The Five Years of the Good King, part one
(a historical analysis)
By Markgraf Rüdiger von Bülow-Merckatz, 13rd Duke of Lower Lothringen
translated from the Straßburger GHG
The death of Kaiser Wilhelm I was, at the same time, publicly mourned and privately celebrated. While many within the newly formed Kaiserreich saw him as a hero of German Unification - the Prussians among them, and none as much as Chancellor von Bismarck - others still held the 'blood and iron' involved in such unification process close to their hearts. The Imperialists stood staunchly opposed to the Reichstag, which was further divided within itself between the Kartell and the Social Democrats. The Chancellor, although a very clever and flexible man, had been at odds with Friedrich for decades, using all sorts of measures to isolate him from power during his tenure as Crown Prince. Germany was now united - but its politics were at risk of growing more and more divided.
The transition of power to the hands of Frederick III was relatively smooth, but not without its share of controversy and concern. Frederick was an acrid opposer to his father's (and Otto's) militaristic view of the world, and saw Bismarck's multiple held offices with distrust. At the same time, he did not agree with the legislative structure of the Reich, referring to it as "ingeniously contrived chaos". His desire for reform was great, but so was his concern - having been diagnosed with inoperable throat cancer, he believed he might not live to see it all through. Luckily for the Kaiserreich, time proved him wrong.
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Hi everyone.
Before I begin: this is my very first thread, so please forgive any mistakes and breaches of etiquette, and - please - take them for mistakes of ignorance and not for bad faith.
I've always been personally interested in the What If scenario of a German victory. I've been reading a lot of your threads about World War I, however, and have come to realise that, under the OTL starting conditions for WWI, a German victory would be nigh-impossible, and even if it had come to pass it would have been almost certainly a pyrrhic victory (loss of colonies, massive war exhaustion, resource and manpower depletion, massive revolts in the following years, etc.).
Which led me to the question: how on Earth did Germany put itself in such a bad position? Of course, many factors can be pinpointed, but I find one factor to be preponderant and unanimous: Wilhelm II's Weltpolitik was a train-wreck. Berlin managed to analyze wrong, act wrong and simply be wrong at every aspect. They misread France, Russia, Britain, Italy, the colonies, and more. Even if they somehow were to win the war on the field, they were certainly doomed to lose it on the round table. And that perception is what brought me here. What if Frederick the Third had waited, say, four or five more years to die?
I intend to write further on the subject when I find some spare time between my job, college, my other job, my other job and my freelance work. Until then, please do write your input on the subject.
Best regards to all.
MadExpansionist
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