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The Last Kaiser: The Life of Wilhelm II (2000)

by Giles MacDonogh

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1241218,279 (3.5)1
William II was born in 1859, grandson to Queen Victoria. He became Kaiser aged 29 & two years later drove Bismarck to resign as Chancellor. He seemed to delight in power-grabbing, bloodshed & the belligerent aims of his generals. He is widely perceived as a warmonger, to blame for World War I, & an anti-semite, though the Nazis branded him a Jew-lover. MacDonogh, widely praised for his biography of Frederick the Great, takes a fresh look a the man & these charges & finds much of the dogma about him unfair. A controversial & fascinating new life of a complex statesman.… (more)
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3713. The Last Kaiser: The Life of Wilhelm II, by Giles MacDonogh (read 11 Mar 2003) Since I have read, on Oct 14, 1989, The Kaiser and His Times, by Michael Balfour, and, on 2 Sept 2000, Kaiser Wilhelm II: Germany's Last Emperor, by John Van der Kiste, it was hard for me to see why I should read this new biography of him. But I succumbed, and did. The prose in this book is unclear at times--"his" might refer to not the last mentioned man but the one mentioned before that! There is no bibliography, and the hordes of footnotes tell little and do not indicate extensive study, though many are to German books. Nevertheless I enjoyed the book muchly, especially the account of the years 1912 to 1918--momentous years indeed. Wilhelm (as he is called in the title, though in the book he is always called William!) was a flawed man, very German even though his mother was Queen Victoria's eldest daughter. The book is probably more kind to Wilhelm than English authors usually are, but it tells plenty about his oddities and mistakes. The account of his tree chopping down in his retirement seems incredible, though we are not told what equipment he used. This was a most interesting book re most interesting events, even though it had flaws. ( )
  Schmerguls | Nov 15, 2007 |
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For Geoffrey Chambers - who had never heard of the Zabern Affair.
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The days were long in Dutch Doorn. A lonely former German emperor had plenty of time to reflect on his past and try to understand what went so wrong.
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As a rule William did not enjoy women's conversation. There were exceptions, but Dona [his consort] was not one of them.
Having shown the usual Hohenzollern contempt for girls, William's heart melted when Dona's last child turned out to be one. Victoria Louise [the only daughter] could do no wrong.
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William II was born in 1859, grandson to Queen Victoria. He became Kaiser aged 29 & two years later drove Bismarck to resign as Chancellor. He seemed to delight in power-grabbing, bloodshed & the belligerent aims of his generals. He is widely perceived as a warmonger, to blame for World War I, & an anti-semite, though the Nazis branded him a Jew-lover. MacDonogh, widely praised for his biography of Frederick the Great, takes a fresh look a the man & these charges & finds much of the dogma about him unfair. A controversial & fascinating new life of a complex statesman.

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