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Wilhelm II, German Emperor
133 quotes
“The Hebrew race are my most inveterate enemies at home and abroad; they remain what they are and always were: the forgers of lies and the masterminds governing unrest, revolution, upheaval by spreading infamy with the help of their poisoned, caustic, satyrical spirit. If the world once wakes up it should mete out to them the punishment in store for them, which they deserve.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Poultney Bigelow (14 April 1927), quoted in John C. G. Röhl, The Kaiser and his Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 210
“Press, Jews & Mosquitoes...are a nuisance that humanity must get rid of in some way or another. I believe the best would be gas?”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) first seen 1238 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Poultney Bigelow (15 August 1927), quoted in John C. G. Röhl, Wilhelm II: Into the Abyss of War and Exile 1900-1941 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), p. 1238
“For the first time, I am ashamed to be a German.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In regard to Adolf Hitler's Kristallnacht (November 1938); as quoted in Our German Cousins: Anglo-German Relations in the 19th and 20th Centuries (1974) by John Mander, p. 219
“Under the deeply moving impression of France's capitulation I congratulate you and all the German armed forces on the God-given prodigious victory with the words of Kaiser Wilhelm the Great of the year 1870: "What a turn of events through God's dispensation!" All German hearts are filled with the chorale of Leuthen, which the victors of [the Battle of] Leuthen, the soldiers of the Great King sang [in 1757]: Now thank we all our God!”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) first seen 1261 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Telegram to Hitler (19 June 1940), quoted in John C. G. Röhl, Wilhelm II: Into the Abyss of War and Exile 1900-1941 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), p. 1261
“I was deeply moved by the incomparable achievements of the German Wehrmacht, leading to such prodigious successes. I followed the development of operations in minute detail with the aid of maps. Under brilliant leadership all sections of the armed forces displayed the greatest courage to achieve deeds that were quite stunning. The ignominy of November 1918 in the forest of Compiègne has been wiped out and the Diktat of Versailles torn up!”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) first seen 1238 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Kurt Jagow (5 July 1940), quoted in John C. G. Röhl, Wilhelm II: Into the Abyss of War and Exile 1900-1941 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), p. 1238
“[The English ruling classes are] Freemasons thoroughly infected by Juda. The British people must be liberated from the Antichrist Juda. We must drive Juda out of England just as he has been chased out of the Continent...Juda's plan has been smashed to pieces and they themselves swept out of the European Continent! [Europe is] consolidating and closing itself off from British influences after the elimination of the British and the Jews!”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Alwina Grafin von der Goltz (July/August 1940), quoted in John C. G. Röhl, The Kaiser and his Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 211-212
“[The war is] a succession of miracles! The old Prussian spirit of Frd. Rex, of Clausewitz, Blücher, York, Gneisenau etc. has again manifested itself, as in 1870-71...The brilliant leading Generals in this war came from My school, they fought under my command in the [[World War I|[First] World War]] as lieutenants, captains or young majors. Educated by Schlieffen they put the plans he had worked out under me into practice along the same lines as we did in 1914.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Poultney Bigelow (14 September 1940), quoted in John C. G. Röhl, The Kaiser and his Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 211
“The hand of God is creating a new World & working miracles...We are becoming the U.S. of Europe under German leadership, a united European Continent, nobody ever hoped to see. The Jews [are] beeing thrust out of their nefarious positions in all countries, whom they have driven to hostility for centuries.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Margarethe Landgraffin von Hessen (3 November 1940), quoted in John C. G. Röhl, The Kaiser and his Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 212
“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.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) first seen 1262 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 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
“The fleet is necessary to show that Germany is as well-born as Britain.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let me assure the Sultan and the three hundred million Moslems... That the German Emperor will ever be their friend.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You English are like mad bulls — you see red everywhere! What on earth has come over you, that you would heap on us such suspicion as is unworthy of a great nation... I regard this misapprehension as a personal insult... You make it uncommonly difficult for a man to remain friendly to England.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Having succeeded to the throne of my ancestors, I have taken over the government, relying upon the King of Kings, and I have vowed to God that, acting in accordance with the example of my predecessors, I will endeavour to be a just and clement ruler, that I will encourage piety and the fear of God, that I will uphold peace and promote the welfare of the country, and further, that I will strive to be a helper to the poor and oppressed and a faithful guardian of the law.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The king holds his power by the grace of God, to whom alone he is responsible. He chooses his own path, and only decides his actions from this point of view. It is the Kingship by the grace of God, the Kingship with its heavy duties, its never finished, unending toils and labours, with its dread responsibility to the Creator alone, from which no man, no minister, no House of Deputies, and no people can release the Prince.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I, too, like my imperial grandfather, represent the kingship by God's grace. My grandfather believed that the functions of the king were a task given to him by God, a task to which it was his duty to devote his strength up to the last moment of his life. What he thought I also think.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our first and foremost duty is to show ourselves worthy of our ancestors and their achievements. And that we can only do by an undeviating adherence to the paths which they traced out for our guidance.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Great Elector is the one among my ancestors whom I have regarded with the most enthusiastic admiration, and from my youth up have set before my eyes as my model.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our predecessors have gone; we remain; and it is our duty to preserve what they bequeathed us.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My life and my work belong to my people, the promotion of whose welfare is the noblest task of my kingly office.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am of opinion that in the position in which I am placed it is of far greater service to me to confer benefits on mankind than to inspire them with fear.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I have to act or think I always ask myself the question: What does the Bible say in similar circumstances? The Bible is for me a spring whence I draw strength and light.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I solemnly vow always to be mindful of the fact that the eyes of my ancestors are looking down upon me from the other world, and that one day I shall have to render to them an account of both the glory and the honour of the Army.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you are good soldiers, you must also be good Christians and religious at heart. He who is no good Christian is no good man and also no Prussian soldier, and can under no circumstances perform what is required of a soldier in the Prussian Army.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Germany is in no need of fresh military glory, nor does she require any new conquests, for she has already obtained once for all, on the field of battle, the right to exist as an united and independent nation.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have sworn to myself that I will neglect nothing to bring about the unity of our people, and to crush everything that tends to divide the nation.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I look upon the people and nation handed on to me as a responsibility conferred upon me by God, and that it is, as is written in the Bible, my duty to increase this heritage, for which one day I shall be called upon to give an account; those who try to interfere with my task I shall crush.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The present age delights in casting many a glance backward at the past, and in comparing it with the existing state of things, mostly to the disadvantage of the latter. He who can look back at such a glorious past as, thank God, we Germans can, does well to do so, in order to learn many a lesson therefrom. In a monarchical state this is called tradition.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The essence of nationality is demarcation from the outside world by a definite boundary to correspond with the personal characteristics of a nation and its racial idiosyncrasies.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I made up my mind after reading the lessons of history never to dream of a vast world-empire. For what has become of all those so-called world-empires? Alexander, Napoleon and all such great captains bathed themselves in blood, and yet left behind them subjugated peoples, who, after those great men had died, rose in revolt and ruined the Empires they had created.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I dream of an Empire and it is this: The newly-born German Empire must possess the confidence of everybody, must be considered everywhere as a quiet, honest and peaceful neighbour; and if some day in the future a German world-empire is spoken of, it must not be based on the conquests of the sword, but on the reciprocal confidences of nations united for an identical end.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By God's grace our German stock has been able to produce mighty heroes of thought, from Boniface and Walter von der Vogelweide down to Goethe and Schiller, and they have become a light and blessing to all posterity. They worked for humanity at large, and yet they were strictly well-contained Germans, that is to say, personalities, men. We need such men to-day more than ever.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The feeling of sympathy for science which is innate in every Prussian king is also active in me.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our future lies upon the water. To the sea our thoughts are turned—the sea, which is the symbol of eternity. Seas do not separate; they unite.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The German fleet is the youngest fleet in the world, and another proof of the growing importance of the new German Empire. It is destined to protect the commerce and territory of this Empire, and it will, like the German Army, serve to keep the peace of the world.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Should it ever happen that the British and German Navies have to fight side by side against a common foe, then the famous signal "England expects that every man will do his duty," which England's greatest naval hero gave out before the battle of Trafalgar, will find an echo in the patriotic heart of the German Navy.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is understood that a defensive fleet does not merely serve to protect the interests of the traders of our great commercial cities, but that it is also needed, and bitterly needed, for the protection of the industry of our entire people and their success in the world.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To protect Germany's sea trade and colonies, in the existing circumstances, there is only one means: Germany must have a battle fleet so strong that, even for the adversary with the greatest sea-power, a war against it would involve such dangers as to imperil its position in the world.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The King of Prussia stands so high above all political parties and the wire-pulling and hatred of politicians, that he can contemplate his subjects without taking these things into account, and can thus work for the benefit of each one of his people and each separate province.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our people must resolve to make sacrifices; above all, they must divest themselves of their passion for seeking the highest good in ever more and more sharply accentuated party struggles. They must cease to place the party above the welfare of the whole.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My people must aid me in my duties, not by angry speeches or by the unreasonable opposition of political parties, but by explaining their difficulties to their Sovereign and showing confidence in him.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our wives can learn from Queen Louise that the principal task of a woman does not lie in the domain of political meetings and propaganda, but in the quiet duties of the hearth and of family.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No morning or evening passes without my offering up a prayer for my people.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like to read the Bible, and I read it every day. I always have it beside my bed, and I cannot understand how there can be so many people who take such little heed of the Word of God.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No words of man have ever been uttered worthy of comparison with the words of Christ.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An exemplary Christian life, charitable love of our neighbour, and our weak or suffering brethren, the fear of God, loyalty to king and love of country—these are virtues to be practised, and these are the arms to which God will give the victory.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I verily believe that everyone must feel a touch of inspiration when he stands before the altar and looks at the crucifix.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religion has never risen from science: it is an overflowing of the heart of man in his relations with God.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every Catholic ought to know that I honour his religion and that he will never be prevented in his exercise of it if he respects the beliefs of those who profess other faiths.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My Catholic subjects can rely on my Imperial protection, wherever and whenever they may stand in need of it.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“May we always be mindful that it is our duty to protect religion which should be preserved for the nation, and to uphold morals and order.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source