The Kaiser
Page 50
“I asked him if his reference to punishment was meant to apply to the British Empire or to the Third Reich of Hitler. He paused for a moment and then replied firmly: ‘To all empires and, therefore, to both.’ In his talk he did no more than touch on the crisis of the moment. He did not like or trust the Poles and said so, but, mindful of his pact with Providence, added that he had no wish to see them incorporated in Germany. He was careful, too, not to say much about the Nazis, although he made it clear that he was opposed to them. Indeed, at one moment he burst into anger.
‘I am a prisoner in my own house,’ he said: ‘They [the Nazis] treat me far worse than the Socialists ever treated me.’”[476]
The Empress Hermine was even more outspoken against the Nazis than the Kaiser. “They are evil,” she said, “and great harm will come from them.” She warned the visitors not to trust any members of the Kaiser’s household apart from his aide, Freiherr von Sell. Only one reference was made to the approaching war and that was when the guests made their farewell. “Come back and see me again next summer if you can,” said the Kaiser. And then he added: “but you won’t be able to because the machine is running away with him as it ran away with me.” This remark was not as wise as it sounded; for whatever the Kaiser meant by “the machine” neither World War I nor World War II was started by excessive military pressure on the ruler. Indeed, Hitler had to lash his army forward; the reluctance of the generals to set fire to Europe caused him to refer contemptuously to “mastiffs who had forgotten how to bite.”
In May 1940, when Hitler’s attack on the West was launched, German troops fought their way through Holland. Queen Wilhelmina and her Government flew to London to organise the continued resistance of the Dutch Empire. Winston Churchill had just become Prime Minister and as he read of the ferocious attack on the Low Countries he feared for the Kaiser’s safety. He instructed the Foreign Office to offer the Kaiser refuge in England.
If William accepted the offer an R.A.F. plane would fly to Holland within the next few hours and pick up the Kaiser and his wife. The message was transmitted through the British Embassy in The Hague to the Burgomaster of Utrecht, Baron von Nagell. The Baron immediately drove to Doom House with the communication. The Kaiser was still in bed but he was ushered into the bedroom. William II was surprised by the offer and childishly pleased. His first inclination was to accept it. The Empress Hermine was overjoyed and immediately began to pack her bags. Baron von Nagell said that no doubt the Kaiser would like time to consider the offer, and that he would return in an hour for His Majesty’s answer.
Upon reflection William II knew that he could not go. He was a German; and whatever he thought of Herr Hitler he must support his country, right or wrong. Indeed, sixteen Hohenzollern princes including three of his grandsons were serving with the Wehrmacht; furthermore, he was still haunted by the decision he had made at Spa on the fateful 9th November 1918. When the Dutch Burgomaster reappeared, William asked him to convey to the British Government his sincerest thanks; but that as he had been accused of running away once before, whatever happened now he would stay where he was. And finally, that as he had received much kindness from the Dutch people he did not wish to desert them in their misfortune.
As the mighty German Army poured through Holland and swept past Doom many hundreds of German officers tried to catch a glimpse of their former Supreme War Lord. Hitler issued strict orders that there was to be no fraternisation between the Wehrmacht and the exiled sovereign, but the attraction proved so great that the Gestapo finally posted a military detachment at the gate-house with a special S.S. officer in charge. The Kaiser amused himself by walking down to the lodge and engaging the storm-trooper in conversation. Apparently the young man was so flattered and impressed that soon he was clicking his heels and bowing before the former sovereign in the true style of a Prussian guards officer. Despite Hitler’s orders the Kaiser talked with many German army officers, who were smuggled into Doom through secret back entrances.
On May 26th, 1940, the Kaiser’s grandson, Prince William of Prussia, the eldest son of the Crown Prince, died from wounds in the fighting near Valenciennes. His body was sent back to Potsdam and he was buried on May 29th in the Antike Tempel. Fifty thousand people thronged to his funeral service and the occasion became the most formidable monarchist demonstration since the collapse of the Hohenzollern dynasty. Hitler was enraged, and a week later General von Dommes, the Kaiser’s Court Chamberlain, returned to Doom from Berlin with news of impending disaster. The Führer had sent out instructions that all members of the House of Hohenzollern were immediately to be dismissed from the army. Rumours were circulating that he intended taking severe reprisals against them and their families. General von Dommes implored the Kaiser to placate Hitler by a conciliatory gesture. It was sad that William II consented, for the gesture constituted the last official act of his life. The German armies entered Paris on June 14th; and the following day the Kaiser sent to Hitler a brief telegram of congratulations, the text of which was published in Germany and caused much dismay to monarchists who were conspiring against Hitler.
The Kaiser lived for one more year. During these twelve months England stood alone against the might of Germany. Once again, despite the staggering victories of the Wehrmacht, the war was not won. Was history repeating itself? The Kaiser believed that it was, but he died on June 5th, 1941, a few weeks before the German attack brought Russia into the war and six months before the entry of America.
The Kaiser’s wife and his daughter, the Duchess of Brunswick, were with him during his last hours. He was buried at Doom, and his death caused scarcely a ripple of interest in either Germany or Britain, for people were too preoccupied with the present struggle to cast their minds back a quarter of a century. The tragedy of William II was the tragedy of birth. He possessed neither the intellect nor the character to shoulder the burden thrust upon him. “It was not his fault,” wrote Winston Churchill, “it was his fate.”
Alas, it was the fate of all of us, for the Kaiser unwittingly set in motion a chain of events which for the past fifty years have acted and reacted on one another with explosive force, driving the world relentlessly towards a point of no return.
THE END
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following publishers for allowing me to quote from books published by them: The Cambridge University Press for the Holstein Papers edited by N. Rich and M. H. Fisher; the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace for the German Documents Collected by Karl Kautsky edited by Max Montgelas and Walther Schucking; Cassell & Co. Ltd. for Edward VII and His Times by Andre Maurois, Queen Victoria s Relations by Meriel Buchanan, Better Left Unsaid by Daisy, Princess of Pless, My Memoirs by William II; Constable & Co. Ltd. for An English Wife in Berlin by Princess Blucher, Memoirs by Max, Prince of Baden; Ernest Benn Ltd. for History of the English People by Elie Halevy, Germany by G. P. Gooch; Faber & Faber Ltd. for The Empress Frederick Writes to Sophie edited by Arthur Gould Lee; Her Majesty’s Stationery Office for British Documents on the Origin of the War edited by Gooch and Temperley; George Allen & Unwin Ltd. for Queen Mary by James Pope-Hennessy; Hutchinson & Co. Ltd. for My Memoirs by Admiral von Tirpitz, Embassies of Other Days by Walpurga Paget; Ivor Nicholson & Watson Ltd. for The Kaiser's Letters to the Czar edited by N. F. Grant and Letters of Czar Nicholas and Empress Marie edited by Edward Bing; John Murray for The Queen Thanks Sir Howard by Mary McClintock, The Letters of Queen Victoria, Daisy Princess of Pless, Scenes and Memories by Walpurga Paget; Macdonald & Co. Ltd for The Kaiser and His Court by Admiral von Müller edited by Walter Gorlitz; Macmillan & Co. Ltd. for Henry Ponsonby, His Life from His Letters by Arthur Ponsonby, Letters of the Empress Frederick edited by Sir Frederick Ponsonby; The Macmillan Company, New York, for The Origins of the Second World War by Sidney Fay; Martin Seeker & Warburg Ltd. for Philip Eulenburg: The Kaiser s Friend by Johannes Haller; Methuen & Co. Ltd. for Memories of the Fatherland and Memoirs of the Kaiser s Court by Anne Topham, My Ear
ly Life by William II, Acknowledgements German Diplomatic Documents edited by E. T. S. Dugdale; Odhams Press for Great Contemporaries by Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis by Winston S. Churchill; Putnams & Co. Ltd. for Kaiser and Chancellor by Karl Novak, Comes the Reckoning by Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart, Memoirs by Prince von Bülow; Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. for The Life of Crown Prince William by Klaus Jonas; and A. P. Watt & Son for Twenty-five Years by Viscount Grey of Fallodon.
I would also like to thank Sir Harold Nicolson and Constable & Co. for permission to quote from King George V, Lord Carnock and Peacemaking; Sir John Wheeler-Bennett and Macmillan & Co. for Hindenburg: The Wooden Titan; Lord Esher and A. P. Watt & Son for The Letters and Journals of Reginald, Viscount Esher.
All references to official German documents published in Die Grosse Politik der Europaischen Kabinette, edited by Frederick Thimme, are given in the footnotes as Grosse Politik.
I would like to thank the Radio Times Hulton Picture Library for permission to reproduce the majority of the illustrations in this book. For the remainder I am grateful as follows: to Mr. J. de Laszlo for the frontispiece; to Baron von Nagell of Doom for the pictures of the Empress Augusta Victoria and the Kaiser during the last days at Doom; to the Imperial War Museum for the photograph of the Kaiser on his visit to Turkey in 1898 and for the photograph of him with Prince Rupprecht, 1918; and to the Central Press Photographic Agency for the photograph of President von Hindenburg.
Lastly I want to thank Miss Mary Dawnay for typing the manuscript.
19 Chester Square, VIRGINIA COWLES London August 1963
* * *
[1] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[2] Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands: Queen Victoria.
[3] The Life of the Prince Consort: Sir Theodore Martin.
[4] The Empress Frederick: A Memoir.
[5] Letters of Queen Victoria
[6] Embassies of Other Days: Walpurga Paget.
[7] The Empress Frederick: A Memoir.
[8] The Empress Frederick: A Memoir.
[9] Embassies of Other Days: Walpurga Paget.
[10] The Empress Frederick Writes to Sophie: edited by Arthur Gould Lee.
[11] Embassies of Other Days: Walpurga Paget.
[12] The Life of the Prince Consort: Sir Theodore Martin.
[13] Greville Diaries: edited by Philip Whitwell Wilson.
[14] Letters of Queen Victoria.
[15] The Empress Frederick: A Memoir.
[16] Embassies of Other Days: Walpurga Paget.
[17] Scenes and Memories: Walpurga Paget.
[18] The Empress Frederick: A Memoir.
[19] The Life of the Prince Consort: Sir Theodore Martin.
[20] Embassies of Other Days: Walpurga Paget.
[21] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[22] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[23] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[24] Letters of Queen Victoria.
[25] My Early Life: William II.
[26] My Early Life: William II.
[27] 1 My Early Life: William II.
[28] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[29] Letters of Queen Victoria.
[30] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[31] The Empress Frederick: A Memoir.
[32] Letters of Queen Victoria.
[33] My Early Life: William II.
[34] Letters of Empress Frederick.
[35]The Empress Frederick: A Memoir.
[36] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[37] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[38] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[39]My Early Life: William II.
[40] My Early Life: William II.
[41] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[42]My Early Life: William II.
[43] Victoria married Prince Louis of Battenberg.
[44] Queen Victoria’s Relations: Meriel Buchanan.
[45] Queen Victoria’s Relations: Meriel Buchanan.
[46] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[47] The Holstein Papers: edited by N. Rich and M. H. Fisher.
[48] The Queen Thanks Sir Howard: Mary McClintock.
[49] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[50] Kaiser Wilhelm Ü: George Hintzpeter.
[51] A Field Marshal's Memoirs: Count von Waldersee.
[52] A Field Marshal's Memoirs: Count von Waldersee.
[53] The Holstein Papers: edited by N. Rich and M. H. Fisher.
[54]My Early Life: William II.
[55] The Holstein Papers: edited by N. Rich and M. H. Fisher.
[56] A Field Marshal's Memoirs: Count von Waldersee.
[57] The Holstein Papers: edited by N. Rich and M. H. Fisher.
[58] Philip Eulenburg, the Kaiser's Friend: Johannes Haller.
[59] Reflections and Memories: Otto von Bismarck.
[60] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[61] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[62] Reflections and Memories: Otto von Bismarck.
[63] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[64] The Holstein Papers: edited by N. Rich and M. H. Fisher.
[65] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[66] Prince Bismarck expressed this opinion in an anonymous article in the Nord-deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. See Emil Ludwig’s Kaiser Wilhelm Ü.
[67] A Field Marshal's Memoirs: Count von Waldersee.
[68] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[69] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[70] British Documents on the Origins of the War.
[71] Letters of Queen Victoria.
[72] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[73] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[74]A Field Marshal's Memoirs: Count von Waldersee.
[75] Letters of Queen Victoria.
[76] Letters of Queen Victoria.
[77]A Field Marshal's Memoirs: Count von Waldersee.
[78] King George V: Harold Nicolson.
[79] Letters of Queen Victoria.
[80] Recollections: Viscount Morley.
[81] To this day in Berlin unpleasant letters are often referred to as Blauebriefe.
[82] Philip Eulenburg: The Kaiser s Friend: Johannes Haller.
[83] Memoirs of the Kaiser s Court: Anne Topham.
[84] Philip Eulenburg: The Kaiser s Friend: Johannes Haller.
[85] Aus so Jahren: Prince Philipp zu Eulenburg-Hertefeldt.
[86] Philip Eulenburg: The Kaiser's Friend: Johannes Haller.
[87] Reflections and Memories: Otto von Bismarck.
[88] Aus 50 Jahren: Prince Philipp zu Eulenburg-Hertefeldt.
[89]Aus 50 Jahren: Prince Philipp zu Eulenburg-Hertefeldt.
[90] Philip Eulenburg: The Kaiser s Friend: Johannes Haller.
[91] The Holstein Papers: edited by N. Rich and M. H. Fisher.
[92] Germany was also linked to Austria, and to Italy, by the Triple Alliance Treaty signed in Vienna in 1882.
[93] Memoirs, Letters and Documents: Helmuth von Moltke.
[94] Letters of Queen Victoria.
[95] Henry Ponsonby, His Life front His Letters: Arthur Ponsonby.
[96] King Edward VII: Sir Sidney Lee.
[97] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[98] The Holstein Papers: edited by N. Rich and M. H. Fisher.
[99] Kaiser and Chancellor: Karl Novak.
[100] Aus 50 Jahren: Prince Philipp zu Eulenburg-Hertefeldt.
[101] There was no question of the stricken Frederick wishing to dismiss Bismarck.
[102] Kaiser and Chancellor: Karl Novak.
[103] The Origins of the World War: Sidney Fay.
[104] Reflections and Memories: Otto von Bismarck.
[105] Life of Sir William Harcourt: Gardiner.
[106] The Empress Frederick Writes to Sophie: edited by Arthur Gould Lee.
[107] Letters of Queen Victoria.
[108] The Empre
ss Frederick Writes to Sophie: edited by Arthur Gould Lee.
[109] Behind the Scenes at the Prussian Court: Princess Frederick Leopold of Prussia.
[110] Letters of the Empress Frederick.
[111] My Early Life: William II.
[112] Philip Eulenburg: The Kaiser's Friend: Johannes Haller.
[113] 1 Philip Eulenburg: The Kaiser s Friend: Johannes Haller.
[114] Philip Eulenburg: The Kaiser s Friend: Johannes Haller.
[115] Philip Eulenburg: The Kaiser's Friend: Johannes Haller.