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[–] 11180648? [S] 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Wilhelm II. may have been one of the most foolish and disastrous leaders of all German history, but in his final years he showed some imperial grandeur and statesmanship by not bowing down to the nazis. He looked down on them as judeo-obsessive, crypto-communist thugs in league with the traitorous military administration of Hindenburg, and considered Hitler an illegitimate ursurper.

This may also serve to dispel the common historical narrative of a direct lineage of Prussian imperialism to NatSoc. The last Kaiser himself viewed NatSoc with disgust and as an overambitious road to a disastrous future for the fatherland. - Hitler's suppression of imperial celebrations and monuments should enhance this impression.

The Prussian tradition that led Germany to greatness in the first place and the short-lived fashion of National Socialism which squandered the country's power, heritage and heart cannot be reconciled.

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[–] 11180638? [S] 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

[Wilhelm] refused to recognize the Weimar Republic of Germany and vowed that he would not set foot on German soil again unless it was as King of Prussia and German Emperor.

The Kaiser, of course, followed German politics quite closely and hoped that an opportunity to restore the monarchy might present itself even as he gloomily admitted that such second chances seldom to never come about.


[In 1920] about 5,000 men had staged a coup in Berlin, under the nominal leadership of Wolfgang Kapp, that aimed to restore the Kaiser but it had been swiftly suppressed. In 1923 Hitler launched his "Beer Hall Putsch" in Munich which was suppressed even faster but the Kaiser certainly did not support it. He feared that behind it was an effort by the Bavarian royal House of Wittelsbach to replace the House of Hohenzollern on the German throne. In fact, however, the popular Bavarian Crown Prince had refused to have anything to do with Hitler’s wild scheme and remained staunchly opposed to the Nazis for the rest of his life.


When Hitler began to become a major player on the German political stage he began to make some effort to court the exiled Kaiser and, having the bulk of his support in the middle to lower class, add aristocratic respectability to his movement. His choice for this campaign was his most likeable lieutenant, former First World War flying ace, Hermann Goering.

[...]When Goering returned in May of 1932 he stayed for a week and afterwards there were reports that the Kaiser had been completely won over. They were entirely mistaken. The Kaiser adopted a wait-and-see attitude about them but while he praised the positive changes that came with the Nazi takeover (and no one denies that these existed), he was never taken in by them and warned his family to keep their distance.


If the Kaiser had ever read ‘Mein Kampf’ he might have known that Hitler was no friend of the old reich. He stated quite clearly that his intention was a racial state rather than a restored monarchy and that he had nothing but contempt for the Kaiser, blaming him for the mistakes of World War I (he would, of course, go on to make bigger ones).


When some of the Kaiser’s private sentiments were leaked to the Nazi leadership, Wilhelm II did all in his power to separate his family from them. He dismissed his openly pro-Nazi courtier, Leopold von Kleist, urged his son Prince August Wilhelm and his grandson to leave the Nazi Party as well as Princess Hermine’s son Georg (though they did not listen). When one of his former courtiers asked permission to stand for office as a Nazi the Kaiser refused on the grounds that anyone who worked for him should have nothing to do with politics (since he regarded the entire German government as illegitimate). When the man protested, defending the Nazis, the Kaiser took it as proof enough that he was not a loyal monarchist and never had been. There would be no more visits from high-ranking Nazi officials, which was as well for the Kaiser who was happier to have as his guests on his birthday the deposed kings of Saxony and Wurttemberg.


Critical historians have tried to portray the Kaiser as an anti-Semite and he certainly made some anti-Semitic statements but it would be a total deception to portray this as being anything at all like the Nazi position. When the Kaiser condemned “the Jews” he did so in the context of condemning a variety of peoples whom he believed had betrayed him. However, when the Nazis began their first organized persecution of Jews the Kaiser was disgusted, famously saying that it made him ashamed to be a German for the first time in his life. Such activities, he thought, showed the Nazi regime to be gangsters, unworthy of a position of national leadership.


The 75th birthday of the Kaiser was a turning point. There were public celebrations in Germany which Hitler ordered broken up. He then followed this up by outlawing all monarchist organizations, something Wilhelm II considered “an act of war against the House of Hohenzollern”. Even Princess Hermine, who had been the most hopeful regarding the Nazis being the short-cut to restoration, finally lost her rose-colored glasses and dropped all sympathy for the new regime. The Kaiser was further alienated when the Nazis began to remove from public view any lingering traces of the monarchial past. The mutual loathing of Nazi government in Berlin and the exiled court in Doorn was obvious and ever deepening. In terms of policy, the Kaiser approved of Hitler ignoring the Versailles Treaty, the building back up of the military and the steps taken to redress German grievances but disapproved of the anti-Semitic program.


[A]fter the German invasion and occupation of the Netherlands an honor guard was posted at Doorn. Churchill, once his enemy, had offered to take the Kaiser away to England but Wilhelm II refused, preferring to stay where he was and, in any event, would not countenance “escaping” from German troops. When the Nazi regime expressed their displeasure that there had been no formal word from Doorn about the Nazi victory over France, the Kaiser finally sent a message of congratulations. However, while the Kaiser certainly did relish the defeat of France as revenge for 1918 his message was less than well received as the Kaiser referred to the victorious troops as ‘his’ army and expressed his hope that the monarchy would be restored. Hitler, upon reading the message, referred to the Kaiser as “an idiot”. At his home, the Kaiser would often go out to chat with the German guards and to the horror of the strict Nazi-types these men soon began snapping to attention, saluting and treating the Kaiser as if he were still their sovereign. Hitler was less than pleased.

Not long after, on June 3, 1941 Kaiser Wilhelm II passed away. Hitler was still thinking of using the former monarch for his own purposes. He envisioned an elaborate state funeral in Berlin, with Hitler playing the mourner, walking behind the coffin to give the appearance of himself as the “legitimate” successor to the past imperial leader. However, this dream fell apart when the last will of the Kaiser was produced. Wilhelm II had suspected that such ambitions were on the mind of Hitler and he forbid such a thing. If Germany would not have him back in life, they would not have him back in death. He expressed his wish to be buried on his estate at Doorn, that his funeral be simple and that no Nazi pageantry be allowed. Hitler was furious and immediately forbid any German officers to appear in uniform at the service, refused to send any high-ranking Nazi official but did send a wreath, making sure it was draped with a very large swastika in a last act of spitefulness.

However, in spite of Hitler’s order, a number of serving German officers attended the funeral in uniform (and there was a small official delegation).