by Tucker Koch, Contributing Writer

Wilhelm II is, at the very least, an intriguing guy. He was the king of Germany from 1888 to 1914. His reign ended after World War I, when he was exiled from the country so Germany could become a “democracy.” We’ll examine why the Weimar Republic wasn’t a good democracy later; for now, let’s focus on Wilhelm II. But where was he exiled to? The Netherlands’ neighboring country is, of course, Belgium. After a bit of moving around, he eventually settled in the town of Doorn in a lovely country mansion. He then had all his wealth delivered to said mansion; it arrived in the form of 23 railway cars of furniture, a railway car containing his car, a railway car containing his boat, and 27 other railway cars containing his other possessions. This man brought basically an entire museum’s worth of crap with him.

He did various things to keep himself entertained during exile; for instance, he drew battleship plans in his spare time; bought a house in Greece that used to belong to Empress Elizabeth (Franz Joseph’s wife and Franz Ferdinand’s aunt); wrote a memoir about how he didn’t cause WW1 (which is also a topic that needs its own article to discuss); learned the Dutch language; chopped down a lot of trees for some reason; and hunted, reportedly, thousands of animals for sport. You know, typical retiree stuff.

But ever since I brought up this topic, I know what you lot are probably most curious about: what did Wilhelm II think of Germany during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power? Well, when he first heard that the Nazis were taking over, he was supportive, thinking they might reinstate his son, Wilhelm (yes, his name is just Wilhelm), as the new Kaiser of Germany. His second wife was even a firm supporter of the movement. Hitler, however, did not have any plans to do that, as he blamed Wilhelm II for Germany’s failure in World War I. Even though he still had Nazi officials over at his house on and off, he began to have a disdain for Hitler. This all came to a head in 1938, just after Kristallnacht (one of countless genocides history seems to overlook), when he stated that it was the first time he felt ashamed to be German and also disowned his son August. To quote an interview he did for a magazine article a month after the incident (“The Kaiser on Hitler” Ken magazine, December 15, 1938):

“There’s a man alone, without family, without children, without God. Why should he be human? Oh, without a doubt, he’s sincere, but this very excessive sincerity keeps him apart, out of touch, with men and realities. . . He builds legions, but he doesn’t build a nation. A nation is created by families, a religion, traditions: it is made from the hearts of mothers, the wisdom of fathers, and the joy and exuberance of children. . . Over there.”

(Here the good arm rose, pointing over Holland toward the Third Reich.)

“An all-swallowing state, disdainful of human dignities and the ancient structure of our race, sets itself up in place of everything else. And the man who, alone, incorporates in himself this whole state has neither a God to honor, nor a dynasty to conserve, nor a past to consult.

Despite all of this public rhetoric, when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, Hitler received a letter from Wilhelm II’s adjutant stating that the crown remained loyal to Germany and, therefore, to the Nazi Party. Wilhelm II even sent a dang congratulations letter to Hitler on taking care of Poland so fast. After the fall of Paris, he sent ANOTHER congratulations letter to Hitler on his military success. He eventually died due to a problem with his lungs in 1941.

Now, with all these mixed signals during his exile, most of you are probably confused about his politics then. Well, his main driving point is that he REALLY hated England—not the British Isles or the United Kingdom, but specifically England. He saw Germany as the land of Christianity and thus viewed England as the land of its opposite, liberalism. Okay, sure, we’ll just move past that for now. He also believed that every member of the UK parliament was a Freemason and needed to be exiled. He believed that Freemasons, aided by Jews due to the era’s antisemitism, caused both World Wars and aimed for global domination through the UK and the USA. Setting aside all the crazy prejudiced opinions for a second, Wilhelm II, you are already losing this steroid-infused Risk game; the UK controls a fourth of the board.

Now that I’ve gotten the Risk joke out of my system, we need to discuss these views, because what is this, Wilhelm II? You sound like one of those TV conspiracy shows that blame some secret society for all of your problems. Like anything “historical” on Instagram, lol (yet again, a topic for another time). Furthermore, Wilhelm II, please point to the Bible verse that says that a free market and freedom of speech are inherently satanic. Because I’m pretty sure you just made that up.

Hopefully, you all know his views are not okay and are incredibly harmful, to put it lightly. If you need me to sit here and tell you why racism and blaming all your troubles on a secret society is objectively bad, maybe try getting some therapy. Anyway, it was interesting to research what Wilhelm II did after he left Germany, and I hope it was an interesting read for you too. With that said, my name is Tucker Koch, and I hope you enjoyed reading this.