THE KAISER & THE FÜHRER
How Wilhelm II courted the National Socialists
Before the Nazis even seized power Wilhelm had Hermine, an advocate of National Socialism, approach the Nazis. His aim was to persuade them to restore the monarchy and himself as kaiser. It’s doubtful Hitler ever seriously considered Wilhelm’s request, but he nevertheless sent Hermann Goering to visit Huis
Doorn in January 1931 and again in May 1932 – with the second visit lasting a week. Nothing ever came about constitutionally from these visits, but a relationship was formed and the Hohenzollern family was granted a substantial annual allowance in exchange for a pledge not to publicly criticise Hitler or the Nazi party.
As time went on, though, this was a promise Wilhelm struggled to keep. In an interview in 1938, when Hitler’s appeal was at its peak, he said of the Führer, “[Hitler] is a man alone, without family, without children, without God. He builds legions, but he doesn’t build a nation. A nation is created by families, a religion, traditions… He’s created an allswallowing state, disdainful of the ancient structure of our race… And the man who alone incorporates in himself this whole state has neither a God to honour nor a dynasty to conserve nor a past to consult.”
Apart from Hitler’s apparent atheism, the kaiser’s chief beef with the Nazi leader seems to be he’d displaced him as the de facto king.
However, when Germany invaded Holland in 1940 and Wilhelm became a citizen in Hitler’s Third Reich, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill offered the royal asylum in the UK, which Wilhelm turned down.
When France fell a few weeks later, he was among the first to congratulate the Führer, despite his grandson Prince Wilhelm being killed during the invasion of Poland fighting as one of Hitler’s soldiers.
Incredibly, the young prince’s funeral attracted 50,000 mourners – the largest non-state-sanctioned assembly Germany witnessed while under Nazi rule. The gathering demonstrated such lingering support for the monarchy that the Prinzenlass – or Prince’s
Decree – was passed. It spared all members of the German royal houses from service in the military and therefore potential martyrdom. Kaiser Bill may have been marginalised, but to Hitler he still clearly posed a threat.