Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941) and Family

[susan alicia]

I find it so strange that the Prince says that Churchill wanted the Kaiser to go stay after WW I in the UK.
No one wanted him to come stay. He arrived at the Dutch border by train and was kept waiting for longer than a day untill the diplomats had settled the matter. He was "humiliated" because the Dutch demanded that he take off his sword before entering the country. He then went and stayed with his entourage too long at Amerongen Castle, at the home the Benticks (his adjudant von Ilsemann fell in love and married their only daughter, which is romantic). And after a few years he bought Huis Doorn.

Dagboekaantekeningen van Sigurd von Ilsemann - vleugeladjudant van keizer Wilhelm II

[Harold]

Actually, Georg Friedrich may have misspoke or been misunderstood. It was during the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940 that Churchill asked the Kaiser to flee to Britain. He wanted to go at first, but then felt that he would be running out on the Dutch who had taken him in.

[susan alicia]

I was referring to this clip, he says considering he also had an offer from churchill he chose to come here. (not to stay here, in holland)

I mixed up the two WW, linking churchill with WW I, but strange that the prince mixed the wars up too, it is his family after all.

Why did Churchill invite the Kaiser to the UK?

Originally Posted by lucien

Prince Georg and his uncle Prince Christian,who is blind,while on a visit to Huis Doorn,the residence of the late Kaiser in The Netherlands:

[lucien]

Churchill was a member of the British government at that time already,IIRC he was the secretary for the Navy,an under-secretary for Defence in one way or another anyway.He would have been in a position to make such a request/offer if he was given the go-ahead by the then PM to do so.I heard this story before and find it hard to believe,if the brits indeed made that offer,then why all the fuzz in requesting the Netherlands time and time again to extradite the warcriminal Wilhelm?It doesn't make any sense,but then war & politics and all those in charge,capable or not,never make any sense.

[Warren]

Perhaps the lesser of the two evils was to have the Kaiser safely in Britain rather than in the hands of Hitler where he could have been used or manipulated as a rallying point for the new Reich.

[susan alicia]

when you consider that the misery and poverty in Germany post WW I , a war that had a great deal to do with the kaiser I wonder why England was worried that he would be popular. I think the Hohenzollerns joined the German army during WWII but I do not think they were part of the SS.

[Marengo]

I think that one of the sons of the Kaiser (August Wilhelm) wore a unoform, much to the disgust of the Kaiser himself btw, who thought it beneath their status to wear the uniform of a corporal.

I am sure that Goebbels could have made a few nice items with the Kaiser. They did use his funeral to do just that, something the Kaiser himself did not want at all.

[susan alicia]

http://www.dhm.de/lemo/objekte/pict/37069/

if you mean crown prince Wilhelm, this is an SA uniform, I found it in a -what I imagine to be- not Politically correct website

[lilytornado]

Originally Posted by susan alicia

http://www.dhm.de/lemo/objekte/pict/37069/

if you mean crown prince Wilhelm, this is an SA uniform, I found it in a -what I imagine to be- not Politically correct website

It is the website of a historic museum - it is fine

[lucien]

Originally Posted by Warren

Perhaps the lesser of the two evils was to have the Kaiser safely in Britain rather than in the hands of Hitler where he could have been used or manipulated as a rallying point for the new Reich.

At the end of WWI and the twenties,corporal Adolf was no-where in sight yet...and really,we all wish it would have remained just like that...

[Warren]

Yes Lucien, but we are talking about Churchill's offer to get the Kaiser to Britain in 1940.

[lucien]

Originally Posted by Warren

Yes Lucien, but we are talking about Churchill's offer to get the Kaiser to Britain in 1940.

Oh yes,sorry Warren,I must have been

[Odette]

I have just finished reading a book about the life of Queen Sofie of Greece.
It mentions that close to the end, she went to visit her brother in Huis Doorn.
Even to the end the Kaiser was a haughty, dismissive, arrogant, unforgiving brother.
Quite sad, Isn't it?

[MAfan]

I remember to have read that she broke with her brother at the time of her marriage, and that he forbade her to entry in Germany; moreover, knowing the instability and the problems of the Kaiser in the relationships with his relatives, I can't surprise that he had remained haughty, dismissive, arrogant, unforgiving till the end.
Btw, really sad.

[Odette]

He forbade her to enter Germany for three years after her conversion to Greek Orthodoxy. Then he "looked the other way".
However this was the son who ransacked the palace after the death of each of his parents to find incriminating evidence. Both the Emperor and the Empress whisked their personal papers to England before passing away.

[MAfan]

Thanks, Odette, I didn't know the exact facts happaned between Wilhelm and Sophie.

[jonnydep]

Originally Posted by MAfan

I remember to have read that she broke with her brother at the time of her marriage, and that he forbade her to entry in Germany

well not quite.......the kaiser was over the moon abt the marriage...it is said that wilhelm covininced himself he had arrange the marriage for reasons of state.......by this marriage he had united five ruling houses....germany, britain, greece, denmark and russia.... the marriage took in athens in 1889.

as mentioned adove the kaiser banished his sister sophie due to her consversion to the greek orthodox faith.......this was much later (1891), some months after the birth of george, her eldest son.

the story goes.....that sophie announced her intention of her conversion at her sisters (morretta) wedding to prince adolf of schaumburg-lippe. the kaiser was very angry and his wife dona (who was expecting another child) became very agitated and summomed sophie to her, resulting in a massive row between the two sister in laws. dona then went into labor early and the baby was born 3 weeks prematurely....the kaiser wrote to his grandmother queen victoria "if the baby dies it sophies fault and she has murdered it" (the baby however survived ).
he then threatened sophie if she was to convert he would banish her from germany and the hohenzollern family
sophie returned to greece and converted despite her brothers threats !!
a few months after her conversion sophie defying her brothers ban, visited her mother the empress frederick at her home friedrichshorf...the kaiser made no move to stop her...why, he was abt to make a state visit to his grandmother the queen in england !!...he did not dare to incur the wrath of queen victoria...who followed this fracas between her grandchildren with deep concern....who had wrote at the time " i cannot say how upset i am at what has happened, and which was so uncalled for !!"

[principessa]

The Heimatverein Bieberthal has opened a exhibition about Emperor Wilhelm II in the Heimatmuseum of Bieberthal:

Google Nachricht

[snowflower]

When it comes to Kaiser and Sophie, the truth is that the argument was relatively quickly resolved. At first , he forbade his sister to set her foot on Germany for three years. But during the winter of 1891, Sophie fell seriously ill with influenza,, and had not fully recovered since the summer. Her doctors suggested that she should go to Homburg for cure, but Wilhem resufed to allow her to enter Homburg ( whicj was a Prussian Province). However, her health continued to decline and his mother told him that she would hold him responsible if something happened to Sophie because he didn't let her be properly treated. Willhem allowed her to enter Homburg ( after the physicians assured him that the Waters of Homburg would be the best cure for her) , but said that she was no ever come in Berlin, or be in his presence until he would specificaly allow it. With a brother like him, she should be happy she could enter Prussia without having to see him.

By the way , does anyone think that his character problems might be due to medical reasons? I mean, I know that his birth was traumatic and that it resulted to his damaged arm. But could he have been also deprived of oxygen? If this happened , wouldn't it result to some kind of brain damage even very mild, which could explaim his whims and personality issues up to a point?

[Katrianna]

Originally Posted by claypoint2

No, she was not a Battenberg. She was born Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, daughter of Grand Duke Frederick Francis III of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia. She married Crown Prince William of Prussia (eldest son of Kaiser William II and Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein) and thus became Crown Princess of Prussia until the end of World War I in 1918.

Also... I may have missed it, but I didn't see any photo of "Ducky," otherwise known as Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She is the one who shocked the royal world by divorcing her first husband (and first cousin) Prince Ernst Louis of Hesse and then marrying (another first cousin) Grand Duke Kyril of Russia.

Grand Duke Kyril and Grand Duchess Victoria Melita's daughter married the Kaiser Wilhelm's grandson, Louis Ferdinand who's parent's were Crown Prince Wilhelm and Crown Princess Cecile. Victoria Melita's and Kyril's daughter was Kira.