Wilhelm I, Emperor of Germany
Wilhelm I became the first German Emperor at seventy-three and is the figure Bismarck governed through. Born in 1797, the second son of Frederick William III, he was not expected to reign, was a soldier by training and temperament, and fought against Napoleon at seventeen. He earned the nickname the grapeshot prince for urging force against the revolutionaries of 1848 and had to flee to England for months. He became regent in 1858 when his brother went mad, and king in 1861. His reign began with a constitutional crisis. He wanted to double the army's peacetime strength and extend conscription; the liberal majority in the Prussian parliament refused the money; and he was close to abdicating when the war minister Roon urged him to send for Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck governed without a budget for four years and won the argument by winning wars. Three followed: against Denmark in 1864, Austria in 1866, and France in 1870. Wilhelm's role was real but subordinate — he opposed the lenient peace Bismarck insisted on with Austria, and had to be argued into it in tears, and he resisted the imperial title as a devaluation of the Prussian crown. He was proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles in January 1871, and was reportedly furious about the wording. He survived two assassination attempts in 1878, which Bismarck used to pass the anti-socialist laws. He presided over the world's first state pension and health insurance system, and died in 1888. His grandson Wilhelm II dismissed Bismarck two years later, which is the point at which the system stopped working.
- Lived: 1797 CE – 1888 CE
- Nationality: Prussian
- Roles: king_of_prussia, german_emperor
