Wilhelm Hohenzollern: The Last of the Kaisers by Emil Ludwig is a 1927 biography of Emperor Wilhelm II written fairly soon after World War I, by which time Wilhelm was in exile in Doorn, Netherlands. Surprisingly, at least to me, the biography is consistent with more contemporary biographies of Wilhelm despite being written in the turbulent times of the Weimar Republic, though before the Great Depression and the rise of Hitler. All the main themes are there: his left arm damaged during birth; the dislike and contempt towards his liberal parents; his arrogance, self-righteousness and always looking down on others; the ass-kissing required to make Wilhelm feel important; the indecisiveness that allowed the war to start and ultimately led to his downfall.
Blah blah blah, most I’ve read before and very little stood out as new information (truthfully, struggling to remember anything). Perhaps told differently, but still basically the same story.
Unusual Terminology
What was more interesting was the writing itself, using any number of words that I was unfamiliar with.
adumbration: an imperfect portrayal or representation of a thing
But instead of intimidating him, Bülow confined himself to courtly adumbration of the consequences likely to result from these rash exploits. (p397)
adjuration: he form of oath or appeal
Soon afterwards he was handed a sealed envelope, which by tradition had to be delivered to every King of Prussia upon his accession. It contained an adjuration from Frederick William IV to all his successors, calling upon them to abrogate at once a form of government which had been wrung from him by force. (p62)
conviviality: a boisterous celebration, a merry festivity; a jovial nature
He did take into consideration the conviviality of the accused and austerity of the accuser, ignored the latter’s possible motives, ignored no less the fact that Kotze too had received these letters; … (p154-5)
cuirass: A piece of armor for protecting the breast and back, often consisting of two pieces fastened together
“While the Emperor, in his cuirass, reined in his tall horse and addressed me, I could not take my eyes off a drop of rain which slowly running down his glittering armour.” (p218)
disport: to amuse oneself in a light, frolicsome manner.
All the same, as military attaches there were privileged to disport themselves in the diplomatic sphere; … (p170)
gasconade: an instance of boastful talk
Suffering from his sense that the sanctuary had been violated, impelled by the desire to stand forth before his people in this switly sharpening crisis as the guardian of the royal idea, surrounded only by the sea and his gasconading fellow voyagers, represented at home by his two incompetent statements — he forgot all the prudent arguments which had hitherto made him so sceptical about the Viennese War-Counts’ adventure, and insisted on avenging the assassnation. (p439-40)
graphologist: a specialist in inferring character from handwriting.
Nevertheless, in a few days more letters were received at Court. Now a graphologist was consulted. The new letters, he pronounced, were from the writer of the old ones, but these had not come from the person who had used the blotting-paper.
loquacity: Talkativeness; the habit or practice of talking continually or excessively.
…; they revolted against his very nature, against the irrepressible loquacity which had now manifested itself in a manner that enabled them to estimate it as his duplicities had hitherto prevented from from doing. (p388)
malediction: the calling down of a curse; a curse; slander
This malediction was written under a threatening despatch from Petersburg which never once mentioned England. (p448)
minatory: Of a menacing or threatening nature; minacious.
The immediate consequences were: a minatory retort by Chamberlain to this “inadmissable intermeddling with a foreign Power’s affairs”; five days after the telegram, establishment of a flying squadron in the North Sea; some weeks later, non-renewal of the Mediterranean Treaty, whereupon dissatisfaction with Germany was freely expressed in Vienna and Rome. (p200)
neurasthenics: now largely considered an obsolete diagnosis in Western psychiatry, often reclassified under depression, anxiety disorders, or chronic fatigue syndrome.
…; and he collapsed, as neurasthenics often will, at thought of a danger past and gone. (p398)
overweening: Unduly confident; arrogant; presumptuous; conceited.
His overweening disposition, inherited from both parents, uncorrected by a sensible education, aggravated by the oppressions of his your, inborn and every guilelessly revealed — this had a double use for God, and one use was a wrong use. (p65-6)
obliquities: deviation from moral or proper conduct or thought.
It threatened to make public the Prince’s obliquities if he ever again attempted to obtain an official position. (p369)
peroration: the concluding section of an oration; a flowery and highly rhetorical oration
This peroration to the famous Peace-Manifesto wherein the Tsar, in August 1898, convoked the world to the First Hague Conference upon disarmament, was answered by the Emperor in these words: “Can we picture a monarch, a Supreme War-Lord, disbanding is illustrious historic regiments, consigning their glorious flags to the arsenals and museums, and thus delivering his cities over as a prey to anarchists and democrats?” (p265-6)
sapient: having great wisdom and discernment
And while his Moroccan policy was being criticized in the Reichstag, and nothing (he knew) was to be looked for from Bülow’s sapient lips but a speciously glittering obituary, the destroyer summoned the Englishman to his presence, told him of all the internal intrigues, and never reflected that his listener would not only write all home next day, but would recount the entire interview to the Secretary of State. (p364)
veracity: Adherence to the truth; truthfulness; conformity to fact or truth
With silent consternation the circle hears these dangerous veracities from its supreme war-lord, reckoning the effect of such words at the Russian Court, where it is said the Prussia is feared. (p43-4)
vicissitude: a usually unforeseen change in circumstance or experience that affects one’s life, especially in a trying way
…; and while the Emperor was shooting at Rominten, Bülow bathing at Norderney, Secretary-of-State Schön climbing tat Berchtesgaden, a document in its locked attache-case was liable to undergo some strange vicissitudes. (p384)
Final Thoughts
Though I am not an English scholar and admittedly my vocabulary is limited, I do read a large amount of non-fiction history and therefore was surprised by the finding many words for which I required definitions. The author’s original text is written in German, so I do not know – and cannot without reading the original German – whether the terms were used by the author or introduced by the translator. Whatever the explanation, the book is relevant only to better understanding the writing style and vocabulary of the late 1920s but definitely not for the content itself.
