Wilhelm II, German Emperor
<p ><b>Wilhelm II</b> or <b>William II</b> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language" title="German language" >German</a>: <i>Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albrecht von Preußen</i>; <i>Frederick William Victor Albert of Prussia</i>; 27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941) was the last <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Emperor" title="German Emperor" >German Emperor</a> (<i>Kaiser</i>) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monarchs_of_Prussia" title="List of monarchs of Prussia" >King of Prussia</a>, ruling the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Empire" title="German Empire" >German Empire</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussia" title="Prussia" >Kingdom of Prussia</a> from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandson of the British <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria" title="Queen Victoria" >Queen Victoria</a> and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe.
Crowned in 1888, he dismissed the Chancellor, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck" title="Otto von Bismarck" >Otto von Bismarck</a>, in 1890 and launched Germany on a bellicose "New Course" in foreign affairs that culminated in his support for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary" title="Austria-Hungary" >Austria-Hungary</a> in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Crisis" title="July Crisis" >crisis of July 1914</a> that led in a matter of days to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I" title="World War I" >First World War</a>. Bombastic and impetuous, he sometimes made tactless pronouncements on sensitive topics without consulting his ministers, culminating in a disastrous <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraph" title="The Daily Telegraph" >Daily Telegraph</a></i> interview that cost him most of his power in 1908. His top generals, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Hindenburg" title="Paul von Hindenburg" >Paul von Hindenburg</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Ludendorff" title="Erich Ludendorff" >Erich Ludendorff</a>, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands" title="Netherlands" >Netherlands</a>.</p>
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