The Kaiser’s Memoirs: Illustrated Enlarged Special Edition

It is nice to finally get the Kaiser's side of history. For so long he has taken the blame for so much. I definitely recommend this for anyone interested in reading his side of the story instead of just buying into the info we all have been spoon fed all of our lives.

The kaiser gives some interesting thoughts of imperial Germany. Some appear factual. Some appear bizarre. Other thoughts, I really don't understand. I wish he wrote more on what happened during the Great War.

Before WWI, and before the transition away from Bismarck's PM leadership in 1890, Germany was part of the Three Emporers Alliance -- Germany, Russia, and Austrai-Hungary. While Kaiser Wilhelm II was talented and oversaw a strong economy it appears that a multi-decade series of factors changed and created pressure for war in 1914. Even while Wilhelm was modern and interested in peace talks in 1910-1914 led by Andrew Carnegie in The Hague, to stabilize competition between Great Britain and Germany, and other peace, Wilhelm faced decisions after the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and then pushed for mobilization against Serbia.A life course where Kaiser Wilhelm gave more leadership to the Reichstag-Parliament and created more of constitutional monarchy for himself, while also promoted the same in Russia, may have helped to avert WWI. It appears also the key factor bringing Germany into militarism and war was lack of attention to Eastern Europe, and an intense focus on the UK and sea power (Kaiser Wilhelm is famous in American college history books and one hour summaries of WWI for being militaristic and over-funding the army and navy). Another lesson from his life is that talented people, then often the royalty and aristocrats, may be subject to and entranced by obsolete ideas, ideas of fighting earlier wars as if they would recur, when WWI was much more destructive than anticipated. Ultimately, the burdens on any one German leader or German emporer were too much and the leadership burden should have been in the Reichstag-Parliament. Kaiser Wilhelm was overly patriotic and nationalist and just not able to be a pan-European, ironically, the same mistake was repeated by the French and British after they won WWI, and imposed debt that Germany could not pay, probably out of a desire for revenge but not for international infrastructure in Europe such as a continent wide high speed rail system and continent wide electrical power grid, a European food reserve system, and other concepts that were available in 1918, and would have been superior to the League of Nations.

I enjoyed reading the Kaiser’s view point. He made some interesting points.

This book is a very truncated version of events but gives insight as to how Willhelm’s reign and power developed . Most views of him presume his office as a dictator but he had only a little more power than Victoria his grandmother and was required to respond to and executed the Chancellor,s decisions to a great degree and the Reichstag to lesser degree.While aggressive and bombastic by nature he really became a puppet of the Heer (German Army) general staff and made no important decisions on his own. Many detail that are now established historic fact and personal correspondence’s about the war’s origins are not included. The post war armistice and subsequent Treaty are seen as a ruse to destroy the Fatherland - as it turned out to be. One comes away feeling there is much left unsaid in regard in to Whilem’s relationships with grandfather ,Wilhelm the 1st or his father’s 90 day reign,and the cantankerous aged Bismarck. All in all it adds to the understand of an atrocious circumstance stance with (Wilhelm hardly being more responsible for a war than the other major powers )with no real purpose and a ridiculous Treaty that was merely a predictable interlude