Wilhelm , German Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Victor Augustus Ernest ( ) ( 6 May 1882 – 20 July 1951 ) of the House of Hohenzollern was the last Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire . Early life . Wilhelm was born on 6 May 1882 in the Marmorpalais of Potsdam in the Province of Brandenburg . He was the eldest son of Wilhelm II , the last German Emperor ( 1859 – 1941 ) and his first wife Princess Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig - Holstein ( 1858 – 1921 ) . When he was born , his great - grandfather , Kaiser Wilhelm I , was the reigning emperor and his grandfather , Crown Prince Frederick , Frederick III was heir to the throne , making Wilhelm third in line to the throne . He was the eldest of the Kaiser ' s seven children , and his birth sparked an argument between his parents and grandmother . Before Wilhelm was born , his grandmother had expected to be asked to help find a nurse , but since her son did everything he could to snub her , Wilhelm asked his aunt Helena to help . His mother was hurt and his grandmother furious . When his great - grandfather and grandfather both died in 1888 , he became the heir - apparent to the German and Prussian thrones . Wilhelm was a supporter of association football , then a relatively new sport in the country , donating a cup to the German Football Association in 1908 and thereby initiating the " Kronprinzenpokal ( now Länderpokal ) " , the oldest cup competition in German football . The German club " BFC Preussen " was also originally named " BFC Friedrich Wilhelm " in his honour . Relations with his family . Wilhelm was regarded by his father with contempt , mainly because of his many affairs with women . In 1901 , during his visit to Blenheim Palace , he took a strong liking to Gladys Deacon and gave her a ring which she had to return on his father ' s insistence . Wilhelm , on the other hand , became noted for his public criticism of his father ' s politics . In response , his father found Wilhelm a wife , Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg - Schwerin , and ordered him to stay in Danzig , away from the Imperial court . After initial interest in his wife , he returned to his previous interest in other women . During his stay in Danzig he used to regularly play tennis in Zopot . This afforded him a chance to meet many beautiful women , many of them coming from Warsaw to stay at the spa . In 1914 , his father ordered the construction of Schloss Cecilienhof in Potsdam for Wilhelm and his family . It was finished in 1917 and became the main residence for the crown prince for a time . World War I . Despite being raised within militaristic circles , the Crown Prince had little command experience when he was named commander of the 5th Army in August 1914 , shortly after the outbreak of World War I . In November 1914 Wilhelm gave his first interview to a foreign correspondent and the first statement to the press made by a German noble since the outbreak of war . He said this in English : He led the 5th Army until November 1916 , a two - year period which included the battle of attrition known as the Verdun Offensive . From April 1916 onward , he tried in vain to convince the supreme command that the Verdun offensive no longer made any sense , but the campaign continued until 2 September of that year . 1918 – 34 . After the outbreak of the German Revolution in 1918 , both Emperor Wilhelm II and the Crown Prince signed the document of abdication . On 13 November , the former Crown Prince went into exile and was interned on the island of Wieringen , in the Netherlands . In the fall of 1921 , Gustav Stresemann visited Wilhelm and the Crown Prince voiced his interest in returning to Germany , even as a private citizen . After Stresemann became chancellor in August 1923 , Wilhelm was allowed to return after giving assurances that he would no longer engage in politics . He chose 9 November 1923 for this , which infuriated his father , who had not been informed about the plans of his son and who felt the historic date to be inappropriate . In June 1926 , a referendum on expropriating the former ruling Princes of Germany without compensation failed and as a consequence , the financial situation of the Hohenzollern family improved considerably . A settlement between the state and the family made Cecilienhof property of the state but granted a right of residence to Wilhelm and Cecilie . This was limited in duration to three generations . The family also kept the ownership of Monbijou Palace in Berlin , Oels Castle in Silesia and Rheinsberg Palace until 1945 . Wilhelm subsequently broke the promise he had made to Stresemann to stay out of politics . Adolf Hitler visited Wilhelm at Cecilienhof three times , in 1926 , in 1933 ( on the " Day of Potsdam " ) and in 1935 . Wilhelm joined the " Stahlhelm " which merged in 1931 into the Harzburg Front , a right - wing organisation of those opposed to the democratic republic . The former Crown Prince was reportedly interested in the idea of running for " Reichspräsident " as the right - wing candidate against Paul von Hindenburg in 1932 , until his father forbade him from acting on the idea . After his plans to become president had been blocked by his father , Wilhelm supported the rise to power of Hitler . 1934 – 51 . After the murder of his friend , the former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher , in the Night of the Long Knives ( 1934 ) , he retreated from all political activities . Most of his efforts from 1919 to 1934 had been directed to making a return of the Hohenzollerns to the throne a viable option , and he had assumed that Hitler would give this idea his support . When Wilhelm realized that Hitler had no intention of restoring the monarchy , their relationship cooled . Upon his father ' s death in 1941 , Wilhelm succeeded him as head of the House of Hohenzollern , the former German imperial dynasty . He was approached by those in the military and the diplomatic service who wanted to replace Hitler , but Wilhelm turned them down . After the assassination attempt on 20 July 1944 , Hitler nevertheless had Wilhelm placed under supervision by the Gestapo and had his home at Cecilienhof watched . In January 1945 , Wilhelm left Potsdam for Oberstdorf for a treatment of his gall and liver problems . His wife Cecilie fled in early February 1945 as the Red Army drew closer to Berlin , but they had been estranged for a long time . At the end of the war , Wilhelm ' s home , Cecilienhof , was seized by the Soviets . On 20 July 1951 , the former Crown Prince died of a heart attack in Hechingen , in the ancestral lands of his family in Swabia , not far from Hohenzollern Castle . Wilhelm and his wife are buried at Hohenzollern Castle . Family and children . Wilhelm married Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg - Schwerin ( 20 September 1886 – 6 May 1954 ) in Berlin on 6 June 1905 . After their marriage , the couple lived at the Crown Prince ' s Palace in Berlin in the winter and at the Marmorpalais in Potsdam . Cecilie was the daughter of Grand Duke Frederick Francis III of Mecklenburg - Schwerin ( 1851 – 1897 ) and his wife , Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia ( 1860 – 1922 ) . Their eldest son , Prince Wilhelm of Prussia , was killed fighting for the German Army in France in 1940 . However , during the early stages of his marriage the crown prince had a brief affair with the American opera singer Geraldine Farrar , and he later had a relationship with the dancer Mata Hari . Their children and male - line grandchildren are : Their surviving descendants are also in the line of succession to the British throne .