Talk:Wilhelm II

Semi-protected edit request on 1 March 2024

Please add the following template to the bottom of the article:

2601:249:9301:D570:AD6E:66B3:8CCE:2900 (talk) 02:55, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

 Done Thanks. Jamedeus (talk) 03:37, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 3 October 2024

Children = 0. Descendants from children = 0. Successor = Kaiser Adolf Hitler the Hohenzollern. Wives - 0. Wilhelm 2 was a childless only child. That is why the Kingdom of Preusseun became permanently defunct when he died in 1941. Pretending he had wives and children on wikipedia will not result in the Hohenzollern Royal Family estate being stolen off its owner (me). 211.26.243.215 (talk) 02:28, 3 October 2024 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. I suspect you may have difficulty doing so, however. DrOrinScrivello (talk) 20:46, 3 October 2024 (UTC)

Wilhelm's actual power and influence on German and international politics

It is not discussed here that the German Empire was a constitutional monarchy and the influence of the Emperor on domestic and foreign policy was very limited. According to the constitution, the head of politics was the Chancellor and not the Emperor (Bismarck had made sure of this).

The section about the Kruger Telegram and the description of the visit to Tangier in 1905 fail to mention that in both cases Wilhelm was forced to take these actions by the Imperial government against his will and against his better judgment. As far as Tangier is concerned, the then Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow described in detail in his memoirs how much Wilhelm resisted this action. In the case of the Kruger Telegram, too, many sources have testified that the initiative came from Foreign Minister von Marschall and that Chancellor Hohenlohe urged Wilhelm to give his conset.

As far as the construction of the fleet is concerned, Wilhelm was in favour of it from his accession to the throne in 1888, but it was not until 10 years later, in 1898, that the Reichstag gave up its opposition to the funding (It did this only in view of the constantly deteriorating relations with England). The Reichstag was the most representative parliament of all due to the progressive electoral law (every German man over 25 had the right to vote). Without its approval, the imperial government could not spend a cent or pass any laws. Although it could not directly force Wilhelm to appoint a specific person as Chancellor, in the long term an imperial government could not rule against the majority in the Reichstag. In the last years of his reign, the Kaiser could no longer appoint a government at all without prior extensive negotiations with the Reichstag. XeniaBW (talk) 08:26, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Section "The New Course"

This section is very weak and should be urgently revised. Both Hohenlohe and Bülow were the best diplomats Germany had at the time and for this reason were natural candidates for the post of chancellor (just as Lord Salisbury laid the foundation for his career alongside Disraeli at the Berlin Congress in 1878, so did Hohenlohe at the side of Bismarck). Caprivi was also a highly intelligent, highly educated man. He had previously been head of the Imperial Admiralty and was considered by many to be the most capable military man Germany had at the time. To claim that Wilhelm only appointed second-rate people as chancellors is therefore completely unfounded. XeniaBW (talk) 08:43, 15 October 2024 (UTC)