(Redirected from Wilhelm I)
'William I' (''William Frederick Louis'', ) (
March 22 1797 –
March 9 1888) of the
House of Hohenzollern was a
King of
Prussia (
January 21861 –
9 March1888) and the first
German Emperor (
18 January 1871 –
9 March1888).
Under the leadership of William and his prime minister
Otto von Bismarck,
Prussia achieved the
unification of Germany and the establishment of the
German Empire.
Early life and military career
Prince William riding with the painter, Franz Krüger,
1836.
The future king and emperor was born William Frederick Louis of Prussia (''Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig von Preußen'') in
Berlin. As the second son of King
Frederick William III and Queen
Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, William was not expected to ascend to the throne and hence received little education.
William served in the army from
1814 onward, fought against
Napoleon I of France during the
Napoleonic Wars, and was reportedly a very brave soldier. He also became an excellent diplomat by engaging in diplomatic missions after
1815.
During the
Revolutions of 1848, William successfully crushed a revolt that was aimed at his elder brother
King Frederick William IV. The use of cannons made him unpopular at the time and earned him the nickname ''Kartätschenprinz'' (Prince of
Grapeshot).
In
1857 Frederick William IV suffered a
stroke and became mentally disabled for the rest of his life. In January
1858 William became
Prince Regent for his brother.
King
On
January 2,
1861 Frederick William died and William ascended the throne as William I of Prussia. He inherited a conflict between Frederick William and the liberal
parliament. He was considered a politically neutral person as he intervened less in politics than his brother. William nevertheless found a conservative solution for the conflict: he appointed
Otto von Bismarck to the office of
Prime Minister. According to the Prussian constitution, the Prime Minister was responsible solely to the king, not to parliament. Bismarck liked to see his work relationship with William as that of a vassal to his feudal superior. Nonetheless it was Bismarck who effectively directed the politics, interior as well as foreign; on several occasions he gained William's assent by threatening to resign.
Emperor
In the aftermath of the
Franco-Prussian War William was proclaimed
German Emperor on
January 18,
1871 in
Versailles Palace. The title "German Emperor" was carefully chosen by Bismarck after discussion until (and after) the day of the proclamation. William accepted this title grudgingly as he would have preferred "
Emperor of Germany" which, however, was unacceptable to the federated monarchs, and would also have signalled a claim to lands outside of his reign (
Austria,
Switzerland,
Luxemburg etc.). The title "Emperor of the Germans", as proposed in 1848, was ruled out from the start anyway, as he considered himself chosen "
by the grace of God", not by the people as in a democratic republic.
By this ceremony, the
North German Confederation (1867-1871) was transformed into the
German Empire ("Kaiserreich", 1871-1918). This Empire was a
federal state; the emperor was
head of state and
president (''
primus inter pares'' - first among equals) of the federated monarchs (the kings of
Bavaria,
Württemberg,
Saxony, the
grand dukes of
Baden and
Hesse, and so on, not to forget the
senates of the
free cities of
Hamburg,
Lübeck and
Bremen).
On
May 11,
1878,
Max Hödel failed in an assassination attempt on William in
Berlin. A second attempt was made on
June 2,
1878, by the anarchist
Karl Nobiling, who wounded William before committing suicide. These attempts became the pretext for the institution of the
Anti-Socialist Law, which was introduced by Bismarck’s government with the support of a majority in the
Reichstag in
October 18,
1878, for the purpose of fighting the ''socialist'' and working-class movement. The laws deprived the
Social Democratic Party of Germany of its legal status; they prohibited all organizations, workers’ mass organizations and the socialist and workers’ press, decreed confiscation of socialist literature, and subjected Social-Democrats to reprisals. The laws were extended every 2-3 years. Despite this policy of reprisals the Social Democratic Party increased its influence among the masses. Under pressure of the mass working-class movement the laws were repealed on
October 1,
1890.
In his memoirs, Bismarck describes William as an old-fashioned, courteous, infallibly polite gentleman and a genuine Prussian officer, whose good common sense was occasionally undermined by "female influences".
Wilhelm I as he is depicted on the Gold 10 Mark Coin.
Titles and styles
★ ''His
Royal Highness'' Prince William of Prussia (1797-1861)
★ ''His
Majesty'' The King of Prussia (1861-1871)
★ ''His
Imperial and Royal Majesty'' The German Emperor, King of Prussia (1871-1888)
Full title as German Emperor
His
Imperial and Royal Majesty William the First,
by the Grace of God,
German Emperor and
King of Prussia,
Margrave of
Brandenburg,
Burgrave of
Nuremberg, Count of
Hohenzollern,
Duke of
Silesia and of the County of Glatz,
Grand Duke of
the Lower Rhine and
of Posen, Duke in
Saxony, of
Angria, of
Westphalia, of
Pomerania and of Lunenburg, Duke of
Schleswig, of
Holstein and of Krossen, Duke of
Magdeburg, of Brene, of Guelderland and of
Jülich,
Cleves and
Berg, Duke of the Wends and the Kassubes, of
Lauenburg and of
Mecklenburg,
Landgrave of
Hesse and in
Thuringia, Margrave of Upper and Lower
Lusatia,
Prince of Orange, of Rugen, of
East Friesland, of Paderborn and of
Pyrmont, Prince of Halberstadt, of
Münster, of Minden, of
Osnabrück, of Hildersheim, of
Verden, of Kammin, of Fulda, of
Nassau and of Moess, Princely Count of
Henneberg,
Count of the Mark, of Ravensburg, of Hohenstein, of Tecklenburg and of Lingen, Count of Mansfield, of
Sigmaringen and of Veringen, Lord of Frankfurt, etc.
[1]
Ancestors
Issue
In
1829, William married
Augusta of Saxe-Weimar and had two children:
★
Frederick III, German Emperor (1831–1888) and
★
Princess Louise of Prussia (1838–1923)
Memorials
From 1867 to 1918 more than 1,000 memorials to William I were constructed, including the
Kyffhäuser Monument in
Thuringia.
External links
★ http://www.archontology.org/nations/german/germ_state1/wilhelm1.php
★ http://www.preussen.de
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
