Kaiser Wilhelm II

The last German Emperor and King of Prussia (ruled 1888-1918). Known as “The Kaiser” or “Kaiser Bill” during WWI

• atrophied left arm due to difficult birth
• difficult, irritable to deal with
• megalomaniac
• emotionally unstable
• strong military education => a man’s man (hyper-masculine), but strangely also a fop (only wore military uniforms, but had 300 of them). He was a strange, mutable mix of sensitivity and exaggerated masculinity
• also displayed a strange mix of policy: took after Wilhelm I (his grandfather), who believed in absolutism & not cared about democracy or the people, but he also had colonial ambitions to rival England, which were very modern (I'd say, a very ‘versati’-le character)
• abdicated in 1918; in 1919 Germany became a democracy.

extra pic at http://martins-underpants-pics.blogspot.com/2010/03/kaiser-wilhelm-ii.html