Table of contents:
- 1. Difficult childbirth
- 2. Excessive attachment to the mother
- 3. Hate everything English
- 4. Life in the saddle
- 5. Passion for uniforms
- 6. Political incorrectness
- 7. Exile
Video: Eccentric Wilhelm II - oddities and complexes of the last kaiser of Germany
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Name Wilhelm II associated with the decline of the German Empire. The last Kaiser fought all his life not only with ill-wishers, but also with himself. Along with selfishness and arrogance, William II had many oddities and complexes. Some of them are discussed further in the review.
1. Difficult childbirth
Wilhelm II was born on January 27, 1859. During childbirth, the doctor made several mistakes and injured the baby's neck and head, which resulted in paralysis of the left arm. William II had to hide this flaw (the left hand was 15 cm shorter than the right). In photographs and portraits, he always sat or stood in the same perspective. Since childhood, doctors have tried to align and extend the arm. The boy was forced to take a shower of seawater and subjected to electroconvulsive therapy. For many years, Wilhelm II was forced to wear a "head support apparatus" due to torticollis received at birth. All these torments brought up steel willpower in the boy, but made him very withdrawn and insecure.
2. Excessive attachment to the mother
William II had a strong affection for his mother. And the correspondence with her can be called slightly erotic. In his letters, the Kaiser often described her hands: “I dreamed of you again. We were in the library when you extended your hands to me. Then you carefully took off your gloves and put your hands on my lips. I want you to do the same when we are in Berlin. Modern sexologists claim that Wilhelm projected his sexual feelings onto his mother. Throughout his life, he had a strong fetish of female hands. Often he asked his lovers to take off their gloves in order to kiss their hands from fingertips to elbows.
3. Hate everything English
It is worth noting that his mother Victoria of Great Britain (the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria) did not approve of her son's excessive adoration of her person. This later resulted in William II's paranoid hatred of everything English.
4. Life in the saddle
Wilhelm II spent an incredible amount of time in the saddle. And this is not only when riding a horse. He often spent 5-6 hours in the saddle. Even at the dining and work table, instead of a chair, the Kaiser had a saddle so that he could "feel like a warrior all day long."
5. Passion for uniforms
In the wardrobe of William II, there were more than 400 items of military uniform. Sometimes in one evening the emperor of Germany could change the form 5 or 6 times. He also had a helmet made of pure gold, in which William II sported at meetings with the heads of other states.
In addition, the Kaiser tried several times to design a gray military uniform for the soldiers of his army. But his designs were very impractical in terms of comfort and warmth.
6. Political incorrectness
William II was considered the most politically incorrect ruler of his time. It was he who invented anti-Asian statements such as the "yellow threat". During bouts of paranoid fear, the German emperor announced that a racial war "Yellow against White" would soon begin. On July 27, 1900, sending troops to China, the Kaiser made a fiery speech: "As the Huns, under the leadership of Attila, once acquired an unforgettable reputation in history, so may Germany become known to China so that no Chinese will henceforth dare to look askance at the German." …
In an interview with the newspaper The Daily Telegraph in 1908, Wilhelm II managed to offend the representatives of four nations, saying that the Germans hate the Russians, the British, the French, and the Japanese equally.
7. Exile
When it became clear that Germany was losing the war, the November Revolution broke out in the country. People dissatisfied with the Kaiser's regime demanded the resignation of Wilhelm II. The emperor left for the Netherlands on November 10, 1918 and abdicated on November 28. The government of the newly formed Weimar Republic allowed the former monarch to take his belongings. As a result, 50 wagons with furniture and utensils, as well as a car and a boat were brought to his Dorn castle. Some boxes with personal belongings of the ex-Kaiser were opened only in 1992. Even with the rest of his life in exile, William II allowed himself to openly blame practically all the heads of European states for his mistakes.
Many blame William II for exacerbating the conflicts that led to the war. However, the official reason for the outbreak of the First World War is called the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne Franz Ferdinand by the revolutionary Gavrila Princip.
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