June 15, 1888: Death of Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

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Frederick III of Germany, Potsdam, Princess Victoria the Princess Royal, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Throat Cancer, Wilhelm I of Prussia, Wilhelm II of Germany

Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm of Prussia was born in the New Palace at Potsdam in Prussia on October 18, 1831. He was a scion of the House of Hohenzollern, rulers of Prussia, then the most powerful of the German states. Friedrich’s father, Prince Wilhelm (future German Emperor and King of Prussia), was a younger brother of King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV and, having been raised in the military traditions of the Hohenzollerns, developed into a strict disciplinarian.

Prince Friedrich’s mother was Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the second daughter of Charles-Friedrich, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, a daughter of Paul I of Russia and Sophie-Dorothea of Württemberg.

In 1851, his mother sent Friedrich to England, ostensibly to visit the Great Exhibition but in truth, she hoped that the cradle of liberalism and home of the industrial revolution would have a positive influence on her son. Prince Albert took Friedrich under his wing during his stay but it was Albert’s daughter, Victoria, Princess Royal, only eleven at the time, who guided the German prince around the Exhibition.

Friedrich only knew a few words of English, while Victoria could converse fluently in German. He was impressed by her mix of innocence, intellectual curiosity and simplicity, and their meeting proved to be a success. A regular exchange of letters between Victoria and Friedrich followed.

Friedrich proposed to Victoria in 1855, when she was 14 years old and he was 23. The betrothal of the young couple was announced on May 19, 1857, at Buckingham Palace and the Prussian Court, and their marriage took place on January 25, 1858 in the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace, London. Victoria too had received a liberal education and shared her husband’s views. Of the two, Victoria was the dominant one in the relationship.

The couple often resided at the Crown Prince’s Palace and had eight children: Wilhelm in 1859, Charlotte in 1860, Heinrich in 1862, Sigismund in 1864, Victoria in 1866, Waldemar in 1868, Sophia in 1870 and Margaret in 1872. Sigismund died at the age of 2 and Waldemar at age 11, and their eldest son, Wilhelm, suffered from a withered arm—probably due to his difficult and dangerous breech birth, although it could have also resulted from a mild case of cerebral palsy.

When his father succeeded to the Prussian throne as King Wilhelm I of Prussia on January 2, 1861, Friedrich became the Crown Prince 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, Friedrich I (beccause the Bismarckian empire was considered a new entity). The new Emperor wanted to call himself Friedrich IV, (mistakenly thinking this new empire was a continuation of the old Holy Roman Empire, which had had three emperors named Friedrich). However, on the advice of Bismarck that this would create legal problems, he opted to simply keep the same regnal name he had as the 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.”

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.

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.

June 18, 1866: Death of Prince Sigismund of Prussia (1864–1866).

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Crown Prince of Prussia, Frederick III of Germany, Kingdom of Prussia, Prince Sigismund of Prussia, Princess Victoria the Princess Royal, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Franz Friedrich Sigismund; (September 15, 1864 – June 18, 1866) was the fourth child and third son of the then Crown Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm of Prussia (later King of Prussia and German Emperor as Friedrich III), and Victoria, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of the British Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Prince Sigismund of Prussia

He was born at the New Palace in Potsdam, Germany, in 1864 and known as “Sigi” to his family. His mother found him much more intelligent than his three elder siblings and believed he would have great potential when he grew up.

However, he died from meningitis at the New Palace on June 18, 1866, aged twenty-one months. He was buried in the royal mausoleum of the Friedenskirche at Potsdam.

The Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia

His mother’s grief and despair were intense as his father, leading the Prussian army into battle against Austria, had taken all available doctors thus making it impossible for her to alleviate the suffering of her child or prevent his death, the memory of which would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Prince Sigismund was the first grandchild of Queen Victoria to die, almost 115 years before his last cousin Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, who died in 1981.

June 15, 1888: Death of German Emperor Friedrich III, King of Prussia

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Frederick III of Germany, German Emperor, German Empire, King of Prussia, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Throat Cancer, Victoria Princess Royal, Wilhelm I of Germany, Wilhelm II of Germany, Year of the Three Emperors

Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm of Prussia was born in the New Palace at Potsdam in Prussia on October 18, 1831. He was a scion of the House of Hohenzollern, rulers of Prussia, then the most powerful of the German states. Friedrich’s father, Prince Wilhelm (future German Emperor and King of Prussia), was a younger brother of King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV and, having been raised in the military traditions of the Hohenzollerns, developed into a strict disciplinarian.

Prince Friedrich’s mother was Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the second daughter of Charles-Friedrich, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, a daughter of Paul I of Russia and Sophie-Dorothea of Württemberg.

In 1851, his mother sent Friedrich to England, ostensibly to visit the Great Exhibition but in truth, she hoped that the cradle of liberalism and home of the industrial revolution would have a positive influence on her son. Prince Albert took Friedrich under his wing during his stay but it was Albert’s daughter, Victoria, Princess Royal, only eleven at the time, who guided the German prince around the Exhibition.

Friedrich only knew a few words of English, while Victoria could converse fluently in German. He was impressed by her mix of innocence, intellectual curiosity and simplicity, and their meeting proved to be a success. A regular exchange of letters between Victoria and Friedrich followed.

Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom

Friedrich proposed to Victoria in 1855, when she was 14 years old and he was 23. The betrothal of the young couple was announced on May 19, 1857, at Buckingham Palace and the Prussian Court, and their marriage took place on January 25, 1858 in the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace, London. Victoria too had received a liberal education and shared her husband’s views. Of the two, Victoria was the dominant one in the relationship.

The couple often resided at the Crown Prince’s Palace and had eight children: Wilhelm in 1859, Charlotte in 1860, Heinrich in 1862, Sigismund in 1864, Victoria in 1866, Waldemar in 1868, Sophia in 1870 and Margaret in 1872. Sigismund died at the age of 2 and Waldemar at age 11, and their eldest son, Wilhelm, suffered from a withered arm—probably due to his difficult and dangerous breech birth, although it could have also resulted from a mild case of cerebral palsy.

When his father succeeded to the Prussian throne as King Wilhelm I of Prussia on January 2, 1861, Friedrich became the Crown Prince 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.

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.

May 6, 1882: Birth of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany and Prussia

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Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein, Battle of Verdun, Butcher of Verdun, Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany and Prussia, Frederick Francis III of Mecklenburg-Strelitz-Schwerin, Frederick III of Germany, German Emperor, Potsdam, Prussia, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Vth Army, Wilhelm I of Germany, Wilhelm II of Germany, World War I, World War ii

Wilhelm, German Crown Prince (German: Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst; May 6, 1882 – July 20, 1951)

Wilhelm was born on May 6, 1882 in the Marmorpalais of Potsdam in the Province of Brandenburg. He was the eldest son of Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor (1859–1941), and his first wife, Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (1858–1921), the eldest daughter of Frederick VIII, future Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a great-niece of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Crown Prince Wilhelm’s parents: Emperor and Empress Wilhelm II and Augusta-Victoria

At the time of his birth he was third in line to the Imperial and Royal thrones of Germany and Prussia. His great-grandfather, German Emperor Wilhelm I, occupied the throne. His grandfather, Crown Prince Friedrich, was next in line followed by his own father, Wilhelm. Like his father, he was christened Friedrich Wilhelm but went by his second name. Wilhelm was also the great-grandson of Britain’s Queen Victoria through his grandmother, Princess Victoria, the Princess Royal, who was his father’s mother.

His birth sparked an argument between his parents and his grandmother Crown Princess Victoria. Before Wilhelm was born, his grandmother had expected to be asked to help find a nurse, but since her son did everything he could to snub her, the future Wilhelm II asked his aunt Helena to help. His mother was hurt and his grandmother, Queen Victoria, who was the younger Wilhelm’s great-grandmother, furious. When his great-grandfather and grandfather both died in 1888, six-year-old Wilhelm became the heir apparent to the German and Prussian thrones.

He was raised in the traditional manner of a Prussian prince; schooled by tutors and on his tenth birthday in 1892 he entered the First Guard Regiment and was given the Order of the Black Eagle by his father. As he grew older Wilhelm enjoyed the life of a Prussian military officer who was devoted to military life.

One of his great loves was an American singer Geraldine Farrar but she was not of the stature for him to be allowed to marry her. As a future Emperor-King, Wilhelm needed to follow the strict protocol of marrying a princess of equal rank to his.

Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

On July 5, 1904, Crown Prince Wilhelm met his future bride, Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (September 20, 1886 – May 6, 1954) the daughter of Grand Duke Friedrich-Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1851–1897) and his wife, Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia (1860–1922).

At this time her brother, Friedrich-Franz IV was the reigning Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and had recently married Princess Alexandra of Hanover and Cumberland. Upon their return to Schwerin Crown Prince Wilhelm arrived in the capitol of the Grand Duchy to deliver the couple a wedding present on behalf of his parents. This is where he met the Grand Duke’s 17 year old sister, Princess Cecilie. He immediately fell in love with her and much to the relief of his parents he had found someone of equal rank.

Wilhelm married Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin married in pomp and splendor on June 6, 1905. After their marriage, the couple lived at the Crown Prince’s Palace in Berlin in the winter and at the Marmorpalais in Potsdam. Their eldest son, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, was killed fighting for the German Army in France in 1940. However, during the early stages of his marriage the crown prince had a brief affair with the American opera singer Geraldine Farrar, and he later had a relationship with the dancer Mata Hari, as well as with actress Ossi Oswalda. Wilhelm and Cecilie had 6 children (4 sons and 2 daughter).

World War I

In 1914 Crown Prince Wilhelm’s life changed forever as the First World War broke out. Despite being in the military for the majority of his life he did not have much leadership experience but was given the command of the Vth Army. He oversaw the Verdun Offensive and was forever known by the French as the ‘Butcher of Verdun.” Crown Prince Wilhelm is on record as not being supportive of the war.

Wilhelm had been active in pushing German expansion, and sought a leading role on the outbreak of war. Despite being only thirty-two and having never commanded a unit larger than a regiment, the German Crown Prince was named commander of the 5th Army in August 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I.

However, under the well-established Prussian/German General Staff model then in use, inexperienced nobles who were afforded commands of large army formations were always provided with (and expected to defer to the advice of) experienced chiefs of staff to assist them in their duties. As Emperor, Wilhelm’s father instructed the Crown Prince to defer to the advice of his experienced chief of staff Konstantin Schmidt von Knobelsdorf.

In October 1914 Wilhelm gave his first interview to a foreign correspondent and the first statement to the press made by a German noble since the outbreak of war. He denied promoting military solutions to diplomatic problems, and said this in English:

Undoubtedly this is the most stupid, senseless and unnecessary war of modern times. It is a war not wanted by Germany, I can assure you, but it was forced on us, and the fact that we were so effectually prepared to defend ourselves is now being used as an argument to convince the world that we desired conflict.
— Crown Prince Wilhelm, Wiegand

From August 1915 onwards, Wilhelm was given the additional role as commander of the Army Group German Crown Prince. In 1916 his troops began the Verdun Offensive, a year long effort to destroy the French armies that would end in failure. Wilhelm relinquished command of the 5th Army in November of that year, but remained commander of the Army Group German Crown Prince for the rest of the war.

When Germany lost the war the Crown Prince went into exile on the island of Wieringen, in the Netherlands and was not popular in Germany. His father, Wilhelm II, also sought asylum in the Netherlands settling on an estate in Doorn.

1918–34

After the outbreak of the German Revolution in 1918, both Emperor Wilhelm II and the Crown Prince signed the document of abdication. On November 13, the former Crown Prince fled Germany, crossed into the Netherlands at Oudvroenhoven and was later interned on the island of Wieringen (now part of the mainland), near Den Helder.

In the autumn of 1921, Gustav Stresemann visited Wilhelm, and the former Crown Prince voiced an interest in returning to Germany, even as a private citizen. After Stresemann became chancellor in August 1923, Wilhelm was allowed to return after giving assurances that he would not engage in politics. He chose November 9 1923 for this, which infuriated his father, who had not been informed about the plans of his son and who felt the historic date to be inappropriate.

The dapper Crown Prince

However, at one point he did have political aspirations and desired to run for Reichspräsident against Paul von Hindenburg in 1932. This ambition was curtailed when his father threatened to disinherit him if he chose this path. The former Kaiser was never supportive of the democratic process and the thought of a Hohenzollern prince running for an election was an anathema to him. From 1919 until 1934 a great aspirtation for the former Crown prince was a restoration of the monarchy.

In June 1926, a referendum on expropriating the former ruling Princes of Germany without compensation failed and as a consequence, the financial situation of the Hohenzollern family improved considerably. A settlement between the state and the family made Cecilienhof property of the state but granted a right of residence to Wilhelm and Cecilie. This was limited in duration to three generations. The family also kept the ownership of Monbijou Palace in Berlin, Oels Castle in Silesia, and Rheinsberg Palace until 1945.

1934–51

The Crown Prince supported the rise of Hitler for a short time as did many German princes as Hitler used the promise of a restoration of the monarchy as a means to court their support. With the death of his friend, the former Chancellor, Kurt von Schleicher, in the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 enabled him to see Hitlers true colors. When Wilhelm realised that Hitler had no intention of restoring the monarchy, their relationship cooled. From that period on Crown Prince Wilhelm ceased his political activities and his pursuit for the Restoration of the monarchy. In the 1930s Wilhelm lived the life of a playboy enjoying fast cars and fast women, his relationship with his wife had long been over in everything but name.

On June 4, 1941 his father died at the age of 82, Wilhelm succeeded him as head of the House of Hohenzollern, the former German imperial dynasty. If the monarchy had survived he would have become German Emperor and King of Prussia as Wilhelm III. He was approached by those in the military and the diplomatic service who wanted to replace Hitler, but Wilhelm turned them down. After the ill-fated assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, Hitler nevertheless had Wilhelm placed under supervision by the Gestapo and had his home at Cecilienhof watched.

Three Generations, The Crown Prince Wilhelm, The Emperor and Prince Wilhelm of Prussia

During the war he kept a low profile. His eldest son, Prince Wilhelm, died in battle during the war. In January 1945, Wilhelm left Potsdam for Oberstdorf for a treatment of his gall bladder and liver problems. His wife Cecilie fled in early February 1945 as the Red Army drew closer to Berlin, but they had been living apart for a long time. At the end of the war, Wilhelm’s home, Cecilienhof, was seized by the Soviets. The palace was subsequently used by the Allied Powers as the venue for the Potsdam Conference.

At the end of the war, Wilhelm was captured by French Moroccan troops in Baad, Austria and was interned as a (World War I) war criminal. Transferred to Hechingen, Germany, he lived for a short time in Hohenzollern Castle under house arrest.

The Crown Prince on his deathbed

He lived alone in a small five-room house at Fürstenstraße 16 in Hechingen and fell into a depression. The world he grew up in was gone. Prussia, the sate that brought the Hohenzollerns to prominence, was formally dissolved on February 25, 1947 the Allied Control Council. From the end of the war to the end of his life Wilhelm lived as a private citizen with a small group of friends. On July 20, 1951 the chain smoking former heir to the glorious German Empire suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 69. He was succeeded by his second son, Prince Louis-Ferdinand, as head of the Imperial house and claimer to the vacant thrones of Germany and Prussia.

March 9, 1888: Death of German Emperor Wilhelm I, King of Prussia. Part III.

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Assassination, Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Frederick III of Germany, German Emperor, German Emperor and King of Prussia, German Empire, Otto von Bismark, Wilhelm I of Germany, Wilhelm II of Germany

Part III

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 Emperor, granted to him by the new constitution, Wilhelm left the task of governing mostly to his chancellor, limiting himself to representing the state and approving Bismarck’s every policy.

On May 11, 1878, a plumber named Emil Max Hödel failed in an assassination attempt on Wilhelm in Berlin. Hödel used a revolver to shoot at the then 81-year-old Emperor, while he and his daughter, Princess Louise, paraded in their carriage on Unter den Linden. When the bullet missed, Hödel ran across the street and fired another round which also missed. In the commotion one of the individuals who tried to apprehend Hödel suffered severe internal injuries and died two days later. Hödel was seized immediately. He was tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and executed on August 16, 1878.

A second attempt to assassinate Wilhelm was made on June 2, 1878 by Dr. Karl Nobiling. As the Emperor drove past in an open carriage, the assassin fired two shots from a shotgun at him from the window of a house off the Unter den Linden. Wilhelm was severely wounded and was rushed back to the palace. Nobiling shot himself in an attempt to commit suicide. While Wilhelm survived this attack, the assassin died from his self-inflicted wound three months later

Augusta, German Empress and Queen of Prussia

These attempts on Wilhelm’s life thus 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 18, 1878, for the purpose of fighting the socialist and working-class movement.

These laws deprived the Social Democratic Party of Germany of its legal status; prohibited all organizations, workers’ mass organizations and the socialist and workers’ press; decreed confiscation of socialist literature; and subjected Social-Democrats to reprisals. The laws were extended every 2–3 years. Despite the reprisals the Social Democratic Party increased its influence among the masses. Under pressure of the mass working-class movement the laws were repealed on October 1, 1890.

9th March 1888: Wilhelm I (1797 – 1888), king of Prussia and first German Emperor lying in state. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In August 1878, Russian Emperor Alexander II, Wilhelm’s nephew, wrote a letter (known as Ohrfeigenbrief) to him complaining about the treatment Russian interests had received at the Congress of Berlin. In response Wilhelm, his wife Augusta, and his son the Crown Prince Friedrich travelled to Russia (against the advice of Bismarck) to mend fences in face-to-face talks. However, by once again threatening to resign, Bismarck overcame the opposition of Wilhelm to a closer alliance with Austria. In October, Wilhelm agreed to the Dual Alliance (Zweibund) between Germany and Austria-Hungary, which was directed against Russia.

Despite the assassination attempts and Wilhelm’s unpopular role in the 1848 uprising, he and his wife were very popular, especially in their later years. Many people considered them the personification of “the old Prussia” and liked their austere and simple lifestyle. Wilhelm died on March 9, 1888 in Berlin after a short illness. He was aged 90 and he died 13 days before his 91st birthday. He was buried on March 16, at the Mausoleum at Park Charlottenburg.

The Year of the Three Emperors

Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia

1888 is called the Year of the Three Emperors, during the German Empire in German history. The year is considered to have memorable significance because of the deaths of two German Emperors, leading to a rapid succession of three monarchs within one year.

As we’ve seen, Emperor Wilhelm I died on March 9, 1888 after his long reign. He was then succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, who became known as German Emperor Friedrich III when he assumed the throne. Along with his military successes, Friedrich III was a reputed liberal and married to the United Kingdom’s liberal Princess Royal Victoria, eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia

However, by the time of his father’s death, Friedrich was 56 years old and had already developed a terminal case of cancer of the larynx before he assumed the German imperial throne. Friedrich attempted to have it treated, but it was not successful. Due to this illness and subsequent treatment, as Emperor, Friedrich III could not talk during his short reign and had to communicate through writing. Friedrich III still accomplished some of his duties as emperor despite his protracted illness; however, he did not have any lasting effect upon Germany and was unable to enact any of his liberal policies. He died after only 99 days of rule on June 15, 1888.

Wilhelm II,

Friedrich III’s son, Wilhelm II, then succeeded to the throne at age 29. Unlike his father, Wilhelm II did not have any liberal tendencies. Upon consolidating power as emperor, Wilhelm launched Germany on a bellicose “New Course” to cement its status as a respected world power. However, he frequently undermined this aim by making tactless, alarming public statements without consulting his ministers.

He also did much to alienate his country from the other Great Powers by initiating a massive build-up of the German Navy, challenging French control over Morocco, and backing the Austrian annexation of Bosnia in 1908. His turbulent reign ultimately culminated in his guarantee of military support to Austria-Hungary during the crisis of July 1914, resulting in the outbreak of World War I. Wilhelm II became a figurehead during World War I and Germany was ruled by military generals. In 1918 Wilhelm II was pressured into abdicating resulting in the fall of the German Empire at the end of war.

March 9, 1888: Death of German Emperor Wilhelm I, King of Prussia. Part II.

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Frederick III of Germany, German Chancellor, German Emperor, German Emperor and King of Prussia, German Empire, German titles, Imperial Germany, Otto von Bismark, Wilhelm I of Germany

Part II

Wilhelm I, German Emperor

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.

During the Revolutions of 1848 that swept across Europe, including Germany, Wilhelm successfully crushed a revolt in Berlin that was aimed at Friedrich Wilhelm IV. The use of cannons made him unpopular at the time and earned him the nickname Kartätschenprinz (Prince of Grapeshot). Indeed, he became so unpopular had to flee to England for a while, disguised as a merchant. In a year he returned and helped to put down an uprising in Baden, where he commanded the Prussian army. In October 1849, he became governor-general of Rhineland and Westfalia, with a seat at the Electoral Palace in Koblenz.

During their time at Koblenz, Wilhelm and his wife entertained liberal scholars such as the historian Maximilian Wolfgang Duncker, August von Bethmann-Hollweg and Clemens Theodor Perthes. Wilhelm’s opposition to liberal ideas gradually softened a little.

In 1857 Friedrich Wilhelm IV suffered a stroke and became mentally disabled for the rest of his life. In January 1858, Wilhelm became Prince Regent for his brother, initially only temporarily but after October it became permanent and he swore an oath of office on the Prussian constitution and promised to preserve it “solid and inviolable”. Wilhelm appointed a liberal, Karl Anton von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, as Minister President and thus initiated what became known as the “New Era” in Prussia, although there were conflicts between William and the liberal majority in the Landtag on matters of reforming the armed forces.

On January 2, 1861, Friedrich Wilhelm IV died and Wilhelm ascended the throne as Wilhelm I of Prussia. In July, a student from Leipzig attempted to assassinate William, but he was only lightly injured. Like Friedrich I of Prussia (1701-) 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 Friedrich Wilhelm IV’s wish, expressed in His last will, that he should abrogate the constitution. Wilhelm inherited a conflict between Friedrich Wilhelm IV and the liberal Landtag. He was considered to be politically neutral as he intervened less in politics than his brother. In 1862 the Landtag refused an increase in the military budget needed to pay for the already implemented reform of the army, which involved raising the members of the peacetime army and to keep the length of military service (raised in 1856 from two years) at three years.

Otto Von Bismarck

When his request, backed by his Minister of War Albrecht von Roon was refused, Wilhelm first considered abdicating, but his son, the Crown Prince Friedrich, advised strongly against it. Then, on the advice of Roon, Wilhelm appointed Otto von Bismarck to the office of Minister President in order to force through the proposals. According to the Prussian constitution, the Minister President was responsible solely to the king, not to the Landtag. Bismarck, a ultra-conservative Prussian Junker and loyal friend of the king, liked to see his working relationship with Wilhelm as that of a vassal to his feudal superior. Nonetheless, it was Bismarck who effectively directed the politics, domestic as well as foreign; on several occasions he gained William’s assent by threatening to resign.

The German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on June 8, 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, after being alluded to in Article 6 of the 1814 Treaty of Paris. The German Confederation replaced the ancient Holy Roman Empire that had been dissolved by Emperor Franz II under the pressure of the rise of Napoleon.

Creating a unified German State was the goal of many German statesman. The Bourgeois revolutions of 1848, which tired to give the Imperial Crown to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV was associated with highly educated and middle class subjects but this attempt was crushed in favor of peasants, artisans and Otto von Bismarck’s pragmatic Realpolitik.

Bismarck sought to extend Hohenzollern hegemony throughout the German states. Bismarck knew that to do so meant the unification of the German states and the exclusion of Prussia’s main German rival, Austria, from the subsequent German Empire. He envisioned a conservative Germany dominated by Prussia with Wilhelm as its Emperor. Three wars led to military successes and helped to persuade German people to do this: the Second Schleswig War against Denmark in 1864, the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, and the Franco-Prussian War against France in 1870–71.

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

Wilhelm was the commander-in-chief of the Prussian forces in the Second Schleswig War against Denmark in 1864 and the Austro-Prussian War in 1866. After the latter was won by Prussia, Wilhelm wanted to march on to Vienna and annex Austria, but was dissuaded from doing so by Bismarck and Crown Prince Friedrich. These actions were not part of Bismarck’s plan.

Bismarck wanted to end the war quickly, so as to allow Prussia to ally with Austria if it needed to at a later date; Crown Prince Friedrich was also appalled by the casualties and wanted a speedy end to hostilities. During a heated discussion, Bismarck threatened to resign if Wilhelm continued to Vienna. In the end Bismarck got his way. Wilhelm had to content himself with becoming the de facto ruler of the northern two-thirds of Germany. Prussia annexed several of Austria’s allies north of the Main, as well as Schleswig-Holstein. It also forced Saxe-Lauenburg into a personal union with Prussia (which became a full union in 1878).

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. Wilhelm assumed the Bundespräsidium, the presidium 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. Wilhelm also 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.

During the Franco-Prussian War, the South German states joined the North German Confederation. The country was renamed Deutsches Reich (the German Empire), and the title of Bundespräsidium was amended with the title Deutscher Kaiser (German Emperor). This was decided on by the legislative organs, the Reichstag and Bundesrat, and Wilhelm agreed to this on December 18, in the presence of a Reichstag delegation. The new constitution and the title of Emperor came into effect on January 1, 1871.

The German Emperor (German: Deutscher Kaiser) became the official title of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the German Empire. The title German Emperor was in direct contrast to both Emperor of the Germans or even Emperor of Germany (German: Kaiser von Deutschland).

Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Bismarck and Wilhelm continually discussed the imperial title even up until the proclamation of Wilhelm as emperor at the Palace of Versailles during the Siege of Paris. The title “German Emperor” was carefully chosen by Otto von Bismarck, Wilhelm accepted this title grudgingly having preferred “Emperor of Germany.” However, that would have signaled a territorial sovereignty and superiority over all German monarchs and this was particularly unacceptable to the South German monarchs, as well as a claim to lands outside his reign (Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, etc.).

Even the title “Emperor of the Germans”, which initially had been proposed at the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849, was ruled out by Wilhelm as he considered himself a king who ruled by divine right and chosen “By the Grace of God”, not by the people in a popular monarchy.
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January 25, 1858: The wedding of Princess Victoria, Princess Royal and Prince Friedrich of Prussia at the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace in London.

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Frederick III of Germany, Kingdom of Prussia, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, royal wedding, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland., Victoria Princess Royal

Victoria, Princess Royal (Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa; November 21, 1840 – August 5, 1901) was German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to German Emperor Friedrich III. She was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and was created Princess Royal in 1841. She was the mother of German Emperor Wilhelm II.

In the German Confederation, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach were among the personalities with whom Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were allies. The British sovereign also had regular epistolary contact with her cousin Augusta since 1846. The revolution that broke out in Berlin in 1848 further strengthened the links between the two royal couples by requiring the heir presumptive to the Prussian throne to find shelter for three months in the British court.

In 1851, William returned to London with his wife and two children (Friedrich and Louise), on the occasion of The Great Exhibition. For the first time, Victoria met her future husband, and despite the age difference (she was 11 years old and he was 19), they got along very well. To promote the contact between the two, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert asked their daughter to guide Frederick through the exhibition, and during the visit the princess was able to converse in perfect German while the prince was able to say only a few words in English. The meeting was therefore a success, and years later, Prince Friedrich recalled the positive impression that Victoria made on him during this visit, with her mixture of innocence, intellectual curiosity and simplicity.

It was not only his encounter with little Victoria, however, that positively impressed Frederick during the four weeks of his English stay. The young Prussian prince shared his liberal ideas with the Prince Consort. Frederick was fascinated by the relationships among the members of the British royal family. In London, court life was not as rigid and conservative as in Berlin, and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s relationship with their children was very different to Wilhelm and Augusta’s relationship with theirs.

After Friedrich returned to Germany, he began a close correspondence with Victoria. Behind this nascent friendship was the desire of Queen Victoria and her husband to forge closer ties with Prussia. In a letter to her uncle, the king of the Belgians, the British sovereign conveyed the desire that the meeting between her daughter and the Prussian prince lead to a closer relationship between the two young people.

In 1855, Prince Friedrich made another trip to Great Britain and visited Victoria and her family in Scotland at Balmoral Castle. The purpose of his trip was to see the Princess Royal again, to ensure that she would be a suitable consort for him. In Berlin, the response to this journey to Britain was far from positive. In fact, many members of the Prussian court wanted to see the heir presumptive’s son marry a Russian grand duchess. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who had allowed his nephew to marry a British princess, even had to keep his approval a secret because his own wife showed strong Anglophobia.

At the time of Friedrich second visit, Victoria was 15 years old. A little shorter than her mother, the princess was 1.50 m tall (4 feet 11 inches) and Queen Victoria considered her far from the ideal of beauty of the time. Queen Victoria was concerned that the Prussian prince would not find her daughter sufficiently attractive. However, when I look at pictures of the Princess Royal at this time, personally I think she’s very pretty.

Nevertheless, from the first dinner with the prince, it was clear to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert that the mutual sympathy of the two young people that began in 1851 was still vivid. In fact, after only three days with the royal family, Friedrich asked Victoria’s parents permission to marry their daughter. They were thrilled by the news, but gave their approval on condition that the marriage should not take place before Vicky’s seventeenth birthday.

Once this condition was accepted, the engagement of Victoria and Frederick was publicly announced on May 17, 1856. The immediate reaction in Great Britain was disapproval. The English public complained about the Kingdom of Prussia’s neutrality during the Crimean War of 1853-1856. The Times characterized the Hohenzollern as a “miserable dynasty” that pursued an inconsistent and unreliable foreign policy, with the maintenance of the throne depending solely on Russia. The newspaper also criticised the failure of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to respect the political guarantees given to the population during the revolution of 1848. In the German Confederation, the reactions to the announcement of the engagement were mixed: several members of the Hohenzollern family and conservatives opposed it, and liberal circles welcomed the proposed union with the British crown.

Convinced that the marriage of a British princess to the second-in-line to the Prussian throne would be regarded as an honour by the Hohenzollerns, Prince Albert insisted that his daughter retain her title of Princess Royal after the wedding. However, owing to the very anti-British and pro-Russian views of the Berlin court, the prince’s decision only aggravated the situation.

The question of where to hold the marriage ceremony raised the most criticism. To the Hohenzollerns, it seemed natural that the nuptials of the future Prussian king would be held in Berlin. However, Queen Victoria insisted that her eldest daughter must marry in her own country, and in the end, she prevailed. The wedding of Victoria and Friedrich took place at the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace in London on January 25, 1858.

January 18, 1871: Proclamation of the German Empire.

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Emperor of Germany, Emperor of the Germans, Frankfurt Parliament, Frederick III of Germany, German Chancellor, German Emperor, German Empire, Great Hall of Mirrors, Otto von Bismark, Palace of Versailles, Revolutions of 1848, Wilhelm I of Germany, Wilhelm II of Germany

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 Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and King Friedrich Wilhelm III, himself son of King Friedrich Wilhelm II, 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 the King of Prussia.

Ever since the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806 uniting the German lands into a modern Nation State, a new empire, was the goal of many statesman as well as the populace of the multi German states that had made up the Holy Roman Empire.

The first attempt to create the Second German Reich occurred in 1848. In the wake of the revolutions of 1848 that swept across Europe, where the people of the many autocratic monarchies demanded that their governments be ruled by laws granted in a Constitution, the liberal Frankfurt Parliament offered the title “Emperor of the Germans” (German: Kaiser der Deutschen) to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia in 1849 but he declined it citing that it was “not the Parliament’s to give.” Friedrich Wilhelm further stated he would not “stoop down in the gutter to pick up a crown” for he strongly believed that only the German princes had the right to make such an offer, in accordance with the traditions of the Holy Roman Empire.

German Emperor Wilhelm I

Despite this false start creating a German Empire was still the ultimate goal. After a series of wars orchestrated by the ultra conservative Otto von Bismarck, Minister President of Prussia and Chancellor of the North German Confederation; which culminated in uniting the North and South German Confederations at the end of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), King Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor in the Great Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles on January18, 1871. However, creating the title of Emperor and convincing the King of Prussia to take the crown proved almost as difficult as forging the Empire itself.

The German Emperor (German: Deutscher Kaiser [ˈdɔʏtʃɐ ˈkaɪzɐ]) became the official title of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the German Empire. The title German Emperor was in direct contrast to both Emperor of the Germans or even Emperor of Germany (German: Kaiser von Deutschland).

The title was carefully chosen by Otto von Bismarck, after a discussion which continued until the proclamation of King Wilhelm I of Prussia as emperor at the Palace of Versailles during the Siege of Paris. Wilhelm accepted this title grudgingly on January 18 having preferred “Emperor of Germany.” However, that would have signaled a territorial sovereignty and superiority over all German monarchs and this was particularly unacceptable to the South German monarchs, as well as a claim to lands outside his reign (Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, etc.).

“Emperor of the Germans”, as had been proposed at the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849, was ruled out by Wilhelm as he considered himself a king who ruled by divine right and chosen “By the Grace of God”, not by the people in a popular monarchy. This was an identical stance held by his brother, Friedrich Wilhelm IV. But more in general, Wilhelm was unhappy about a crown that looked artificial (like Napoléon’s), having been created by a constitution. He was afraid that it would overshadow the Prussian crown.

Since 1867, the presidency of the North German Confederation had been a hereditary office of the kings of Prussia. The new constitution of January 1, 1871, following Reichstag and Bundesrat decisions on December 9/10, legally transformed the North German Confederation into the German Empire. This empire was a federal monarchy; the emperor was 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).

German Emperor Friedrich III

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—something Wilhelm II discovered in the aftermath of World War I. He erroneously believed that he ruled the empire in personal union with Prussia. With the war’s end, he conceded that he could not remain emperor, but initially thought he could at least retain his Prussian crown.

However, his last chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, knew this was legally impossible, and announced Wilhelm II’s abdication of both thrones on November 9, 1918, two days before the Armistice. Realizing his situation was untenable, Wilhelm II went into exile in the Netherlands later that night. It was not until November 28 that Wilhelm II formally gave up all claim to “the throne of Prussia and to the German imperial throne connected therewith.”

German Emperor Wilhelm II

Full titles of the German Emperor

The German Emperors had an extensive list of titles and claims that reflected the geographic expanse and diversity of the lands ruled by the House of Hohenzollern.

His Imperial and Royal Majesty Wilhelm I, By the Grace of God, German Emperor and King of Prussia; Margrave of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of Hohenzollern; sovereign and supreme Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz; Grand Duke of the Lower Rhine and of Posen; Duke of Saxony, of Westphalia, of Angria, of Pomerania, Lunenburg, Holstein and Schleswig, of Magdeburg, of Bremen, of Guelders, Cleves, Jülich and Berg, Duke of the Wends and the Kassubes, of Crossen, Lauenburg and Mecklenburg; Landgrave of Hesse and Thuringia; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia; Prince of Orange; Prince of Rügen, of East Friesland, of Paderborn and Pyrmont, of Halberstadt, Münster, Minden, Osnabrück, Hildesheim, of Verden, Cammin, Fulda, Nassau and Moers; Princely Count of Henneberg; Count of Mark, of Ravensberg, of Hohenstein, Tecklenburg and Lingen, of Mansfeld, Sigmaringen and Veringen; Lord of Frankfurt.

This date in History: December 3, 1838. Birth of Princess Louise of Prussia.

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Frederick III of Germany, German Empire, Grand Duchy of Baden, Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden, Grand Duke Frederick II of Baden, Otto von Bismark, Princess Louise of Prussia, Queen Victoria of Sweden, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Wilhelm I of Germany, Wilhelm II of Germany

Princess Louise of Prussia (December 3, 1838 – April 23, 1923)

Princess Louise of Prussia in 1856, portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

Louise Marie Elisabeth was born on December 3, 1838 to Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (future German Emperor Wilhelm I) and his wife Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the second daughter of Carl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, a daughter of Emperor Paul I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. Louise was named after her grandmothers, Louise, Queen of Prussia and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia and was known as “Vivi” in her family.

Her parents were an unhappy and tense couple, and Louise had only one other sibling, Prince Friedrich (future German Emperor Friedrich III, “Fritz”) and she was the aunt of Wilhelm II of Germany. Louise was seven years younger than her brother and two years older than his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, the daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Upon her birth, her mother Augusta declared that her duty in perpetuating the Hohenzollern dynasty was complete.

While Wilhelm showed some outward affection to his only son, he lavished attention on Louise, and often his unexpected visits to her schoolroom resulted in them playing together on the floor. Mother and daughter however were not close, with Augusta’s presence filling Louise up with awe; one account states that when Augusta encountered her daughter, Louise “involuntarily drew herself up to her full height, and sat stiff and constrained as for her portrait, while she inwardly trembled lest her answers should prove incorrect”.

Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden

Louise was betrothed to Friedrich, Prince Regent of Baden in 1854, and they married September 20, 1856 at Neues Palais in Potsdam. Friedrich had been regent because of his brother Ludwig’s insanity, and was proclaimed Grand Duke of Baden when doctors declared that there was no chance of recovery. As the only daughter of the Prussian crown prince (and later German Emperor), their marriage caused Baden to gain a great deal of importance, and even more so once the German Empire was founded.

Within a few weeks of their marriage, the new grand duchess was already pregnant with their first child, Hereditary Grand Duke Friedrich (future Grand Duke Friedrich II). Louise was a happy wife and mother, writing to a friend that “since we last met, my life has become so much more beautiful, more precious, to me, my happiness is so much richer and deeper than before”.

Grand Duke and Duchess of Baden

Louise and Friedrich disliked the stiffness of the Karlsruhe court, and gladly escaped to their castle on the island of Mainau. They were popular in Baden, and everyone spoke with affectionate pride of their grand duke and duchess in Constance, where the couple had a summer residence.

The couple had three children.

1. Grand Duke Frederick II of Baden (9 July 1857 – 9 August 1928), married Princess Hilda of Luxembourg; no issue
2. Queen Victoria of Sweden (7 August 1862 – 4 April 1930), married King Gustav V of Sweden; had issue
3. Prince Ludwig of Baden (12 June 1865 – 23 February 1888), died unmarried; no issue

Louise was a great friend of Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse, her sister-in-law’s younger sister; i.e., Alice was the sister of Crown Victoria of Prussia (Louise’s brother Friedrich’s wife) both sisters being daughters of Queen Victoria. The two often visited each other. In Queen Victoria’s letters, she and Frederick were always referred to with pleasure or sympathy as good Fritz and Louise of Baden. Though friends as young girls, Louise and her sister-in-law Victoria, Princess Royal (“Vicky”) always had a “none-too-friendly rivalry”, particularly when comparing their children: while Vicky’s eldest son Crown Prince Wilhelm was born with a deformed arm, Louise apparently could not resist bragging that her three children were healthier and bigger at the same age.

Louise doted on her nephew however, and Vicky wrote to her mother that the grand duchess “spoilt him quite dreadfully”. Often supporting him against his parents, her and Wilhelm’s close relationship would carry on to his adulthood, and he would later write in his memoirs that Louise “possessed considerable political ability and a great gift for organisation, and she understood excellently how to put right men in the right place and how to employ their strength serviceably for the general benefit”.

The Austro-Prussian War caused a degree of friction between Baden and Prussia, as the former, despite their close familial connections to Berlin, chose to support the Austrians. As the daughter of the Prussian king, Baden was not included in the list of states forced to pay excessive indemnities to Prussia. Her father’s strongly anti-Catholic chancellor Otto von Bismarck disliked Baden however, as it was one of Germany’s most important Catholic states; he saw its religion as threatening the stability of the new German Empire. Suspicious of the grand duchess’ influence on her father, he did his best to block her request for clemency on behalf of Alsace Catholics to the emperor.

Within two years, four of Louise’s closest family members died – her father, brother, younger son and mother. Vicky, now Dowager Empress Friedrich, took sympathy on Louise and persuaded her mother to confer Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, First Class, on her.

Grand Duke Friedrich died on September 28, 1907, and their eldest son succeeded as Grand Duke Friedrich II. That same year, their only daughter Victoria succeeded as Queen consort of Sweden, as the spouse of King Gustaf V of Sweden and Norway, the son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway and Sofia of Nassau.

Louise, now Dowager Grand Duchess of Baden, lived to see her duchy become absorbed into the new state of Germany under the Revolution of 1918-19 that took place at the end of World War I. At the time of the revolution, her daughter, Queen Victoria of Sweden, was visiting her. After the abdication of the German emperor, riots spread in Karlsruhe on November 11. The son of a courtier led a group of soldiers up to the front of the palace, followed by a great crowd of people, where a few shots were fired. Louise, as well as the rest of the family, left the palace the backway and left for the Zwingenberg palace in the Neckar valley. By permission of the new government, they were allowed to stay at the Langenstein Palace, which belonged to a Swedish count, Douglas.

During these events, Louise was said to have kept her calm and never uttered a word of complaint. The government gave the order that the former Grand Ducal family was to be protected, and that Langenstein be excepted from housing the returning soldiers, because Louise’s daughter, the Queen of Sweden, was in their company and Baden should not do anything to offend Sweden. In 1919, the family requested permission from the government to reside in Mainau, and was met with the answer that they were now private citizens and could do as they wished.

The new republican government gave her permission to live out the rest of her life in retirement at Baden-Baden, where she died on April 24, 1923, (aged 84). She was the last surviving non-morganatic grandchild of Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia.

This date in History: August 5, 1901. Death of Empress Friedrich.

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Empress Frederick, Frederick III of Germany, German Empire, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Kingdom of Prussia, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Victoria Princess Royal, Wilhelm I of Germany, Wilhelm II of Germany

YVictoria, Princess Royal (Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa; November 21, 1840 – August 5, 1901) was German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to German Emperor Friedrich III. She was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and was created Princess Royal in 1841. She was the mother of Wilhelm II, German Emperor.

Educated by her father in a politically liberal environment, Victoria was betrothed at the age of sixteen to Prince Friedrich of Prussia the eldest son of German Emperor Wilhelm I and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. The engagement of Victoria and Friedrich was publicly announced on May 17, 1856. The immediate reaction in Great Britain was disapproval. The English public complained about the Kingdom of Prussia’s neutrality during the Crimean War of 1853-1856. The Times newspaper characterized the Hohenzollern as a “miserable dynasty” that pursued an inconsistent and unreliable foreign policy, with the maintenance of the throne depending solely on Russia.

The newspaper also criticised the failure of King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV to respect the political guarantees given to the population during the revolution of 1848. In the German Confederation, the reactions to the announcement of the engagement were mixed: several members of the Hohenzollern family and conservatives opposed it, and liberal circles welcomed the proposed union with the British crown.

Victoria supported her husband in his Liberal views that Prussia and the later German Empire should become a constitutional monarchy on the British model. Criticised for this attitude and for her English origins, Victoria suffered ostracism by the Hohenzollerns and the Berlin court. This isolation increased after the arrival of Arch-Conservative Otto von Bismarck (one of her most staunch political opponents) to power in 1862.

Victoria was empress for only a few months, during which she had little opportunity to influence the policy of the German Empire. Friedrich III died in 1888 – just 99 days after his accession – from laryngeal cancer and was succeeded by their son Wilhelm II, who had much more conservative views than his parents. This political division between mother and son resulted in an often difficult and combative relationship.

Crown Princess Victoria with her eldest son Wilhelm

After her husband’s death, she became widely known as Empress Friedrich. The empress dowager then settled in Kronberg im Taunus, where she built Friedrichshof, a castle, named in honour of her late husband.

Victoria was increasingly isolated after the weddings of her younger daughters. In fact, Victoria was completely sequestered from public life by Wilhelm II. With the death of her mother-in-law, the Empress Dowager Augusta in 1890, Victoria had hopes to succeed her as patron of the German Red Cross and the Vaterländischer Frauenverein (Association of Patriotic Women). However, it was her daughter-in-law, Empress Augusta Victoria, who assumed the presidency of these entities, which caused a deep bitterness in Victoria.

In late 1898, physicians diagnosed the empress dowager with inoperable breast cancer, forcing her to stay in bed for long periods. The cancer spread to her spine by the autumn of 1900, and as she worried about her personal letters (in which she detailed her concern over Germany’s future under her son) falling into the hands of the emperor, she requested that the letters be brought back to Great Britain in a cloak-and-dagger operation by Frederick Ponsonby, the private secretary of her brother King Edward VII of the United Kingdom who was making his final visit to his terminally ill sister in Kronberg on February 23, 1901. These letters were later edited by Ponsonby and put into context by his background commentary to form the book that was published in 1928.

Victoria died of breast and spinal cancer on August 5 1901, nearly seven months after the death of her mother, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, on January 22, 1901. She was 60 years old.

She was buried next to her husband in the royal mausoleum of the Friedenskirche at Potsdam on August 13, 1901. Her tomb has a recumbent marble effigy of herself on top. Her two sons who died in childhood, Sigismund and Waldemar, are buried in the same mausoleum.