The most recent English language biographical study of Wilhelm is The Last Kaiser: The Life of Wilhelm II by Giles MacDonogh (2001). MacDonogh seems to have set out deterministically to write something other than an "indictment" of Wilhelm. He asserts that historians have been unduly critical against the emperor for eighty years, which has prompted him to examine Wilhelm "in a light which, if not ridiculously positive, [is] at least a little more indulgent than that which as coloured attitudes in the past." (viii) While MacDonogh's study is not "ridiculously positive," it does tend to minimize Wilhelm's culpability for the various blunders historians commonly associate with his reign. While he concurs with other scholars of Wilhelmine Germany that the emperor was "a mass of contradictions," (1) MacDonogh also minimizes the Kaiser's documented anti-Semitism, and strongly implies that the "cases brought up against the emperor" such as the Kruger telegram (1896), the "Hun Speech" of 1900, and the Daily Telegraph Affair (1908), were handled "reasonable, and in some cases well" by the Kaiser. (7) This attempt to show that Wilhelm did not act maliciously, criminally or incompetently is what differentiates The Last Kaiser from its predecessors.
In MacDonogh's account of Wilhelm's wartime role, he reaches a familiar conclusion: "it would be impossible to make out that he played the role of 'Supreme Warlord' between 1914 and 1918." (3) He shows that Wilhelm "wavered over the preventive strike" long advocated by the General Staff, and "each time he looked in to the abyss he drew back in horror and countermanded" his generals' orders for such an attack. (9) This gives the kaiser too much of a benevolent, conscientious role for the time. MacDonogh portrays a Kaiser swept up with the emotions and events of August 1914, a leader who allowed himself to be carried into the war. By the first weeks of the conflict, "he had become increasingly peripheral." (367) This declension culminated in January 1917 with Bethmann Hollweg's removal at the insistence of Hindenburg and Ludendorff, at which point Wilhelm "was no more than a shadow emperor. No one listened to him." (391) Probably true.....
Despite showing far more sympathy toward his subject than other biographers of Wilhelm II have done, MacDonogh echoes many of their conclusions. "It is perhaps right that we condemn William," he suggests, "for if the First World War was not his undertaking, the finger of blames points over and over again to the failure of German diplomacy in which he tried so hard to play a positive role." (460) MacDonogh seems reluctant to assign Wilhelm much direct blame for the origins of the Great War or how it was conducted. On the contrary, most students of the last Hohenzollern ruler of Germany concur with the concise biographical entry in The Oxford Companion to Military History (2001): Kaiser Wilhelm II was "seduced by...nationalism and militarism," and came to discover that "leading a cavalry charge on maneuvers...is not the same thing as presiding over a beleaguered state engaged in total war." The last German Kaiser "lacked the strength of character and consistency of purpose which his role demanded, and if he cannot be blamed for leading Germany into war, he may be more justly censured for what one historian has called 'a childlike flight from reality' in the crisis of 1914."

I actually feel a little bit guilty giving this book only 3 stars! It is clear from the endnotes that Mr. MacDonogh did a prodigious amount of research, almost all of it in the primary German sources. There are many amusing and interesting bits and pieces.....little details concerning the way William dressed and ate; many clever and sarcastic comments about their contemporaraies made by William and Bismarck; a description of how William passed the time of day after he was forced to abdicate (he loved to chop wood, and at his first "home" in exile, Amerongen, he managed to chop up some 14,000 trees- giving away most of the wood to the poor). And even though it is interesting to read about many of these things, the end result is oddly unsatisfying. It is almost as though the author found lots of fascinating material, knew he had to include it, but couldn't turn everything into a coherent whole. Mr. MacDonogh quotes so many contrasting opinions that we are left with all of the following: William was an anti-Semite; William was not an anti-Semite; William was brilliant and could have been another Frederick The Great; William was lazy; William had boundless energy and was always traveling and making speeches; William was mentally unbalanced; William could have done more to prevent the slide into WWI; William's hands were tied by the military and by right-wing members of the government; William wanted an alliance with the British; no he didn't; William wanted an alliance with the Russians; no he didn't.....I think you get the idea! In the end, we are left with no clear picture of William as a person or as a ruler, nor are we left with a clear picture of what was going on in Germany in the crucial years leading up to 1914. Imagine that Georges Seurat started to paint a portrait of someone, but by the time the picture was finished it had mutated into a Jackson Pollock! That's probably the best description I could give you of how I felt by the end of this book...

The book is good because it examines one of the figures who was instrumental in shapping the 20th century. The author proves that he was very erratic with his forighn policy and his views on the world. The author also disproves the misconception that it was his imperial ambitions that led to the first World War and points out that it was the militarism of prussian aristocrats.

This is a short biography of Germany's Last Emperor, William II.
As stated previously, it is short and a summary of his life.
The story includes his own downfall, leading Germany to the
Weimar Republic and then Nazi Germany.

The book does its best work in describing William's early life,
and his frosty relations with his English mother and relatives.
This led to alienation from the English royalty and prevented
Germany from forming an alliance with Great Britain, and a more
liberalized regime in Germany.

The book describes William's views on Jews, French, Russia, and
Great Britain. This was not a positive side to his personality.
Also detailed is his relationship to his mother, wife, and various mistresses, with a possible homosexual relationship with
his best friend. The author does not go into detail into this
last aspect, because there is not much evidence. His choice of
people to lead his Empire resulted in the First World War.

This book was relatively interesting, but if you really want to dig into the detail about Wilhelm II's life, you'd be better off with Lamar Cecil's two volume work. There really wasn't much new news in here, and Van der Kiste treated his subject pretty lightly, all things considered. Excellent bibliography, though.

The author of this book accuses Michael Balfour in his biography of Wilhelm II of being "sympathetic" to his subject. This book is not. I found the book fun to read, tho it is not well footnoted and its bibliography is not a first-rate one, in my view. I suspect there are better biographies of Wilhelm II than this one. I read Balfour's The Kaiser and His Times, but I was not overly impressed by it, either. Does anyone know what is the best biography of Wilhelm II?

This is a non-revised paperback version of a biography which first appeared in the late 1970s. The author spent six years working on the archives and the result is a very detailed treatment of Hitler's master spy. Canaris emerges as a Janus or two faced figure. Early in the war, he undoubtedly achieved a number of spy coups. However, he also had to take responsibility for several "botched" expeditions such as the unsuccessful attempts to land German spies in the USA. Following the death of his erstwhile friend Heydrich, SS leaders such as Kaltenbrunner tried to break up Canaris' spy network and place it under Gestapo control. Canaris was dismissed in March 1944, but retained faith that Hitler would rehabilitate him. He was eventually hanged for alleged complicity in the July 1944 plot to kill the Fuhrer. Canaris certainly had links with anti-Hitler factions, but his actual role is still ambiguous. His conscience and loyalties prevented him from being in the forefront of opposition. Author Heinz Hohne is meticulous but is not an easy read. Nor does he offer a chapter of conclusions on this enigmatic character.

I have read many fiction WWII spy stories and thought it would be neat to get the real story on Canaris. This thing kind of reads like a difficult history book. I would suggest you get this ONLY if you are REAL serious about learning about him because it gives tons of trivial details, etc.

Like Albert Speer and Walter Schellenberg, Whilhelm Canaris is one of those enigmatic figures who emerged from the Third Reich. Hohne's book, 'Canaris: Hitler's Master Spy,' is a penetrating look at Hitler's head of military intelligence during World War Two. Hohne traces the rise of Canaris from his days as a lieutenant in World War One to his tenure as head of the Ahwehr and finally to his ultimate downfall at the hands of the Gestapo. The narrative does sometimes go off on tangents (notably the chapters on Canaris's role in the murders of communist leaders in the 1920's,) but also provides amazing insights into German foreign intelligence and the military conspiracy against Hitler that culminated in the July 20th 1944 bomb attempt. For anyone interested in World War Two espionage, the inner-workings of Nazi Germany, or deeper matters of conscience, Hohne's book will more than delight.