#662-663 Letters from Kaiser Bill

 #662 Kaiser Bill

On the evening of January 27th, 1859 The man who would become Otto Von Bismark’s Worst nightmare –and The Kaiser's Greatest Joy– was born Fredrick Wilhelm II. You see Bismark’s life's work was to arrange for Germany's dominance in Europe. To accomplish this he studied the interests of most other European nations to better pit them against each other. In doing so he made the greatest stride with the Formation of The 1871 Imperial Triad where Britain, Russia and Germany worked together to isolate France into a political Pariah.

There was just one issue however, Wilhelm. You see Wilhelm had grown up when Prussia and then Germany were on the rise. He had seen Bismark unite 39 states into one country large enough to rival the great powers of Europe, and gather colonies across the world while boosting the economy faster than the rest of the world at the time. All of this made Wilhelm see Germany’s rise as unstoppable, a thought echoed by Newspapers and public sentiment around the world.

 Yet he failed to see it was Bismark’s careful Political Maneuvering and Moltke’s Tactical genius which allowed this rise. Worse yet Wilhelm had grown up with a withered arm in a political climate which favored the strong. As such he was known to be more focused on showing he had political power than any actual strategy. Thus upon gaining the crown, Wilhelm removed those who he saw as restraining Germany’s ambition (notably The Imperial Triad, Bismarck and Moltke) and began influencing everything he could which wound up driving global sentiment over to France’s side on many issues. 

Once when Bismark was asked for advice after his dismissal he informed Wilhelm of this: ‘Avoid The Balkans.I don't know when War will break out among the great powers again but I know it will be over some damn foolish thing in the Balkans.’ In the end Bismark was right, as almost 40 years later WW1 broke out over an assination in The Balkans. Worse still the war revealed that Wilhelm's Political nightmare had laid the groundwork for the formation of the Allies who went on to win The War. Post war “Kaiser Bill” was famous as “The Man who lost The Great War”. 

#663 Letters from Bill

At the End of WW1 Kaiser Wilhelm (Bill) was forced to abdicate the Prussian and German Thrones. Then he was greatly saddened by the news of his Cousin  (Tsar Nicholas) Nikky’s murder at the hands of Yakov Yurovsky’s firing squad.Upon hearing this and that Great Britain sought to hold him on trial for warcrimes, The Kaiser went into voluntary exile in The Netherlands. From there he obtained a hotel which became the estate “Huis Doorn” where he would live and entertain guests. He also tried to worm his grandson back into a Germany Monarchy but abandoned the idea and even disowned his son when the boy began siding with Nazi ideals in the 1930s. 

Then in 1940 he witnessed the Wehrmacht invasion of The Netherlands and his wife petitioned Adolf Hitler himself for the restoration of the German Monarchy. However it was then that Wilhelm learned that as an Imperial veteran of WW1, Hitler detested Wilhelm to the point he became physically ill for days after reading the letter. Worse still despite Wilhelm’s negative viewing by the public, he was still regarded as Germany’s last monarch and thus untouchable by The Nazis lest they wish to invite civil unrest or revolution at home. Upon learning of this, Wilhelm decided the time had come for him to pick up a new hobby, writing personal letters to Adolf Hitler. 

While his death in 1941 made this a rather brief hobby In the Kaiser’s life, it apparently had such an effect on The German Dictator’s health that Winston Churchill offered Kaiser Wilhelm Asylum in Great Britain on the condition he kept sending Letters to Hitler. Despite turning down the offer the letters continued and The Kaiser kept score of how many times he made the Dictator sick enough for the newspaper in Amsterdam to comment on it. In 1941 Fredrick Wilhelm II suffered a pulmonary embolism and died late in the night.

A Picture of The Huis Doorne Estate in october 2004.