Kaiser Wilhelm II

Key Players
all this madness, all this rage, all
this flaming death of our civilization and
our hopes, has been brought about
because a set of official gentlemen,
living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and
all without imagination or heart, have
chosen that it should occur rather than
that any one of them should suffer some
infinitesimal rebuff to his country's
pride.
-Bertrand Russell

And

Germany
Kaiser Wilhelm II
in Naval Uniform

1859-1941
German Emperor and King of
Prussia, grandson of Queen
Victoria of Britain
Withered left arm
Love of military culture
Ambitious, with eyes on expanding
German Empire
Dismissed Otto Von Bismark

Made treaty with Russia; called

Germany a satisfied power

Disliked parliamentary democracy;

acted as an autocratic monarch

Germany

Strong opponent to socialism

Anti-British foreign policy;
supported Tirpitz in building a
navy to rival Britain
Friend of Franz Ferdinand; offers
blank cheque to Austria
Second thoughts about world
war demonstrated in his attempts
at peace with his cousin, Czar
Nicholas II of Russia
Abdicated and fled to Holland in
1918

Who was the real Kaiser?

Source

#1

Italian Cartoon
(1915)