Taylor Blaine. Kaiser Bill!: A New Look at Imperial Germany's Last Emperor, Wilhelm II 1859-1941

Stroud, UK: Fonthill Media, 2014. — 224 p. — ISBN10: 1781550018; ISBN13: 978-1781550014Wilhelm II (27 January 1859 - 4 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandson of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe, three notable contemporary relations being his first cousins King George V of the United Kingdom, Marie of Romania, Queen consort of Romania and second cousin to Tsar Nicholas II of the House of Romanov, the last ruler of the Russian Empire before the Russian Revolution of 1917 which deposed the monarchy. He became monarch in 1888 and ruled in peace for twenty-five years. Wilhelm's father had been the hero of three wars and his mother the Princess Royal of Great Britain. When his father died prematurely of throat cancer, Wilhelm succeeded him at age twenty-nine and became the icon of the new 'Wilhelminian' age. Germany excelled in commerce, agriculture, trade, science, cars, the arts, and medicine. Already having Continental Europe's greatest army, Wilhelm set about winning world power via overseas colonies and the building of a vast Imperial High Seas Fleet that rivalled Britain's. Eventually, he was defeated by the combined forces of the UK, US, France and Russia, and driven into exile by the red revolution. He remained politically active in exile, pressing for a return to the monarchy up to the time of his death in 1941. This is a fresh look at a much maligned figure, including his relationships with Bismarck, Hindenburg, Tirpitz, King Edward VII and Tsar Nicholas II, all on the precipice of global change. Was Wilhelm a visionary, a fool, or both?Preface: Just Who Was Wilhelm II?Prussian Prince & German Crown Prince 1859–1888The Advent of Brandenburg-Prussia 1618–1797
The Modern Military Kings of Prussia and German Kaisers 1797– 1888
The Medical Case Files of the Imperial Triad 1797–1888King Of Prussia & German Kaiser/Emperor 1888–1914“Dropping the Pilot:” Firing Bismarck 1888–1890
“Kaiser Bill” 1890–1914
Navies, Merchant Marines, and Ocean Liners of Kings & Kaisers 1701–1914
The German Overseas Colonial Empire 1883–1914Supreme War Lord In The Great War 1914–1918In the West
In the East and Middle East
In Africa
In the Air and on the Sea
At Berlin & Spa, Autumn 1918Kaiser-In-Waiting And Exiled Memoir Author 1918–1941The Kaiser in Holland 1918
At Doorn, Holland 1920–41