Home › Authors › Wilhelm II, German Emperor
Wilhelm II, German Emperor Quotes
1859–1941 Germany
Wilhelm II of Germany (27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941), born Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert von Preußen, was the last German Emperor (Kaiser) and the last King (König) of Prussia, ruling from 1888 to 1918. He abdicated during the November Revolution, and fled to exile in the Netherlands.
Also known as: Wilhelm II, Wilhelm II of Germany
Random Wilhelm II, German Emperor quote
111 quotes
The German fleet is the youngest fleet in the world, and another proof of the growing importance of the new German Empire. It is destined to protect the commerce and territory of this Empire, and it will, like the German Army, serve to keep the peace of the world.
It is understood that a defensive fleet does not merely serve to protect the interests of the traders of our great commercial cities, but that it is also needed, and bitterly needed, for the protection of the industry of our entire people and their success in the world.
The King of Prussia stands so high above all political parties and the wire-pulling and hatred of politicians, that he can contemplate his subjects without taking these things into account, and can thus work for the benefit of each one of his people and each separate province.
The war has ended - quite differently, indeed, from how we expected. Our politicians have failed us miserably.
Germany is in no need of fresh military glory, nor does she require any new conquests, for she has already obtained once for all, on the field of battle, the right to exist as an united and independent nation.
Germany possesses an army commensurate with her needs, and if Great Britain has a navy corresponding to her requirements, Europe in general cannot fail to regard it as a most important factor for the maintenance of peace.
I solemnly vow always to be mindful of the fact that the eyes of my ancestors are looking down upon me from the other world, and that one day I shall have to render to them an account of both the glory and the honour of the Army.
Germany's greatness makes it impossible for her to do without the ocean, but the ocean also proves that even in the distance, and on its farther side, without Germany and the German Emperor, no great decision dare henceforth be taken.
I am well aware of the fact that by the public at large, and particularly in foreign countries, I am represented as entertaining a wanton and ambitious craving for war. May God keep me from such criminal folly.
Our first and foremost duty is to show ourselves worthy of our ancestors and their achievements. And that we can only do by an undeviating adherence to the paths which they traced out for our guidance.
The Party which dares to attack the foundations of our State, which sets itself against religion and does not stop at attacking the person of the All-Highest Ruler must be rooted out to the very last stump.
All the Jews needed to be expelled from the press, none of them could be allowed to work their poison in this way, one day I would see, on his restoration, what a pogrom there would then be, but of a different and more effective kind than all those in Galicia!
Should it ever happen that the British and German Navies have to fight side by side against a common foe, then the famous signal "England expects that every man will do his duty," which England's greatest naval hero gave out before the battle of Trafalgar, will find an echo in the patriotic heart of the German Navy.
The man who breaks away from the law of beauty, the feeling for aesthetics and harmony, of which every human heart is sensible, even when it is unable to give it expression, and finds his main principle in the thought of some special tendency, some definite solution of what are rather technical problems, sins against the primary source and origin of art.
[I myself will] never acknowledge an Englishman again for the rest of [my] life, nor wear an English Order on [my] chest. The fellows must be brought to their knees.
The Slavs have now become unrestful and will want to attack Austria. Germany is bound to stand by her ally - Russia and France will join in and then England...I am a man of peace - but now I have to arm my Country so that whoever falls on me I can crush - and crush them I will.
They [Jews] belong to the Coloured Races and not the European White Race...which they intend to enervate, subjugate and destroy!
I haven't had a wink of sleep since I left Wilhelmshohe. I'm gradually cracking up. The troops continue to retreat. I have lost all confidence in them.
We are becoming the U.S. of Europe under German leadership, a united European Continent, nobody ever hoped to see. The Jews [are] beeing thrust out of their nefarious positions in all countries, whom they have driven to hostility for centuries.
To protect Germany's sea trade and colonies, in the existing circumstances, there is only one means: Germany must have a battle fleet so strong that, even for the adversary with the greatest sea-power, a war against it would involve such dangers as to imperil its position in the world.
Topics Wilhelm II, German Emperor is quoted on
Works