William I, German Emperor

File:Wilhelm-1-of-germany.jpg Wilhelm I of Germany

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Wilhelm I of Germany (March 22 1797 – March 9 1888), German Emperor (Kaiser), ruled January 181871 – 9 March1888 and King of Prussia, ruled 2 January1861 – 9 March1888. His full name was Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig. Some English-language biographies anglicize his name as William I or, in full, William Frederick Louis.

Early Life and Military Career

Prince Wilhelm riding with the painter, Franz Krüger, 1836.

As the second son of Friedrich Wilhelm III, Wilhelm had no expectations to ascend to the throne and hence received little education. He served in the army from 1814 onward, fought against Napoleon I of France, and was reportedly a very brave soldier. He also became an excellent diplomat by engaging in diplomatic missions after 1815. In 1848 he successfully crushed a revolt that was aimed at his elder brother King Friedrich Wilhelm IV.

Prince Regent

In 1857 Friedrich Wilhelm IV suffered from a stroke and became mentally disabled for the rest of his life. In January 1858 Wilhelm became Prince Regent for his brother.

King and Kaiser

On January 2, 1861 Friedrich Wilhelm died and Wilhelm ascended the throne as Wilhelm I of Prussia. He inherited a conflict between King and the liberal parliament. He was considered a politically neutral person as he intervened less in politics than his brother. He nevertheless found a conservative solution for the conflict: he appointed Otto von Bismarck to the office of Prime Minister. According to the Prussian constitution, the Prime Minister was responsible solely to the king, not to parliament. Bismarck liked to see his work relationship with Wilhelm as that of a vassal to his feudal superior. Nonetheless it was Bismarck who effectively directed the politics, interior as well as foreign; on several occasions he gained Wilhelm's assent by threatening to resign.

In the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War Wilhelm was proclaimed German Emperor on January 18, 1871 in Versailles, in the palace of Louis XIV. By this ceremony, the North German Confederation (1867-1871) was transformed into the German Empire ("Kaiserreich", 1871-1918). This Empire was a federal state; the emperor was head of state and president (primus inter pares) of the federated monarchs (the kings of Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, the grand dukes of Baden and Hesse, and so on, not to forget the senates of the free cities of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen). Wilhelm accepted the title "German Emperor" grudgingly; he would have preferred "Emperor of Germany", which however was unacceptable to the federated monarchs.

In his memoirs, Bismarck describes Wilhelm as an old-fashioned, courteous, infallibly polite gentleman and a genuine Prussian officer, whose good common sense was occasionally undermined by "female influences".

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In May 11, 1878, anarchist Max Hödel attempted to assassinate Kaiser Wilhelm I in Berlin, but his attempt failed. This attempt became the pretext for the institution of the Anti-Socialist Law, which was introduced by Bismarck’s government with the support of a majority in the Reichstag on October 21, 1878, for the purpose of fighting the socialist and working-class movement. The law deprived the Social Democratic Party of Germany of its legal status; it prohibited all its organizations, workers’ mass organizations and the socialist and workers’ press, decreed confiscation of socialist literature, and subjected Social-Democrats to reprisals. The law was extended every 2-3 years. Despite this policy of reprisals the Social-Democratic Party increased its influence among the masses. Under pressure of the mass working-class movement the law was repealed on October 1, 1890.

Issue

In 1829, Wilhelm married Augusta of Saxe-Weimar and had two children:

• Friedrich III, German Emperor (1831–1888) and
• Princess Louise of Prussia (1838–1923)

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