Download or read book The Imperial German Army Between Kaiser and King written by Gavin Wiens and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-03-28 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a reappraisal of Germany’s military between the mid-nineteenth century and the end of the First World War. At its core is the following question: how 'German' was the imperial German army? This army, which emerged from the Wars of Unification in 1871, has commonly been seen as the 'school of the nation'. After all – so this argument goes – tens of thousands of young men passed through its ranks each year, with conscripts undergoing an intense program of patriotic education and returning to civilian life as fervent German nationalists and ardent supporters of the German emperor, or Kaiser. This book reexamines this assumption. It does not deny that devotion to the Fatherland and loyalty to the Kaiser were widespread among German soldiers in the decades following unification. It nevertheless shows that the imperial German army was far less homogenous and far more faction-ridden than has hitherto been acknowledged.

Download or read book Handbook of Imperial Germany written by Robinson & Robinson and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this book is to provide a one-volume resource for collectors and historians with an Imperial German army interest. The more we researched, the more we found there were more stories, myths and misunderstandings about Imperial Germany than there were facts. Different authors addressed different aspects: collectors, historians and educators all had their own area of expertise, but there was no readily available resource to give a general overview of Imperial Germany. Though it is convenient to call it "Germany," at the start of the First World War, there was still no united Germany, no German army, and no German officer corps. At 333 pages with 183 pictures and over 670 footnotes, this is an attempt to explain the intricacies of how the country worked -- militarily, politically and socially.

Download or read book The Imperial German Army The History and Legacy of Germany s Armed Forces During World War I written by Charles River Editors and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-02-14 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes soldiers' accounts *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading World War I, also known in its time as the "Great War" or the "War to End all Wars," was an unprecedented holocaust in terms of its sheer scale. Fought by men who hailed from all corners of the globe, it saw millions of soldiers do battle in brutal assaults of attrition which dragged on for months with little to no respite. Tens of millions of artillery shells and untold hundreds of millions of rifle and machine gun bullets were fired in a conflict that demonstrated man's capacity to kill each other on a heretofore unprecedented scale, and as always, such a war brought about technological innovation at a rate that made the boom of the Industrial Revolution seem stagnant. Naturally, as one of the main belligerents of the war, and arguably the most powerful, Germany led the way in many respects. Between innovation, the scale of manpower, and cutting edge tactics and technology, the Imperial German Army would inflict devastating losses on the enemy, but the war would also prove to be its undoing, even as the seeds of that conflict would lead to far worse a generation later. The Imperial German Army had developed a formidable reputation decades earlier, almost immediately upon the unification of the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1871. Prussia dominated the new Germany, and with that came a strong military tradition and hierarchy. Not surprisingly, German leaders who had such power at their disposal were more than willing to use it, and when Kaiser Wilhelm II was crowned, a monarch with a thirst for foreign adventurism took control of Germany. In the decades before 1914, German politics became increasingly authoritarian and its society militarized. In conjunction with that, as the German Empire wanted to become a Great Power, it induced distrust amongst its rivals. Berlin was arguably the most enthusiastic European capital for a war in 1914, and German leaders enacted the long prepared "Schlieffen Plan" almost immediately. Although the German army advanced rapidly in the early weeks of the First World War, it would meet unexpected resistance from the British and French. Bogged down in the trenches of Flanders, the Germans had more success on the Eastern Front against the Russians, and eventually, after the Tsarist regime was overthrown, they emerged victorious there. By early 1918 though, German society was exhausted by war and starving due to a naval embargo. After a last-ditch offensive in early 1918, the British and French forces, now supported by the Americans, finally achieved some success against the weakening German army. November 1918 brought an armistice, and the punitive victor's justice of the Treaty of Versailles left many former German soldiers angry and resentful moving forward. The legacy of the German army's indecisive defeat would resonate for many when these grievances were stoked by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis less than a generation later. The Imperial German Army: The History and Legacy of Germany's Armed Forces during World War I chronicles the German military in the years after the German Empire's formation and World War I. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Germany's army in World War I like never before.

Download or read book Under Arms for the Kaiser written by Michael Kelso and published by . This book was released on 2017-02-01 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1871, after defeating the French, the King of Prussia declared Germany an Empire and crowned himself Kaiser Wilhelm in the Versailles Palace Hall of Mirrors. This began a period of ostentation in society and the arts?La Belle Époque or the Beautiful Age. It would end with the outbreak of 1914?s Great War. In that period Germany greatly expanded its military and in keeping with the ?beautiful age? created a fabulous array of colorful uniforms and equipment for its military. Significantly, the adoption of individual military units by Europe's royalty, led to an ever evolving richness in the insignia used to identify individuals and units in the Prussian and other states and principalities of aristocratic Germany. The armies of the Imperial era were flamboyant in uniforms of every color imaginable. None more so than the armies of the German Empire. Whether they were Prussian, Bavarian, Saxon or Wurttemberg regiments it could not be denied each regiment was impressive looking on maneuvers and especially on parade. One of the ways to identify regiments and their branch were by the particular uniforms worn including the all-important insignia attached to each man's shoulder. One can be sure that every soldier wearing a royal cypher or number was proud of his regiment and its history'past and future. Under Arms for the Kaiser is written for both the collector and historian who are interested in the Imperial German army and the regiments which comprised it. The book covers the shoulder insignia of all regiments with a focus on those which were honored with a royal honorary ?Chef,? or chief, including the wear of their monogram (cypher) on their shoulder straps. The book with over 1800 photos includes regimental information, Chefs, and hundreds of shoulder insignia including descriptions by branch and regiment. This is a reference, which should be in the library of every military insignia collector, especially those with an interest in Imperial Germany.

Download or read book The Last Kaiser written by Michael Sidney Tyler-Whittle and published by Crown. This book was released on 1977 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Wilhelm II or William II (German: Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albrecht; English: Frederick William Victor Albert) (27 January 1859? 4 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was a grandson of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe. Crowned in 1888, he dismissed the Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, in 1890 and launched Germany on a bellicose "New Course" in foreign affairs that culminated in his support for Austria-Hungary in the crisis of July 1914 that led to World War I. Bombastic and impetuous, he sometimes made tactless pronouncements on sensitive topics without consulting his ministers, culminating in a disastrous Daily Telegraph interview that cost him most of his power in 1908. His generals dictated policy during World War I 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 Netherlands."--Wikipedia.

Download or read book The Real Kaiser written by and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Kaiser Wilhelm II New Interpretations written by John C. G. Röhl and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-09-15 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As assessment of the Kaiser's character and its implications on Imperial German history.

Download or read book Germany and the Germans written by Price Collier and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2018-09-20 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reproduction of the original: Germany and the Germans by Price Collier

Download or read book Kaiser Wilhelm II written by John Van der Kiste and published by The History Press. This book was released on 1999-07-22 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on a wide range of contemporary sources, this biography examines the complex personality of Germany's last emperor. Born in 1859, the eldest grandchild of Queen Victoria, Prince Wilhelm was torn between two cultures - that of the Prussian Junker and that of the English liberal gentleman.

Download or read book Truth about Germany written by and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Poles in Kaiser s Army on the Front of the First World War written by Ryszard Kaczmarek and published by Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book deals with the fate of Poles from Poznań, Upper Silesia, Masuria, and Eastern Pomerania, who served in the German Imperial Army during the First World War. In regiments recruited on the Polish soil, it was common to use the Polish language, and from 1917 Poles deserted to the Polish Army in France

Download or read book Germany and the Germans from an American Point of View written by Price Collier and published by . This book was released on 2007-09-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book William II written by Christopher M. Clark and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2000 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kaiser Wilhelm II is one of the key figures in the history of twentieth-century Europe: King of Prussia and German Emperor from 1888 to the collapse of Germany in 1918 and a crucial player in the events that led to the outbreak of World War I. Following Kaiser Wilhelm's political career from his youth at the Hohenzollern court through the turbulent peacetime decades of the Wilhelmine era into global war and exile, the book presents a new interpretation of this controversial monarch and assesses the impact on Germany of his forty-year reign.

Download or read book Kaiser Bill written by Blaine Taylor and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Wilhelm II (27 January 1959-4 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia. He was the eldest grandson of Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe. Wilhelm became monarch in 1888 and ruled in peace for twenty-five years. Wilhelm's father had been the hero of three wars and his mother the Princess Royal of Great Britain. When his father died prematurely of throat cancer, Wilhelm succeeded him at age twenty-nine and became the icon of the new 'Wilhelminian' age. Germany excelled in commerce, agriculture, trade, science, cars, the arts, and medicine. Already having Continental Europe's greatest army, Wilhelm set about winning world power via overseas colonies and the building of vast Imperial High Seas Fleet that rivaled Britain's. Eventually, he was defeated by the combined forces of the UK, France, Russia and latterly the USA, and driven into exile by the red revolution. This is a fresh look at a much maligned figure, including his relationships with Bismarck, Hindenburg, Tirpitz, King Edward VII and Tsar Nicholas II, all on the precipice of global change. Was Wilhelm a visionary, a fool, or both?" --from flap.

Download or read book Absolute Destruction written by Isabel V. Hull and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-15 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a book that is at once a major contribution to modern European history and a cautionary tale for today, Isabel V. Hull argues that the routines and practices of the Imperial German Army, unchecked by effective civilian institutions, increasingly sought the absolute destruction of its enemies as the only guarantee of the nation's security. So deeply embedded were the assumptions and procedures of this distinctively German military culture that the Army, in its drive to annihilate the enemy military, did not shrink from the utter destruction of civilian property and lives. Carried to its extreme, the logic of "military necessity" found real security only in extremities of destruction, in the "silence of the graveyard."Hull begins with a dramatic account, based on fresh archival work, of the German Army's slide from administrative murder to genocide in German Southwest Africa (1904–7). The author then moves back to 1870 and the war that inaugurated the Imperial era in German history, and analyzes the genesis and nature of this specifically German military culture and its operations in colonial warfare. In the First World War the routines perfected in the colonies were visited upon European populations. Hull focuses on one set of cases (Belgium and northern France) in which the transition to total destruction was checked (if barely) and on another (Armenia) in which "military necessity" caused Germany to accept its ally's genocidal policies even after these became militarily counterproductive. She then turns to the Endkampf (1918), the German General Staff's plan to achieve victory in the Great War even if the homeland were destroyed in the process—a seemingly insane campaign that completes the logic of this deeply institutionalized set of military routines and practices. Hull concludes by speculating on the role of this distinctive military culture in National Socialism's military and racial policies.Absolute Destruction has serious implications for the nature of warmaking in any modern power. At its heart is a warning about the blindness of bureaucratic routines, especially when those bureaucracies command the instruments of mass death.

Download or read book Blood and Iron written by Katja Hoyer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this vivid fifty-year history of Germany from 1871-1918—which inspired events that forever changed the European continent—here is the story of the Second Reich from its violent beginnings and rise to power to its calamitous defeat in the First World War. Before 1871, Germany was not yet nation but simply an idea. Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring thirty-nine individual states under the yoke of a single Kaiser? How would he convince proud Prussians, Bavarians, and Rhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to rival the empires of Britain and France—all without destroying itself in the process? In this unique study of five decades that changed the course of modern history, Katja Hoyer tells the story of the German Empire from its violent beginnings to its calamitous defeat in the First World War. This often startling narrative is a dramatic tale of national self-discovery, social upheaval, and realpolitik that ended, as it started, in blood and iron.

Download or read book The Kaiser s Memoirs written by German Emperor William II and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prince Bismarck's greatness as a statesman and his imperishable services to Prussia and Germany are historical facts of such tremendous significance that there is doubtless no man in existence, whatever his party affiliations, who would dare to place them in question. For this very reason alone it is stupid to accuse me of not having recognized the greatness of Prince Bismarck. The opposite is the truth. I revered and idolized him. Nor could it be otherwise. It should be borne in mind with what generation I grew up—the generation of the devotees of Bismarck. He was the creator of the German Empire, the paladin of my grandfather, and all of us considered him the greatest statesman of his day and were proud that he was a German. Bismarck was the idol in my temple, whom I worshiped. But monarchs also are human beings of flesh and blood, hence they, too, are exposed to the influences emanating from the conduct of others; therefore, looking at the matter from a human point of view, one will understand how Prince Bismarck, by his fight against me, himself destroyed, with heavy blows, the idol of which I have spoken. But my reverence for Bismarck, the great statesman, remained unaltered. While I was still Prince of Prussia I often thought to myself: "I hope that the great Chancellor will live for many years yet, since I should be safe if I could govern with him." But my reverence for the great statesman was not such as to make me take upon my own shoulders, when I became Emperor, political plans or actions of the Prince which I considered mistakes. Even the Congress of Berlin in 1878 was, to my way of thinking, a mistake, likewise the "Kulturkampf." Moreover, the constitution of the Empire was drawn up so as to fit in with Bismarck's extraordinary preponderance as a statesman; the big cuirassier boots did not fit every man. Then came the labor-protective legislation. I most deeply deplored the dispute which grew out of this, but, at that time, it was necessary for me to take the road to compromise, which has generally been my road both on domestic and foreign politics. For this reason I could not wage the open warfare against the Social Democrats which the Prince desired. Nevertheless, this quarrel about political measures cannot lessen my admiration for the greatness of Bismarck as a statesman; he remains the creator of the German Empire, and surely no one man need have done more for his country than that. Owing to the fact that the great matter of unifying the Empire was always before my eyes, I did not allow myself to be influenced by the agitations which were the commonplaces of those days. In like manner, the fact that Bismarck was called the majordomo of the Hohenzollerns could not shake my trust in the Prince, although he, perhaps, had thoughts of a political tradition for his family. As evidence of this, he felt unhappy, for instance, that his son Bill felt no interest in politics and wished to pass on his power to Herbert.