The Silver Age was an interesting era in Russian cultural history: https://www.calvertjournal.com/feat...tories-lgbtq-life-in-pre-revolutionary-russia
And worry not, Åland Islands will enter to the picture soon enough.
The March of Time - 20th Century History
- Thread starter Karelian
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And worry not, Åland Islands will enter to the picture soon enough.
Chapter 142: The Eulenburg Affair, Part V: Yet Another Spiritist
"His Majesty can afford to have a bad Reichskanzler for some time; that will be possible to offset. He can also have a bad Minister of War some time, because that would not put the army into disarray. But under all circumstances the Kaiser must always have the best man as Chief of the General Staff, because the outcome of a war, that we may face any day, depends on the choice of leader for the army."
Holstein and Harden had anticipated that Eulenburg would attempt to deflect their attacks by leaving public office, which he had personally loathed in any case. Holstein was most pleased to hear that Eulenburg had left with the plea for Wilhelm II to accept Helmut von Moltke (the younger, not his prestigious uncle) as his successor, since in this task he was removed from the position of the Chief of the General Staff. Holstein had been especially slighted in the way von Moltke had discussed military matters with von Eulenburg during the Moroccan Affair.
One of the few men whom Holstein counted has his true friends was no one else than old Schlieffen himself, and the way Wilhelm II (listening to Eulenburg and rest of the Liebenberg camarilla) had foiled Holsteins plan to intimidate the French in order to isolate them internationally. Now his old friend was indeed becoming too old to fulfill his duties anymore - the old field marschall was nearly 75, half-deaf and almost blind and had requested permission to retire for several times already. Schlieffen had slighted the vainglorious Kriegsherre with his honesty, and the ambitious intriguers of Liebenberg had already positioned their candidate to take over against the best interests of Germany.
And now a single newspaper article and a letter with few hard truths had cut through this cobweb!
Wilhelm II, blissfully unaware of the scheming that was taking place at the backstage, had brushed aside the meek objections from von Moltke, telling to the surprised future Reichskanzler that "a Prussian officer must be confident in everything and be able to do anything." This was the kind of encouragement that played well with a man who suffered from the reputation of his legendary uncle, harbouring ambitions to prove himself worthy of his great relative. Wilhelm II, like his cousin Nicholas of Russia, liked von Moltke precisely because he felt that he could control him and because Wilhelm estimated that von Moltke would be out of his league in his new post, enabling him to be his own Chancellor and exercise personal rule.
At the same time von Moltke had the reputation of being one of the few individuals brave enough to have frank conversations with Wilhelm II, while also being courteous enough to remain in the good graces of His Imperial Majesty afterwards. When his appointment to the military task at had seemed all but preordained in 1904, he had taken over the the German autumn war games, Kaisermanöver, from outright farcical spectacles where Wilhelm II personally led cavalry charges[1] into serious exercises, where the Kaiser was no longer the main star after von Moltke had told him in no uncertain terms that such charades would have to stop.
Personally von Moltke was a man of culture - had his own painting studio, playing the cello was his favourite way to relax, and he read a lot of books, quoting Goethe's Faust in many occasions.
And, much to the glee of Harden, he had rather unorthodox philosophical views. His wife, Gräfin Eliza von Moltke-Huitfeld, was a close friend of Rudolf Steiner and one of the first pupils of his Esoteric School. While his opponents spread rumours that von Moltke believed in faith-healing, guardian angels and Spiritualism in general. But while his wife was truly devout follower of Steiner and his philosophies, von Moltke himself was more sceptical, although surprisingly open-minded for a man in his position.
Wilhelm II was openly dismissive towards the German General Staff. He famously stated that he did not really need the whole institution, since He would be his own Chief of Staff in a case of war and could do everything alone with his Flügeadjutanten. And with von Moltke at his close court in his now political post, he, in his typical fashion, completely lost interest to the whole matter. Wilhelm II thus rather casually appointed his earlier option, the surprised Oberquartiermeister Hans Hartwig von Beseler, a former protégé of both Waldersee and Schlieffen to the task in January 1906.[2]
Before his appointment, von Beseler had been the deputy chief of the Großer Generalstab, head of the Engineer and Pioneer Corps, Inspector-General of Fortresses and instructor at the Kriegsakademie. He had been recommended as the successor of Schlieffen by Graf von Hülsen-Haeseler, Chief of the Military Cabinet.
Meanwhile Harden and Holstein pondered their options, and soon realized that in order to bring down the "Spiritistennest" of Liebenberg, they would have to sever the link between Eulenburg and his allies and the new Reichskanzler. Luckily for them, that link had a name, address, and questionable reputation.
1: As per OTL! Wilhelm II often specifically chose the areas for the battles so that there would be room for massive cavalry attacks.
2. Schlieffen favoured Beseler over the others, and in OTL he was specifically ennobled in to make him more acceptable future Chief of Staff in 1904, before the Moroccan Affair and the advice of Eulenburg led to the selection of von Moltke.
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Chapter 142: The Eulenburg Affair, Part VI: The Noose
After Eulenburg had left office and fled to Switzerland to recover his health, the following year saw a curious wave of suicides. Six high-ranking members of the German army fell victim to the highly profitable criminal activity of blackmailing - and all of them had had some personal relationship with Eulenburg and his friends. Rumours ran wild at the press and court circles alike. When Eulenburg, worried about the way his friends were being attacked, openly defied the terms set down by Harden. He returned to Liebenberg in late 1906, and attended a court seremony to be admitted to the Order of the Black Eagle. A few days later Die Zukunft started to point out whom Harden was after. Articles using nicknames such as The Harpist and Sweetheart were a thinly-masked smear campaign against von Eulenburg and Count Kuno von Moltke, brother of the Reichskanzler, Flügenadjutant (aide-de-camp) of Wilhelm II, and military commander of Berlin garrison.
Confrontation with this challenge for the men of the social status of von Eulenburg and von Moltke had two courses: either dueling (criminalized after German unification) or courtroom. Eulenburg chose to pursue the first route. He denounced himself for violating Paragraph 175, using jurisdiction of his Liebenberg estate. After cursory investigation and a short show trial, the presiding district attorney determined that Eulenburg - his personal friend - was clearly not guilty. Moltke, under the advice of a jurist he had hired, followed suit.[1] His divorsed former wife, Lilly von Elbe, was undermined as an unstable hysteric, discrediting her testimony. Hirschfeld, a known sexologist and advocate of homosexual rights whose testimony Harden had sought to utilize at the courtroom was also silenced via blackmail.[2] The first von Moltke trial was thus seemingly a defeat for Harden, with Kuno von Moltke and Eulenburg completely rehabilitated. But it turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory for the Liebenberg circle.
The trial drew massive publicity because of the high status of the persons involved. And news that Hirschfeld had been threatened from testifying did not stop another leader of the German homosexual movement, Adolf Brand. He had earlier on decided to pursue a strategy that he cynically labelled “the path over corpses”, publicly outing known public figures to bring the matter of sexual liberation and equality to the focus of public discussion. Brand went public with accusations of von Eulenburg[3] on a newspaper article soon after the first trial was over, and he was summoned to court to defend himself against a libel suit.
At court Brand defended himself by saying that he did not believe that there was anything immoral or dishonorable about homosexuality, and that he merely wanted to demonstrate how widespread phenomena relations between men really were. Brand delivered evidence from private correspondence of Liebenberg circle - how he had obtained these letters he did not say - only to be sentenced to eighteen months in prison.
Now Harden changed angle. He had his back on the wall on the matter. He knew that Eulenburg was most loathed at sourthern Germany. Journalists close to the Zentrum party saw the Eulenburg camarilla as the “Protestant cartel”, an embodiment of the anti-Catholic attitudes of the ruling Prussian elites, who had rallied around the idea of Protestant Kaiserdom of a Protestant Empire. To them von Eulenburg, “the modern Gustav Adolf”, had blocked the primary-school education reform bill that would have improved the status of Christian churches. He had alienated the Catholic Poles by attacking the liberal policies of Chancellor Caprivi, and constantly spread ill-will towards German Catholics.
Thus Harden and Holstein found it easy to find allies from Bavaria. Anton Städele, editor of a Bavarian newspaper, Neue Freie Volkszeitung, soon published a story that claimed that Eulenburg had bribed Harden to suppress the press campaign. Harden immediately sued Städele for libel. This trial was naturally held in Munich, at the kingdom of Bavaria, where the notoriously anti-catholic Eulenburg could not use the power of the Prussian state authorities to aid his cause. A trial involved new witnesses, Jakob Ernst and Georg Riedel, who both gave sworn testimonies where they accused Eulenburg in absentia of homosexual acts. The sympathy of the Bavarian court were obvious. Städete did not even try to defend himself, and Harden was allowed to bring evidence that had nothing to do with the original case. Allowing the plaintiff to furnish proof that he had been grossly libelled, using witnesses already subpoenaed by another court, County-Court Judge Karl Maier greatly overstepped his legal rights. Yet he publicly stated that “the truth had to be brought to light.” Max Bernstein, Harden's attorney, was thus able to use the statements of Ernst and Riedel to point out that Eulenburg had committed perjury.
The Munich trial stunned the public both in Germany and abroad. For the German court elites, the mood was mixed. Some felt that Eulenburg had been disgraced beyond repair, while others viewed the attacks as false testimonies bought by unknown enemies of the camarilla. The socialists were now publicly following the court proceedings, and their newspapers were eagerly looking for signs for double standards in the court proceedings of commoners and aristocrats.
Meanwhile Wilhelm II was furious. The Kaiser had initially taken up some distance to his former Chancellor after Eulenburg had left office. Yet when the scandal went on, he was adamant that Eulenburg should stand his ground and defend his honour at court.
“The trial must continue, even if E is consumed by the flames. Otherwise the whole business will have been in vain, and the Scweinerei will start all over again!" When Eulenburg sued Harden for libel, the tactic of Harden and his legal team worked. Eulenburg had to meet the witnesses from the Munich trial, and confront the two Bavarians directly. The case displayed the hidden North-South antagonism and religious tensions of German Empire in broad daylight. Eulenburg defended himself as a Prussian Protestant and Patriot, under attack by a foul Jesuit plot. It was a disastrous performance from Eulenburg, whose prejudices against Catholic Bavarians became obvious to all. When his wife tried to defend her husband by referring the people from the southern mountains as "simple children of nature", the press had a field day. During the trial Eulenburg swore under oath of cleansing that the two witnesses from Munich trial were liars, and that he had never violated Paragraph 175, denouncing "homosexual filth" of any kind.
This was the moment Harden and Holstein had been waiting for. When Harden was sentenced to pay compensations for Eulenberg and the whole juridical process seemed like a politically motivated case of class justice, the public outrage was immense.
Now Holstein contacted Commissioner Tresckow of the Berlin Police, and forwarded him the secret Hohenlohe-Eulenburg protocol. Soon three police investigators from the notorious Vice Squad of Berlin police, director of the the Berlin State Court and a forensic physician arrived unnannounced at the Liebenberg estate to conduct a search. It turned out that in a moment where he had been forced to choose between his brother or von Eulenburg, Reichskanzler von Moltke had realized that sacrifices would have to be made. The Royal Prussian Ministry had at the Behest of Imperial Chancellor von Moltke ordained that von Eulenburg should be put under house arrest.
1. Unlike in OTL.
2. This happened later on in OTL as well, and a more determined law team would most likely have pursued a similar counter-blackmail strategy behind the scenes earlier on.
3. Since von Bülow is dead in TTL, Adolf Brandt chooses von Eulenburg as his target.
Chapter 142: The Eulenburg Affair, Part VII: SUUM CUIQUE
Reichsstrafgesetzbuch, §175: "Unnatural fornication practiced between individuals of the male sex or by human beings with animals is punishable by prison; as well as by the loss of rights of civil honor."
The Liebenberg camarilla, "a word for a horrible foreign poisonous plant, causing great harm to Princes and great harm to the nation through Spiritualism and sycophancy" as Harden described it, now lay in ruins, its surviving members scrambling to burn their correspondence and cover their tracks. The mood in the German press had turned against Eulenburg on both banks of the River Main. At the same time the rift exposed by the trial was now pitting southern Catholic against Prussian Protestants, commoners against elites and liberals and socialists against conservatives. The Prussian judicial system itself was at loss with the twists and turns of the Eulenburg affair, as the scandal was by now known. The judges had no good options.
An acquittal against the overwhelming evidence of perjury would ruin the reputation of Germany as a state where the rule of law prevailed. The fact that Wilhelm II had publicly used his Royal Person and family life as paragons of Christian virtue and earlier on praised Eulenburg and his friends for the same qualities (Wilhelm had been the best man in Kuno von Moltke's wedding) made the matter even worse. Any kind of prison sentence for the former Reichskanzler would jeopardize the prestige and credibility of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
What made matter more complicated was the fact that the Prussian penal code of 1851, the basis of the Imperial German Penal Code that was the legislation used in the Eulenburg case, was a classic liberal code. It protected citizens against arbitrariness by the means of fixing all crimes and punishments to the penal code itself, narrowly defining all crimes. But here the idea that the punishment should fit the crime without any regard to the person of the offender was truly put to test.
Since the German criminal procedure was based on the inquisitorial French model (as opposed to the adversarial Anglo-Saxon model), each trial begun with a preliminary investigation conducted by a judge, with all expert witnesses being court-appointed rather than hired by the parties, with jury trials being extremely rare. This made the judges critically important parts of the legal system, and this arrangement proved to be fatally flawed during the Eulenburg affair.
Reputations were ruined at trial-by-press, as journalism was now running wild in German society. What followed them was essentially a series of political trials, as the verdicts of less insignificant people involved to the scandal were designed to stifle the press, appease the public, and protect the reputation of the ruling classes and the judges themselves.
As the third trial against von Eulenburg himself was slowly starting despite feet-dragging of Prussian authorities, Harden was now holding public rallies to large crowds around the country "to inform the people of the real facts behind the scandal." Privately von Holstein was pushing for quicker conclusion, warning Reichskanzler von Moltke that further inaction in the Eulenburg case would "necessarily do serious damage to the whole concept of the Empire and most particularly to people’s feelings about the monarchy."
The latest conspiracy theory surrounding the case was that the Berlin Police Vice Squad secret archives were told to contain a list with hundreds of names of prominent German “sexual deviants” with high positions in Wilhelmine society. The secret list became a topic of heated debates, when a press free-for-all descended upon the Liebenberg circle. Being named witness to one of these trials destroyed careers of men who had done nothing more than attended the wrong hunting trip or advised Eulenburg on the matter of Cuban cigars.
As the year 1906 passed along and new shocking revelations from the trials followed one another, international events in Scandinavia kept Holstein preoccupied. He knew that Reichskanzler von Moltke was facing a Reichstag bitterly divided by the whole scandal, a monarch who had largely retreated from publicity, and a scattered network of potential mentors. Therefore Holstein had calculated that the stressed general would not dare to lose his most experienced foreign policy expert, and he casually went on his way with business as usual, while the gears of the Prussian state were slowly grinding his former friend and rival to oblivion.
The continued presence of Russian troops in Åland Islands was a matter that had more or less stalled the official ratification of the new international status of the Baltic and Black Seas, and the Great Power relations towards the idea of Norwegian statehood and Sweden. Holstein felt that he was finally getting somewhere by pressuring Witte in Russia by threats that the German banks would be forbidden to partake in an international loan to Russia in the spring of 1906, unless Witte would speak sense to Kuropatkin and the Russian Foreign Ministry to get the status of the islands clarified.
In January 1907, when the third Eulenburg trial was about to begin, Holstein was once again routinely threatening to resign unless Reichskanzler von Moltke would inform Wilhelm II that foreign policy demanded a harsher line towards Russian finance. It was this time when the old Geheimrat and grey eminence stumbled. It was the same day when he discovered that Witte had died in a terrorist attack, that his resignation had been accepted, and that the press was now investigating rumours of perversions taking place in the Foreign Office. Helmuth von Moltke had decided to take a stand, pushing Holstein out from his secure hideout in the maze of German diplomacy.
This was the turning point of the scandal. Holstein realized, too late, that by starting the trial he had created a monster neither he or Harden could no longer fully control. At the same time von Eulenburg and the von Moltke brothers on their corner reacted to the new situation with completely opposing views. Eulenburg was mortally ill, and had more or less accepted his fate. Meanwhile Kuno von Moltke had only been tarnished by proxy, and Helmuth, teeming with rage, lusted for revenge. As public outrage divided Germans into bitterly opposed camps, both sides in the Eulenburg Affair felt that they no longer had anything to lose.
Chapter 143: The Eulenburg Affair, Part VIII: The Corpse At Every Funeral
Eulenburg was now suffering virtual torment in his house arrest, constantly under police guard and abandoned by his friends, who would no longer visit him even when many of them wanted to privately urge him to take his own life to end the whole ordeal.
The fundamental flaw in the structure the Kaiserreich was now obvious for all to see: a monarch without the protection of ministerial clothing was in danger of being exposed to the merciless public scrutiny and criticism. The system of personal monarchy practiced by Wilhelm II, with the anachronistic notions of divine right and the byzantine feodal-era attitudes of his statesmen and the military was now facing the highly literate middle-class mass culture of German urban middle class. This relation had always contained an unstable compound that had only needed a spark of a scandal to explode, rocking the monarchy to its foundations.
Harden had made up his mind, as he told to the shocked von Holstein.
Since he considered the Kaiser to remain forever in the "blackmailing hands" of Eulenburg camarilla despite the outcome of these trials, he felt that it was now necessary to pursue "the sad necessity of a replacement at the very highest level, even if the strongest pressure must be applied in a face-to-face conversation." According to Harden this would be preferable to starting a war soon, because the monarchy was suffering from such a loss of prestige that it would have resort to that course of action.
And while Harden had nothing against war, he felt that Wilhelm II would not be up to the task of a wartime Kaiser. Harden referred to the malign influence of Eulenburg on the Kaiser as "the soul of greatest importance to the country", and continued by speculating out loud, "how far did it go? I hope I never face the necessity of saying that."
Privately he already knew. After interviewing Jakob Ernst, the Starnberg fisherman whose testimony in 1908 damaged Eulenburg’s case, Harden was convinced that he now possessed evidence, which laid before the Kaiser in a private interview, would suffice to cause the monarch to abdicate. A close relationship had once existed between the Kaiser and Jakob Ernst, a former fisherman on Lake Starnberg at southern Germany. Harden knew that Wilhelm and von Eulenburg had spent time in Starnberg together in late 1880s, and that Ernst had rowed them out on the lake. If necessary Harden would also make allusions to Wilhelm II’s association with Eulenburg’s protégé Karl Kistler, the private secretary and masseur of von Eulenburg.
Harden told to shocked von Holstein that even one ambiguous public remark by Wihelm II would represent the beginning of "the greatest sensation of all" and could lead to his abdication.
When the whole Germany was talking about von Eulenburg, Liebenberg camarilla, male sexuality and the rule of law, Wilhelm II was unable to avoid repetition of his most typical mistakes. He had a grandiose ego, and unshakable belief to his own historical and divine importance. He took everything personally, and was prone to rage against everyone who opposed him, plotting revenge against both real and imagined slights. He was often obsessed by this or that idea, unable to let them go, pursuing them against all opposition long after it had become clear to everyone else that it would be pointless to do so.
This was combined with his peculiar and outright cruel sense of humour, a source of endless offences and dismay for other monarchs and people who had to endure his presence, friends and members of his inner circle included. As the Reichskanzler Eulenburg had been especially hopeless for the worsening mental condition of the Kaiser in the face of the international tensions of annus horribilis of 1905. Violently abusing people, meeting all comments with either insulting responses or apparently random outbursts of rage, Wilhelm II was becoming too difficult person to control, even for his former best friend.
The Kaiser could wander around for hours, railing against his perceived enemies, his face pale, completely distorted with rage. When he first left office, Eulenburg remarked to the rest of the Liebenberg group that "should a major political crisis storm in on the overstretched nerves of the Kaiser...a breakdown of the nerves" would follow. And this was the situation after Björkö deal had fallen through, and before Harden started his public attacks or the Kaiser became aware of them.
What ultimately led Wilhelm II to his downfall was his vanity and thirst for publicity. He could not resist the urge to "be the stag at every hunt, the bride at every wedding, and the corpse at every funeral."
The Bismarcks and their supporters had propagated the idea that Wilhelm II was mentally unstable since 1890s, and this propaganda campaign had met growing success in Germany. Ludwig Quidde’s Galigula had become such a success because it reflected the disappointment the liberal middle class felt towards Wilhelm II. The Bildungsbürger ideal of an educated German commoner had traditionally included an ethos to despise and ignore all domestic politics as foul play.
Yet rule of law and the seemingly all too real situation of class justice and blatant preach of this sacred middle class virtue were quickly building up public dissent towards the Wilhelmine monarchy. And without the influence of von Eulenburg and his other friends to calm him down, Wilhelm II just could not help himself. In the summer of 1907, when the scandal was at full swing, Wilhelm went abroad, renting the Highcliffe Castle from a British officer Edward James Montagu-Stuart-Wortley, officially as a place of rest and recovery from "an acute throat trouble." Always generous to people he liked, Wilhelm II donated two decorative windows to Stuart-Wortleys castle, and had several discussions with "this fine British officer and gentleman." Stuart-Wortley, from his part, felt that the Kaiser was merely an eccentric personality, and highly sincere in his repeated statements that he had no ill-will towards Britain. Wanting to counteract the anti-German atmosphere that was taking shape in the British press, he therefore contacted the Daily Telegraph, and offered his notes to them. When the Daily Telegraph then passed the draft of their article back to Germany for review before publication, the article was delegated from the Emperor to Reichskanzler von Moltke.
He regarded this type of routine bureaucracy as below his value, and delegated the article forward, to the German Foreign Ministry that was still in complete disarray after the departure of Holstein. Too preoccupied with a scandal at home, the German administration allowed a foreign policy disaster to strike.
And thus Harden got his excuse.
This timeline is a masterpiece. Pairing the two iconic scandals is brilliant.
They did happen in paraller in OTL!
Wilhelm II went abroad at Dorset in 1907 a month after Harden had outed Eulenburg in April 1907. Stuart-Wortley visited Germany in autumn 1907, and the last Eulenburg trial that was then postponed twice a year until he died started in June 1908, while the Daily Telegraph scandal took place in late October 1908.
In OTL von Bülow most likely acted as the mastermind of the whole Eulenburg scandal, utilizing it to save his position, to destroy his perceived rivals and former friends and to curb the influence of Wilhelm II before shutting the whole thing down by finally orchestrating a settlement with Harden.
Here he is dead, and instead of viewing the Chancellor as restraining force like in OTL, Harden and Holstein see the whole upper government as hopelessly compromised.
I know they overlapped- but I've seen timelines use one or the other, but never both.
I suspect it's because one was domestic, the other foreign- the interview gets the attention of Great War (and particularly naval) enthusiastics, the Eulenberg/Harden thing tends to interest social historians more. Of whom, sadly, there are far fewer on the board.
I suspect it's because one was domestic, the other foreign- the interview gets the attention of Great War (and particularly naval) enthusiastics, the Eulenberg/Harden thing tends to interest social historians more. Of whom, sadly, there are far fewer on the board.
Chapter 144: The Eulenburg Affair, Part IX: Pseudologia Phantastica
The Daily Telegraph scandal was a result of neglect and folly. The officials at the Auswärtiges Amt to whom von Moltke entrusted the checking of the article were out of their depth. They assumed that the Chancellor himself would take responsibility for the overarching decision on whether publication was politically opportune. Having been sent the text of the interview with express instructions from Wilhelm not to pass it on to the Foreign Office in the first place, von Moltke had delegated the matter to his subordinates with inadequate directives. Thus Otto Hammann, chief press officer since 1894 and Heinrich Mantler, managing director of Wolff's Telegraphisches Bureau, did not coordinate their efforts to stop the disaster. Mantler felt that he was simply forced to allow the publication of the interview without commentary as per the direct wishes of Reichskanzler and the All-Highest, although he and Hammann had both advised against it. As the B.Z. am Mittag printed the item before Wolff could send out any official explanation ensured that the cat was out of the bag. The interview itself was typical Wilhelm II, full of bombast and self-praise. The parts about planning the winning strategy of the Boer War and the claims being the best friend of Britain would have been bad enough, but the part where Wilhelm II stated that he interpreted the whole affair as a campaign by Social Democracy and Jewry against his person and the German Army, and wondered "That [Harden] is still alive after everything he has done to me is strange! Not one lieutenant, not one hanger-on had the guts to free us from that plague."[1]
The public reaction in Germany was one of shock and anger. "A dark forebonding ran through many Germans, that such clumsy, incautious, over-hasty - such stupid, even puerile speech and action on the part of the Supreme Head of State could lead to only one thing - catastrophe. This publication, as by some sudden slap in the face roused the whole nation."
Harden himself, also feeling ill from the extreme strain of his publicity campaign, answered to the Daily Telegraph article with an article of his own, entitled "Just a Few Words."
"I did not shout, but I did speak clearly. I have not revealed everything; I have maintained silence at the behest of important people and because an "inner need" forced me to be still. My object was to avoid scandal, not to create it; and that is why I kept quiet, though my silence casts suspicion upon me...I have only hinted at abnormal reactions of certain persons who belong to the Liebenberg circle - as cautiously as respectability required. At punishable actions? Never. At a mawkish, unmanly, sickly conditions that has been ridiculed at court for a long time. One of these men had said: We have formed a ring around the All-Highest Person that no one can break through." He who knew these facts was duty-bound to speak, at the risk of being misunderstood by ninety-nine of a hundred persons.
Everything that I have written since the filing of charges was motivated solely by political considerations; for others urged me, in national interest, to prevent greater scandal and to keep open the possibility of a quiet settlement since the goal had been reached and the persons concerned were no longer around the Kaiser. My role in this affair would be simply and gratifying if I were a democrat, or indeed, a socialist. But because I feel the discrediting of historical names and authority to be a misfortune, especially in international politics, my role is not only difficult but unpleasant. In everything that I have written I have tried to prevent damage to the national interest without weakening my chances for success. I have been selfish only in my desire to avoid sentence for failure to prove that paragraph 175 had been violated. If this were to happen the cause would be lost, and the scoundrels - that is what they are, without exaggeration - could continue their work in the dark."
Wilhelm II immediately reacted to the article in a predictable fashion. He spoke out with greatest resolution and in telegraphic form against any idea of compromise in the Harden trials. And with that, the Harden legal team soon formally announced that Harden would take his case against von Eulenburg to the Reichsgericht, the supreme court of the German Empire. The newspaper headlines all over Europe were now focused on the situation in Germany.
The public speeches of Harden turned to mass rallies. The Reichstag debates were all about shouting now, with the Social Democrats officially calling for a parliamentary regime. The other parties did not go that far, but nevertheless unleashed bitter attacks against such irresponsible recklessness, demanding that such follies of the All-Highest simply had to be curbed in the future. Chancellor von Moltke failed to turn aside the criticism towards his cousin and Wilhelm's retinue. Wilhelm II had ditched his former friends, and now had no one left to defend himself. When the Henckel group of Silesian magnates threatened to discredit the Chancellor von Moltke in the press with a new smear campaign unless he drew the correct conclusions from the whole debacle, von Moltke realized that the battle was lost, and that poor von Eulenburg had martyred himself in vain.
Faced with the breakdown of the pro-government bloc in the Reichstag and the utter humiliation of the Daily Telegraph affair, von Moltke requested an audience from Wilhelm II, regretfully informing the perplexed Kaiser that he had failed to defend the honour of His Majesty, and would thus have to allow others the chance do so instead for the good of the Fatherland.
Personally he knew all too well that many of his fellow generals were attending to Harden's public speeches in civilian clothes and applauding with the others. The old Junker families were seething. Chief of the Military Cabinet, Moritz von Lyncker, stated that "everything that in the past twenty-one years has brought us down from our heights can be traced back in the last resort to the Emperor and his influence." Minister of War, Karl von Einem stated publicly to other ministers in a governmental meeting that "the abuse of personal prerogative, temperamental outbursts and caprice have lead to growing discontent in the army to the actions and attitude of His Majesty. The prestige of the Crown, the position of the monarch with his officers, is less firmly established than it has been, and that is His Majesty's fault."[2]
As Chancellor von Moltke stated in a letter that he would have to hand in a letter of resignation, he hardly expected the tone of Wilhelm's reply:
You will perhaps excuse me, my dear von Moltke, from describing my state of mind to you. To be treated in such a way by the best, closest friend I have...was such a fearful blow to me that I broke down completely and cannot help fearing I may fall victim to severe nervous disorder! Piteously Wilhelm II begged the Chancellor to withdraw his resignation; otherwise he threatened to take his own life! "For if a letter of resignation arrived from you, the next morning would find the Kaiser no longer alive! Think of my poor wife and children!"[3]
In short, Wilhelm II suffered a nervous breakdown.
Dr. Leutholdm his personal doctor, had told von Eulenburg already in 1903 that it might soon be necessary for the Kaiser to be placed in a sanatorium "so that the requisite tranquility could be imposed." In 1905 Dr. Rudolf von Renvers, director of nervous disorders hospital in Moabit stated that the Kaiser was suffering from an acute case of pseudologia phantastica. To those who knew him well, Wilhelm had for years seemed to teeter on the edge of mental collapse. Constantly oscillating between exaltation and depression, Wilhelm II was at best deemed a candidate for a breakdown, and at worst a someone in possession of a state of mind that had already passed into the realms of psychiatric disorders. Now the anxiety and depression that Wilhelm had been experiencing had reached a point where Freiherr Martin von Jenisch, councillor à la suite to the Kaiser, telegraphed von Moltke that "His Majesty is in a very vulnerable condition and obviously suffering emotionally." The Kaiserin described her husband as "completely broken", "taken to bed with a fit of shaking and convulsive weeping after suffering a nervous collapse." Beyond solace, Wilhelm II was so heartbroken and distressed that while he did not harm himself like he had dramatically threatened to do, he was adamant in his view that this was the end of his reign.[4]
While his friends, aides and family visited his sickbed and sought to encourage, plead and cajole him to change his mind, it was to no avail. His son, Crown Prince Wilhelm, referred to the recent events in Sweden as a cautionary example and urged his father to "make short work of the accursed rabble and to take firm control both within and without, even if that means on treading on some feet." Wilhelm II merely replied that "Coups d'état may belong to the art of government in southern- and central-American republics; in Germany, they have never, thank God, been customary, and must never become so, neither from above or below. Those who dare to advice such a course are dangerous people, more dangerous for the monarchy and its security than the wildest Social Democrat."[5]
No, it was all over for him.
But not for the House of Hohenzollern itself.
Wilhelm II had made up his mind. He would abdicate.
1. Wilhelm II did make this remark in OTL, and here he is royally irritated and speaks his mind, like he often did. Rest of the interview is largely as OTL, a complete foreign policy disaster.
2. All statements are from OTL, and some German generals really did take part of the Harden rallies.
3. OTL remarks of Wilhelm II to von Bülow after he threatened to resign after the Björkö scandal
4. In OTL it took months of concentrated effort from his family, friends and von Bülow to talk Wilhelm II out of the idea of abdication.
5. OTL remarks from their mutual correspondence from October 1913.
Wilhelm strongly rejected hints of military reign in OTL before WW1. I'm prone to accept the views that he desperately wanted to be adored and loved above anything else.
While Wilhelm II ultimately recovered his composure enough to clung to his military entourage and emerge as a figurehead disengaged from domestic politics in OTL, here the overlapping scandals provoke even harsher response from the German public.
And instead of a fawning sycophant who had the interest to sweet-talk Wilhelm back on track to save his own career, the Chancellor in charge TTL is a man who is both demoralized himself and who feels that it is his duty to tell the harsh truth to Wilhelm II.
In OTL it took months for Wilhelm to recover even when the Harden case was settled. Here von Moltke tells in no uncertain terms that unless Wilhelm II abdicates, the reputation of the House of Hohenzollern itself will be in danger.
So, to recap: the POD is in 1900. It is now 1908.
In those eight years, the Ottoman Sultan has been assassinated, the Russo-Japanese war (probably) averted, the Kaiser has abdicated, the Qing have been replaced by another dynasty, the Entente is undergoing severe birthing pains, Sweden-Norway has disintegrated into civil war, and there's a threat of general war and revolution in northern Europe- and all that is just the highlight reel.
The timeline may only update occasionally, but it certainly covers ground.
In those eight years, the Ottoman Sultan has been assassinated, the Russo-Japanese war (probably) averted, the Kaiser has abdicated, the Qing have been replaced by another dynasty, the Entente is undergoing severe birthing pains, Sweden-Norway has disintegrated into civil war, and there's a threat of general war and revolution in northern Europe- and all that is just the highlight reel.
The timeline may only update occasionally, but it certainly covers ground.
Good summary. The King of Italy and the POTUS are also still alive.
Chapter 145: The Abdication Crisis, Part I: Gutter Crown
Article 56: Regency
If the king is a minor, or is otherwise permanently prevented from ruling himself, the regency shall be undertaken by that agnate, who has attained his majority and stands next in succession to the crown. He shall immediately convoke the chambers, which, in united session, shall decide as to the necessity of the regency.
Article 57: Election of a Regent
If there be no agnate of age, and if no legal provision has previously been made for such a contingency, the Ministry of State shall convoke the chambers, which shall then elect a regent in joint session. And until the assumption of the regency by him, the Ministry of State shall conduct the government.
Article 58: Powers and Oath of Regent
The regent shall exercise the powers vested in the king in the name of the latter. After the establishment of the regency, he shall take the oath before the chambers in joint session to observe the constitution of the monarchy steadfastly and inviolably, and to rule in accordance with it and the laws. Until this oath is taken, the whole Ministry of State for the time being shall remain responsible for all acts of the government.
A threat of abdication from the Sovereign was nothing new in the history of Prussia.
Friedrich Wilhelm IV had threatened to do so while he was still in full health for several times, and Wilhelm I had been willing to do so for the sake of the future Friedrich III when he had confronted firm opposition in the Prussian Landtag. But unlike then, there was no Bismarck on sight. No one was willing to ride to the rescue when Wilhelm II wanted to take what he saw as a principled stand.
Difficult questions could no longer be avoided at the court. Establishment of a regency, a cause propagated by the Bismarcks since 1897, was once again a topic of gossip. The Bismarckian legacy of unified Germany meant that the whole government of Prussia, and the Reich itself, was firmly tied to the idea of Kaiserdom. Therefore the course of events was ultimately firmly in the control of Wilhelm II himself once he had made up his mind.
Wilhelm II was adamant on avoiding the fate of Friedrich Wilhelm IV, a man who one of his tutors, the great Maurenbrecher, had scorned and dealt with painful sympathy because of his unpatriotic instability. Friedrich Wilhelm IV had died half-paralyzed and mentally ill at Sans Souci, in the same room that had once belonged to Friedrich the Great, the Hohenzollern Wilhelm II had so much wanted to mimic.
During these troubled times Wilhelm II had thought a lot about another predecessor at his Great House whom he so adored - his grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm I. The way the early life of the Kaiser had been ultimately dictated by his domineering grandfather down to the smallest detail had been a formative experience for Wilhelm II. Grandfather had known that the power of monarchs was divine in origin, and he had made sure that young William had been raised properly, shielded from his horrible mother and her English liberalism.
Yes, grandfather had been the unquestioned ruler of the Hohenzollern royal house. And that tradition had to be preserved at all costs! Wilhelm II was dismayed that his own son and heir had associated himself with bad people[1], Gebsattel and his downright childish Pan-German associates with their petty schemes. It was disastrous enough that Jews and Socialists were seeking to attack his royal person, but regardless of his sacrifice they would surely bring the glory of Prussian monarchy and the House of Hohenzollern to ruin along with the whole Reich if his son would be left to his own devices.
Wilhelm II had taken up the idea of political martyrdom because of slander and betrayal, and viewed it as an act of unselfish love and devotion that would protect his family shield from being defiled and besmirched, but to do so effectively he would have to follow the footsteps of his grandfather. He contacted his father-in-law, Grand Duke of Baden[2], and instructed him to work in tandem with the Reichstag to sort out the details. After he had made up his mind, Wilhelm II felt oddly calm. It would all work itself out, and Achilleion was lovely at this time of the year.
His family was stricken with grief, but they dutifully followed his will. Or so Wilhelm II thought.
In fact it had not taken long from his mental collapse that the Crown Prince Wilhelm had contacted the Reichskanzler von Moltke to let it be known that he was ready to succeed, "if that is my duty for the Fatherland and our family." “I know my father very well...It is claimed that genius and madness are very close to each other. There have been moments when, seeing the strange expression in his eyes, I have doubted his sanity”, he confined to von Moltke. And while von Moltke himself found the young prince “modest and police...discreet, and somewhat hesitant in manner, a listener rather than a talker", there was one person who knew the young heir better than anyone. And she had other ideas than let him repeat the mistakes of his father.
On November 19th, von Moltke had received a letter, addressed in the handwriting of the Empress herself. The meeting at the ground floor of Neues Palais was emotional. Asking whether the Emperor really had to abdicate, the tearful Kaiserin confirmed to von Moltke that her husband had suffered a nervous breakdown that was worse than she had ever seen. When von Moltke, frank in his conduct as always expressed that in his opinion that would be the only way to avoid disaster, Empress Augusta Victoria wept. Privately she knew that this had been preordained, and knew what to do next. This was God's way to heal Germany, and his husband would now have to pay for his sins. She had always resented the sway von Eulenburg had had over Wilhelm, and the horrid details of the scandal that had broken out had greatly shocked her. Convinced that she needed to involve herself more to the political affairs of the Empire, she convinced her husband to abdicate the throne to his son, something she found easy enough.[3] Well aware of the faults of her firstborn son, he knew that the young Wilhelm would require guidance and good advice, and that he would adhere to her council much better than his unfortunate father ever did. Excessively pious, xenophobic and prejudiced, Augusta Victoria had instilled the same values to young crown prince with the best of her abilities.
Being the Emperor of our beloved Empire and Fatherland has been the greatest honour of my life. When my reign began, I believed that the short experience of my life in the art of command would be supplied by the loyalty of my character, and that I would find powerful and loyal help to conjure the dangers and overcome the difficulties that are not hidden from my sight in the sympathy of all the German lovers of their homeland... I know that my good wish deceived me. Today Germany lives in constant struggle, and the era of peace and happiness that is so ardently longed for by all of her law-abiding subjects seems more and more distant by the day. If the enemies of her happiness were foreign foes, then, in front of our brave and loyal armies, I’d have been the first to meet them in the fields of glory!
But against all those who with the pen, with the word, with falsehoods aggravate and perpetrate the evils of the Nation, Men who till now have been looked upon as Germans, but who henceforth are unworthy of that name, all who invoke the sweet name of our country, all who fight and agitate for their own good - they poison the truth, and thus justice is perverted and led astray, strangled and drowned amidst this ordeal. I trust that the entire nation will find the strength to beat back their outrageous attacks. By reason of a succession of such events which have occurred in Germany and which demand a sacrifice and renewed pledges of loyalty to the Fatherland from each citizen, even to the surrendering of one's self for the well-being of all, I desire to give as the first example the sacrifice of myself.
Despite the sacred ties which have bound me so firmly to this country, for whose prosperity and greatness I have given all my powers, and filled with an unalterable love for my family and the honour of the royal House of Hohenzollern, I have decided to renounce the royal crown in favour of my eldest son, his Highness the Crown Prince Wilhelm. I herewith renounce for all time claims to the throne of Prussia, and to the German Imperial throne connected therewith. I reserve the personal affairs of my Royal house, especially those concerning my own person, under my own authority.
At the same time I release all officials of the German Empire and of Prussia, as well as all officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the navy and of the Prussian army, as well as the troops of the federated states of Germany, from the oath of fidelity which they tendered to me as their Emperor, King and Commander-in-Chief.
I call upon all faithful subjects and true patriots to unite as one man about the throne of Kaiser Wilhelm, to lift the country from its difficult situation and to elevate Germany to the height to which she is predestined.
Proclaimed under our own hand and with the imperial seal attached.
Potsdam, 20 November, 1908
Signed
WILLIAM
- The irony of this view considering the circumstances is entirely lost on him.
- Old and frail but still alive and kicking, anxiously waiting for the End Times to begin.
- Wilhelm II in OTL fled from responsibility when the situation turned critical and he was about to face consequences of his actions not only once, but twice: On October 29th 1918 he fled to Spa to evade the government and the public, and on November he fled again. In OTL Augusta Victoria was the person who ultimately swayed Wilhelm II to retain his throne in 1908. Here the scandal is much worse, von Bülow is not there to influence her decisions(they got along really well), and she feels it to be her duty to save the monarchy from further damage.
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Hmm.
Alright, snap reaction: what's the more iconic political cartoon, Dropping the Pilot, or Rendezvous? They both get imitated a lot in the British press to this day.
Alright, snap reaction: what's the more iconic political cartoon, Dropping the Pilot, or Rendezvous? They both get imitated a lot in the British press to this day.
I'll deal with this in detail, but autocrats and constitutional monarchs are both drawing their own conclusions.
Events in the North will return to focus once the aftermath of the Eulenburg Scandal is covered.