#kaiser wilhelm ii

[victoriademedici]

royal men + text post memes (insp.)

[theimperialcourt]

Kaiser Wilhelm II, King George V and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught during King Edward VII's funeral procession, 1910

[spghtrbry]

[teatimeatwinterpalace]

27 January 1859 | Birth of Kaiser Wilhelm II  

The husband of the young mother provides us with a poignant portrayal of her intense suffering. After Martin had examined the Princess, Fritz asked him for a full and frank account of what could be expected. Martin explained that while Vicky’s life was not in danger, that of her child was. Fritz thereupon instructed the doctors ‘only to think of the mother, but was informed that it was medical practice to try save both mother and child’. The Prince nevertheless prepared himself ‘to witness the birth of a stillborn child’. He vividly describes the pitiful condition of the mother, who was unware of how dangerous the situation was for her baby: 

Vicky’s pain, as well as her horrible screams and wails, became ever more severe; however, whenever she was granted a respite from her suffering, she would ask for forgiveness from everyone for her screaming and impatience, but she could not help herself. When the final stage of labour began, I had to try with all my might to hold her head in place, so that she would not strain her neck over much. Every contraction meant a real fight between her and me, and even today [29 January] my arms still feel quite weak. To prevent her from gnashing & bitting, we made sure there was a handkerchief in her mouth at all times. Occasionally I had to use all my strengh to remove her fingers from her mouth, & also place my own fingers in her mouth. With the strength of a giant, she was at times able to hold off 2 people, & thus the awful torture escalated until the moment of birth was so near that complete anaesthesia with chloroform was undertaken... Vicky was laid at right angles on the bed; she let forth one horrible, long scream, & was then anaesthetised.’

Fritz describes how, upon hearing not a cry from the newborn, he sank ‘in a half-faint’ onto the bed next to Vicky, whom he had been holding in his arms during the entire ordeal. Martin’s tone of voice as he uttered the words ‘It’s a prince’ seemed to confirm the father’s worst fears, and Fritz thought that what the doctor meant was: ‘such a shame - a boy on top of everything else’, until suddenly heard the child crying in the next room. ‘The sound cut through me like an electric shock; Martin said I should go in, Countess Perponcher took Vicky in her arms, & I staggered, in a half-faint, into the next room where the baby was in the bath, & first I fell into Mama’s arms, & then I sank to my knees. The baby cried again when he was given a further number of slaps, and everything seemed to indicate that all was well, indeed, wonderful, & I was assured that he would live!’

Young Wilhelm: The Kaiser’s Early Life by John C. G. Röhl.

[kaiserrreich]

October 22 1858: The Birth of Kaiserin Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein

Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein was the eldest daughter of Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Lagenburg. Tragedy struck only a week after her birth when her elder brother died from illness. In 1860, her younger sister, Caroline Mathilda, was born. Who was regarded as prettier and a brighter personality than the chubby, serious, submissive Augusta Victoria. Soon Augusta’s mother would give birth to another boy, Gerhard, who died in infancy. Their next male heir and fifth child, Ernst Gunther, was a perfectly healthy baby boy. Augusta would have two other sisters, Louise Sophie in April 1866 and Feodora Adelaide in July 1874.

In her family, she was known affectionately as “Dona.” Augusta’s obedient nature was noted on early in her youth, even by her future mother-in-law Crown Princess Frederick. ‘It is strange how good some children are – and how little trouble they give,’ she wrote to her mother, Queen Victoria, when Augusta Victoria was nine years old.  ‘Ada’s children are patterns of obedience, gentleness – the best of dispositions’. (1)

The thought of a match between Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein and Prince Wilhelm of Prussia was contemplated ever since they were children, as noted by the prince (future Kaiser, ex-Kaiser) later in the future. But was never taken seriously until after the prince was rejected by Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine. Perhaps, Wilhelm was seeking for a rebound in Dona and it was a success. As the couple married on the 27th of February 1881. The marriage has been regarded to be happy but not without struggle. As Wilhelm quickly grew bored at his new wife’s longing for a simple domestic lifestyle, having multiple affairs throughout the years. And in the beginning only saw Dona as a broodmare. It was only after an ear infection gone bad, where Augusta stayed by Wilhelm’s side throughout the duration of it did he start to see her in an adjusted light, but continued to be unfaithful to her.

She bore him seven children:

Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, Crown Prince of Prussia (1882-1951)

Prince Eitel Friedrich (1883-1942)

Prince Adalbert (1884-1948)

Prince August Wilhelm (1887-1949)

Prince Oskar (1888-1958)

Prince Joachim (1890-1920)

Princess Viktoria Louise of Prussia (1892-1980)

Her days as Empress, she was regarded by the court as a prudish, a stickler for rules who punished anyone for the simplest gesture she deemed to be “immoral.” She was deemed by many as unremarkable and plain with a gaudy and tacky sense of fashion. With Nicholas II remarking to his mother, the Dowager Empress. That she ‘did her best to be pleasant but looked awful in sumptuous gowns completely lacking in taste; in particular the hats she wore in the evening were frightful.’

Though as overbearing and a nuisance as she was in public life and a part of her private life, by some family members, such as Empress Frederick (with whom she had a very heated feud with and who Augusta enjoyed snubbing frequently) who wrote to her daughter, Sophie, she was characterized as: ‘very grand and stiff and cold and condescending at first, but became much nicer afterwards.  Perhaps it was also partly shyness.’ and by her younger sister, Louise Sophie that when she was ‘not bowing to the will of her autocratic husband she was easy and indulgent’. “Her cousin Alice of Albany, who was sometimes mildly critical of her older relations, found her ‘most affable and kind’.”(1)

She was her husband’s biggest supporter throughout everything (for better and for worse) and was crushed when she was stripped of her titles as German Empress and Queen of Prussia after the war. Her health, which was already declining ever since the 1890s (causing her to miscarry twice) went down a rapid decline in the 1920s. And it had worsened when she had heard of the news of the death of her youngest son, Prince Joachim. She passed away on the 11th April 1921, in spite of her personal flaws, she was a beloved Empress by the German people and her popularity outshined her husband’s. Thousands lined up to see her off, where she would be buried at the Temple of Antiquities in the gardens near the New Palais in Postdam. Her husband, the ex Kaiser Wilhelm II was forbidden to cross into Germany to see his wife off for the final time.

Her room in Huis Doorn was soon turned into a shrine dedicated to the late Empress. With Wilhelm ordering for the room to regularly be cleaned with flowers and a cross draped over the bed. “Once a week, for the rest of his twenty years, he would retire there on his own, to go and mourn her memory.“ (1)

Wilhelm adhered to his late wife’s wishes for him to marry someone else when she was gone. When only a year later he would marry Princess Hermine of Reuss. He passed away in June of 1941, at age 82, 20 years after her passing.

Source : The Last German Empress

[napbon225]

[romanovsonelastdance]

Kira Kirillovna with her husband Louis Ferdinand of Prussia and his grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm.

[foreverinthepagesofhistory]

The 8 children of Emperor Fredrick III of Germany and Victoria Princess Royal (edit)

Wilhelm, Charlotte, Henry, Sigismund, Viktoria, Waldemar, Sophia, Margaret

(made by me using iMovie)

[krasivaa]

Young Prince Wilhelm, future Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia (AKA Wilhelm II).

[ladygoehnio]

Family trip🏄‍♂️(I suppose that dog was Caesar!)

[pokadandelion]

Wilhelm II German Emperor and King of Prussia

[spghtrbry]

wilhelm the best man ever

[tintenspion]

Historical proof that Manfred von Richthofen was thicc

So uh I feel like sharing this to the emptiness of the internet but a lot of people described MvR as “chubby” so ill just list those accounts here.

First of all, he himself said he is “as big as a barrel” after gaining some weight in the trenches.

Then apparently Wilhelm II called him chubby when they first met “Sie sehen so dick und munter aus” (You look so chubby and happy). Essentially he called him a heckin’ wholesome chonker. [Edit: Yes, in the text he is talking about a meeting with Ludendorff, however he compares his meeting with Ludendorff with his meeting with Wilhelm II.]

Third is that apparently a family friend saw this picture and said “Das ist aber ein Moppelchen” (Moppelchen ist kind of a cutesy word for a chubby person) And my source is “trust me bro” because someone I trust a lot told me lmao.

[kaiserrreich]

Inspired by: ✨

[fashionsfromhistory]

Wilhelm II, July 1861 (The MET)

[hillwoodhouse]

Porcelain tableware of Kaiser Wilhelm II