WEBVTT - Part Two: Kaiser Wilhelm: The Saddest Warlord In History 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:04.680 Welcome back to Behind the Bastards. I'm Robert Evans and 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:08.200 this is part two of our episode on Kaiservillehelm the 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:12.799 second um. Now, before we get into the episode, because 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.360 I think it's important that you know about the bastardry 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:18.400 being practiced by the hosts of the show, I need 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.439 to tell everyone that Jamie Loftus is dipping popcorn into 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:27.800 salad dressing. Okay, goddamn monster, I got fucking okay. First 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.400 of all, yes, that is an well. I got dragged 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:34.040 the last time I was on this show because I 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:37.440 mentioned that I dipped bagels and catch up and there 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:39.800 was all I said. That was fine. I'm okay with 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:45.839 the popcorn dipping into dressing. I think you have like 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.560 taste woods that need more I need I need. Yeah, 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.800 oh right, yeah I have. Um note, I have poor 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:56.840 people taste buds. I hope, I hope, very desperately Jamie, 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.440 that this makes you less judgmental of the Kaiser, because 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.560 I firmly believe that the millions he got killed in 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:05.040 the trenches of Europe and you dipping your popcorn into 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:09.959 salad dressing our equivalent crimes. They're okay, sir, I it's 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:14.120 this is your Battle of the palm. This is not ideal. 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.520 I would prefer to dip popcorn in soy sauce. There's 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.399 no soy sauce here. I go for salad dressing. Dipping 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.119 popcorn and soy sauce is your verdune. Here's the thing. 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.319 I like to make dry food wet. I can't explain why. 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:28.679 I'm sure it's a very fucked up motivation behind it. 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:30.679 But when a food is dry, I'm like, let's moisten 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:35.640 this up. Let's see what harribles. Horrible, It's good, horrible. 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:38.400 I've never been so proud to be your friend, Jamie. 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.399 Thank you so much. It actually I feel bad because 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:44.760 I'm sure the salad dressing is stinky. But but never nevertheless, 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:48.000 you're board. Yeah, there you go. Live your truth? Baby? 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:53.960 Does this make you uncomfortable? I was just gonna say, 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:57.280 speaking of living your truth, let's talk about what happens 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:01.040 when a profoundly damaged young man and becomes the King 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.360 of Germany and then gets a chance to live his truth. 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:05.920 I've got his birth chart up, let's figure this out. 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:10.080 Let's do it. What does it say about people of 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:15.880 his astrological sign leeving the Imperial German military. Well, um, 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:17.880 here's the thing. I did his natal chart, but that's 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:20.320 a little too complicated. What everyone needs to know is 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:24.200 he's an aquarious and uh inquiry and leaders. You know, 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:28.800 they're positive traits, they're open minded, right, they're creative. He 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:33.200 was an artist right there, free spirited, uh, negative traits, 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:39.080 really bad stuff across the board off for leaders, Impulsive, unpredictable, inconsistent, extreme, 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:43.280 and stubborn. So you know, it was foretold. I wouldn't 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:46.839 call him open minded in any way, but a lot 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:49.160 of that tracks. That's crazy. I feel like I'll get 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:52.000 dragged more for invoking astrology than I will for dipping 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:56.560 popcorn and salad dressing. And they're both horrible crimes against humanity, 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:00.120 you know what, To each their own. I'm living a 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:04.519 vile life over here now. The Reich that kaiserville Helm 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:08.519 inherited had been built and largely managed by Otto von Bismarck, 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:12.079 and above all else, Bismarck wanted peace. The system of 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:14.840 alliances he crafted for Germany were essentially again, like I 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.360 said that Era's version of mutually assured destruction, starting a 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:20.679 war with Germany would mean fighting with Russia too, and 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.880 Russia controlled a sixth of the planet's surface. This was 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:27.280 a pretty good system. While at lasted Bismarck was a monster, 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.200 but not a dumb man. Um knew what he was doing. 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.080 But Wilhelm came to power with distinct and probably agonizing 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.800 memories of his father's martial prowess and military victories. He 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.040 had been insecure his entire life because of his arm 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:44.440 and the complete lack of praise he received from hens Peter. Likewise, 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:47.200 his wife in Bismarck, had succeeded in inculcating a deep 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.800 antipathy of his parents and of England in him. Kaiserville 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.560 Helm the second. A concise life describes the mind side. 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:55.840 All of this resulted in once the young man came 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.160 to power and was given the world's most powerful land 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:03.720 army quote Prince Wilhelm's mindset on the threshold of succeeding 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:06.920 to the throne was characterized by bellicose ambition and contempt 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:10.320 for parliaments and political parties, indeed for civilians in general. 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.360 Britain must be destroyed was his watchword, and he was 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:15.840 already developing a passion for the idea of a strong 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.520 German navy. But Paris, too had to be destroyed. He railed. 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.599 Wilhelm was naturally very much in favor of war and 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.520 hopes it will break out soon. General Walders noted with 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.680 glee on twenty fifth January eighteen eight seven, under the 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.760 latter's influence, the prince also advocated war with Russia, that 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:33.800 young man once war with Russia and would like to 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.640 draw his swords straight away if he could. Chancellor Bismarck 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.560 recorded with Dismay in eighteen eighty eight. So, and to 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.680 be clear, he doesn't come to power until he is 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:47.200 nearly thirty years old. Um, is that right? So at 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.960 this point where like this is no, yeah, yeah, he's 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:55.479 a juvenile young boy who wants to have sex with 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:59.120 his mother's hand. This is a grown ass, petty man 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:01.440 who wants to have sex with his who wants to 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:06.480 have sex with his mother's hand. Of course, Now, Bismarck 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:09.600 was also deeply concerned about the young emperor's almost violent 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:11.960 hatred of Jewish people. This was the result of the 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.520 influence of one Adolf Vaughan Stoker, the court chaplain. Now. 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.640 Stoker was a member of the Christian Socialist Movement, an 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:22.480 anti Semitic far right party that also hated Catholics. Philhelm's 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:25.560 parents and grandmother had all been disgusted by discrimination and 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:28.240 had pushed to end it in their country, But Wilhelm 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.120 wanted to blaze a new, much more racist path, and 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:33.839 he was supported in this by the Prussian officer corps, 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:37.080 who were also thoroughly bigoted. The Kaiser and his new 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.520 allies wanted to keep the German race pure, stopped Jewish immigration, 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:43.719 and remove Jews from positions in schools and public office. 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:46.600 Before his ascension, Bismarck had rebuked the Prince for his 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.240 support of anti Semitism. This sparked a passive aggressive battle 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.760 between the two men. From vander Kiss's biography of Wilhelm, 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.480 when Bismarck had articles published in the official press taking 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.680 the religious conservatives to task for using Wilhelm, the latter 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.159 wrote petulently to hints Peter that he did not deserve 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:04.880 such treatment, as for the Chancellor's sake, he had for 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:08.320 years locked myself out of my parents house. And about 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.000 the same time, Wilhelm drafted a proclamation to the German 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:12.880 princes which was to be published in the event of 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.120 his session. Bismarck told him to burn it soaking Wilhelm 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:17.920 replied that when he came to the throne, he would 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.000 have all Jewish influence over the press. Stopped told that 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:23.679 this would be a violation of the Constitution, Wilhelm said 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:25.320 grandly that they would have to get rid of the 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:30.920 Constitution as well. It sounds like, yeah, if you look 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.320 up Kaiser Wilhelm Donald Trump, there's like a dozen different 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:37.719 articles that different people have written about similarities between the 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.880 two men um. I think, for one thing, I think 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:43.040 that's I don't entirely agree with that for a number 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:44.960 of reasons. One of them is that Wilhelm is an 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:51.320 infinitely more sympathetic figure than Donald Trump. Um. But there 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:55.080 are some similarities and that that that would definitely be 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:57.479 one of them. Oh wow, there's a whole there's a 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:00.599 whole goddamn New Yorker article. Yeah, there's a ton of 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:05.800 articles about the similarities between the two men um. Well again, yeah. 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:08.479 Wilhelm was fond of making these sorts of grand threats 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.760 and pronouncements like the one he made against Russia and England. Fortunately, 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:14.720 they rarely resulted in anything. He was easy to talk down, 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:16.760 and he was liable to balk at the last minute 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.280 from acting on any of his rhetoric, but the rhetoric 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:23.480 itself had a damaging effect on international relations. Wilhelm deeply 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:25.960 worried the rest of Europe when he made this pronouncement 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:29.000 to the people of Germany after taking the crown. We 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:31.400 were born to each other I in the army. We 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.160 were born for each other, and will cleave indissolutely to 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:36.400 each other, whether it be the will of God to 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.280 send us to calm or storm. You will soon swear 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:41.880 fealty and submission to me, And I promise ever to 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.240 bear in mind from the world above the eyes of 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:46.720 my forefathers looked down on me, and that I shall 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.240 one day have to stand accountable for them for the 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.640 glory and honor of the army. Also, why can't you 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:59.160 have sex with your mother's hand? That should be now? 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.920 The Kaiser no real military experience and no aptitude whatsoever 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.040 for warfare, but he felt that he had to portray 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.480 himself as a mighty war lord, in part because his 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:10.920 father and grandfather had been mighty warlords. That was kind 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.920 of pruscious whole deal. So to compensate for being just 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.840 a dude with a bad arm, Billhelm collected an absurd 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:21.440 amount of military uniforms. His cousin, the Queen of Romania, 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.160 wrote that he changed his uniform several times a day 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:28.120 as a smart woman changes her gown. Now, vanderkiss Her, 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.840 I know it's about to get embarrassinger because vanderkiss book 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:37.000 goes into detail about just how extensive Wilhelm's wardrobe really was. 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:40.800 In addition to his much cherished foreign uniforms, he had 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.760 a full one for every Prussian regiment over three hundred alone, 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:46.640 to say nothing of those of Bavaria, Saxony, and Wurtemburg, 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:49.240 as well as navel and marine uniforms all had their 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:54.240 own individual badges, sashes, caps, helmets, epilepts, shoulder points, belts, swords, lances, 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:57.440 and firearms. The resulting wardrobe and armory had to be 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.959 housed in a hall containing huge wardrobes, with a camer 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.680 diner on duty from onning tonight to select the shortest 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:07.520 possible notice any outfit he might require. According to Anne Topham, 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.720 his daughter's governess, he cut a fine figure in military dress, 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.840 but in civilian clothes the effect was completely lacking. Many 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:16.680 German gentlemen lost much appearance when out of uniform, but 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.000 none to the extent that their emperor did. He no 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:21.760 longer had any shred of dignity, and curiously enough, that 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:24.480 charm of manner was also bereft of its influence, emerged 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.600 into what was an offensive wearisome buffoonery. He was wise, 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:32.240 she added, not to appear before his subjects except in uniform. 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.400 Oh God, I like how he's He's just like, how 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:37.800 could I possibly not be a war hero? Look at 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.440 all nice shirts? Like You're like, yeah, that's not how 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:51.240 that works. Pause. Pizza's here, so we're we're back. They 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:53.360 received pizza in the room and Jamie and I are 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:57.000 talking about all the articles comparing Kaiserville Helm to trump 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:01.280 Um and uh. One of the things I noted is 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:04.520 that like nobody ever really defends Kayserville. One of my 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:07.200 one of my weird hobbies is I like to go 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:10.400 on YouTube and I like to find collections of imperial 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:16.320 Prussian and Imperial British and Imperial Russian. Uh, like court music, 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.160 like military marches and stuff like that. And I like 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.720 to read like comments. Very weird. Yeah, I like to 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.600 read the comments because the comments are filled with monarchists, 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.480 with people who like desperately want to return to monarchy 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.800 in Europe. And they're all the saddest, dumbest people in 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.760 the entire world, and it's it's I like to read 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:40.080 their arguments between each other. But nobody ever defends the Kaiser. No, 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:45.719 that's that's textually. I mean, commenters will defend almost anything. 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:47.880 I like to go to the YouTube of like okay, 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.040 not the okay what am I saying? Okay, where you're 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:52.360 like looking for a specific song and so you search 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:54.680 it on YouTube and then you accidentally scroll down to 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.880 the comments and it's like something that's very depressing out 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.680 of nowhere. I forget what song I was looking at. Yeah, 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:03.360 but the top comment was like my husband died to 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:07.080 this song and and it's nice that it's on YouTube 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.679 dot com and it was like a dance song. But anyways, 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.920 I love comments. A story there. Where's the Wilhelm Hive, 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:18.720 Where's the will Hive? Yeah? They they are not not 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:23.080 buzzing um because he was really bad at his job 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.319 and even the dumbest people in the world monarchists can 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:30.600 recognize that. Now. As his reign began, the Kaiser fell 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.480 under the influence of a number of bad apples. Uh. 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.079 There was the anti Semite Stoker who we already talked about. 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:39.160 There was also Count Alfred Valan walder Cy, the deputy 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.040 chief of the German General Staff. Now, he was a 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:45.560 rapidly pro war nut funk who supported an immediate attack 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:49.120 against both France and Russia. Um, like this was advice, 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:53.440 we just invade them both simultaneously, right now? Um? Now, 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:56.480 when Bismarck heard about the growing friendship between the Kaiser 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:59.239 and walder Ce, he is said to have cried, alas, 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:03.600 my poor grand children. So Bismarck, being a smart guy, 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:06.880 pretty instantly realizes, like, oh ship, this dude is going 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:11.600 to plunge the whole continent into a stupid, stupid war. Um, boy, 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.040 was he right? He was not wrong. Like I said, 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:16.520 Bismarck is a very is a visionary. He's he's a 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:19.079 bad man, but he's a visionary and he clearly saw 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:21.560 what was going to happen. I hate when the bad 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:26.800 people are smart as well. Yeah, effectively bad. Yeah. I 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:29.000 mean in Bismarck's defense, like he was just kind of 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:32.960 kind of a sociopath, but he wasn't. Like his goals 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:35.839 weren't dominate Europe and put all the Jews in camp. 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:39.160 His goals were ensured Germany a place of prominence among 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.680 nations and stop a massive European war. And he did 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.280 gross and manipulative things to ensure that. But he wasn't 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.760 trying to like make the world worse. He wasn't doing 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:53.160 chaos for chaos's sake. Yeah, yeah, he wasn't like a yeah, yeah, 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:57.240 Like he just wants things to not break into a 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:00.320 war and he wants in Germany to be popular. Okay, 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.720 well he felt yeah, he definitely did. Didn't succeed in 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:07.959 the long run. Now, Count Uhlenberg, the Kaiser's best friend 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:11.160 and probable crush, also led to the Kaiser's break with Bismarck. 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.560 The Kaiser demanded that Bismarck promote the Count to the 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.000 position of Prussian envoy in Munich, which was a very 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.240 important job. Now Bismarck balked at giving this job to 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.400 an inexperienced friend of the Kings. The conflict between the 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.720 two men very much embodied a greater conflict within German governance. 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:29.959 A large chunk of the country, including Bismarck, wanted Germany 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.560 to be a proper nation state with rules and laws 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.760 and checks and balances. They weren't democrats, and I don't 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:37.520 mean that like the American political sense, I mean like 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.360 pro democracy sense, at least not all of them. But 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.240 they didn't want an absolute monarchy where the Kaiser's will 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:46.679 determined everything. The Kaiser, on the other hand, didn't really 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:48.640 see why other people should have a say and how 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:52.600 he ran Germany now. Bismarck warned the Kaiser that filling 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:55.280 government posts with his buddies would lead to a situation 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:57.880 wherein he couldn't actually trust any of his ministers to 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:01.000 give him good information, because they'd all be toady's at worst, 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:03.360 or his friends at best, and in any case, they 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:05.920 wouldn't be trustworthy to actually speak the truth to him 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.360 when the truth needed speaking. The Kaiser ignored Bismarck, and 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:11.679 over the next few years the positions of the ministers 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:14.880 and the reich Chancellor. Bismarck's job were demoted to what 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:20.760 role calls royal lackeys. So yeah yeah. Throughout eighteen eighty 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:24.120 eight and eighteen eighty nine, Bilhelm and Bismarck's relationship degraded. 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:26.320 Things came to a head in eighteen eighty nine when 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:28.360 a bunch of miners in the rural district went on 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:31.760 strike for better working conditions now here hins Peter had 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.240 what you would actually say as a positive influence. As 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.360 odd as it sounds, Kaiser Villehelm instantly sided with the 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:41.600 striking workers against their employers. Um. This caused another riff 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.600 between him and Bismarck, because Bismarck's again a piece of shit, 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:49.600 um chance Yeah, the the chancellor didn't give a funk 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.280 about the workers and obviously cared mostly about steel production 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.480 and his friends who ran the company's um. But you know, 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.560 the Kaiser stood for the working people, and on May 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:01.040 twelve he charged into a meeting the Prussian Ministry of 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.640 State and declared that Bismarck was wrong for not acceding 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:07.040 to their demands and declared the workers were his subjects 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:10.800 whom he had to look after. All right, yeah, this 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:14.600 is likely, Yeah, this one, this is good. Now Wilhelm 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:16.960 got his way on the rear strike, for they're frustrating 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.240 the Reich Chancellor. In the summer of eighteen eighty nine, 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:21.400 he took his yacht out for his first cruise across 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.920 Scandinavian waters. This became a yearly tradition when he kept 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:27.560 up for decades. On his first outing, he brought valder 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.560 C and Yuhlenberg with him. The latter was at least 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:33.120 a sane person who didn't support wars of aggression with 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:35.280 the rest of the world. But valder C was a 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:38.120 racist nut fuck, and during their vacation he convinced the 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.400 Kaiser that Bismarck was Jew ridden and had been conned 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.520 into giving control of the Reich's monetary policy to a 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:49.000 bunch of Jews. His crush, no, no, no, his crush 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:52.280 is a pretty reasonable guy. This is that racist general 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:54.680 who wants him to invade the entire world. The names 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:57.120 are so confusing, Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry, there's a lot. 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:01.400 Valder C is the racist general, Uhlenberg is his. Now, 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:05.640 so Waldersee convinces the Kaiser that Bismarck had been conned 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.080 into giving control of the Reich's monetary policy to a 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:10.800 bunch of Jews. This was a lie, but reality had 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.920 very little influence on the Kaiser. Now, this month long 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:16.120 annual cruise around the coast of Norway became one of 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:18.200 the Kaiser's favorite things. And I have to read you 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:20.520 vander kiss description of it because it sounds like the 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:24.040 worst time you can have on a boat. The annual 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:27.880 cruise or Nordland Rice, with its exclusively male company, allowed 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:31.479 him the Kaiser, to indulge in practical jokes and boyish tomfoolery, 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.000 like applying a foot to the backside of elderly aids 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.640 de camp engaged in physical exercises. Its purpose was originally 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:39.520 to give him a month long break from court life, 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.200 but in due course his doctor decided it was counter productive, 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:45.400 as he was physically and mentally upset by the long voyage, diet, 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:47.800 and exhaustion of various kinds, and it did him more 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:51.120 harm than good. His entourage soon tired of these cruises board, 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.480 if not repelled by the juvenile atmosphere and behavior of 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:56.000 the Kaiser and some of his officers, who loathed every 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:59.160 childish prank and moment themselves, but were too sycophantic to 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:03.320 say so. God, it sounds like it reminds me of 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:08.200 like that documentary where Jim Carrey goes method, where you're like, oh, 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:11.240 he's just a tyrant. He's been waiting his whole life 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:15.199 to get people trapped in this in this enclosed setting 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:19.280 to be horrible cool. Well, I'm glad you did Franks 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.399 on the set of his You wanna you want to 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:24.600 you want to go on a month long prank cruise 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.720 with the King Boy with the with the King Boy 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:31.199 who like has a god, imagine just having on a 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:37.320 cruise with him and all of his demons. That's wild. Guarantee. 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.200 He never didn't have an erection and he never knew 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:43.359 what it was for. Well, they mean he's just walking 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:44.960 around with a full erection all the time, Like, do 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.119 you guys know what? This is? Just kicking people in 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:53.240 the butt? I think, laughing hard as a kicking old 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:59.280 people around what. Okay, well he is officially um you know, well, 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.040 I mean he's just a bad He's a batman. He's 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:06.000 a creatively bad man in this case. Yeah, really really 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:10.280 punishing everyone around him in very specific ways. Yeah. Now, 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.719 in January of eighteen ninety, Wilhelm told his Crown Council 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.160 that he would celebrate his thirty first birthday with two 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.439 new proclamations, one to protect working people and limit their 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:22.520 labor hours, and another to call an international summit in 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:26.480 Berlin to improve labor conditions across the continent. So that's 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:32.239 pretty cool, right, yeah, labor crusader. I'm very surprised that 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.440 he is like gunning for labor like this. He well, 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:37.359 you know, one of the good things about hint Peter's 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.320 he had taken him around to all these factories and 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:41.200 minds and stuff when he was a kid. So the 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.760 Kaiser had seen like how tough life was for working people, 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:46.960 and he wasn't He's not like a sociopath or anything. 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.359 He had empathy for these people. So he did care 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:54.680 about people. Like he's not a monster. Um, he does 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:59.240 monstrous things, but he's not a monster. Now Bismarck thought 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.080 that the Kaiser's love of the working people was super dumb. 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:04.520 The two fought over this, and another fight broke out 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:07.600 in March of eighteen ninety when Bismarck entered into negotiations 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:09.880 with the leader of the Center Party. He's like, why 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:12.520 do you care about the poores? It's such a bad look. 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.719 They're the pores, man, Come on, or what what are 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:19.200 you going to get out of that? So Bismarck enters 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:21.600 into negotiations with the leader of the Center Party, a 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:23.639 guy named win Thorst, and their goal is to get 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:26.840 rid of bigoted, anti Catholic legislation in Germany. So again 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:30.199 Bismarck like is trying to fight against discrimination here. So 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:33.840 none of these sides are are simple. Here. Bismarck hates 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:37.320 working people but also hates discrimination. The Kaiser fights for 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:40.840 the working man, but gets furious about removing this anti 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:44.040 Catholic legislation because he's a bigot um. So they're just 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:49.119 like a stalemate. Yeah. Now he's particularly pissed that this 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:52.399 meeting between Bismarck and the leader of the Center Party 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:56.440 had been organized by Bismarck's banker, who was a Jewish man. Now, 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:59.560 to the Kaiser, this was confirmation that the Jews were 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:04.679 secret running his empire via Bismarck. God damn it okay? Next, 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:07.440 according to Kaiser ville Helm the Second a concise life. 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.040 Early in the morning of fifteen March eighteen ninety, there 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.120 took place one of the most highly charged scenes ever 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:14.840 played out in Berlin's center of government, the wilhelm strassa 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.480 Kaiser Willhelm the Second someon the seventy five year old 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:20.520 Reich Chancellor from his bed and upbraided him for receiving Windthorst. 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:22.640 He went on to a complain that Bismarck had dug 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:24.920 out a dusty old cabinet order of eighteen fifty two 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:27.480 that prevented the monarch from receiving ministers except in the 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.639 presence of the Minister President. He pre emptorily demanded that 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:32.960 the order to be rescinded, which Bismarck refused to do. 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:36.520 Wilhelm later recounted that Bismarck had become so violent towards 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:38.720 him that he was afraid the Chancellor would throw the 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:42.000 inkstand at my head. After this dramatic quarrel, waldr ce 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:43.960 urged the Kaiser in the presence of the chief of 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:47.760 the military cabinet. The sack Bismarck forthwith the present state 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:50.960 of affairs was quite untenable, he argued, and moreover, the 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:54.720 Chancellor was too closely allied with the Jews. Bismarck first 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:57.760 sent honk Is like military leader, and then the chief 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:00.480 of the civil cabinet, Herman von Lucanus, to the Chancellor, 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:03.399 ordering him to hand in his resignation, which Bismarck finally 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:07.000 did on eighteenth March eighteen ninety. If waldersee Is one 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:09.720 can safely assume expected to take Bismarck's place, he was 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:12.400 in for a bitter disappointment. That same evening, bill Helm 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:15.320 the Second announced the commanding generals assembled in the Berlinish 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:17.919 loss that in order to remain master of the situation, 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:20.600 he had to issue an order to the Chancellor insisting 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:26.760 that he submit. So the Kaiser accepted Bismarck's letter of uh, 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:28.960 you know, he's retired his retirement and made a guy 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.399 named capri V who was a lick spittle, um, you know, 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.919 the the new chancellor. So he he forces out the 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:38.560 guy who like the political cartoons in Europe at this 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:42.160 time are like, show the Kaiser on a boat kicking Bismarck, 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:46.160 the pilot of the boat off of the ship. Um. 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:48.439 And that's generally how this has seen. Germany has like 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:53.080