Philip Mansel

Kaiser Wilhelm’s guide to ruining a country

A review of Wilhelm II: Into the Abyss of War and Exile, 1900-1941, by John C.G. Röhl, translated by Sheila de Bellaigue and Roy Bridge. The anachro­nistic, racist and militaristic German monarch hastened his country’s self-destruction

He who must be obeyed: portrait of the Kaiser by Ferdinand Keller, 1893 [Getty Images]

  • Wilhelm II: Into the Abyss of War and Exile, 1900–1941

    John C.G. Röhl, translated by Sheila de Bellaigue and Roy Bridge

    CUP

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