. Let's remember, Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced into exile by Ludendorf and Hindenburg (You can't get more German than these two) and Germany was led into war by a jingoistic military staff and their Austrian-German speaking neighbours. Germans again started the 2nd World War by the invasion of Poland. Given, the Germans were entitled to reclaim lost territory and Alsace-Lorraine but not invade France or Poland.
theone1087 2 months ago
bloody fools - the Kaiser and Hitler - doing their best to wreck European civilization - what on Earth were they thinking? complete idiots
axelfalk1 2 months ago
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The older Kaiser Wilhelm II would have made a far better Kaiser than the younger Kaiser Wilhelm II. In his youth, he was self-serving, arrogant, an egotist and a jingoist with an inflated world-view of himself and the German state. The older Wilhelm from his journal entries was a clairvoyant, humble and experienced. If that Kaiser Wilhelm II had ruled the German nation, the outlook of Europe would be different today,with Germany being the largest European nation and still a great military power
theone1087 2 months ago
Still the Monarch's of Europe were closely related, and regardless of their differences, came to the aid of one another personally. It is factual evidence that Kaiser Wilhelm II came to the aid of Nicholas II of Russia, and paid high ransom and established Brest-Litovsk to demand their lives saved and delivered unharmed. The British did too! There is also evidence the Kaiser recognized Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, and he sent his wife, Hermine Reuss of Greiz to see her.
1toscany 5 months ago
I would not be so quick to ring the Germans death knell.Bismark cobbled together a large group of German states and put them under Prussian rule and formed the original German Empire,or the 2nd Reich,with the first being the thousand year German coalition conquered by Napolean.As far as the multicultural aspect is concerned,no country is more multicultural than America.Germany is the economic engine of Europe.The Kaiser was forced to abdicate by Groener,on orders from Ludendorf and Hindenburgh.
rockfishcc8 8 months ago
everyone should read "an uncommon woman"...a great book on the life of his mother, princess victoria of england. fascinating woman and a strange relationship with her son. many theories on why he was so mentally unbalanced, from his breach birth...his deformity through a rough delivery...a possible lack of oxygen from the breach birth....even a theory he had an oedipus complex and desired his mother! i could not put the book down. the most fascinating of queen victoria's grandchildren.
bduhe219 11 months ago
Where are all the Germans indeed ! Between Kaiser Bill and Corporal Hitler many millions of them died fighting for ridiculous reasons . How many more "Germans" would be on earth today if their forefathers had an average lifespan.
iainr222 11 months ago
@iainr222 Thank god for those two men, then.
tyrannasaurasalan 7 months ago
Thing is it was his own family he fought against. His cousin George V and his cousin Czar Nicholas of Russia. Someone must have made some really bad moves at the last family reunion lol. Its a shame it happened the way it did. If I was George V and I knew a revolution was going down in Russia I would have asked if I could extradite the Romanovs to England. I would have asked the commies to safely send them off to me.
itsjustme2919 1 year ago
@itsjustme2919 are you stupid!
jlkjiyihjgjgutugjfu 9 months ago
@jlkjiyihjgjgutugjfu No its called looking out for your family and letting change happen while giving a home to the exiled royals in your country, who also happen to be family. I don't see anything wrong with it at all. After all, Queen Elizabeth II's husband came to England as a child and was granted asylum after Greece overthrew their monarchy.
itsjustme2919 9 months ago
@itsjustme2919 are you trying to amuse yourself by pretending to be stupid? there is no future in it, trust me.
jlkjiyihjgjgutugjfu 9 months ago
@jlkjiyihjgjgutugjfu I think you are idiotically and cuntingly stupid yourself for not realizing that what I said was thats what I WOULD have done if it were me back then. I know damn well there is no future in it. So please, piss off and go back to licking your mother's cunt.
itsjustme2919 9 months ago
this was the beginning of the end.... germany doesn't exist anymore! just multicultural and modern bullshit!
TheFirm1899 1 year ago 34
@TheFirm1899 wow, how can you say something like that? admittedly, hitler killed german culture by killing the smartest of the smartest (which were mostly jewish!), but I don't see how that killed germany alltogether... i'd rather live in an open, multicultural, modern country, than an country run by die-hard fascists, tbh.
blutfrosch 1 year ago
@blutfrosch now we have a state which is open for Islamisation. This sounds strange, but it's the truth!
and where are the all the german values left ?
so think about it...
TheFirm1899 1 year ago
@TheFirm1899
There was some cruelty in he old Germany. The new Germany
have more values than you credit her for.
gettysburg66 1 year ago
@gettysburg66 just liberal vlaues.... the new germany has nothing in common with the old one....
TheFirm1899 1 year ago
@TheFirm1899 Actually, it was already over for the emperor when he made Hindenburg and Luddendorff to OHL. He hadn't the power to trust Falkenhayn and make a consequence politic :(
Arminius1871 1 year ago
@Arminius1871 let's leave the past behind!
we have to unite europe and anticipate the islamisation!!!
TheFirm1899 1 year ago
@TheFirm1899 hear hear!!!
GuyPennebaker 2 months ago
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@TheFirm1899 you mean Prussia doesn't exist anymore! just multicultural and modern bullshit!
if Wilhelm II listened to Bismarck Germany would be the greatest nation in the world
handhanh 1 month ago
Makes me sad to know that Germany lost it's empire, I just wish somehow it was bought back but that would mean another war.
JReed1985 1 year ago
WW 1 was the end of a very interesting time.
theromanian19 1 year ago
I don't feel bad for him. Only a shame that he didn't live until 1945 to see Germany ruined for a second time.
elanxx 1 year ago
Comment removed
thebritish25 1 year ago
@elanxx Sorry my bad I thought you said did.
thebritish25 1 year ago
Who really started WW1? It'a almost impossible to say. But Austro Hungary probably should take more blame than anybody else. They were intent on crushing Serbia even though Serbia gave them virtually everything they demanded. Russia were only supporting their ally, Germany were only supporting their ally. Russia were too quick to mobilize their army, Germany too quick to attack Belgium/France. Germany tried to pull out at the last minute but it was too late - the rest is history.
AKAKArnott 1 year ago
@AKAKArnott well it depends what angle you look at it every nation had its motives Britian wanted the strongest navy and larger empire.
Germany wanted to keep its current situation while have a unmatable force and an overseas empire like Britian and France.
France wanted Alsace-Lorraine back and revenge.
Austria-Hungry wanted to subbdue the Balklands into there empire.
Russia wanted to succure there borders and weaken Germany and Austria
while Italy and Bulgaria wanted who could ever make
thebritish25 1 year ago
@thebritish25 2/2
As Churchill pointed out - for Britain as an island nation a powerful fleet was a necessity, whereas for Germany it was a luxury. Britain was willing to let Germany have land forces supremacy in central Europe but Germany was not content to let Britain have naval supremacy.
AKAKArnott 1 year ago
@AKAKArnott Them the better deal
thebritish25 1 year ago
@thebritish25 1/2
Agreed regarding Italy, Russia and Austria Hungary.
France certainly did want Alsace-Lorraine back but I doubt that they would have started hostilities with Germany to get it if they hadn't been attacked by Germany first.
I think that you maybe mixing the positions of Germany and Britain up though. Britain wanted to keep the then current situation. It was Germany that was looking to expand its empire and increase its naval strength to rival Britain.
AKAKArnott 1 year ago
@AKAKArnott No I dont belive that they would have started hostilites over the territory but it was most certanley a factor in the war and then there where other reasons such as the 1905 and 1911 Moroccan crisis and as you statted the German army was still a threat to France and they did not have a major line of deffences just several forts scattered around the area example Verdun where some of the heviest fighting took place...
thebritish25 1 year ago
@AKAKArnott I may be mistaken but it was my understanding that France never acually decleared war France just mobalised its army and then Germany attacked Beligum as part of the schellifen plan which so nearley worked.
as for your point on Britian and Germany agreed but I think that Britians territorial ambitions where never fufiled.
thebritish25 1 year ago
@thebritish25
I suppose what makes this period of history so interesting is that nothing was black or white and the motives behind so many of the actions were often multiple rather than singular.
Germany was most definitely a threat to France prior to 1914 and one which they were helpless to do anything about without their alliances with Britain and Russia to rely on. Had Germany set aside the Schlieffen Plan, simply ignored France and gone straight after Russia the chances are that France ..
AKAKArnott 1 year ago
@thebritish25
..would have taken the chance to retake Alsace-Lorraine from a distracted Germany.
In some ways it was pure chance that the Schlieffen Plan didn't succeed. Were it not for the BEF being in exactly the right place at the right time (largely luck) it may well have worked. It was unlucky for the Germans that the BEF, despite it's relatively small size was such an able & disciplined force. Had the same numbers of French regulars been there instead the outcome may have been different
AKAKArnott 1 year ago
@AKAKArnott
The fundamental flaw was that Serbia - little more than a band of peasants and gypsies, a festering breeding place for terrorists then like Iran and Iraq are today - was able to bring part of the European nobility and rightful Emperors on their side. Germany, Austria, England Russia, and yes, even France, missed their moral duty to eradicate the Serbian terrorists (and the Red and Brown Socialists!); we might have had a flourishing United Europe in 1914!
chrisz78 1 year ago
Kronprinz Max was the one that said he should go into exile :'
Für Gott, Kaiser, und Vaterland!
FredericktheGreatII 1 year ago
For 1 WW2 should not be brought into this!! Kaiser Wilhelm II cometed no crimes, but lets face it all these fucking allies want to exile poeple they dont like when the man was such a great hero to Germany. As coinman said I do to feel the sadness and depression
SuperTravis898 1 year ago
@SuperTravis898, no crimes? ask the people of belgium! in any case, he was foolish enough to back Austria in their failed war goals. He was responsible to the german people, his desire for conquest was matched by the citizens and they paid for it. His exile was a direct result of his choices. I feel sorry for the man, he was a boy who thought he was a man and played the games meant for Men.
Gott Mit Uns.
HuasoPodrido 1 year ago
@HuasoPodrido I really do not remeber righting this, but I obvously did. There is the biggiest flaw in a Monarchy, what if you get a man like Wilhelm, unable to rule. Atleast he wasnt as bad as Hitler. in any case a Feel sad for him the same way as you. We must remeber the whole family of the Kaiser sufferd mental illness. He got the Bad card, Exile really sould not have happend, but atleast he didnt get killed like the Romanovs, I hate communism now.
SuperTravis898 1 year ago
@SuperTravis898 The Tsar should've rushed to Berlin on his private train to meet with his "cousin Willy" to avert the oncoming cataclysm. But he did nothing.
Bla31n 1 year ago
@Bla31n Soo true, even when war became, Wihelmw ould have hid him
SuperTravis898 1 year ago
As evidenced by the existence of "Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland" (NSB), the Dutch were always sympathetic to Germany, and apparently believed that appeasement was the key to success. This attitude did not change, despite the invasion. After the war, Beatrix married Claus, a former Hitler Youth and Army officer. The Dutch like Germans, I guess.
mindspring57 1 year ago
if world war 1 was averted there would have been no nazis, and no communism. and europe would still be european. what you are watching above is the death of european civilization.
discronificator 1 year ago
@discronificator
Nonsense. Rubbish. Unfounded conclusions. Entirely untrue and non-constructive. Most likely, Bolshevism would have been even stronger. And the central ideas of Nazism were rooted anyway, there would be less cattle following Nazism but it's not an unlikely idea that the cattle would have become Bolshevist cattle.
Death of European civilization...uhm, it was the excellerator of economic and thus social development &it was a gateway to current 'so called Democratic' civilization.
PollyX5 1 year ago
If anyone bothered to read about the madness that was his family they'd understand. It is true he did not want a war with anyone, he simply underestimated the Serbs resolve to reject the ultimatum. But Wilhelm spent his entire life with mixed messages, Bismarck and Wilhelm I raised him to be a conservative German monarch.
While his parents and non-German relatives, of whom he was often kept from, grew to resent him because he openly imbrassed his grandfather and Bismarck.
Kaiserfollower0931 2 years ago
@Kaiserfollower0931
(uhm...what madness? Hail Hohenzollern I say! I'd rather have that Prince of Orange on the Dutch throne than the one that will eventually take it. Even if it's no offspring of Friedrich Wilhelm.)
PollyX5 1 year ago
he only backed the wrong side in the war. He didn't start it.
fishcop444 2 years ago
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It is a pitty that tha spartakists didn´´t catch and killed him(or at least thrown him in prison) as the bolsjevik did with the tsar. hovever it was wrong to kill the children of the tsar and it would de wrong to kill the kaisers children.
snakesnake4567 2 years ago
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Poor european people. Nothing to be sorry about this man.I wish many others had a chance to the exile in grand style that was arranged for the kaiser.
lababoc 2 years ago
@lababoc I know... please bannish me to a castle in the Netherlands.
You fuck up as the authoritarian ruler of a country that invades its neighbours in an attempt to become the world's most dominant military power and that is how they punish you?
Its kinda like O.J. Simpson getting to share a prison cell (circa three bedroom house) with Jessica Simpson for all his troubles.
Obviously WWII was right around the corner and our chance to learn how to hold those responsible for conflicts.
qlaw04 2 years ago
@qlaw04
Authoritarian rules...that invades it's neighbour?? That is a somewhat restricted viewpoint. Do you think Wilhelm II could have avoided war? France was on it's way to invading Germany...whoever acted first had the biggest advantage there...and who pulled the German strings in reality? Not Wilhelm II. Yes he did have power and a responsibility, but not the power you accredit him and not the responsibility you think he had. But, hey, whoever loses is wrong anyway.
PollyX5 1 year ago
@PollyX5 Not really man! Do you really believe that France was ready to invade Germany after the schalacking she took at the hands of the Kaiser's troops early in its mechanized days? Fats foward to WWI most of which was fought in France as an attempt by multiple nations to keep Germany from once again overrunning France... there was NO danger of France invading Germany in 1914.
qlaw04 1 year ago
@qlaw04
Rethorical questions. And since I'm not prone to superstition, I believe nothing. But Keegan's theories on the matter do sound acceptable enough.
Give me one good reason why the Empire would invade France (other than their high grade bread, cheese, wine, Limousin beef and cooking)...if you've ever been there you know there are no (other) reasons possible. Actually, Germany won: they didn't have to incorporate De Gaulle's homeland.
Btw, most of WWI was fought in Belgium, not France.
PollyX5 1 year ago
@qlaw04 The Treaty of Versailles contained a provision indicating that Kaiser Wilhelm II should be tried for war crimes, but the Netherlands refused to give him up, and the Allies declined to press the matter.
mindspring57 1 year ago
@mindspring57 Funny, the Dutch protected the German ruler when he fled into exile even risking their international reputation by shielding him from standing trial for war crimes then look how the Germans repaid the Dutch just a few short years later!
qlaw04 1 year ago
@qlaw04 You fucking moron. The Kaiser did not cause the war.
KaiserReich98 1 year ago
@KaiserReich98 His words, both in terms of threat and promises contributed to its commencement. His beligerance with Britain during the naval arms race in the early years of the 20th century. They egged on the Boers during the Boer War, they scrambled for colonies in Africa thereby heightening the sense of military urgency amongst the powers.
Sorry "Kaiser" but your peeps were more responsible for the outbreak of hostilities than any other nation.
qlaw04 1 year ago
Feel bad for the old chap.
coinman1909aka 2 years ago 28
@coinman1909aka At least he wasn't murdered like his Russian cousin!.
abola2121 1 year ago
@coinman1909aka Yes, it's sad that Hitler had him under house arrest till he died.
20031200 4 months ago