Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Reflections on John Röhl: a Laudatio
- 1 Wilhelm II and ‘his’ navy, 1888–1918
- 2 Hollow-sounding jubilees: forms and effects of public self-display in Wilhelmine Germany
- 3 The Kaiser's elite? Wilhelm II and the Berlin administration, 1890–1914
- 4 Wilhelm, Waldersee, and the Boxer Rebellion
- 5 Dreams of a German Europe: Wilhelm II and the Treaty of Björkö of 1905
- 6 The uses of ‘friendship’. The ‘personal regime’ of Wilhelm II and Theodore Roosevelt, 1901–1909
- 7 Military diplomacy in a military monarchy? Wilhelm II's relations with the British service attachés in Berlin, 1903–1914
- 8 Wilhelm II as supreme warlord in the First World War
- 9 Germany's ‘last card’. Wilhelm II and the decision in favour of unrestricted submarine warfare in January 1917
- 10 Military culture, Wilhelm II, and the end of the monarchy in the First World War
- 11 Rathenau, Wilhelm II, and the perception of Wilhelminismus
- 12 Structure and agency in Wilhelmine Germany: the history of the German Empire – past, present, and future
- Index
2 - Hollow-sounding jubilees: forms and effects of public self-display in Wilhelmine Germany
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Reflections on John Röhl: a Laudatio
- 1 Wilhelm II and ‘his’ navy, 1888–1918
- 2 Hollow-sounding jubilees: forms and effects of public self-display in Wilhelmine Germany
- 3 The Kaiser's elite? Wilhelm II and the Berlin administration, 1890–1914
- 4 Wilhelm, Waldersee, and the Boxer Rebellion
- 5 Dreams of a German Europe: Wilhelm II and the Treaty of Björkö of 1905
- 6 The uses of ‘friendship’. The ‘personal regime’ of Wilhelm II and Theodore Roosevelt, 1901–1909
- 7 Military diplomacy in a military monarchy? Wilhelm II's relations with the British service attachés in Berlin, 1903–1914
- 8 Wilhelm II as supreme warlord in the First World War
- 9 Germany's ‘last card’. Wilhelm II and the decision in favour of unrestricted submarine warfare in January 1917
- 10 Military culture, Wilhelm II, and the end of the monarchy in the First World War
- 11 Rathenau, Wilhelm II, and the perception of Wilhelminismus
- 12 Structure and agency in Wilhelmine Germany: the history of the German Empire – past, present, and future
- Index
Summary
Contemporaries referred to Wilhelm II's time of government before 1914 as an ‘age of festivities’ and speeches. In 1913, the Sozialdemokratische Flugschriften commented: ‘The amount of official celebrations that the German Empire has had to endure over these last twenty-five years has been seemingly endless. They follow each other as uninterruptedly as film-reels do in a cinema … And each festivity is a “milestone”, each is glorified by speeches …’ The Kaiser's appearances in public are revealing processes of public communication. Contemporaries counted among them ‘national public holidays’ (Nationalfesttage), ‘state celebrations’ (Staatsfeste), regional and local events, as well as a number of other public holidays and jubilees of very different natures. Addresses, speeches and toasts formed part of these, as did marches and parades, flags and standards, obelisks and memorials, illuminations, torch-lit processions and fireworks, church visits, poems, songs, and the Hohenzollernfestspiele in the new opera house (Neues Königliches Operntheater). The court ceremonial planned all details and accompanied the media from the first announcement of an event to the publications which were intended to record and secure its fame for the future.
As in most monarchies at the end of the nineteenth century, in the German Reich and in Prussia, the birthday of the ruler and his more famous ancestors, selected historical events, funerals, and the coronation formed the core of an increasingly secularized culture of celebration. Laws and decrees stipulated whatever was necessary for this.
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- Information
- The KaiserNew Research on Wilhelm II's Role in Imperial Germany, pp. 37 - 62Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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