November 9, 1918: Kaiser Wilhelm II Abdicates

November 9, 1918: Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates his imperial throne, ending the German Empire. This "Second Reich" had lasted not quite 53 years.

He started life with so much promise on January 27, 1859, at the Kronprinzen Palais (Crown Prince's Palace), in Berlin, as Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert Hohenzollern. His great-uncle was King Frederick William IV of Prussia, but was incapacitated by strokes. The child's grandfather, Wilhelm, was Prince Regent until his brother's death in 1861. That made him König Wilhelm I -- in English, King William I.

In 1871, after defeating France in the Franco-Prussian War, the elder Wilhelm declared the German Empire, unifying all the German principalities under his crown, and became Deutscher Kaiser, Emperor of Germany. (As with the Russian title "Czar" or "Tsar," "Kaiser" comes from the Roman title "Caesar.") Wilhelm I ruled until his death in 1888. Unfortunately, his son was already dying of cancer, and only reigned as Kaiser Friedrich III for 3 months. He died on June 15, 1888, and his son became Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Because of various intermarriages between the royal houses of Europe, Wilhelm was connected to most of them. His mother, Victoria, was a daughter of Queen Victoria of Britain. He was a 1st cousin of both King George V of Britain and Czar Nicholas II of Russia. He and Nicholas would correspond, signing their names "Willy" and "Nicky."

They were friendly. Their governments were not. Wilhelm alienated a lot of Germans by dismissing the man who really won the Franco-Prussian War and united the empire, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, and making himself a virtual dictator with what he called the "New Course." He alienated Britain and France with a major naval buildup, by taking new colonies in Africa and Asia, and by building a railroad through their Middle East colonies. Soon, his only allies were the Austro-Hungarian Empire, also German-speaking; and the Ottoman Empire. And both of those were in serious decline.

In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne, was assassinated in Serbia. Austria declared war on Serbia. The alliances kicked in, and the dominoes fell: To stand up for Serbia, Russia declared war on Austria; to stand up for Austria, Germany declared war on Russia; and to stand up for Russia, Britain and France declared war on Germany. It became known as the Great War. It would end up being known as the World War, and, eventually, World War I. It would also be called -- first with hope, then with mockery -- "The War to End All Wars."

Fighting on 2 fronts -- against Britain and France to the West, and against Russia to the East -- plus on the high seas stretched even Germany, the strongest nation on the European Continent, to the limit. They were about to lose the war when Russia broke out into revolution, and left. This allowed Germany to concentrate on the Western Front. But the United States got into the war, with a seemingly endless supply of fresh troops, in 1918, and Germany, physically and mentally exhausted, was doomed.

Wilhelm was at the Imperial Army headquarters in Spa, Belgium, when the uprisings in Berlin and other centres took him by surprise in late October 1918. Mutiny among the ranks of his beloved Imperial Navy profoundly shocked him.

He accepted that he would likely have to give up the imperial crown, but still hoped to retain the Prussian kingship. He believed that, with this status, making him the ruler of 2/3rds of Germany as it then stood, he would still be a key player in any new system. However, this was impossible under the imperial constitution. Wilhelm thought he ruled as emperor in a personal union with Prussia. In truth, the constitution defined the empire as a confederation of states under the permanent presidency of Prussia. The imperial crown was thus tied to the Prussian crown, meaning that Wilhelm could not renounce one crown without renouncing the other.

General Wilhelm Groener told Wilhelm that the Army would march back in good order under the command of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, but would not fight for Wilhelm's throne. The monarchy's last and strongest support had been broken, and finally even Hindenburg, himself a lifelong monarchist, was obliged, after polling his generals, to advise the Emperor to give up the crown. Wilhelm crossed the border by train, and went into exile in the Netherlands, which stayed neutral. The Weimar Republic was proclaimed.

The war resulted in the deaths of about 10 million military men, and probably at least that many civilians. And that doesn't count the deaths from the Spanish Flu epidemic that arrived in the last year of the war. In the words of a German nobleman, Count Henry Kessler:

This rabbit roaring like a lion would be history's most ridiculous monster if his performance had not resulted in such suffering and rivers of blood. The mendacity of his behavior undermined policy and the state, substituted sham and show for sound Prussian tradition, and distorted the perspective of almost the entire nation.

He had a point: Before the World Wars, when people outside Germany thought of things that were "German," they tended to think of things that were Prussian: The militarism, but also the efficiency, the scientific know-how, and literature like that of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Between 1914 and 1945, outsiders still tended to think of things that were Prussian, but remade in Wilhelm's self-broadcast image: Still the militarism, but also the certitude, the stubbornness, and the sense of invincibility that was, admittedly, partly due at times to spectacularly good luck. 

Since the World Wars, when people outside Germany think of things that are "German," they tend to think of things that are Bavarian, from the south of the country: Men in lederhosen, women in drindl dresses, beer, bratwurst, "oom-pah" music, and Oktoberfest.

Millions of people all over the world wanted the Kaiser prosecuted as a war criminal. But both President Woodrow Wilson and Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Britain thought this might destabilize the peace. So Wilhelm was allowed to live out his life in exile in the Dutch city of Doorn.

He died on June 4, 1941, at the age of 82. Despite losing his crown and his country, he actually outlived most of his opponents: President Wilson; Canada's Prime Minister Robert Borden; Britain's King George and Marshal Douglas Haig; Russia's Czar Nicholas and their main military commander, his 2nd cousin, Grand Duke Nicholas; and France's President Raymond Poincaré, Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, and Marshals Joseph Joffre and Ferdinand Foch. And his allies: Hindenburg, Austria's Emperor Franz Joseph, and the Ottoman Empire's Sultan Mehmed V. He did not outlive Lloyd George, but he did live Herbert H. Asquith, who was Prime Minister of Britain when the war began.

He also lived long enough to see Germany rise again, and conquer Europe, including France. He did not, however, get along with Adolf Hitler, or think much of him. The Chancellor of the Third Reich, recognizing the potential propaganda value, wanted to give the Kaiser a state funeral with full military honors, but he turned it down: He refused to be buried in Germany unless the monarchy was restored. So he was buried at Huis Doorn, where he lived, and his remains have never been repatriated.

His wife, Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein, died in 1921, in exile with him. Their eldest son, Kronprinz Wilhelm, fought for the Nazis, and died in 1951, having never become Kaiser Wilhelm III -- perhaps lucky for Germany, because he was an incompetent alcoholic.

His son, Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, was the head of the House of Hohenzollern until his death in 1994. His son, also Louis Ferdinand, was killed in an accident in 1977. So, his son, Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia, is the head of the House as of November 9, 2022, at age 46.

A marketing executive living in the suburbs of Berlin, the great-great-grandson of the last Kaiser has made no effort to restore the monarchy of either Germany or Prussia; but he has strenuously tried, with some success, to regain much of his family's lost property, including artworks.

November 9 has become Germany's "Day of Destiny": On that date, in 1918, the Kaiser abdicated and the 1st German Republic was proclaimed; in 1923, the Beer Hall Putsch failed; in 1938, Kristallnacht was carried out by the Nazis; and in 1989, the Berlin Wall was rendered legally moot.

*

November 9, 1918 was a Saturday. Spiro Agnew, who would be elected Vice President of the United States in 1968 and 1972, but resign the office in disgrace in 1973, was born on this day.

For most of the world, competitive sports was on hold. In North America, baseball season was cut short due to the war, the NHL season didn't start until December 21, professional basketball barely existed, and professional football was only on a regional, minor-league level.

But there were some notable college football games:

* The team at the U.S. Naval Academy beat the team from Hampton Roads Naval Training Station (now Naval Station Norfolk), 37-6 at Worden Field in Annapolis, Maryland. The team at the U.S. Military Academy, at West Point, New York, played only 1 game that season, and it wasn't that week. World War I meant that 1917 and 1918 are the only seasons since 1898 that there has not been an Army-Navy Game.

* Notre Dame played to a 7-7 tie, at Cartier Field in South Bend, Indiana, with the Great Lakes Navy team. They were based at Naval Station Great Lakes, in North Chicago, Illinois. They went on to play another military base team, the Vallejo, California-based Mare Island Marines, in the Rose Bowl. Great Lakes' best player was former University of Illinois end George Halas. A year and a half later, Halas and some friends founded the NFL.

* Michigan beat the University of Chicago, 13-0 at Stagg Field in Chicago.

* In a rivalry that would become bigger in the years to come, Iowa beat Minnesota, 6-0 at Iowa Field in Iowa City.

* Vanderbilt beat Tennessee, 76-0 at the original Dudley Field in Nashville. Vanderbilt clobbering arch-rival Tennessee was not a big deal at the time.

* The University of California beat fellow East Bay school St. Mary's, 40-14 at California Field in Berkeley.

* Rutgers beat Penn State, 26-3 at Beaver Field in State College, Pennsylvania. This was the 1st time these 2 teams ever played. They didn't play each other again until 1950, and didn't start playing each other regularly until 1977. From 1918 to 2021, Penn State is 30-2 against Rutgers. RU's only other win has been in 1988. Princeton played only 3 times that season, and this week was not one of them.