Wilhelm II

Wilhelm II, sometimes known as William II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire from June of 1888 to March of 1917 after abdicating the throne when he realized that winning the Great War was utterly hopeless, fleeing to the Netherlands shortly after. There, he lived in exile, and despite his hopes of the new German Republic disintegrating and paving the way for the Kaiser to return to his homeland, the opposite happened, and instead the ideological enemies of the Kaiser, the syndicalists ended up rising to power and taking over the country. WIlhelm was outraged and did all he could to urge monarchist groups to take back the country, to no avail. After the civil war, Wilhelm isolated himself from the outside world, and today little is known about his whereabouts, and rumors that his health is rapidly declining lead many to believe he will die soon.
== Early years ==
== Kaiser ==
== The Great War ==
== Abdication and exile ==
At the Imperial Army Headquarters in Spa, Belgium, the Kaiser began seeing the writing on the wall that the German Empire could not win the Great War. In the city, he became increasingly worried over the status of the country as unrest grew throughout the Empire, as the frontlines of the war that had seen a stalemate ensue for over 2 years finally broke to the side of the Entente, who rapidly began pushing the German Imperial Army back on both the Eastern and Western Front. While the Kaiser thought of abdication as something he would not do unless absolutely necessary, he soon saw that it became virtuely impossible for Wilhelm to keep his throne. Riots, strikes and mutinies tore through the Empire at alarming rates.
Quite soon after, he was forced to leave, and sought asylum in the Netherlands where he was granted. He settled in Amerogen, and political pressure by the Entente to have the Kaiser prosecuted fell on deaf ears. For now, the Kaiser was safe in exile.
== Later years and seclusion ==
In exile, the Kaiser maintained relations with monarchist circles in the new German Republic, and hoped to use the hated Treaty of Versailles as a way to initiate a counter-revolution and restore the monarchy back to Berlin, an idea which never materialized. Instead, Wilhelm became every more pessimistic of his return as civil war engulfed his home country. As Republican forces eventually fled and the German Union proclaimed victory, Wilhelm famously stated “For the first time, I am ashamed to call myself a German”.
With the subsequent Social Protection Act being passed, Wilhelm lost all hope in returning to Berlin.
Category:German Topics
Category:Monarchist Topics