Kaiser Wilhelm, Post War

Kaiser Wilhelm lead Germany in the First World War. In 1918 after their surrender the German people were not doing well. Increasing political unrest convinced Germany’s other leaders that the Kaiser had to leave. The Kaiser was at first reluctant to abdicate his throne, but unrest combined with the German army’s announcement that they no longer sided with him finally convinced the Kaiser to abdicate. After abdicating he took a train to the nearby Netherlands where he bought a house and remained for the rest of his life.

The new leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler, hated the former Kaiser. Hitler believed that the Germans’ defeat in WWI was the Kaiser’s fault alone.

While in exile, the former Kaiser’s first wife died, and his youngest son committed suicide. Even so Wilhelm remarried several years later. He lived to the age of 82 and in that time saw the rise of a new Germany. He hated the new Germany run by a man whose tactics and leadership skills he found wicked. The former Kaiser was shocked at the thuggish ways Hitler treated his people and neighbors. Kaiser Wilhelm never left the Netherlands after arriving in 1918.