Professor John Röhl, the historian, who has died aged 85, was born to a German father and English mother and endured a fractured early childhood in Germany and Hungary during the Second World War; moving to England after the war, he went on to spend some 50 years engaged in original archival research into the life of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last German emperor, of whom he published a lavishly praised three-volume biography, in both German and English, running to some 4,000 pages.
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Few outcomes are fated in war. Oftentimes the losing side loses not because it s physically outclassed or is short on skill and élan but because it errs more frequently and more grievously than the victor. It is conceivable, for instance, that Imperial Germany may have won the Battle of the Atlantic the U-boats effort to sever sea routes connecting beleaguered Great Britain with North America had it done certain basic homework. Knowing the saltwater environment, exploiting the revolution in naval technology, and exercising self-restraint may have let Germany prevail on the high seas.
Alas for the Reich, insight into marine combat was foggy in Berlin. It would have been hard for Kaiser Wilhelm II, his state secretary of the navy, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, and his other lieutenants to take some of these steps. Germany had a continental strategic culture. An all-pervasive cult of the battleship gripped Germans. Quirks of individual intellect and character applied blinkers to lea
Make an Unlikely Royal Visit to The 10,000-Year-Old Baalbek! Published April 22nd, 2021 - 09:34 GMT
Ancient Roman temple of Bacchus (Shutterstock)
Highlights
Although the Emperor spent just a few waking hours in the ‘City of the Sun’
In 1898, an unlikely royal visit was made to the 10,000-year-old city of Baalbek, a jewel in the crown of Lebanon’s archeological history.
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As part of his grand tour of the Orient an expedition that involved 100 coaches, 230 tents and 10 guides the last emperor of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and his wife Augusta Victoria were awestruck by Baalbek’s famed Roman ruins. Although the Emperor spent just a few waking hours in the ‘City of the Sun’ his last stop before heading back to Potsdam via the Port of Beirut – he was so captivated by what he witnessed that he decided to commission German expeditions to excavate the site.
How Xi Jinping’s China Is Wilhelmine Germany Come Again
While China’s South China Sea strategy is more nuanced and sophisticated, it might fall into the same traps as the Kaiser’s.
The 1910 funeral of Edward VII, king of the United Kingdom and emperor of India, represents the last time before World War I that the leaders of Europe met in person: kings, emperors, tzars, and presidents. That assembly illustrated the ties of blood and commerce of the time, which seemed to have bound the world in a tight embrace of common interests and visions. No one believed at the time that this family of nations was just a few steps away from a world conflict more terrible than any other in the history of humanity. Yet, ominous events, such as the Russo-Japanese War or the colonial crisis induced by the German face-off with France in Morocco, both around 1905, already forecasted a stormy twentieth century.