Wilhelm II

Born in Berlin in 1859, Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, reigning from 1888 until his abdication in 1918. Early in his reign, he dismissed Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to assert "personal rule," driving aggressive foreign initiatives, naval expansion, and colonial ambitions under his Weltpolitik strategy, which heightened tensions with Britain, France, and Russia. As supreme warlord during World War I, his political authority was progressively eclipsed by the military command under Hindenburg and Ludendorff. The outbreak of the German Revolution in November 1918 forced him to abdicate, ending the Hohenzollern monarchy, and he spent his remaining life in exile in the Netherlands.

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