March 9, 1888: Death of Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia

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Franco-Prussian War, German Chancellor, German Emperor Wilhelm I, King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, King of Prussia, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Otto von Bismarck, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Wilhelm I (March 22, 1797 – March 9, 1888) was King of Prussia and German Emperor. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the first head of state of a united Germany. He was de facto head of state of Prussia from 1858, when he became regent for his brother Friedrich Wilhelm IV, whose death three years later would make him king.

Queen Louise of Prussia with her two eldest sons (later King Frederick William IV of Prussia and the first German Emperor William I), circa 1808

The future King and Emperor was born Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig of Prussia in the Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin on March 22, 1797. As the second son of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia the future King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia.

His mother was Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the fourth daughter and sixth child of Duke Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and his wife Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her father Charles was a brother of Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom and wife of King George III. Her mother Frederike was a granddaughter of Ludwig VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt.

When Wilhelm was born his grandfather Friedrich Wilhelm II, was King of Prussia and Wilhelm was not expected to ascend to the throne. His grandfather died the year he was born, at age 53, in 1797, and his father became King Friedrich Wilhelm III.

Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia

He was educated from 1801 to 1809 by Johann Friedrich Gottlieb Delbrück [de], who was also in charge of the education of Wilhelm’s brother, the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm III. At age twelve, his father appointed him an officer in the Prussian army. The year 1806 saw the defeat of Prussia by France and the end of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1829, Wilhelm married Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the daughter of Grand Duke Charles Friedrich of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia a daughter of Emperor Paul I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. Their marriage was outwardly stable, but not a very happy one.

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia was the sister of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia who married Princess Charlotte of Prussia (1798–1860), sister of Emperor/King Wilhelm of Prussia.

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Princess Charlotte of Prussia took the name Alexandra Feodorovna when she converted to Orthodoxy. Nicholas and Charlotte were third cousins, as they were both great-great-grandchildren of King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia.

On January 2, 1861, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV died and Wilhelm ascended the throne as King Wilhelm I of Prussia. In July, a student from Leipzig attempted to assassinate Wilhelm, but he was only lightly injured.

Like Friedrich I, King in Prussia, Wilhelm travelled to Königsberg and there crowned himself at the Schlosskirche. Wilhelm chose the anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig, October 18 for this event, which was the first Prussian crowning ceremony since 1701 and the only crowning of a German king in the 19th century. Wilhelm refused to comply with his brother’s wish, expressed in Friedrich Wilhelm’s last will, that he should abrogate the constitution.

In 1867, the North German Confederation was created as a federation (federally organised state) of the North German and Central German states under the permanent presidency of Prussia. King Wilhelm assumed the Bundespräsidium, the Presidency of the Confederation; the post was a hereditary office of the Prussian crown.

Not expressis verbis, but in function he was the head of state. Bismarck intentionally avoided a title such as Präsident as it sounded too republican. King Wilhelm became the constitutional Bundesfeldherr, the commander of all federal armed forces. Via treaties with the South German states, he also became commander of their armies in times of war. In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, Wilhelm was in command of all the German forces at the crucial Battle of Sedan.

German Emperor

During the Franco-Prussian War, the South German states joined the North German Confederation, which was reorganized as the German Empire (Deutsches Reich). The title of Bundespräsidium was amended with the title of German Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser).

Wilhelm is proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, France flanked by his only son, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and son in law – Friedrich I, Grand Duke of Baden. Painting by Anton von Werner

This was decided on by the legislative organs, the Reichstag and Bundesrat, and William agreed to this on December 8 in the presence of a Reichstag delegation. The new constitution and the title of German Emperor came into effect on January 1, 1871.

Wilhelm, however, hesitated to accept the constitutional title, as he feared that it would overshadow his own title as King of Prussia. He also wanted it to be “Emperor of Germany” but Bismarck warned him that the South German princes and Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria might protest as that title indicated supremacy over all German monarchs.

Wilhelm eventually—though grudgingly—relented and on 18 January 18, he was formally proclaimed as German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. The date was chosen as the coronation date of the first Prussian king in 1701. In the national memory, January 18 became the day of the foundation of the Empire (Reichsgründungstag), although it did not have a constitutional significance.

To many intellectuals, the coronation of Emperor Wilhelm was associated with the restoration of the Holy Roman Empire. Felix Dahn wrote a poem, “Macte senex Imperator” (Hail thee, old emperor) in which he nicknamed Wilhelm Barbablanca (whitebeard), a play on the name of the medieval Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa (redbeard).

According to the King asleep in mountain legend, Barbarossa slept under the Kyffhäuser mountain until Germany had need of him. Wilhelm I was thus portrayed as a second coming of Barbarossa. The Kyffhäuser Monument portrays both emperors.

In 1872, he arbitrated a boundary dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States, deciding in favor of the U.S. and placing the San Juan Islands of modern-day Washington within U.S. national territory, thus ending the 12-year bloodless Pig War.

In his memoirs, Chancellor Otto von 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”.

This was a reference to Wilhelm’s wife, who had been educated by, among others Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and was intellectually superior to her husband. She was also at times very outspoken in her opposition to official policies as she was a liberal.

Wilhelm, however, had long been strongly opposed to liberal ideas. Despite possessing considerable power as Emperor Wilhelm left the task of governing mostly to his chancellor, limiting himself to representing the state and approving Bismarck’s every policy. In private he once remarked on his relationship with Bismarck: It is difficult to be Emperor under such a chancellor.

Wilhelm’s funeral procession, 1888

Emperor Wilhelm I died on March 9, 1888 in Berlin after a short illness, less than two weeks before his 91st birthday. He was buried on March 16 at the Mausoleum at Park Charlottenburg.

He was succeeded by his son Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm who was already in ill health himself (suffering from throat cancer). Emperor Friedrich III spent the 99 days of his reign fighting his illness before dying and being succeeded by his eldest son Wilhelm on June 15 as German Emperor and King of Prussia Wilhelm II.

March 21, 1871: Otto von Bismarck is created Imperial Chancellor of the German Empire

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Franco-Prussian War, German Emperor Wilhelm I, German Emperor Wilhelm II, Imperial Chancellor of Germany, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck, Prime Minister of Prussia, Unification of Germany

Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, (April 1, 1815 — July 30, 1898) was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. Later created Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg

In 1847, Bismarck, aged thirty-two, was chosen as a representative to the newly created Prussian legislature, the Vereinigter Landtag. There, he gained a reputation as a royalist and reactionary politician with a gift for stinging rhetoric; he openly advocated the idea that the monarch had a divine right to rule.

In March 1848, Prussia faced a revolution (one of the revolutions of 1848 across Europe), which completely overwhelmed King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. The monarch, though initially inclined to use armed forces to suppress the rebellion, ultimately declined to leave Berlin for the safety of military headquarters at Potsdam. Bismarck later recorded that there had been a “rattling of sabres in their scabbards” from Prussian officers when they learned that the King would not suppress the revolution by force.

The King offered numerous concessions to the liberals: he wore the black-red-gold revolutionary colours (as seen on the flag of today’s Germany), promised to promulgate a constitution, agreed that Prussia and other German states should merge into a single nation-state, and appointed a liberal, Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen, as Minister President.

Bismarck had at first tried to rouse the peasants of his estate into an army to march on Berlin in the King’s name. He travelled to Berlin in disguise to offer his services, but was instead told to make himself useful by arranging food supplies for the Army from his estates in case they were needed.

The King’s brother, Prince Wilhelm, had fled to England; Bismarck tried to get Wilhelm’s wife Augusta to place their teenage son Friedrich on the Prussian throne in Friedrich Wilhelm IV’s place. Augusta would have none of it, and detested Bismarck thereafter, despite the fact that he later helped restore a working relationship between Wilhelm and his brother the King.

In 1849, Bismarck was elected to the Landtag. At this stage in his career, he opposed the unification of Germany, arguing that Prussia would lose its independence in the process. He accepted his appointment as one of Prussia’s representatives at the Erfurt Parliament, an assembly of German states that met to discuss plans for union, but he only did so to oppose that body’s proposals more effectively.

The parliament failed to bring about unification, for it lacked the support of the two most important German states, Prussia and Austria. In September 1850, after a dispute over Hesse (the Hesse Crisis of 1850), Prussia was humiliated and forced to back down by Austria (supported by Russia) in the so-called Punctation of Olmütz; a plan for the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership, proposed by Prussia’s Minister President Radowitz, was also abandoned.

In 1851, Friedrich Wilhelm IV appointed Bismarck as Prussia’s envoy to the Diet of the German Confederation in Frankfurt. Bismarck gave up his elected seat in the Landtag, but was appointed to the Prussian House of Lords a few years later.

Bismarck’s eight years in Frankfurt were marked by changes in his political opinions, detailed in the numerous lengthy memoranda, which he sent to his ministerial superiors in Berlin. No longer under the influence of his ultraconservative Prussian friends, Bismarck became less reactionary and more pragmatic.

He became convinced that to countervail Austria’s newly restored influence, Prussia would have to ally herself with other German states. As a result, he grew to be more accepting of the notion of a united German nation. He gradually came to believe that he and his fellow conservatives had to take the lead in creating a unified nation to keep from being eclipsed. He also believed that the middle-class liberals wanted a unified Germany more than they wanted to break the grip of the traditional forces over society.

In October 1857, Friedrich Wilhelm IV suffered a paralysing stroke, and his brother Wilhelm took over the Prussian government as Regent. Wilhelm was initially seen as a moderate ruler, whose friendship with liberal Britain was symbolised by the recent marriage of his son Friedrich to Victoria, Princess Royal, Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter. As part of his “New Course”, Wilhelm brought in new ministers, moderate conservatives known as the Wochenblatt after their newspaper.

Prince Wilhelm became King of Prussia upon his brother Friedrich Wilhelm IV’s death in 1861. The new monarch often came into conflict with the increasingly liberal Prussian Diet (Landtag).

A crisis arose in 1862, when the Diet refused to authorize funding for a proposed re-organization of the army. The King’s ministers could not convince legislators to pass the budget, and the King was unwilling to make concessions.

Wilhelm threatened to abdicate in favour of his son Crown Prince Friedrich, who opposed his doing so, believing that Bismarck was the only politician capable of handling the crisis. However, Wilhelm was ambivalent about appointing a person who demanded unfettered control over foreign affairs.

It was in September 1862, when the Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Deputies) overwhelmingly rejected the proposed budget, that Wilhelm was persuaded to recall Bismarck to Prussia. On September 23, 1862, Wilhelm appointed Bismarck Minister President and Foreign Minister.

Despite the initial distrust of the King and Crown Prince and the loathing of Queen Augusta, Bismarck soon acquired a powerful hold over the King by force of personality and powers of persuasion. Bismarck was intent on maintaining royal supremacy by ending the budget deadlock in the King’s favour, even if he had to use extralegal means to do so.

Under the Constitution, the budget could be passed only after the king and legislature agreed on its terms. Bismarck contended that since the Constitution did not provide for cases in which legislators failed to approve a budget, there was a “legal loophole” in the Constitution and so he could apply the previous year’s budget to keep the government running. Thus, on the basis of the 1861 budget, tax collection continued for four years.

Bismarck masterminded the unification of Germany. He cooperated with King Wilhelm I of Prussia to unify the various German states, a partnership that would last for the rest of Wilhelm’s life.

Bismarck provoked three short, decisive wars against Denmark, Austria, and France. Following the victory against Austria, he abolished the supranational German Confederation and instead formed the North German Confederation as the first German national state, aligning the smaller North German states behind Prussia, and excluding Austria. Receiving the support of the independent South German states in the Confederation’s defeat of France, he formed the German Empire – which also excluded Austria – and united Germany.

Bismarck served as the Chancellor of Prussia from 1862 until 1867 when he became Chancellor of the North German Confederation from 1867 to 1871 and with the creation of the German Empire in 1871 Bismarck was also appointed as the first Imperial Chancellor of the German Empire on March 21st 1871, but retained his Prussian offices, including those of Minister-President and Foreign Minister. He also continued to serve as his own foreign minister. Because of both the imperial and the Prussian offices that he held, Bismarck had near complete control over domestic and foreign policy.

Bismarck on his death bed

Bismarck resigned at Wilhelm II’s insistence on 18 March 18, 1890, at the age of seventy-five. retired to write his memoirs (Thoughts and Memories). In the memoirs Bismarck continued his feud with Wilhelm II by attacking him, and by increasing the drama around every event and by often presenting himself in a favorable light.

Bismarck’s health began to fail in 1896. He was diagnosed with gangrene in his foot, but refused to accept treatment for it; as a result he had difficulty walking and often used a wheelchair. By July 1898 he was a full-time wheelchair user, had trouble breathing, and was almost constantly feverish and in pain. His health rallied momentarily on the 28th, but then sharply deteriorated over the next two days.

He died just after midnight on July 30, 1898, at the age of eighty-three in Friedrichsruh, where he is entombed in the Bismarck Mausoleum. He was succeeded as Prince Bismarck by his eldest son, Herbert. Bismarck managed a posthumous snub of Wilhelm II by having his own sarcophagus inscribed with the words, “A loyal German servant of Emperor Wilhelm I”.

March 9, 1888: Death of Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia

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Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Franco-Prussian War, German Emperor, House of Hohenzollern, Kingdom of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck, Wilhelm I of Prussia

Wilhelm I (Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; March 22, 1797 – March 9, 1888) was King of Prussia from January 2, 1861 and German Emperor from January 18, 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the first head of state of a united Germany. He was de facto head of state of Prussia from 1858, when he became regent for his brother Friedrich Wilhelm IV, and he became king when his brother died three years later.

In 1826 Wilhelm was forced to abandon a relationship with Polish noblewoman Elisa Radziwill, his cousin whom he had been attracted to, when it was deemed an inappropriate match by his father. It is alleged that Elisa had an illegitimate daughter by Wilhelm who was brought up by Joseph and Caroline Kroll, owners of the Kroll Opera House in Berlin, and was given the name Agnes Kroll.

She married a Carl Friedrich Ludwig Dettman (known as “Louis”) and emigrated to Sydney, Australia, in 1849. They had a family of three sons and two daughters. Agnes died in 1904.

In 1829, Wilhelm married Princess Augusta, the daughter of Grand Duke Carl Friedrich of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Maria Pavlovna, the sister of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. Their marriage was outwardly stable, but not a very happy one.

In 1840 his older brother became King of Prussia. Since he had no children, Wilhelm was first in line to succeed him to the throne and thus was given the title Prinz von Preußen. Against his convictions but out of loyalty towards his brother, Wilhelm signed the bill setting up a Prussian parliament (Vereinigter Landtag) in 1847 and took a seat in the upper chamber, the Herrenhaus.

Under the leadership of Wilhelm and his minister president Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the establishment of the German Empire. Despite his long support of Bismarck as Minister President, Wilhelm held strong reservations about some of Bismarck’s more reactionary policies, including his anti-Catholicism and tough handling of subordinates.

In contrast to the domineering Bismarck, Wilhelm was described as polite, gentlemanly and, while staunchly conservative, more open to certain classical liberal ideas than his grandson Wilhelm II, during whose reign he was known as Wilhelm the Great.

During the Franco-Prussian War, the South German states joined the North German Confederation, which was reorganized as the German Empire (Deutsches Reich). The title of Bundespräsidium was amended with the title of German Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser).

This was decided on by the legislative organs, the Reichstag and Bundesrat, and William agreed to this on December 8 in the presence of a Reichstag delegation. The new constitution and the title of Emperor came into effect on January 1, 1871.

Wilhelm, however, hesitated to accept the constitutional title, as he feared that it would overshadow his own title as King of Prussia. He also wanted it to be Kaiser von Deutschland (“Emperor of Germany”), but Bismarck warned him that the South German princes and the Emperor of Austria might protest.

Wilhelm eventually—though grudgingly—relented and on January 18, he was formally proclaimed as emperor in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. The date was chosen as the coronation date of the first Prussian king in 1701. In the national memory, January 18 became the day of the foundation of the Empire (Reichsgründungstag), although it did not have a constitutional significance.

To many intellectuals, the coronation of Wilhelm was associated with the restoration of the Holy Roman Empire. Felix Dahn wrote a poem, “Macte senex Imperator” (Hail thee, old emperor) in which he nicknamed William Barbablanca (whitebeard), a play on the name of the medieval emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa (redbeard).

According to the King asleep in mountain legend, Barbarossa slept under the Kyffhäuser mountain until Germany had need of him. Wilhelm I was thus portrayed as a second coming of Barbarossa. The Kyffhäuser Monument portrays both emperors.

In 1872 he arbitrated a boundary dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States, deciding in favor of the U.S. and placing the San Juan Islands of Washington State within U.S. national territory, thus ending the 12-year bloodless Pig War.

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”.

This was a reference to Wilhelm’s wife, who had been educated by, among others Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and was intellectually superior to her husband. She was also at times very outspoken in her opposition to official policies as she was a liberal.

Wilhelm, however, had long been strongly opposed to liberal ideas. Despite possessing considerable power as German Emperor, Wilhelm left the task of governing mostly to his chancellor, limiting himself to representing the state and approving Bismarck’s every policy. In private he once remarked on his relationship with Bismarck: It is difficult to be emperor under such a chancellor.

January 18, 1871 – King Wilhelm I of Prussia is proclaimed German Emperor.

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Emperor of Germany, Emperor of the Germans, Franco-Prussian War, Frankfurt Parliament, Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, German Emperor, Hall of Mirrors, Otto von Bismarck, Palace of Versailles, Wilhelm I of Germany, Wilhelm I of Prussia

After the Holy Roman Empire was abolished on August 6, 1806, the first attempt at creating a unified German Empire came in the wake of the Revolutions of 1848. In 1849 the liberal Frankfurt Parliament offered the title and position of “Emperor of the Germans” (German: Kaiser der Deutschen) to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia.

However, the King declined to accept the title and the office of Emperor with the belief it was “not the Parliament’s to give.” Friedrich Wilhelm IV believed that only the German Princes had the right to make such an offer, in accordance with the traditions of the Holy Roman Empire.

This new German Empire forged by Otto von Bismarck, Minister President of Prussia and Chancellor of the North German Confederation, would be a federal monarchy; the emperor would be the head of state and president of the federated monarchs (the kings of Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, the grand dukes of Baden, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Hesse, among others, as well as the principalities, duchies and of the free cities of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen).

King Wilhelm I of Prussia, who was to be the Emperor of this new state, also had difficulty accepting the Imperial title. One of the issues at hand was what would be the official title of this new Emperor?

The title “Emperor of the Germans,” which we have seen had been proposed by the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849, was ruled out by Wilhelm for the similar reasons his brother Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia refused the title.

Wilhelm considered himself a king who ruled by divine right and was chosen “By the Grace of God,” and not by the people in a popular monarchy. But more in general, Wilhelm was unhappy about a title that looked artificial (like he viewed Napoléon’s title), having been created by a constitution. He was also afraid that the position of Emperor would overshadow the Prussian crown.

Despite Wilhelm’s hesitation at becoming Emperor he did prefer the title “Emperor of Germany” (German: Kaiser von Deutschland). However, that title would have signaled a territorial sovereignty over the other German kings and princes which was unacceptable to the South German monarchs, such as Ludwig II of Bavaria. Many south German sovereigns did not desire to be dominated by the Prussian Hohenzollerns.

A compromise was needed. The title German Emperor was carefully chosen by Otto von Bismarck, after intense discussion which continued up until the proclamation of King Wilhelm I of Prussia as Emperor at the Palace of Versailles during the Siege of Paris.

Since the title “Emperor of Germany” suggested sovereignty over the other German states, the title German Emperor was a title that meant to signified the Emperor was a first among equal and fellow sovereigns.

Proclamation of the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles

Wilhelm accepted this title begrudgingly and on January 18, 1871 Wilhelm I was proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles (France) towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The title German Emperor became the official title of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the German Empire.

The title had been initially introduced earlier within the January 1st 1871 constitution and lasted until the official abdication of Wilhelm II on November 28, 1918.

Under the imperial constitution, the empire was a federation of states under the permanent presidency of the king of Prussia. Thus, the imperial crown was directly tied to the Prussian crown.

May 1, 1850: Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria becomes President of the German Confederation.

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Emperor of Austria, Franco-Prussian War, Franz Joseph of Austria, Holy Roman Empire, President of the German Confederation, Prussia

Franz Joseph I (August 18, 1830 – 21 November 21, 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, and monarch of other states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from 2 December 1848 until his death.

From May 1,1850 to August 1866 he was also President of the German Confederation. He was the longest-reigning ruler of Austria and Hungary, as well as the sixth-longest-reigning monarch of any country in history.

The German Confederation was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe, created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved in 1806.

It was a loose political association, formed for mutual defense, with no central executive or judiciary. Delegates met in a federal assembly dominated by Austria.

The Confederation was weakened by rivalry between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire and the inability of its multiple members to compromise.

The German revolutions of 1848–49, motivated by liberal, democratic, socialist and nationalist sentiments, attempted to transform the Confederation into a unified German federal state with a liberal constitution (usually called the Frankfurt Constitution in English).

The ruling body of the Confederation, the Confederate Diet, was dissolved on 12 July 1848, but was re-established in 1850 after the revolution was crushed by Austria, Prussia and other states.

The Confederation was finally dissolved after the victory of the Kingdom of Prussia in the Seven Weeks’ War over the Austrian Empire in 1866. The dispute over which had the inherent right to rule German lands ended in favour of Prussia, leading to the creation of the North German Confederation under Prussian leadership in 1867, to which the eastern portions of the Kingdom of Prussia were added.

A number of South German states remained independent until they joined the North German Confederation, which was renamed and proclaimed as the “German Empire” in 1871, as the unified Germany (aside from Austria) with the Prussian king as emperor (Kaiser) after the victory over French Emperor Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

September 4, 1870: Emperor Napoleon III of France is deposed and the Third Republic is declared.

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Abdication, Battle of Sedan, Emperor Napoleon III of France, Franco-Prussian War, King Wilhelm I of Prussia, Napoleon III, Otto von Bismark, Second French Empire

Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; April 20, 1808 – January 9, 1873), the nephew of Napoleon I, was the first president of France, from 1848 to 1852, and the last French monarch, from 1852 to 1870. First elected president of the French Second Republic in 1848, he seized power by force in 1851, when he could not constitutionally be re-elected, and became the emperor of the French. He founded the Second French Empire and was its only emperor until the defeat of the French Army and his capture by Prussia and its allies in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. He worked to modernize the French economy, rebuilt the center of Paris, expanded the French overseas empire, and engaged in the Crimean War and the Second Italian War of Independence.

The Battle of Sedan was a total disaster for the French—the army surrendered to the Prussians and Napoleon himself was made a prisoner of war. MacMahon arrived at Sedan with one hundred thousand soldiers, not knowing that two German armies were closing in on the city (one from the west and one from the east), blocking any escape.

The Germans arrived on August 31, and by September 1, occupied the heights around Sedan, placed batteries of artillery, and began to shell the French positions below. At five o’clock in the morning on September 1, a German shell seriously wounded MacMahon in the hip. Sedan soon came under bombardment from seven hundred German guns. MacMahon’s replacement, General Wimpffen, launched a series of valiant cavalry attacks to try to break the German encirclement, with no success. During the battle and bombardment, the French lost seventeen thousand killed or wounded and twenty-one thousand captured.

As the German shells rained down on the French positions, Napoleon III wandered aimlessly in the open around the French positions. One officer of his military escort was killed and two more received wounds. A doctor accompanying him wrote in his notebook, “If this man has not come here to kill himself, I don’t know what he has come to do. I have not seen him give an order all morning.”

Finally, at one o’clock in the afternoon, Napoleon emerged from his reverie and ordered a white flag hoisted above the citadel. He then had a message sent to the Prussian King, who was at Sedan with his army: “Monsieur my brother, not being able to die at the head of my troops, nothing remains for me but to place my sword in the hands of Your Majesty.”

At six o’clock in the morning on September 2, in the uniform of a general and accompanied by four generals from his staff, Napoleon was taken to the German headquarters at Donchery. He expected to see King Wilhelm I of Prussia but instead he was met by Bismarck and the German commander, General von Moltke. They dictated the terms of the surrender to Napoleon.

Napoleon asked that his army be disarmed and allowed to pass into Belgium, but Bismarck refused. They also asked Napoleon to sign the preliminary documents of a peace treaty, but Napoleon refused, telling them that the French government headed by the Regent, Empress Eugénie, would need to negotiate any peace agreement. The Emperor was then taken to the Chateau at Bellevue near Frénois (Ardennes) [fr], where the Prussian King visited him. Napoleon told the King that he had not wanted the war, but that public opinion had forced him into it. The Prussian king politely agreed.

The news of the capitulation reached Paris on September 3, confirming the rumors that were already circulating in the city. When the news was given to the Empress that the Emperor and the army were prisoners, she reacted by shouting at the Emperor’s personal aide, “No! An Emperor does not capitulate! He is dead!…They are trying to hide it from me. Why didn’t he kill himself! Doesn’t he know he has dishonored himself?!”.

Later, when hostile crowds formed near the palace, and the staff began to flee, the Empress slipped out with one of her entourage and sought sanctuary with her American dentist, who took her to Deauville. From there, on September 7, she took the yacht of a British official to England. On September 4, a group of republican deputies, led by Léon Gambetta, gathered at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris and proclaimed the return of the Republic and the creation of a Government of National Defence. The Second Empire had come to an end.

August 24, 1883: Death of Prince Henri, Count of Chambord, pretender to the French throne. Part II.

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Comte de Chambord, Count of Paris, Emperor Napoleon III of France, Franco-Prussian War, Henri V of France, Philippe VII of France, Third Republic

In the early 1870s, as the Second Empire collapsed following its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War at the battle of Sedan on 1 September 1870, the royalists became a majority in the National Assembly. The Orléanists agreed to support the aging comte de Chambord’s claim to the throne, with the expectation that at his childless death he would be succeeded by their own claimant, Philippe d’Orléans, comte de Paris.

Henri was then pretender for both Legitimists and Orléanists, and the restoration of monarchy in France seemed a close possibility. However, Henri insisted that he would accept the crown only on condition that France abandon its tricolour flag and return to the use of the white fleur de lys flag. He rejected a compromise, whereby the fleur-de-lys would be the new king’s personal standard, and the tricolour would remain the national flag.

Defeat

A temporary Third Republic was established, to wait for Henri’s death and his replacement by the more liberal Comte de Paris. By the time this occurred in 1883, public opinion had however swung behind the Republic as the form of government which, in the words of the former President Adolphe Thiers, “divides us least”. Thus, Henri could be mockingly hailed by republicans such as Georges Clemenceau as “the French Washington” — the one man without whom the Republic could not have been founded.

Henri died on August 24, 1883 at his residence in Frohsdorf, Austria, at the age of sixty-two, bringing the Louis XV male-only line to an end. He was buried in his grandfather Charles X’s crypt in the church of the Franciscan Kostanjevica Monastery in Gorizia, then Austria, now in Slovenian city of Nova Gorica. His personal property, including the château de Chambord, was left to his nephew, Robert I, Duke of Parma (son of Henri’s late sister).

Henri’s death left the Legitimist line of succession distinctly confused. On one hand, Henri himself had accepted that the head of the Maison de France (as distinguished from the Maison de Bourbon) would be the head of the Orléans line, i.e. the Comte de Paris, recognized by most monarchists as Philippe VII of France. This was accepted by many Legitimists, and was the default on legal grounds; the only surviving Bourbon line more senior was the Spanish branch, which had renounced its right to inherit the throne of France as a condition of the Treaty of Utrecht.

However, many if not most of Henri’s supporters, including his widow, chose to disregard his statements and this law, arguing that no one had the right to deny to the senior direct-male-line male Bourbon to be the head of the Maison de France and thus the legitimate King of France; the renunciation of the Spanish branch is under this interpretation illegitimate and therefore void. Thus these Legitimists settled on Infante Juan, Count of Montizón, the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne (the Salic law having been suspended in Spain, the actual king, Alfonso XII, was not the senior descendant in the male line), as their claimant to the French crown.

Emperor of the French: Title used by the House of Bonaparte

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Emperor of the French, Franco-Prussian War, French Empire, Louis Napoleon, Napoleon I, Napoleon II, Napoleon III, Napoleonic Wars, Prince Napoléon

Emperor of the French (French: Empereur des Français) was the title of the monarch of the First French Empire and the Second French Empire.

A title and office used by the House of Bonaparte starting when Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor on May 18, 1804 by the Senate and was crowned Emperor of the French on December 2, 1804 at the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, in Paris, with the Crown of Napoleon.

The title emphasized that the emperor ruled over “the French people” (the nation) and not over France (the state). The old formula of “King of France” indicated that the king owned France as a personal possession. The new term indicated a constitutional monarchy.

Napoleon I, Emperor of the French

The title was purposely created to preserve the appearance of the French Republic and to show that after the French Revolution, the feudal system was abandoned and a nation state was created, with equal citizens as the subjects of their emperor. (After January 1, 1809, the state was officially referred to as the French Empire.)

The title of “Emperor of the French” was supposed to demonstrate that Napoleon’s coronation was not a restoration of monarchy, but an introduction of a new political system: the French Empire. Napoleon’s reign lasted until June 22, 1815, when he was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, exiled and imprisoned on the island of Saint Helena, where he died on May 5, 1821.

His reign was interrupted by the Bourbon Restoration of 1814 and his own exile to Elba, from where he escaped less than a year later to reclaim the throne, reigning as Emperor for another 111 days before his final defeat and exile.

Napoleon II, Emperor of the French

Less than a year after the 1851 French coup d’état by Napoleon’s nephew Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, which ended in the successful dissolution of the French National Assembly, the Second French Republic was transformed into the Second French Empire, established by a referendum on November 7, 1852.

President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, elected by the French people, officially became Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, from the symbolic and historic date of December 2, 1852. His reign continued until 4 September 1870, after he was captured at the Battle of Sedan during the Franco-Prussian War. He subsequently went into exile in the United Kingdom, where he died on January 9, 1873.

Since the death of Napoleon III’s only son, Louis Napoléon in 1879, the House of Bonaparte has had a number of claimants to the French throne. The current claimant is Charles, Prince Napoléon, who became head of the House of Bonaparte on 3 May 1997. His position is challenged by his son, Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon, who was named as heir in his late grandfather’s testament.

Napoleon III, Emperor of the French

Full styles

The Emperors of the French had various titles and claims that reflected the geographic expanse and diversity of the lands ruled by the House of Bonaparte.

Napoleon I

His Imperial and Royal Majesty Napoleon I, By the Grace of God and the Constitution of the Republic, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Mediator of the Swiss Confederation and Co-Prince of Andorra.

Napoleon II
His Imperial Majesty Napoleon II, By the Grace of God and the Constitution of the Republic, Emperor of the French and Co-Prince of Andorra.

Napoleon III
His Imperial Majesty Napoleon III, By the Grace of God and the will of the Nation, Emperor of the French and Co-Prince of Andorra.

On this date in History: June 15, 1888. Death of Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia. Part II.

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Crown Prince of Prussia, Dr. Mackenzie, Franco-Prussian War, Frederick III of Germany, Friedrich III, German Empire, Kingdom of Prussia, Liberalism, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Revolutions 1848, Throat Cancer, United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain, Victoria Princess Royal

Friedrich insisted on a bloodless “moral conquests”, unifying Germany by liberal and peaceful means, but it was Bismarck’s policy of blood and iron that prevailed. His protests against Wilhelm’s rule peaked at Danzigon June 4, 1863, where at an official reception in the city he loudly denounced Bismarck’s restrictions on freedom of the press. He thereby made Bismarck his enemy and his father extremely angry. Consequently, as mentioned in my last entry, Friedrich was excluded from positions of political power throughout his father’s reign. Retaining his military portfolio, he continued to represent Germany and its Emperor at ceremonies, weddings, and celebrations such as Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. Friedrich would spend a large portion of time in Britain, where Queen Victoria frequently allowed him to represent her at ceremonies and social functions.

Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia

Friedrich fought in the wars against Denmark, Austria and France. Although Friedrich had opposed military action in unifying Germany, once war had started against Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1870) he supported the Prussian military wholeheartedly and took positions of command. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 in which he was once more commanded the III Army, consisting of troops from the southern German states. He was praised for his leadership after defeating the French at the battles of Wissembourgand Wörth, and met with further successes at the Battle of Sedan and during the Siege of Paris.

Friedrich’s humane treatment of his country’s foes earned him their respect and the plaudits of neutral observers. After the Battle of Wörth, a London journalist witnessed the Crown Prince’s many visits to wounded Prussian soldiers and lauded his deeds, extolling the love and respect the soldiers held for Friedrich. Following his victory, Friedrich had remarked to two Paris journalists, “I do not like war gentlemen. If I should reign I would never make it.” One French journalist remarked that “the Crown Prince has left countless traits of kindness and humanity in the land that he fought against.” For his behaviour and accomplishments, The Times wrote a tribute to Friedrich in July 1871, stating that “the Prince has won as much honour for his gentleness as for his prowess in the war”.

Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia

In 1871, following Prussia’s victories, the German states were united into the German Empire, with Wilhelm as the Emperor and Friedrich as heir-apparent to the new German monarchy. Although Wilhelm thought the day when he became Emperor the saddest of his life, Friedrich was excited to be witness to a great day in German history. Bismarck, now Chancellor, disliked Friedrich and also distrusted the liberal attitudes of the Crown Prince and Princess. Often at odds with his father’s and Bismarck’s policies and actions, Friedrich sided with the country’s liberals in their opposition to the expansion of the empire’s army. In 1878, when his father was incapacitated by injury from an assassination attempt, Friedrich briefly took over his tasks but was soon relegated to the sidelines once again. His lack of influence affected him deeply, even causing him to contemplate suicide.

Anton von Werner’s depiction of Wilhelm proclamation as Emperor; Friedrich is standing behind his father, his brother-in-law, the Grand Duke of Baden leads the cheering.

Friedrich had been a heavy smoker for many years. At a ball held by Wilhelm on January 31, 1887, a guest reported the Crown Prince “was so hoarse that he could hardly say a word.” His hoarseness continued through February, and was diagnosed as a thickening of the mucous membrane over the vocal cords, caused by “a chronic laryngeal catarrh.” On February 7, Friedrich consulted a doctor, Karl Gerhardt, who scraped a wire across the membrane for 10 days in an attempt to remove thickened tissue. After the procedure proved unsuccessful, Gerhardt cauterised the left vocal cord with an electric wire on March 15, in an attempt to remove what was then thought to be a vocal fold nodules. Due to Friedrich’s highly inflamed throat, Gerhardt was unable to remove the entire growth. After several cauterisations, and with no signs of improvement, Friedrich and his wife went to the spa of Bad Ems, where he drank the mineral waters and underwent a regimen of gargles and inhaling fresh air, with no effect.

On May 17, Gerhardt and other doctors, including Ernst von Bergmann, diagnosed the growth as laryngeal cancer. Bergmann recommended consulting a leading British cancer specialist, Morell Mackenzie; he also recommended a thyrotomy to gain better access to the inside of the larynx, followed by the complete removal of the larynx – a total laryngectomy – if the situation proved serious. While Victoria was informed of the need for an immediate operation, Friedrich was not told. Despite the tentative diagnosis of cancer, the doctors hoped the growth would prove to be a benign epithelioma.

Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia

Dr. Mackenzie arrived in Berlin on May 20, but after examining Friedrich recommended a biopsy of the growth to determine whether or not it was malignant. He conducted the biopsy the following morning, after which he sent tissue samples to the distinguished pathologist Rudolf Virchow for microscopic examination. When Virchow was unable to detect any cancerous cells despite several separate analyses, Mackenzie declared his opposition to a laryngectomy being performed, as he felt it would be invariably fatal, and said he would assume charge of the case. He gave his assurance that Friedrich would fully recover “in a few months.” While Gerhardt and Physician-General August Wegner concurred with Mackenzie, Bergmann and his colleague Adalbert Tobold held to their original diagnosis of cancer. In addition to Mackenzie’s opinion, Bismarck strongly opposed any major operation on Friedrich’s throat, and pressed the Emperor to veto it.

On June 9, Mackenzie again biopsied the growth and sent the samples to Virchow, who reported the following day that he was again unable to detect any signs of cancer. On June 13, 1887, the Crown Prince left Potsdam for London to attend his mother-in-law’s Golden Jubilee and to consult Mackenzie. He never saw his father alive again. He was accompanied by Victoria and their three younger daughters, along with Gerhardt; on June 29, Mackenzie reported that he had successfully operated at his Harley Street clinic, and had removed “nearly the entire growth.” Friedrich spent July with his family at Norris Castle on the Isle of Wight. However, when Frederick visited Mackenzie’s office on August 2, for a follow-up examination, the growth had reappeared, necessitating its cauterisation the same day, and again on 8 August – an ominous indication that it was indeed malignant.

Felix Semon, a distinguished German throat specialist with a practice in England, and who had been closely following Frederick’s case, submitted a report to the German Foreign Secretary in which he strongly criticised Mackenzie’s cauterisations, and gave his opinion that the growth, if not malignant, was suspect, and should continue to be biopsied and examined. On August 9, Friedrich travelled to Braemar in the Scottish Highlands with Dr. Mark Hovell, a senior surgeon at the Throat Hospital in London. Although a further examination by Mackenzie on August 20, revealed no sign of a recurrent growth, Frederick said he had the “constant feeling” of something “not right inside”; nonetheless, he requested Queen Victoria to knight Mackenzie, who duly received a knighthood in September.

Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia

Despite the operations on his throat and having taken the sea air at Cowes, Friedrich remained hoarse and was advised by Mackenzie to spend the coming winter on the Italian Riviera. In August, following reports that his father was gravely ill, he considered returning to Germany, but was dissuaded by his wife, and went to Toblach in South Tyrol with his family, where Victoria had rented a house. He arrived in Toblach on 7 September 7, exhausted and hoarse. Concerned by Friedrich ‘s lack of visible improvement after a brief meeting with Friedrich in Munich, Philipp, Prince of Eulenburg, consulted the distinguished laryngologist Max Joseph Oertel, who urged a drastic and thorough operation on Friedrich’s throat, and said he suspected a benign tumour which could soon become malignant.

By this time, Mackenzie’s treatment of Friedrich was generating strong criticism. After a fortnight in Toblach, Mackenzie arrived to reexamine Friedrich, who had continued to suffer from colds and hoarseness; in public, however, the doctor remained largely unconcerned, and attributed the hoarseness to a “momentary chill.” However, he recommended that Friedrich should leave Toblach for Venice, to be followed by Victoria. The weather soon turned cold, and Friedrich’s throat caused him pain, for which he received cocaine injections.

Upon arriving in Venice, Friedrich again caught cold; privately, Mackenzie was growing seriously concerned, having observed a continued tendency for Friedrich’s throat and larynx to swell. He forbade Friedrich from speaking at any length, noting that if the Crown Prince insisted on speaking and contracted further colds, he could give him no more than three months to live. At the beginning of October, Victoria noted that “Fritz’s throat is giving no cause for fresh anxiety & he really does take a little more care and speaks a little less.” At the end of October, Friedrich’s condition abruptly worsened, with Victoria writing to her mother on November 2, that Friedrich ‘s throat was again inflamed, but not due to any cold, and that he was “very hoarse again” and easily became depressed about his health.

General Alfred von Waldersee observed that Friedrich’s health had grave implications as if Emperor Wilhelm died soon and his son succeeded, “a new Kaiser who is not allowed to speak is a virtual impossibility, quite apart from the fact that we desperately need a highly energetic one.” Crown Prince’s son, Prince Wilhelm reported to King Albert of Saxony that his father was frequently short-tempered and melancholic, though his voice appeared to have slightly improved, and that Friedrich’s throat was being treated by “blowing in a powder twice a day to soothe the larynx.”

On November 3, Friedrich and his entourage departed for San Remo. At San Remo two days later, on November 5, Friedrich entirely lost his voice and experienced severe pain throughout his throat. Upon examination, Dr. Hovell discovered a new growth under the left vocal cord; when the news reached Wilhelm and the German government, it caused great consternation. The following day, Mackenzie issued a bulletin stating that while there was no immediate danger to the Crown Prince, his illness had “unfortunately taken an unfavourable turn,” and that he had requested advice from other specialists, including the Austrian professor of laryngology Leopold Schrötter and Dr. Hermann Krause of Berlin.

Crown Princess of Prussia

On 9 November, Schrötter and Krause diagnosed the new growth as malignant, and said it was unlikely Frederick could live another year. All the doctors in attendance, including Mackenzie, now concluded that Friedrich disease was indeed laryngeal cancer, as new lesions had appeared on the right side of the larynx, and that an immediate and total laryngectomy was required to save his life; Moritz Schmidt, one of the doctors, subsequently said that the earlier growths found in May had also been cancerous. Friedrich was devastated by the news, bursting into tears upon being informed by Mackenzie and crying, “To think I should have such a horrid disgusting illness … I had so hoped to have been of use to my country. Why is Heaven so cruel to me? What have I done to be thus stricken and condemned?”

The news was greeted with shock in Berlin and generated further hatred against Victoria, now seen as a domineering “foreigner” who was manipulating her husband. Some politicians suggested that Friedrich be made to relinquish his position in the line of succession in favour of his son Wilhelm, but Bismarck firmly stated that Friedrich would succeed his ailing father “whether he is ill or not, [and] whether the K[aiser] is then unable permanently to perform his duties,” would then be determined per the relevant provisions of the Prussian Constitution. Despite the renewed diagnosis of cancer, Friedrich’s condition appeared to improve after November5, and he became more optimistic; through January 1888 there remained some hope that the diagnosis was incorrect. Both Friedrich and Victoria retained their faith in Mackenzie, who reexamined Frederick’s throat several times in December and gave a good prognosis, again doubting whether the growths had been cancerous.

The diagnosis of laryngeal cancer was conclusively confirmed on March 6, the anatomist Professor Wilhelm Waldeyer, who had come to San Remo, examined Friedrich’s sputum under a microscope and confirmed the presence of “so-called cancroid bodies…from a cancerous new growth” that was in the larynx. He further said that there were no signs of any growths in the lungs. Though it finally settled the question, Waldeyer’s diagnosis threw all of Mackenzie’s treatment of Frederick into doubt. The diagnosis and treatment of Friedrich’s fatal illness caused some medical controversy well into the next century.

1888 the Year of the Three Emperors

Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Three days after Friedrich was confirmed to be suffering from cancer, his father Emperor Wilhelm I died aged 90 at 8:22 a.m. on March 9, 1888, upon which Friedrich became German Emperor and King of Prussia. His son, Wilhelm, now Crown Prince, telegraphed the news to his father in Italy. Later the same day, Friedrich wrote in his diary that he had received the telegram upon returning from a walk, “…and so I have ascended the throne of my forefathers and of the German Kaiser! God help me fulfill my duties conscientiously and for the weal of my Fatherland, in both the narrower and the wider sense.”

Germany’s progressive elements hoped that Wilhelm’s death, and thus Friedrich’s succession, would usher the country into a new era governed along liberal lines. Logically, Friedrich should have taken as his regnal name either Friedrich I (if the Bismarckian empire was considered a new entity) or Friedrich IV (if the new empire was considered a continuation of the old Holy Roman Empire, which had had three emperors named Friedrich); he himself preferred the Friedrich IV. However, on the advice of Bismarck that this would create legal problems, he opted to simply keep the same regnal name he had as king of Prussia, Friedrich III.

The new Emperor reached Berlin at 11 p.m. on the night of March 11; those who saw him were horrified by his “pitiful” appearance. The question now was how much longer the mortally ill emperor could be expected to live, and what, if anything, he could hope to achieve. In spite of his illness, Friedrich did his best to fulfill his obligations as Emperor. Immediately after the announcement of his accession, he took the ribbon and star of his Order of the Black Eagle from his jacket and pinned it on the dress of his wife; he was determined to honor her position as Empress. Too ill to march in his father’s funeral procession, he was represented by Wilhelm, the new Crown Prince, while he watched, weeping, from his rooms in the Charlottenburg Palace.

As the German Emperor, he officially received Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (his mother-in-law) and King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway, and attended the wedding of his son Prince Heinrich to his niece Princess Irene. However, Friedrich III reigned for only 99 days, and was unable to bring about much lasting change. The majority of the German ruling elite viewed Friedrich III’s reign as merely a brief interim period before the accession of his son Wilhelm to the throne.

An edict he penned before he ascended to the throne that would limit the powers of the chancellor and monarch under the constitution was never put into effect,although he did force Robert von Puttkamer to resign as Prussian Minister of the Interior on June 8, when evidence indicated that Puttkamer had interfered in the Reichstag elections. Dr. Mackenzie wrote that the Emperor had “an almost overwhelming sense of the duties of his position.” In a letter to Lord Napier, Empress Victoria wrote “The Emperor is able to attend to his business, and do a great deal, but not being able to speak is, of course, most trying.” Friedrich III had the fervour but not the time to accomplish his desires, lamenting in May 1888, “I cannot die … What would happen to Germany?”

From April 1888, Friedrich III became so weak he was unable to walk, and was largely confined to his bed; his continual coughing brought up large quantities of pus. In early June, the cancer spread to and perforated his esophagus, preventing him from eating. He suffered from bouts of vomiting and ran high fevers, but remained alert enough to write a last diary entry on June 11: “What’s happening to me? I must get well again; I have so much to do!”

Friedrich III died in Potsdam at 11:30 a.m. on June 15, 1888, and was succeeded by his 29-year-old son as Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia. Under Emperor Wilhelm II, his parents and maternal grandparents, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s hopes of a liberal Germany were not fulfilled. He believed in the autocracy and Conservative principles of his paternal grandfather, Emperor Wilhelm I.

Empress Friedrich and her mother Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom holding a portrait of Emperor Friedrich III.

Frederick is buried in a mausoleum attached to the Friedenskirche in Potsdam. After his death, William Ewart Gladstone described him as the “Barbarossa of German liberalism.” His wife, Empress Victoria, now calling herself the Empress Friedrich, went on to continue spreading her husband’s thoughts and ideals throughout Germany, but no longer had power within the government.

The early death of Emperor Friedrich III is a tragedy in German history. For if he lived and was able to enact his Liberal policies the history of Germany would have been much different.

Surviving Monarchies: Prussia Part V

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Count Benedetti, Ems Telegraph, Franco-Prussian War, Isabel II of Spain, Kaiser Wilhelm I, Prussia, Treaty of Frankfurt

There is so much to this topic it is taking longer than I originally thought. Also, the subject of German Unification is a topic that could, in itself, take mane pages to write about. This post will be just a basic survey of the subject as it is relevant to the topic of the survival of monarchies.

After the failure of the 1849 Frankfurt Parliament to unify Germany the desire for a unified country still existed. The problem was dualism. During this time of the German Confederation we had a Germany with two heads: Austria and Prussia. For Prussians many felt Austria had to go its own way. The man who felt most strongly about that was Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismark. Not a supporter of Liberalism at all Bismark believed that Germany needed to be forged out of blood-and-iron and under the leadership of Prussia.

In 1861 King Wilhelm I became King of Prussia and shortly thereafter he appointed Otto von Bismarck as the Chancellor. To unify Germany Bismark developed a plan that would exclude Austria, and then join the southern German States with Prussia and the other northern German States. Bismark knew that these steps would only be accomplished through a series of wars. In 1864 a crisis in Denmark provided the first step. There was a great controversy over the ownership of the thrones of the united Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. Both Denmark and Prussia had claims. In 1863 the king of Denmark, Christian IX, annexed these territories which violated the London Protocol of 1853.

Under Bismark’s plan the Austrian Empire was deliberately drawn into this war by Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Prussia. The Austro-Prussian war was short and an easy Prussian victory led to Schleswig, the northern part, being governed by Prussia and Holstein, the southern part, being governed by Austria. (Treaty of Vienna (1864). The next step in German unification for Bismark was to remove Austria from German interests and to do this he goaded them into war. This opportunity came in 1866 when Bismarck accused the Austrian Empire of stirring up troubles in Prussia-held Schleswig. Austria declared war on Prussia and Prussian troops drove into Austrian-held Holstein and took control of the entire state of Schleswig-Holstein. The short seven weeks war found Austria swiftly defeated. The resulting Treaty of Prague (1866) formally dissolved the German Confederation and Prussia created the North German Confederation to include all Germanic states except the pro-French, southern kingdoms of Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg which formally created the Southern German Confederation.

Bismark’s next step was to bring the Southern German Confederation into union with the Prussian lead North German Confederation. The next step was complex so I will simplify it. In 1868 Queen Isabel II of Spain was deposed and the Spanish Parliament voted Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as their king. The French who were ruled by Napoleon III did not want to be sandwiched in by two Hohenzollern empires. After a series of rejections of the candidacy of Leopold for the Spanish throne the matter seemed settled. It wasn’t. In 1870 Napoleon III, demanded territories of the Rhineland in return for his neutrality during the Austro-Prussian War. This increased tensions between France and Prussia. Bismarck used the Spanish Succession question and the Ems Telegram to King Wilhelm to start a war. The Ems Telegram was a harmless telegram from the French ambassador to King Wilhelm looking for reassurance that the candidacy of Prince Leopold was dropped. Bismark reworded the Ems telegram to give the French the impression that King Wilhelm I had insulted Count Benedetti; likewise, the Germans interpreted the modified dispatch as the Count insulting the King. As a result Napoleon III declared war against Prussia.

The Franco-Prussian War 1870-71 was also swift and ended with Prussian troops capturing Paris, the capital of the Second French Empire. Bavaria, Baden, and Württemberg were incorporated into the North German Confederation in the Treaty of Frankfurt (1871). Bismarck then proclaimed King Wilhelm I, now Kaiser Wilhelm I, as leader of the new, united Germany (German Reich). With the German troops remaining in Paris, Napoleon III dissolved the French Empire and a new republic, Third French Republic, was created under Adolphe Thiers. The Prussian Constitution became the Constitution for the German Empire and gave both the Chancellor and the Emperor considerable power.