Wilhelm II

Goodness me, those clothes are certainly not too shabby, sir.

So Will was the last German emperor [kaiser] and king of Prussia. He was born on January 27, 1859 in Berlin. He was actually born with a gimpy, withered left arm, but he did a pretty darn good job of keeping it hidden! Can’t be kaiser with a wimpy arm, now can you?

By age 29 he was made kaiser, and started working very hard on pumping up the German army/navy. He also had quite a bit of family angst; he was ruthless towards the British, but also adored his grandmother, Queen Victoria. Awww.

In 1914 the Austrians were getting slapped around a bit and Wilhelm basically told them “hey guys don’t be wimps, I’ll back you up if you get into a war okay?” This little memo kinda freaked out Russia and their buddies, they attacked Germany and Austria, and BAM. World War I.

And as history goes, Germany failed, thanks to shortages of men and materials from those years of attrition-based trench warfare. Wilhelm was forced to abdicate and went into exile in the Netherlands. He died on June 4, 1941.

And I just kind of love this picture. Hahaha.