The Emperor and His Court: Wilhelm II and the German Empire

Author: [British] Luo Er / Yang Jie
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-10-01
Features: This book is a work of cultural and social history, aiming to analyze the structure and mentality of the German ruling elite during the reign of Wilhelm II. Wilhelm II, as，was a baffling "remarkable monster." The book begins with a sketch of the mentality and personality of this extraordinary ruler, and concludes by revealing the extent and nature of the emperor's anti-Semitism. It shows the world how his worldview became as close to that of Adolf Hitler as it was during his painful exile. Wilhelm II, in 1888, at the age of 29, inherited the "heaviest crown in the world." "He was a child, an eternal child." During his 30 years of reign, he remained a childlike emperor, erratic, arrogant, and sadistic, so much so that the French Minister of Foreign Affairs believed he was mentally ill and irrational. "We must also demand our own place in the sun." He dreamed of expanding colonies in the East. In 1900, during the "Eight-Nation Alliance Incident," he was the leader of the invasion force, forcefully occupying the Jiaozhou Bay in China. "A defeated one." He launched World War I, only to suffer a humiliating defeat, and was then overthrown by a domestic revolution, losing his crown and dying in exile. His life spanned the history of the German Empire from the unification under Bismarck to the self-destruction under Hitler.