Could someone give me quick explanation on what Wilhelms ideas/beliefs/ideology were...

Could someone give me quick explanation on what Wilhelms ideas/beliefs/ideology were? What were his goals for the German Empire in the long run? Did he share many beliefs/goals with Hitler? etc
I really don't know much of him.

herr durr fuck ze jews
Bismarck do my job pls

Getting his cousins to finally respect him.

This

OP if you really wanna get an idea of his beliefs check out some of his famous quotes. He disliked Jews, hated Hitler, wanted to bring back the true glory of Germany. Too bad he was a bit shit

>hated Hitler,
I think Hitler hated him more than he hated Hitler. Willie implied that he was willing to cooperate with the Nazis, hoping to at least get a role similar to Vittorio Emmanuel in Fascist Italy. But Hitler flipped him off.

He was very traditional and believed "A nation is created by families, a religion, tradition: it is made up out of the hearts of mothers, the wisdom of fathers, the joy and the exuberance of children."

He did not like Hitler much because he didn't have a wife, family and wasn't evidently religious. Wilhelm did dislike Jews on largely religious ground, was an often devout Lutheran Christian and did not like Japan very much.

Incompetent buffoon with no tact or skill. Germany was united and rose to a major power only thanks to Bismarck's shrewd diplomacy and careful approach to even the slightest thing. It was the ONLY approach suitable for a country like Germany, right in the middle of Europe surrounded by other major powers. Wilhelm pissed it away in favor of useless dickwaving with nothing to back it up.

>Bismarck do my job pls
But that was his grandfather

This.

He had an inferiority complex within the royal families and old school German politicians. He was weak and led the 1900's Germany into poor foreign diplomacy. A bad role on the monarch dice for sure.

The problem with Bismarck was, that he played a complicated game suited only him, he even designed the Reichskanzler position in a way, that he could frequently get his will.
He never even thought about training somebody that might take over, so naturally things turned to shit when Wilhelms father died and WIlhelm didn't want a Reichskanzler who basically ran the whole country at will.
Bismarck in fact was so furious to him not staying in power, that he had multiple newspapers, which he controlled, bombard every political action Wilhelm took. The Helgoland deal was quite good, but the press ripped it to pieces because it would give a success to Wilhelms foreign policy

Well he spent his days in abdication writing letters to Hitler which essentially culminated in
>dude let me be king again lmao

Problem was Hitler wasn't too fond of him as he viewed the Prussian elite as the class of people that took Germany into the war and then subsequently surrendered when Hitler believed they still had a chance. Wilhelm himself wasn't that much fond of Hitler either, pic related.

>Could someone give me quick explanation on what Wilhelms ideas/beliefs/ideology were?
He wanted Germany to be taken seriously as a great power. Beyond that nobody, not even Wilhelm, knew what the fuck his policies were beyond the traditionalism that exists in all monarchs. Wilhelm didn't hold much real power so his constant posturing and switching of positions (one minute he loves Britain, the next he hates them, one minute he hates the Japs, then he thinks hey should ally to fuck with Russia, then Germany and Russia should ally against the Bongs and etc.) was a way of trying to exercise some level, any level really, of authority. Weltpolitik was ultimately a meaningless term with no real vision or ideology beyond "Germany must be taken seriously".

Any good movies about Waggling Willy?

German-language is fine (maybe even preferable) if it's got subs.

Fall of Eagles is a decent series that depicts the ruling families of Germany, Austria and Russia at the time.

His rule suffered a lot because of frequent bouts with depression and anxiety like the interview incident that seriously annoyed Britain, France and Japan and also having a rumour spread that he was gay which drove away one his true friends (Willy wasn't very good at making friends and those he thought were didn't like and made fun of him a lot and he knew).

by the time Wilhelm 2 came into power, Bismark was pretty much going senile with old age and didn't have anywhere near the same amount of tact as he did when unifying Germany. People shit on Willy 2 a lot and justly so, but firing Bismark was the right move.

>muh place in the sun

>muh family
>muh country
>muh legacy

Alienating the British by building battleships so that the British would befriend him

>hey so the French hate us forever
>and so do the Russians because they are friends with the French
>furthermore we're propping up the Austro-Hungarian Empire and because they keep fucking over Slavs the Russians hate us even more
>Hmm, lots of enemies around
>Better piss off the remaining European Great Power by uselessly antagonising them

How did Wilhelm manage to my life before I did wtf

>Willy wasn't very good at making friends and those he thought were didn't like and made fun of him a lot and he knew

>Why does daddy love the chancellor more than me?

Let's be honest; would he have been a capable ruler if he was born with a normal arm?

An autist with 2 functioning arms is still an autist

I will always have a soft for Wilhelm for being more worker friendly than Bismarck

Wilhelm I. is his grandfather. His father reigned for less than 100 days during the year of the three emperors.

>Could someone give me quick explanation on what Wilhelms ideas/beliefs/ideology were?

His sentiments were more worker friendly his actions were hostile to them, Bismark was the opposite.

Bismarck and Wilhelm literally had their falling out over Bismarck wanting further anti-labour legislation and opposing further laws improving conditions for the working class.

Bismarck at the end was a bitter old fuck who went back on a lot of his old policies, like suddenly wanting colonies.

>Bismarck and Wilhelm literally had their falling out over Bismarck wanting further anti-labour legislation and opposing further laws improving conditions for the working class.

Read what I posted.

Bismark created the first modern welfare state in history, destroyed the power of the communists (instead of almost allowing them to seize power) and here is the most important part kept Germany out of great wars instead of getting killing 2.5 million workers killed.

His reforms both social, economic and diplomatic did more for the German Workers even if he was very elitist in his sentiments.

Wilhelm lead millions to their deaths and bungled up the harmony that had been created despite having positive intentions.

Read more about that falling out and you see Wilhelm blundering in and wrecking a plan by Bismark to erode the power of the communists.

>Bismarck at the end was a bitter old fuck who went back on a lot of his old policies, like suddenly wanting colonies.

Who built a German Empire whilst Wilhelm destroyed one.

>as Bismarck said [of Wilhelm] early on in his life, he wanted every day to be his birthday—romantic, sentimental and theatrical, unsure and arrogant, with an immeasurably exaggerated self-confidence and desire to show off, a juvenile cadet, who never took the tone of the officers' mess out of his voice, and brashly wanted to play the part of the supreme warlord, full of panicky fear of a monotonous life without any diversions, and yet aimless, pathological in his hatred against his English mother

Bismark being bitter or Wilhelm being a personal basket case is not all that important focus on outcomes not feels user

A smarter and german version of Tzar Nicholas

Wilhelm II being a total fuck up in foreign policy doesn't change the fact that he promoted legislation to the betterment of the working class while Bismarck worked against it and supported draconian measures against the labour movement, who weren't simply "communists" but trade unionists and social democrats (who ended up supporting the stupid war). In terms of actual internal policy Wilhelm II was definitely better than Bismarck for the working class and the labour movement and that's the whole point, that's why the soft spot is there, he stood up to the iron chancellor in defence of the workers, in this question his heart seems to have been in the right place. The effects of WWI and the fact that he was ultimately a pretty awful ruler are besides the point.

> his heart seems to have been in the right place.

My whole point is that his heart was in the right place but his mind and actions were in the very wrong place

Willy had the Feels Bismark had the reals

>trade unionists and social democrats

The SPD were literal marxists whose members would play a key role in the aborted revolution in 1918 having an overwhelming representation in its leadership. Whilst it did have a strong moderate element it did have very powerful communist influence in it. Wilhelm split this out accidentally via a literal world war whilst Bismark intended to do it via social policy.

>Wilhelm II was definitely better than Bismarck for the working class and the labour movement. The effects of WWI and the fact that he was ultimately a pretty awful ruler are besides the point.

You cant divorce these points. It would be like saying Stalin was a better for scientists in Russia because Lysenkoism and all that other nasty political business is beside the point.