TimelineMapsSearch QuotationsSearch Images

Follow us through the World War I centennial and beyond at Follow wwitoday on Twitter


Postcard image of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Kaiser Franz Joseph, in the Secessionist style. The men are in a hexagonal lozenge, an image that may have been drawn from them riding in a carriage. Kaiser Wilhelm is wearing the uniform and shako of the Death's Head Hussars. Above the image, the word "Völkerkrieg" (people's war); below "1914; In Treue Fest" (fixed in loyalty).

Postcard of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Kaiser Franz Joseph, in the Secessionist style. Kaiser Wilhelm is wearing the uniform and shako of the Death's Head Hussars.

Image text

Völkerkrieg (people's war)

1914; In Treue Fest



People's War

Firm in Loyalty

Other views: Larger, Back, LargerBack

Friday, January 15, 1915

"Never in the history of the Prussian Army had a theatre commander demanded the dismissal of the Chief of the General Staff, much less under threat of resignation. And never in the annals of that institution had an army commander registered a vote of no confidence in the Chief of the General Staff with the monarch. Ominously, the affair introduced a deep and abiding lack of trust among the Chancellor, the Chief of the General Staff, and the two eastern commanders. Bethmann Hollweg survived the crisis, but only so long as Falkenhayn and Hindenburg-Ludendorff continued their animosity. . . .

The greatest loser — apart from the German war effort — was Wilhelm II. On 15 January the Supreme War Lord begged Hindenburg to remain at his post."

Quotation Context

Unable to pressure Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn to move new troops and additional resources to the Eastern Front to further their plan to defeat Russia, the two eastern commanders Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff campaigned against Falkenhayn, and brought others into their their widening struggle including German Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg and Kaiser Wilhelm's wife. The Kaiser's submission to von Hindenburg made a mockery of his title of Supreme War Lord.

Source

The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 134, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997

Tags

1915-01-15, 1915, January, Wilhelm II, Kaiser Wilhelm, Hindenburg