Kaiser Wilhelm II Lays the Blame for WW1 // From His Memoirs (1922) // Primary Source 

From the way he describes the British, you would think they were really unscrupulous -- the sort of people who might use military force to open up markets for opium, for example.

"We try to convince our opponents with the weapon of truth! As well as other weapons." is my favourite quote from this

"I do not care what my foes say about me. I do not recognise them as my judges. When I see how the same people who exaggerately spread incense before me in other days are now vilifying me, the most I can feel is pity." Okay that's actually a good quote.

Hey you, you're finally awake, that fall looked really bad. World War? Treaty of Versailles? Revolutions? What are you talking about? Our diplomatic mission is back, the Russians have agreed to demobilize and the Austrians agreed not to invade Serbia, peace is secure.

Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, Czar Nicolas of Russia and King George... were all cousins. King George and Czar Nicolas looked so much alike that they were often mistaken for each other.

I'm a Dutch-American and my Opa told me a story about him meeting the Kaiser when he was a young boy at some park I believe in the city of Amsterdam. His father pointed out a very old man on a bench sitting alone reading a newspaper and said something along the lines of "that's the king of Germany". Another short story of his was a Nazi fighter plane took potshots at my grandfather in a football field and he describes how loud it was and the way dirt just sprang up all around him.

Hands down one of the best channels on YT!

4:08 OMG that meme is OLDER than we thought!

His hindsight was impeccable. .

The architecture at 3:02 - my heart is melting! Made some effort in locating where this turn of the century photo was from, and what's shown is the corner of Unter den Linden and Friedrichstrasse in Berlin. The lovely "Hotel Bavaria" building on the left later became "Hotel Linderer", and the one on the right housed the famous Café Kranzler, from 1833 until it was completely destroyed in an air raid in 1944.

This channel is such a gem, I'm surprised it doesn't have many more subs. Among the history based channels on youtube (of those I've seen at least) it is unique in that it uses only primary sources. When there is so much low quality content out there that seems to use only Wikipedia as their "source" this channel stand out even more.

any time you hear a story; you should keep in mind whose perspective is being told and whose is left out. either way, this was an interesting retelling.

4:01 has been a meme as old as print.

So, I'm German, and I'm sorry to say that you misspelled "Kaiser" in both the title and the thumbnail. Might wanna change that. 😅 There's no "z" in Kaiser.

Imagine if History Channel had ever aired content of this kind and quality.

Wow what a friendly peaceful man, he deserves a noble peace prize.

"Finally, the War to End All Wars is over." Some Austrian guy: *HELLO THERE*

I love history so much! It is so important to understand our history or we are doomed to repeat it both good and evil

Its an unfortunate task, over 100 years after the war, if you want to study it you have to first dismantle the illusions (sometimes an impossible task) of very very thick propaganda, especially if you want to ask broader important historical questions of the period. I would be interested in a side by side study of how various states at the time and since have taught about the war in popular media and in text books.

Bro your channel is like little snippets of history that I'd never even thought about but it's super interesting. Thank you

I love these videos, they're a real treat

Voices of the Past can do a video on Washington's 1796 Farewell Address after his second term as president

"Wellington ol' chap, might it be that *we* are the antagonists of this whole debacle?"

This channel is amazing. Thank you for this

That was fascinating to listen to! Thank you!

Wilhelm II actually did a number of historical and poetic works in exile. Most are thought of quite well even among academics here. Though I know English translations are few in their amount. His memoirs are filled with esoteric references to Nietzsche and are mostly constructed as an "apology" (in the true word sense Apología as it was with Socrates) for the German state idea. Rather than simply a work of the biographical type.

Love your work

I had this idea already... I think this exposition is very well made. Thank you.

For someone that praised Bismarck in this-you wouldn’t think that Bismarck was sidelined by this someone before WWI

"Woe to him who hurls the firebrand of war upon Europe."

This is amazing. Thank you.

Please produce more on this fascinating man! 👍

All self-written memoirs after WW1 made by important people: "How I *TOTALLY* am not to blame for what happened"

I mean Kaiser Wilhelm the Second was basis it was true the Entente were preparing for war but the Germans were also increasing the size of their army

I don’t know why but, this video really effect me emotionally, this video without doubt is one of my favorite videos.

Great content keep it up

There is an excellent book "The Guns of August" by Barbera Tuchman (sp) that delves deeply into the causes of WW 1. If you are a student of this war, it is a must read.

Try as he might, even the Kaiser hadn't a clue as to the true reasons for WWI.

Surprisingly insightful

Beautiful channel! Keep this great content coming! I rarely miss one.

"It's all Conrad Von Hotzendorf's fault!" -Kaiser Willhelm

I've read the Kaiser's memiors, they're pretty dang good.

Nice to see a properly edited video on the pre war years. The biases were strong near the end.

I really like these, they make me feel like I’m at a museum.

It would be nice to press the re-start button and go back to 1913.

Its sad how often wilhelm is misjudged in history, I wish more people would read "The innocence of Kaiser WIlhelm II".

well done, very interesting.

this is actually compelling, i might one day write a paper on this

I'm glad to know that WW1 was in no way Kaiser Wilhelm II's fault whatsoever.

I'm currently going through The Great War podcast on RU-vid. This is right up my alley! Definitely recommend checking out The Great War podcast, it covers every week of the war through a timespan of all 4 years each week. If you want more details on WW1 than you could even crammed in your brain, Great War podcast is certainly worth it.

Very wise words and brings on insights even to this very day

This was very interesting to listend too.

This just proves that politicians blaming everyone else for their own ineptitude is not a modern phenomena. I am not saying he caused the war but he certainly didn't do much to reduce the possibility of it breaking out. A perfect example of why all countries need institutional checks on the political power of their leaders.

Well done! He who wins the war, writes the history. I met the “Prince von Preussen” (Grandson of the Kaiser) in 2002

Good video

Well done.

How interesting that biographies like this one omit any personal blame and responsibility. It omits Austrian occupation of Bosnia. It omits letters sent to HQ when to start war against Serbia. TIP: It had been planned to start one year prior, as the archives had shown.

"It's all not-me's fault" -Me

Where did you find that map of languages with the borders superimposed? I'm having trouble finding it.

Does what it says on the tin. Subscribed. Hope you have an episode on Smedley Butler, if not, I hope you've got the sense to upload one

From Napoleon to WW2, even the cold war: Every time there was a big push for global banking, global or at least European alliances and unions. As well as other social political and technological industrial changes (like going from coal to oil) You can't just declare a one world government. You have to sacrifice the little guy for it. Look at the current events, and you can see that there is in fact already a one world government in place.

The best part is when he says that Germany has no foes. What always intrested me is that from the 7 years war to WWI, prussia by the english it self and germany from the austrian empires, they didn't start a single war from themselves, but was dragged by their allies for their own geopolitical interests. The smaller german states wanted mostly security from the powerhungry empires surrounding them that could stand no competition

Another terrific one. Great work! Whomever wrote this was German brilliant. Whether a sound defense argument or insightful recollection, it laid bare the mentality of the British government from the hour of King Arthur's betrayal by the church to this day.

Excellent read by the way.👍

Before having listened to it i am incredibly curious how Wilhelm ll was entirely NOT to blame for ww1 acording to Wilhelm ll...

This is interesting

Oh my goodness I can't believe we get to hear this

Outstanding consolidation of history.

The only thing I learned about this man from my history teacher was that he was super duper mad and angry all the time because he was abused by his parents or something and then he set off on a quest to take over the planet because he was evil personified.

I'm surprised people thought Germany was to blame more than other countries

Exceptionally well written and narrated and for once, it sounds like the truth.

It's a really good explanation so long as you dont trouble yourself about 1914.

As always, the eternal Anglo was up to his backhanded tricks.

I am from Serbia. We had a witness who describe how english officers thought our idealists, on a bank of river Sava, how to shot from a revolver. One of those idealists was Gavrilo Princip. The rest is well known. Officers went back to their homeland, maybe getting rewards as title: Lord and some young boy for enjoyment?

War is a racket. that is all

I heard once from a respected russian historian that Napolen said, that the biggest mistake he is done is believing in british decency, referring to his surrender.

Listening to this litany of denial, a Shakespearean quote kept running through my head, "The Kaiser doth protest too much, methinks."

*Britain, in peace time:* Nooo, Germany, you cannot build a seiziable navy. Why would you even want to do that? *Britain, in war time:* * blocs the North Sea and cause the greatest famine in German history *

If I was still larping this would've been a fun video to do it on.

What is this from?

Bismarck was a better Statesmen than Kaiser Wilhelm and would have managed the European Alliances better. No mention of Bismarck in these memoirs as Kaiser Wilhelm fired him.

2:17 "History can show nothing to compare with the World War of 1914 to 1918" History: hold my Beer Hall Putsch.

Regardless of what you think about him or his actions he had some prudent points about certain bad actors involved and hidden equipment well before the war proving it was meticulously planned and not some organic war as commonly depicted.

It is absolutely amazing to hear Wilhelm II views on how world war 1 started. I don't if the Kaiser is out right lying or he believes most of what he put in his memoirs. In truth is the Kaiser wasn't solely responsible for world war 1 but the war would have never happened if his help. Side note Wilhelm II once tried to stab his uncle at a wedding when he was only 4 years old.

From the way he describes the war, you'd think he was talking about some hypothetical dust-up between the British Empire and German Empire primarily over trade. I have to wonder if he's explicitly being disingenuous or if he really didn't see the wider implications of the war.

This definitely shows Wilhelm’s love-hate relationship that he has for the British Empire, from the way he describes them - to the way he describes how the war was conducted. But he also seems to be a man who shirks any responsibility for not pressuring the government to try a different avenue before war was declared, or even suing for peace once it became obvious that the war was a but lost even after they had eliminated the Russian front.

Are these memoirs available in English? I read about WW1 a lot and want to read more of the German point of view.

Well at least his conscience is clean.

When Belgium is preparing for war you know shit is about to go down

Hail to you, my Kaiser. I wish for this whole bloody mess never to have occurred.

This is a perspective on WWI I've never heard before. Come to think of it, I've never heard a decent historical insight of that war on this level -- personal, cultural, and economic motives. Usually it's just "complex system of national alliances" and then the topic of casus belli is dropped.

Oh gosh! "Voices from the other side" !

Honestly I always feel conflicted studying the history leading up to (which stretches far back in time) and the history in the aftermath (fun fact: we're still living in it) of WW1. I hear the words of Kaiser Wilhelm II and I hear the fallacies and the "apologetic/excusatory" hindsight. Wilhelm II was, without a doubt, a warmonger to some degree (like all the other world leaders of the era) and his memoirs were written to put himself in a better light (he wasn't pretty in ANY light) than he was being cast. My conflictions stem from 2 major facts: 1) No side was "the good guys" during the First World War. No matter what anyone says all sides committed acts of good and evil and there there is no "lesser of two evils" argument to be had. No one side was right and no one side was wrong. 2) WW1 was so formative in the foundation of modern history that no "what if" scenario can possibly be considered without drastically altering the modern world we live in now to a point that all speculation would be pointless. How can anyone justify a conflict of this scale in ANY way? How can ANYONE say their side was "the victor" when the war so drastically rewrote the rules of the world? Personally, I can sympathize with most perspectives. German, Russian, French, British, Romanian and so many others. I can also fault with every side. I also have a hard time even describing each "side" since every "side" had it's own internal divisions to the point that I can't even say (outside of the obvious ones from history class) what side was what. World War One changed the world irrevocably. We're still dealing with the consequences today (near the end of 2020 at the time of this semi-drunken rant) and I don't think any one can really deal with that fact. All we can do is study the facts (where they can actually be found) and the opinions (all taken with a pinch of salt) and try to build the world to be better for all of it.

Kaiser Wilhelm: "Talks about British Propaganda" People in the replies: "HES JUST BLAMING OTHERS FOR WHAT WAS ONLY HIS FAULT"

Brilliant, thank you. I wonder to what extent he truely believed this.

The Kaiser and Czar were frantically exchanging letters to negotiate a peace, Wilhelm II wasn’t even aware when the German heads of Staff sent the Russian Ambassador their declaration of war. Also the Kaiser had sent a letter to the Austrian Kaiser insisting restraint in their invasion of Serbia but the letter was altered to give Austria Germany’s full support. Wilhelm II had many outbursts which soured relations but he never wanted a war. The German foreign office was in such disarray that after years of pursing an alliance with England, around 1900 (can’t remember the exact year) England finally offered an alliance they turned it down.

It is well known that WWI was started to punish growing German industrial / scientific progress. Cecil Rhodes was in on this.

I am the enemy you killed, my friend. I knew you in this dark: for so you frowned Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed. I parried; but my hands were loath and cold. Let us sleep now. . . .”

What world leader, in the twilight of his life, doesn’t write a book that assigns all failures to others, all evil intentions to his “peers”, and all blamelessness to themselves. A master class in deflection of responsibility as a person, as a country, and as a people.

I think of the key people whose actions precipitated all these wars, almost all in government or academia, and it's hard not to think how a handful of rifle cartridges might not have steered the course for a more peaceful world.