Relegitimization of the throne, and Bismarck's resignation
Oil painting by Max Koner, 1890.
Wilhelm II intended to relegitimize the importance of the imperial throne at a time when other monarchies in Europe were being subordinated into figurehead positions. This decision led the ambitious Kaiser into conflict with Bismarck who was confident in his leadership and had no intention of relinquishing any powers to the young Kaiser and instead wanted Wilhelm II to be dependent on him.[7] A major difference between Wilhelm II and Bismarck was their approaches to handling political crises, especially in 1889, when German coal miners went on strike in Upper Silesia. Bismarck demanded that the German Army be sent in to crush the strike, but Wilhelm II rejected this authoritarian measure, responding "I do not wish to stain my reign with the blood of my subjects."[8] Instead of repression being used, Wilhelm had the government proceed with negotiations with a delegation sent from the coal miners which resulted in the strike coming to an end without violence.[8] This was the beginning of a rift between Wilhelm II and Bismarck. Bismarck defied Wilhelm's demands for greater power by forming political coalitions with political parties which Wilhelm did not praise.[7] The fractious relationship ended after Wilhelm II and Bismarck had a dispute, and the latter resigned days later in March 1890.[7]
With the departure of Bismarck as chancellor, Wilhelm II became the dominant leader of Germany. Unlike his grandfather, Wilhelm I, who was satisfied with leaving government affairs to the chancellor, Wilhelm II wanted to be active in the affairs of Germany and wanted to be a knowledgeable leader, not an ornamental figurehead.[9] Wilhelm voluntarily received economics tutoring from the controversial Walther Rathenau. From Rathenau, Wilhelm learned about European economics and industrial and financial realities in Europe.[9]
In official appearances and photographs, Wilhelm II tried with some success to conceal his withered left arm which he had due to Erb's Palsy since his traumatic breech birth. Wilhelm would become internationally known for his aggressive foreign policy positions and strategic blunders which pushed the German Empire into political isolation and later into World War I.
Domestic affairs
Under Wilhelm II, Germany no longer had long-ruling strong chancellors like Bismarck. The new chancellors had difficulty in performing their roles, especially their additional role as Prime Minister of Prussia that was assigned to them in the German Constitution. Reforms made by Chancellor Caprivi involving trade liberalization which brought about a reduction in unemployment were supported by the Kaiser and many Germans, except for Prussian landowners, who feared loss of land and power and set up a number of anti-Caprivi campaigns against the reforms.[10].
While Prussian aristocrats challenged the demands of a united German state, in the 1890s, a number of rebellious organizations were set up to challenge the authoritarian conservative Prussian militarism which was instilled on the country. Some educators acted in opposition of the German state-run schools which taught military education and set up their own independent liberal-minded schools which encouraged individuality and freedom.[11] Nevertheless, the schools in Imperial Germany had a very high standard and dealt with modern developments.[12] Artists began experimental art in opposition to Kaiser Wilhelm's demands for traditional art in which Wilhelm responded "art which transgresses the laws and limits laid down by me can no longer be called art […]."[13] At the same time, a new generation of cultural producers emerged.[14] The most dangerous opposition to the monarchy came from the newly formed Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the 1890s which advocated Marxism. The threat of the SPD towards the German monarchy and industrialists caused the state to both crack down on socialist supporters as well as initiating social reform to sooth tensions. Germany's large industries provided significant social welfare programmes and good care to their employees as long as they were not identified as socialists or members of a trade union. Pensions, sickness benefits and even housing were provided to employees by the big industries to reduce social unease.[11]
Wilhelm II, unlike Bismarck, set aside differences with the Roman Catholic Church and put the government's energy into opposing socialism at all cost.[15] This policy failed when the Social Democrats won a third of the votes in the 1912 elections to the Reichstag (imperial parliament), and became the largest political party in Germany. The government remained in the hands of a succession of conservative coalitions supported by right-wing liberals or Catholic clerics and heavily dependent on the Kaiser's favour. The rising militarism under Wilhelm II caused many Germans to emigrate to the United States.
During World War I, the Kaiser's powers were devolved to a two-man dictatorship in 1916 led by the German High Command leaders, future President of Germany, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff. Hindenburg himself had in fact taken over the role as commander - in - chief from the Kaiser and Ludendorff was de facto the real general chief of staff. The Kaiser himself was no longer seen as a hero figure to Germans, while Hindenburg and Ludendorff were seen as the nation's true heroic leaders. The Kaiser remained a figurehead for the remaining two years of the war until his abdication in 1918.
Foreign affairs
Wilhelm II wanted Germany to have her "place in the sun", not unlike the British with whom he constantly wished to compete and often emulate. With German traders and merchants already engaged worldwide, he encouraged colonial efforts in Africa and the Pacific ("new imperialism"), in essence for the German Empire to stand up to other European powers for the remaining “unclaimed” territories. Germany acquired German Southwest Africa (today Namibia), German Kamerun (Cameroon), Togoland, and German East Africa (the mainland part of current Tanzania). Islands were gained in the Pacific through purchase and treaties, as well as a 99-year lease for the territory of Kiautschou in north east China. Only Togoland and German Samoa (after 1908) became self-sufficient and profitable, all other territories required subsidies from the Berlin treasury for building infrastructure, school systems, hospitals and other institutions. With the financial backing of Deutsche Bank, the Baghdad Railway was constructed with the cooperation of the Ottoman Empire with the intention of gaining a foothold in the Middle East.[16] In an interview with Wilhelm II in 1899, Cecil Rhodes had tried “to convince the Kaiser that the future of the German empire abroad lay in the Middle East” and not in Africa; with a grand Middle-Eastern empire Germany could grant Britain the unhindered completion of her Cape to Cairo pursuits.[17] Building the Baghdad Railway from 1900–1911 was initially supported by the United Kingdom. However, as time passed, the British increasingly saw Germany as a vigorous competitor in the region where it believed it alone should dominate and demanded retrenchment, a block to the expansion of the railway in 1911; this demand was acquiesced to by Germany and the Ottoman Empire.
Colonial efforts were treated at first contemptuously by Bismarck; he engineered a Euro-centric foreign policy as shown by the treaty arrangements during his tenure in office. Since Germany was a latecomer to colonization, conflicts occurred with the established colonial powers on a number of occasions. Native insurrections in German territories became print media events, especially in Britain; the established powers had dealt with their uprisings decades before, often brutally, and had installed firm controls by then. The Boxer Rising in China with its later sponsorship by the Chinese authorities had its beginning in the Shandong province, in part because Germany, as colonizer at Kiautschou, was the sole untested power and only a short two years on the scene. When Wilhelm II spoke during departure ceremonies for the German contingent to the eight-nation international relief force in China, an impromptu, but intemperate and inopportune reference to the Hun invaders of continental Europe would later be resurrected by British propaganda to mock Germany during World War I and World War II. On two occasions, a French-German conflict over the fate of Morocco seemed inevitable.
Upon acquiring Southwest Africa, German settlers were encouraged to cultivate land held by the Herero and Nama. Herero and Nama tribal lands were used for a variety of exploitive goals (much as the British did before in Rhodesia), including farming, ranching, and mining for minerals and diamonds. In 1904 the Herero and the Nama revolted against the colonists in Southwest Africa, killing farm families, their laborers and servants. In response to the attacks, troops were dispatched to quell the uprising which then resulted in the Herero and Namaqua Genocide. In total, some 65,000 Herero (80 percent of the total Herero population), and 10,000 Nama (50 percent of the total Nama population) perished. The commander of the punitive expedition, General Lothar von Trotha, was eventually relieved and reprimanded for his usurpation of orders and the cruelties he inflicted. These occurrences were sometimes referred to as "the first genocide of the twentieth century" and officially condemned by the United Nations in 1985. In 2004 a formal apology by a government minister of the Federal Republic of Germany followed.
German attitudes and inattention in letting the Bismarck designed treaties lapse, and Germany's support of her ally Austria-Hungary in occupying Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, caused diplomatic relations to deteriorate with Tsarist Russia, and a potential alliance with Britain to evaporate. By 1914, the nation’s erratic foreign policy left Germany isolated with one loyal ally, Austria-Hungary. Germany's other official treaty partner, the Kingdom of Italy, remained an ally only pro forma, and saw more benefit in entering into alliances which could take eventually the largely German-speaking territory of South Tyrol from Austria-Hungary in a future conflict, which did occur.
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