Conclusion

Summary

As the First World War was reaching its end, the crowned heads of Germany were staring into the abyss. The fateful course of the war and, in particular, the leadership provided by Emperor Wilhelm II during these difficult years did not bode well. The end of all of Germany’s monarchies hung in the air. In October 1918, Grand Duke Friedrich August, who had ruled his half million Oldenburg subjects since 1900, uttered a grim prophecy on behalf of his fellow princes: ‘We are in no doubt that the emperor has ruined the empire, that he will be sent packing and that we will share his fate. Wilhelm will bring us down, to that we have resigned ourselves.’ For his part, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse did not attribute the guilt for what occurred in November 1918 wholly to the emperor. He reckoned that the German monarchs shared the blame: ‘They were swept aside leaving nothing behind because they were complete nonentities,’ he would later record in his memoirs. ‘They did not even understand that one must move with the times if one does not wish for the times to pass one by in the end.’