Wilhelm II

This book is the final instalment of John Röhl’s exhaustive and magisterial three-volume biography of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Like the two preceding parts, this volume is meticulously researched, full of new insights, beautifully written and, notwithstanding its great length and substantial weight, difficult to put down. Taken either on its own or as the culmination of a trilogy, it is a monumental achievement. What makes it stand out so? Röhl is, of course, not the first scholar to embark upon a life of Wilhelm II and many fine character sketches of this monarch have appeared in print over the years, but no other portrait can compete with this one in terms of its sheer breadth and scope. This is not just a matter of coverage—although the book offers an unparalleled degree of detail about all aspects of the Kaiser’s life—rather, what sets it apart is Röhl’s unprecedented grasp of the (disturbed) mindset of his principal subject. Röhl understands the Kaiser in a manner, and to a degree, that no previous biographer has been able to achieve. Moreover, he has also made unusually strenuous efforts to comprehend every facet of the context in which Wilhelm lived and operated. The result is that the reader can follow with exceptional clarity both how and why every one of the Kaiser’s decisions was made, no matter how random or irrational these decisions might previously have seemed. This is not just useful for getting to grips with the complex character of the Kaiser. In the process of explaining his actions, Röhl illuminates in new and precise ways the fraught political culture of Imperial Germany, which Wilhelm did so much to fashion; the labyrinthine chaos of the governmental system, which was likewise in no small measure a by-product of the monarch’s constant and unhelpful interference; and the disastrous foreign and military policy of the Prusso-German state, again substantially shaped by incorrigible and inconsistent All-Highest participation. These illuminations are of incalculable value and it would not be going too far to state of this biography that the sharp relief into which it throws these areas makes it utterly indispensable for any serious student of Wilhelmine Germany—even for those who favour structural, rather than biographical, approaches to such issues

Ancient history · Art · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · European history and politics · German History and Society · History