William I, German Emperor
William I (William Frederick Louis) (
March 22 1797 â€"
March 9 1888), (
German:
Wilhelm I., Deutscher Kaiser und König von Preußen), ruled
January 181871 â€"
9 March1888 as German Emperor and
2 January1861 â€"
9 March1888 as
King of
Prussia.
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Prince William riding with the painter, Franz Krüger, 1836. |
As the second son of
Frederick William III and
Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, William was not expected to ascend to the throne and hence received little education.
He served in the army from
1814 onward, fought against
Napoleon I of France, and was reportedly a very brave soldier. He also became an excellent diplomat by engaging in diplomatic missions after
1815.
In
1848 he successfully crushed a revolt that was aimed at his elder brother
King Frederick William IV. The use of cannons made him unpopular at the time and earned him the nickname "Kartätschenprinz" (Prince of
Grapeshot).
In
1857 Frederick William IV suffered from a
stroke and became mentally disabled for the rest of his life. In January
1858 William became
Prince Regent for his brother.
On
January 2,
1861 Frederick William died and William ascended the throne as William I of Prussia.He inherited a conflict between the King and the liberal
parliament. He was considered a politically neutral person as he intervened less in politics than his brother. He nevertheless found a conservative solution for the conflict: he appointed
Otto von Bismarck to the office of
Prime Minister. According to the Prussian constitution, the Prime Minister was responsible solely to the king, not to parliament. Bismarck liked to see his work relationship with William as that of a vassal to his feudal superior. Nonetheless it was Bismarck who effectively directed the politics, interior as well as foreign; on several occasions he gained William's assent by threatening to resign.
In the aftermath of the
Franco-Prussian War William was proclaimed
German Emperor on
January 18,
1871 in
Versailles Palace. The title "
German Emperor" was carefully chosen by Bismarck and under discussion until (and after) the day of the proclamation. William accepted this title grudgingly as he would have preferred "
Emperor of Germany" which however was unacceptable to the federated monarchs, and would also have signalled a claim to lands outside of his reign (mainly
Austria, even
Switzerland,
Luxemburg etc.). The title "Emperor of the Germans", as proposed in 1848, was ruled out from the start anyway, as he considered himself chosen "
by the grace of God", not by the people as in a democratic republic.
By this ceremony, the
North German Confederation (1867-1871) was transformed into the
German Empire ("Kaiserreich", 1871-1918). This Empire was a
federal state; the emperor was
head of state and
president (
primus inter pares - first among equals) of the federated monarchs (the kings of
Bavaria,
Württemberg,
Saxony, the
grand dukes of
Baden and
Hesse, and so on, not to forget the
senates of the
free cities of
Hamburg,
Lübeck and
Bremen).
In
May 11,
1878,
Max Hödel attempted to assassinate Kaiser William I in
Berlin, but his attempt failed. A second attempt was made on
June 2,
1878, by the anarchist
Karl Nobiling, who wounded William before committing suicide. These attempts 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 in
October 18,
1878, for the purpose of fighting the
socialist and working-class movement. The laws deprived the
Social Democratic Party of Germany of its legal status; they 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 this policy of 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.
In his memoirs, Bismarck describes William as an old-fashioned, courteous, infallibly polite gentleman and a genuine Prussian officer, whose good common sense was occasionally undermined by "female influences".
*http://www.archontology.org/nations/german/germ_state1/wilhelm1.php
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