The Kaiser's Responsibility for the First World War

William II, Emperor of Deutschland

The TV history channel has repeatedly shown lengthy movies depicting the horrors of World War I. That war was the direct cause of World War II and the Nazi nightmare. It can now be shown that the First World War was caused by William II alone and only because that belligerent fool was allowed the power to drive millions to their deaths. The outcome of the First World War, which was largely fought for nothing, led to this slaughter.

Country              Dead   and Injured (in millions)  

 France                  1.4              4.2

Deutschland           1.8             3.2

Austria-Hungary    1.4              3.6

Russia                    1.8             3.0

British Empire          .96            2.0

Italy                           .8             1.0

Turkey                      .8              1.8

Serbia                      .13             .135

In addition to these nearly eight million dead, many wounded soldiers died later of their wounds. These casualties led to creating 3 million widows and six million children who lost their fathers. In addition, several epidemics broke out, killing millions more.

All this can be attributed to William II. He was belligerent and totally incapable of controlling his temper. He also did not understand that belligerent speeches and media interviews were taken as threats by other  nations. For example, in 1911, William II interfered in the French dealings with Morocco, a French colony seekng independence from France. This was not the business of Germany, yet it nearly led to war when William seemed to side with Morocco against France. William was also jealous that Britain had a large navy and announced that Germany would build a navy to rival England. This looked like a serious threat to the English. On a visit to England, whose language William spoke fluently because of his English mother, he told a newspaper reporter that most Germans did not like the English, who were his hosts.  Numerous other aggressive statements frightened most of Europe. Finally, Wiliam  caused the world war  when he promised the Austrian emperor, Franz-Joseph, that if Austria attacked Serbia, Deutschland would back Austria with a large military force. The occasion for this promise was that the Austrian Prince Ferdinand and his wife were visiting Sarajevo in Bosnia when a Serb, Gavrilo Princip, shot and killed both visitors. This double assassination led the Austrian government to demand the death penalty for the killer. However, William pressured the Austrians to invade Serbia and “teach the Serbs a lesson.” The Austrians reluctantly followed that advice and invaded Serbia. This led the Russians to declare war on Austria, as Russia sought to defend a small Slavic country. Now, Russia had a treaty with France, who declared war on Deutschland in support of Russia. This led the British and their entire British empire, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India, to support France, with whom  the British had a mutual defense treaty. Turkye, at that time known as the Ottoman Empire, sided with Germany. Italy   sided with the allies, leading to the horrible slaughter of a world war.

Barbara Tuchman, in her book The Guns of August, showed that Deutschland had lost the war within one month, because the Germans did not have the resources  to fight a two front war against Russia and the western allies. She also wrote that the German government should have understood that an attack on England would bring the United States into the war against Deutschland. However, William II understood nothing but his own belligerence, so that on August 1, 1914, all these Nations began fighting one another. The war was heinous, as most of the soldiers lived in trenches full of rats. These trenches were dug into the soil of France and Russia. They were filthy and had no water facilities, so that soldiers relieved themselves in these trenches. Both sides had generals who demanded the soldiers rush out of their trenches and assault  the trench of the enemy a few yards away, leading to death and wounds. Any soldiers who would not follow the command to assault the other side was shot to death by his own countrymen to teach the cowards to fight for their country.

The end of this unnecessary slaughter was the resignation of William II, who moved to the Netherlands in 1919 and died thee in 1940.

Then Hitler and the National Socialists, or Nazis (Nazionalsozialisten), sought revenge for losing the First World War while blaming the Jews for their loss. Thus Wilhelm became the originator of two world wars and the immense suffering of millions, of whom 50 million died in Wold War Two. Even the most recent invasion of the Nazi Ukraine by Russia was a belated consequence of William II influence.

Shalom u'vracha.

  Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including The American Jewish Community in the 20th and 21st Century (2021).

[ Home ] [ Up ]