Wilhelm I

Wilhelm I (also known in English as William I; ; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 1861 and German Emperor from 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the first head of state of a united Germany. He was regent of Prussia from 1858 to 1861 for his elder brother, King Frederick William IV. During the reign of his grandson Wilhelm II, he was known as Emperor Wilhelm the Great .

The second son of Prince Frederick William and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Wilhelm was not expected to ascend to the throne. His grandfather, King Frederick William II died the year he was born, and his father was crowned Frederick William III. Wilhelm fought with distinction during the War of the Sixth Coalition, and afterwards became a prominent figure within the Prussian Army. In 1840, his childless elder brother became King of Prussia, making him heir presumptive. Wilhelm played a major role in crushing the Revolutions of 1848 in Germany, although he was briefly forced into exile in England. Frederick William IV suffered a stroke in 1857 and was left incapacitated, and Wilhelm was formally named Prince Regent a year later. In 1861, Wilhelm ascended to the Prussian throne on his elder brother's death.

Upon ascension, Wilhelm immediately came into conflict with the liberal Landtag over his proposed military budget. In response, he appointed Otto von Bismarck to the post of Minister President in order to force through his proposals, beginning a partnership that would last for the rest of his life. On the foreign front, Wilhelm oversaw Prussian victories in the Second Schleswig War and the Austro-Prussian War, establishing Prussia as the leading German power. In 1871, through Bismarck's maneuvers, the unification of Germany was achieved following the Franco-Prussian War. The German Empire was proclaimed and Wilhelm was granted the title of German Emperor. Even though he had considerable power as Kaiser, Wilhelm largely left the affairs of governance to Bismarck. Later in life he was the target of multiple failed assassination attempts, which enabled Bismarck to push through the Anti-Socialist Laws. In 1888, which came to be known as the Year of the Three Emperors, Wilhelm died at the age of 90 after a short illness and was succeeded by his son Frederick. Frederick, already suffering from cancer, died 99 days later and the throne passed to Wilhelm II.

Early life and military career

The future king and emperor was born Wilhelm Friedrich Louis of Prussia in the in Berlin on 22 March 1797. As the second son of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Prince Frederick William, himself son of King Frederick William 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 Frederick William III became king. He was educated from 1801 to 1809 by , who was also in charge of the education of Wilhelm's brother, the Crown Prince Frederick William. At age twelve, his father appointed him an officer in the Prussian army.

Wilhelm served in the army from 1814 onward. Like his father, he fought against Napoleon I of France during the part of the Napoleonic Wars known in Germany as the ("Wars of Liberation", otherwise known as the War of the Sixth Coalition), and was reportedly a very brave soldier. He was made a captain and earned the Iron Cross for his actions at Bar-sur-Aube, although the Prussian Army did not participate in this battle. The war and the fight against France left a lifelong impression on him, and he had a long-standing antipathy towards the French.

In 1816, Wilhelm became the commander of the and in 1818 was promoted to . The next year, Wilhelm was appointed inspector of the VII. and VIII. Army Corps. This made him a spokesman of the Prussian Army within the House of Hohenzollern. He argued in favour of a strong, well-trained, and well-equipped army. In 1820, Wilhelm became commander of the and in 1825 was promoted to commanding general of the III. Army Corps.

In 1829, Wilhelm married Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the daughter of Grand Duke Karl Friedrich of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Maria Pavlovna, the sister of Nicholas I. Their marriage was outwardly stable, but not a very happy one. In 1834-37 he had the Old Palace in Berlin built as a new family home, in which he continued to live later as king and emperor, while he only used the Berlin Palace for representative purposes.

On 7 June 1840 his older brother became King of Prussia. Since he had no children, Wilhelm was first in line to succeed him to the throne and thus was given the title . In 1857 Frederick William 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 on a permanent basis. Against the advice of his brother, Wilhelm 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 Wilhelm and the liberal majority in the Landtag on matters of reforming the armed forces. When his request (backed by his Minister of War Albrecht von Roon) was refused, Wilhelm first considered abdicating, but his son, the Crown Prince, advised strongly against it.

During his reign, 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. During the latter war, his army defeated the Austrians at Königgratz. 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 his son Crown Prince Frederick. Wilhelm became also the constitutional Bundesfeldherr, the commander of all federal armed forces. Via secret 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,

Wilhelm, however, hesitated to accept the constitutional title, as he feared that it would overshadow his own title as King of Prussia. He also wanted it to be Kaiser von Deutschland ("Emperor of Germany"), but Bismarck warned him that the South German princes and the Emperor of Austria might protest. Wilhelm eventually—though grudgingly—relented and on 18 January, he was formally proclaimed as emperor in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. The date was chosen as the coronation date of the first Prussian king in 1701. In the national memory, 18 January became the day of the foundation of the Empire (Reichsgründungstag), although it did not have a constitutional significance.

In 1872, he arbitrated a boundary dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States, deciding in favor of the U.S. and placing the San Juan Islands of modern-day Washington within U.S. national territory, thus ending the 12-year bloodless Pig War.

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.

Assassination attempts and Anti-Socialist Laws

On 11 May 1878, an anarchist plumber named 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.

A second attempt to assassinate Wilhelm I was made on 2 June 1878 by Karl Nobiling, another anarchist. 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.

The attempts on Wilhelm's life became the pretext for the institution of the Anti-Socialist Laws, which were passed by Bismarck's government with the support of a majority in the Reichstag on 19 October 1878 for the purpose of fighting the socialist and working-class movement. The laws prohibited societies, meetings and publications that "aim[ed] at the overthrow of the existing political or social order through social-democratic, socialist or communist endeavours". The laws were extended every 2–3 years. Despite the laws and their penalties, the Social Democratic Party increased its influence among the masses. Under the pressure of the mass working-class movement, the laws were allowed to expire on 30 September 1890.

Later years and death

In August 1878, Alexander II of Russia, 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 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-Hungary. 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.

To honour him a large number of memorials/statues were erected all over the country over the following years. The best known among them are the Kyffhäuser monument (1890–96) in Thuringia, the monument at Porta Westfalica (1896) and the mounted statue of Wilhelm at the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz (1897). The National Kaiser Wilhelm Monument in front of the Berlin Palace was destroyed during German Democratic Republic by the government of East Berlin in 1950.

Honours and awards

German decorations Source:

Foreign decorations Source:

Wilhelm Island is named after him.

Ancestry