Kaiser Wilhelm II

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Imperial Germany | A Toxic Monarch; How the Kaiser led to Hitler. Economist, Oct 25, 2014
www.economist.com/news/books-and ... itler-toxic-monarch
(book review on John Röhl, Kaiser Wilhelm II; A concise life. (translation) Cambridge University Press, 2014)

Note:
(a) “The greatest influence was often exercised by royal favourites, such as the Kaiser’s best chum, Prince Philipp zu Eulenburg-Hertefeld, who led a double life as a rampant homosexual, but gave Wilhelm the unconditional devotion his overweening vanity demanded.”

For Prince Philipp zu Eulenburg-Hertefeld, see Philip, Prince of Eulenburg
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip,_Prince_of_Eulenburg
(1847-1921)

(b) “Two abiding fixations [of the kaiser] were fear of Germany’s encirclement and a conviction that only smug, malevolent Britain stood in the way of German hegemony in Europe. Yet it was the Kaiser’s own interventions that brought those things about. The ending of Bismarck’s secret Reinsurance treaty with Russia in 1890 helped drive Russia into the arms of France. * * * While believing that Britain could still be deterred from war against Germany he fervently encouraged the development of the Schlieffen plan to invade France through neutral Belgium; the one thing that would guarantee enlisting Britain as a belligerent.”
(i) Reinsurance Treaty
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinsurance_Treaty
(Bismarck [1st Chancellor of Germany: 1871- Mar 20, 1890; signed in 1887; When in 1890 Russia asked for a renewal of the treaty, Germany refused)
(ii) Schlieffen Plan
(A) The Outbreak of War. In World War One and Two. GCSE Bitesize, BBC, undated
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesi ... effenplanrev3.shtml
(Web pages 3 and 4: Things got worse when Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914 because, in a Treaty of 1839, Britain had promised to defend Belgium)

* General Certificate of Secondary Education
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Certificate_of_Secondary_Education
* Belgium in World War I
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium_in_World_War_I
(On 2 August 1914, the German government demanded that German armies be given free passage through Belgian territory, although this was refused by the Belgian government on 3 August. On 4 August, German troops invaded Belgium)
(B) Schlieffen Plan. Encyclopaedia Britannica, undated.
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/527664/Schlieffen-Plan


(c) “Wilhelm cut such a buffoonish figure, childishly coarse one moment, ridiculously pompous the next and constantly changing his mind (while always expressing his views, often in scribbled marginalia on state documents, with violent certainty)”

marginalia (n; Latin): "marginal notes or embellishments (as in a book)”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marginalia

(d) “during the July crisis Wilhelm appeared to procrastinate to the frustration of his chancellor, the fatalistic Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, and his impatient chief of the general staff, Helmut von Moltke, neither of whom always kept him fully informed. * * * when Bethmann Hollweg produced his highly expansionist war-aims memorandum in September 1914, the Kaiser wanted to go even further.”
(i) Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobald_von_Bethmann-Hollweg
(1856-1921; 5th chancellor of Germany 1909-1917; section 1.3 In power: Septemberprogramm)
(ii) Helmut von Moltke the Younger
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_von_Moltke_the_Younger
(1848-1916; Chief of the German General Staff 1906-1914