‘The emperor was not content with simply receiving presentations and proposals’: Wilhelm and Political Decision-making

Historians have often associated the idea of a ‘personal regiment’, that the German emperor governed personally, with Wilhelm II. This chapter demonstrates that it was Wilhelm I who developed this idea and that his grandson perpetuated this first Kaiser’s practice. Wilhelm I believed the monarch should be seen governing personally, and as German emperor he took full advantage of the constitutional prerogatives of his office. This chapter shows, firstly, how in the cabinet, Wilhelm asserted his prerogatives by presiding over its meetings, and through writings, using the Culture Wars and foreign policy as examples of policy areas where Wilhelm intervened. Secondly, this chapter demonstrates that Wilhelm used audiences with officials in his palace to impress his visitors regarding him governing personally. In addition, Wilhelm stressed his personal regiment by keeping his heir at a distance and used personnel policy to demonstrate officials’ dependency on him. Thirdly, as Wilhelm grew older and withdrew from the day-to-day political decision-making process, he increasingly projected his personal regiment in competition with the Reichstag to counterweigh this democratic centre of political gravity, by involving himself in antisocialist laws and sending imperial messages when it suited his public persona, such as with his government’s social policy.