Wilhelm II, German Emperor: Trending quotes (page 3)

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Wilhelm II, German Emperor: 128   quotes 19   likes

“England must…have the mask of Christian peaceableness torn publicly off her face…Our consuls in Turkey and India, agents, etc., must inflame the whole Mohammedan world to wild revolt against this hateful, lying, conscienceless people of hagglers; for if we are to be bled to death, at least England shall lose India.”

Marginal note in a telegram from the German ambassador in St Petersburg, Count Friedrich von Pourtalès (30 July 1914), quoted in Fritz Fischer, Germany's Aims in the First World War (New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 1967), p. 121
1910s

“I haven't had a wink of sleep since I left Wilhelmshohe. I'm gradually cracking up. The troops continue to retreat. I have lost all confidence in them.”

Georg Alexander von Müller's diary entry (9 September 1918), quoted in Georg Alexander von Müller, The Kaiser and His Court (London: Macdonald, 1961), p. 343
1910s

“Agreed, reject…This is the end of negotiations with America, once and for all! If Wilson wants war, let him provoke it and then have it.”

Minute in response to a memorandum by Henning von Holtzendorff (18 March 1917), quoted in Fritz Fischer, Germany's Aims in the First World War (New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 1967), p. 306, n. 3
1910s

“Where my Guards appear, there is no room for democracy.”

Speech to representatives of German political parties (20 July 1917), quoted in Michael Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times (London: Penguin, 1975), pp. 379-380
1910s

“Must stay there and also foment war and revolt against England. Doesn't he yet know of the intended alliance, under which he is to be Commander in Chief?!”

Marginal note in a telegram from Constantinople (29 July 1914) regarding the wish of the German military delegation to return, quoted in Fritz Fischer, Germany's Aims in the First World War (New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 1967), p. 121
1910s

“I look on myself as an instrument of the Almighty and go on my way regardless of transient opinions and views.”

Speech at Koenigsberg (25 August 1910), quoted in Michael Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times (London: Penguin, 1975), p. 157
1910s

“The Tsar is not treacherous but he is weak. Weakness is not treachery, but it fulfils all its functions.”

On his cousin, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, as quoted in Harold Nicolson, Sir Arthur Nicolson, Bart., First Lord Carnock: A Study in the Old Diplomacy, London: Constable & Co., 1930, p. 214 http://books.google.com/books?id=CFUZAAAAIAAJ&dq=editions%3AISBN0571269028&q=treacherous
1900s

“I will take the Duchy of Courland, I, the victor by the strength of my sword, but not from the hand of the assembly.”

Georg Alexander von Müller's diary entry (19 March 1918) before German Spring Offensive, quoted in Georg Alexander von Müller, The Kaiser and His Court (London: Macdonald, 1961), p. 343
1910s

“You will be home before the leaves fall from the trees.”

Addressing German soldiers departing for the front in WWI (August 1914), as quoted in The Chanak Affair (1969) by David Walder, p. 21
1910s
Variant: You men will be home when the leaves fall.

“The feats of our brave troops are wonderful, God gave them success. — May He continue to help them to peace with honour, & the victory over Juda & Antichrist in British garb.”

Letter to Margarethe Landgraffin von Hessen (20 April 1941), quoted in John C. G. Röhl, Wilhelm II: Into the Abyss of War and Exile 1900-1941 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), p. 1262
1940s

“Let me assure the Sultan and the three hundred million moslems… That the German Emperor will ever be their friend.”

On the Sultan of Turkey, while on the railway to Baghdad
The Growth of Nationalism (1992)

“If a British parliamentarian comes to sue for peace, he must first kneel before the imperial standard, for this is a victory of monarchy over democracy.”

Remarks made after the first German successes of the Spring Offensive (26 March 1918), quoted in Fritz Fischer, Germany's Aims in the First World War (New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 1967), p. 618
1910s