William I, German Emperor

"Wilhelm I" redirects here. For other uses, see William I.

William I King of Prussia Reign 2 January 1861 – 9 March 1888 Coronation 2 January 1861 Predecessor Frederick William IV Successor Frederick III German Emperor Reign 18 January 1871 – 9 March 1888 Predecessor Title created Successor Frederick III President of the North German Confederation Term 1 July 1867 – 18 January 1871 Predecessor Office created Successor Office abolished Spouse Augusta of Saxe-Weimar Issue Frederick III, German Emperor Louise, Grand Duchess of Baden House House of Hohenzollern Father Frederick William III of Prussia Mother Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Born 22 March 1797 Berlin, Prussia Died 9 March 1888(1888-03-09) (aged 90) Berlin Burial Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin Signature Religion Evangelical Christian Church

Prussian Royalty House of Hohenzollern William I Children    Frederick III    Louise, Grand Duchess of Baden

William I, also known as Wilhelm I (full name: William Frederick Louis, German: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig, 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888), of the House of Hohenzollern was the King of Prussia (2 January 1861 – 9 March 1888) and the first German Emperor (18 January 1871 – 9 March 1888). Under the leadership of William and his Minister President Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the establishment of the German Empire.

Early life and military career

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 Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, William was not expected to ascend to the throne. He was educated by Johann Friedrich Gottlieb Delbrück (de).

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 fought under Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at the Battles of Ligny and Waterloo. He also became an excellent diplomat by engaging in diplomatic missions after 1815.

In 1829, William married Princess Augusta von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach after Princess Elisa Radziwill, whom he had been attracted to, was deemed an inappropriate match by his father. Augusta was the daughter of Grand Duke Karl Friedrich von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach. Their marriage was outwardly stable, but not a very happy one.

During the Revolutions of 1848, William successfully crushed a revolt in Berlin that was aimed at his elder brother King Frederick William IV. The use of cannon made him unpopular at the time and earned him the nickname Kartätschenprinz (Prince of Grapeshot). Indeed he had to flee to England for a while. He returned and helped to put down an uprising in Baden. In October 1849, he became governor-general of Rhineland and Westfalia, with a seat in Koblenz.

In 1854, the prince was raised to the rank of a field-marshal and made governor of the federal fortress of Mainz. 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

Coronation of William I, at Königsberg Castle.

On 2 January 1861 Frederick William died and William ascended the throne as William I of Prussia. Like Frederick I of Prussia, he travelled to Königsberg and there crowned himself. He inherited a conflict between Frederick William and the liberal Landtag. He was considered a politically neutral person as he intervened less in politics than his brother. When the Landtag refused an increase in the military budget requested by William and his Minister of War Albrecht von Roon, William first considered to resign but then, on the advice of Roon, appointed Otto von Bismarck to the office of Minister President in order to force through the proposals. According to the Prussian constitution, the Minister President was responsible solely to the king, not to the Landtag. Bismarck liked to see his working relationship with William as that of a vassal to his feudal superior. Nonetheless, it was Bismarck who effectively directed the politics, domestic as well as foreign; on several occasions he gained William's assent by threatening to resign, for instance at the end of the Austro-Prussian War William wanted to continue on to Vienna, whereas Bismarck wanted to end the war, so as to allow Prussia to ally with Austria if it needed to at a later date. During a heated discussion Bismarck threatened to commit suicide if William continued to Vienna; Bismarck got his way. During his reign William saw Prussia through the Second Schleswig War against Denmark, the Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War.

Emperor

William I is proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, France (painting by Anton von Werner)

During the Franco-Prussian War, on 18 January 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles Palace, William was proclaimed German Emperor. 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 his realm (Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg etc.). The title "Emperor of the Germans", as proposed in 1848, was ruled out as he considered himself chosen "by the grace of God", not by the people as in a 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, Mecklenburg, Hesse, as well as other principalities, duchies and the senates of the free cities of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen).

William I arbitrated a boundary dispute between Great Britain and the United States, deciding in favor of the U.S. and placing the San Juan Islands of Washington State within U.S. national territory, thus ending the 12-year Pig War between British and U.S. forces on San Juan Island, on October 21, 1872.

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". This was a reference to William's wife, who had been educated by, among others Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and was intellectually superior to her husband. She was also at times very outspoken in her opposition to official policies as she was a liberal in the classical sense.

Assassination attempts and Anti-Socialist laws

Caricature of William I

On 11 May 1878, a plumber named Emil Max Hödel failed in an assassination attempt on William in Berlin. Hödel used a revolver to shoot at the Emperor, while the 81-year-old and his daughter, Princess Louise of Prussia, paraded in their carriage. When the bullet missed, Hödel ran across the street and fired another round which also missed. In the commotion one of the individuals who tried to apprehend Hödel suffered severe internal injuries and died two days later.

The State convicted Hödel after a photographer who took the radical’s picture days before the assassination attempt testified that after he took the picture Hödel said it would sell thousands once a certain piece of information [was] hashed through the world. Hödel was beheaded on 16 August 1878.

A second attempt to assassinate William I was made on 2 June 1878 by Karl Nobiling. As the Emperor drove past in an open carriage, the assassin fired a shotgun at him from the window of a house off the "Unter den Linden". William was wounded and was rushed back to the palace and Nobiling shot himself in an attempt to commit suicide. While William survived this attack, the assassin died from his self-inflicted wound three months later.

Despite the fact that Hödel had been expelled from the Social Democratic Party, his actions were used as a pretext to ban the party through the Anti-Socialist Law in October 1878. To do this, Bismarck partnered with Ludwig Bamberger, a Liberal, who had written on the subject of Socialism, “If I don’t want any chickens, then I must smash the eggs.” No one in the Social-Democratic Party even knew of Karl Nobiling, but that is not to say that he was not politically motivated. Unfortunately, the aspiring assassin mortally wounded himself before he could be interrogated. The gunshot to the head did not immediately kill him, but he finally succumbed to his injuries in September 1878.

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 on 18 October 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 1 October 1890.

Later years and death

Despite the assassination attempts and William's unpopular role in the 1848 uprising, he and his wife were very popular, especially in their later years. Many people considered them the personification of "the old Prussia". William died on 9 March 1888 in Berlin. He is buried at the Mausoleum at Park Charlottenburg.

Issue

William and Augusta of Saxe-Weimar had two children:

• Frederick III, German Emperor (1831–1888) and
• Princess Louise of Prussia (1838–1923)

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Monarchical styles of German Emperor William I, King of Prussia
Reference style	His Imperial and Royal Majesty
Spoken style	Your Imperial and Royal Majesty
Alternative style	Sire

Gold 10 Mark of William showing titles

Titles and styles

• 22 March 1797–2 January 1861: His Royal Highness Prince William of Prussia
• 2 January 1861–18 January 1871: His Majesty The King of Prussia
• 18 January 1871–9 March 1888: His Imperial and Royal Majesty The German Emperor, King of Prussia

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; sovereign and supreme Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz; Grand Duke of the Lower Rhine and of Posen; Duke of Saxony, of Westphalia, of Angria, of Pomerania, Lunenburg, Holstein and Schleswig, of Magdeburg, of Bremen, of Guelders, Cleves, Jülich and Berg, Duke of the Wends and the Kassubes, of Crossen, Lauenburg and Mecklenburg; Landgrave of Hesse and Thuringia; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia; Prince of Orange; Prince of Rügen, of East Friesland, of Paderborn and Pyrmont, of Halberstadt, Münster, Minden, Osnabrück, Hildesheim, of Verden, Cammin, Fulda, Nassau and Moers; Princely Count of Henneberg; Count of Mark, of Ravensberg, of Hohenstein, Tecklenburg and Lingen, of Mansfeld, Sigmaringen and Veringen; Lord of Frankfurt.

Memorials

From 1867 to 1918 more than 1,000 memorials to William I were constructed, including the Kyffhäuser Monument in Thuringia.

See also

• German monarchs family tree. He was related to every other monarch of Germany.

Further reading

• Röhl John C. G. Young Wilhelm: The Kaiser's Early Life, 1859-1888 (1998) online
• Steinberg, Jonathan. Bismarck: A Life (2011)

External links

• Archontology.org – William I
• Willkommen bei preussen.de (German)
• Works by or about William I, German Emperor in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • “William I (Germany),” Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., 1911
  • Carl Schurz, Kaiser Wilhelm I, 1888

William I, German Emperor House of Hohenzollern Born: 22 March 1797 Died: 9 March 1888
German nobility
Preceded by Frederick William IV	King of Prussia 2 January 1861 – 9 March 1888 Prince Regent since 1858	Succeeded by Frederick III
New creation Unification of Germany	German Emperor 18 January 1871 – 9 March 1888
Preceded by Christian IX of Denmark	Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg 1864–1876	Incorporated into the Prussian crown
Vacant Treaty of Vienna Title last held by Frederick VII of Denmark	Duke of Schleswig and Holstein 1864–1888
Preceded by Adolphe of Luxembourg as Duke of Nassau	Prince of Nassau 1866–1888
Preceded by Frederick William of Hesse as Elector of Hesse	Landgrave of Hesse Prince of Fulda 1866–1888
Preceded by Karl Fellner as Elder Mayor of Frankfurt	Lord of Frankfurt 1866–1888
Preceded by George V of Hanover as King of Hanover	Prince of East Friesland, Osnabrück, Hildesheim and Verden Count of Lingen and Tecklenburg 1866–1888
Political offices
Preceded by Francis Joseph I of Austria as President of the German Confederation	President of the North German Confederation 1 July 1867 – 18 January 1871	Confederation abolished German Empire proclaimed