Customer Reviews

Young Wilhelm: The Kaiser's Early Life, 1859-1888

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The Author is the fore-most authority on Kaiser Wilhelm 11 and the Bismarkian and Wilhelmian era's from 1862-1918. His scholarship and numerous books starting with his 1982 classic "The Kaiser and his Court" has restored Wilhelm 11 as a world historical figure and this superb work -825 pages with an additional 140 pages of footnotes and bibliography is a stunning achievement. The chapter on his controvesial birth is absolutely the final word on this subject - it highlights using modern medical opinions what mistakes the doctors made {in particular their over use of chloroform on his mother}, how the tramua of being a "breech birth" baby plus the over use of forceps to pull him out of the birth canal made it almost certain that his brain was damaged at birth and how his partially paralysed withered arm wasn't initally even known about and subsequently how it was mis- diagnosed and treated. Reading on, I felt that this book's sub-title should have been, " And How not to try and create a perfect prince" because the books chillingly details that everything from "Willie's" earliest years that his parents tried to achieve in turning him into a modest, hard-working liberal prince spectacularily backfired and ulitimately led to estrangment from his parents and disaster for the Wilhemian Empire. With the best of intentions Crown Prince Frederick and Princess Victoria tried methods ranging from the medieval,the bizzarre to physical therapy/treatment that the author {rightly} describes that in 2012 would be considered "child abuse" in the treatment of his partially paralysed ,miniature and disabled left arm. Young Wilhelm bore the pain and shame of these methods with considerable fortitude but long term effects on his personality are shown by Mr Rohl to be the "Dragons Teeth" in greatly contributing to his developement into a egotistical, cold and self-centered man. The selection of George Ernst Hinzpeter as the young princes tutor can only be described as as disaster of the first magnitude in furthur warping Wilhelm's personality. The author's detailing of the struggle to educate Wilhelm, to make him a "perfect, modern, liberal Prince" higlight the titanic struggle between Wilhelm, with the stern, unbending Hinzpeter and the Crown Princess who together continually cajoled, smashing at, punished, pleaded with, criticized but rarely praised Wilhelm which only made him "like a dog that gets beaten by its master every day" more impervious to their methods. Hinzpeter realized early on that the teaching regime to mold Wilhelm was failing but neither he nor the parents could/would consider any other mode - 10 to 12 hours of intensive studies/classes 6 days a week with little or no leisure or room for personal developement. The author is sympathtic to the young princes plight and reading this book,so was I. While there is no conclusive proof of Wilhelm having suffered brain damage at birth, the author using a variety of medical and contemporary sources concludes that there was some brain damage and that his personality was in part due to this issue. The method of education chosen by his parents only exacerbated his "in place" negative characther traits.I found Crown Princess Victoria a particularily unappetizing figure. Wearing her liberal "Englishness" on her sleeve in a conservative monarchy, deeply ambivelant at best about her disabled son - she seemed incapable of judging her own or her son's situation correctly and her political mistakes coupled with her lack of love/affection for her son are manifestly detailed by Mr. Rohl. She was the driving force in the parental relationship and Wilhelm could never measure up to her overblown expectations. Wilhelm's mental and Physical shortcomings are chronicled ,the effect that his traumtic birth had on his brain - the most prevelant manifestation being an astonishingly short attention span coupled with a totally self centered, self satisfied persona. That being said Prince Wilhelm was of above average intelligence intensely curious on modern industry and overly ambitious. With their lack of parental affection, is it any wonder that "Willie" worshipped his ancient grandfather - Kaiser Wilhelm 1 and enthusastically embraced the Prussian military officer caste as his ideal - to quote him, "The Regiment that he was an officer of was his "Eldorado". The most compelling / interesting area of this book {in my opinion} is how Chancellor Bismark in his machivellian, intelligent, underhanded and downright brutal way {with his conservative cabal} moved "heaven and earth" to discredit and marginalize Wilhelm's parents while at the same time assidiously cultivating him {for Bismark's own ends} which due his parents errors in how they educated him made it all to easy to turn Wilhelm against them and their liberal views. Mr Rohl highlights how Chancellor Bismark used every weapon in his arsenal - politcal infighting, planted press reports, slanderous gossip and balefully influencing The Crown Princes father against his son and in Bismark's "smear campaign" the Iron chancellor was completely sucessfull - in the short run. BUT as history shows Wilhelm would soon make the "Iron Chancellor" pay dearly for championing his cause. The intense suffering and death from throat cancer of Wilhelm's father and how little his life actually mattered to anyone but his wife is excuciatingly detailed which also highlighted how in court and goverment circles hypocriticaly welcoming Wilhelm as "the coming man". I have read Mr Rohl's other seminal book "Wilhelm 11, The Kaisers Personal Monarchy 1888 -1900" {see my April 2010 review} and this book is just as impressive in it's scholarship and readabilty. Using a variety of new sources he has written biography which is a truley remarkable achievement. I give it a strong 5 star rating.- Highly recommended.