Quote#Politics & Power
Imagine a monarch, holding personal command of his army, disbanding…
Quote byWilhelm II · 1859–1941
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Reaction to the Tsar's invitation (August 1898) to the Hague Conference of 1899, quoted in Robert K. Massie, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War (London: Pimlico, 2004), pp. 429-430.
English (original)
Imagine a monarch, holding personal command of his army, disbanding his regiments, sacred with a hundred years of history—and handing his towns over to Anarchists and Democracy.
— Wilhelm II
More from Wilhelm II
You [recruits] have sworn loyalty to me. You have only one enemy and that is my enemy. In the present social confusion, it may come about that I order you to shoot down your own relatives, brothers or parents but even then you must follow …
The soldier and the army, not Parliamentary majorities and decisions, have welded the German Empire together. I put my trust in the army.
There is only one person who is master in this Empire and I am not going to tolerate any other.
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.
I regard every Social Democrat as an enemy of the Empire and Fatherland.
I am just now not reading but devouring Captain Mahan's book and am trying to learn it by heart. It is a first-class book and classical on all points.