‘As long as the princes of Germany are sovereign, there can only be a federal state’: Wilhelm as German Emperor

Not with Wilhelm II but with Wilhelm I was a German-national conception of the imperial role developed. This chapter shows how the first Kaiser used monarchical federalism to appeal to the German population via their regional states and sovereigns to popularize his role and project a monarchical understanding of the German nation-state. How Wilhelm put this into practice is demonstrated in three sections. It shows, firstly, how travels to non-Prussian states, such as Saxony, Bavaria, and Alsace Lorraine, were carefully tailored by Wilhelm and his officials to appeal to their respective populations. Secondly, this chapter uses Wilhelm’s annual visits to Konstanz to illustrate how Wilhelm accommodated the receptions by local authorities and the nascent popular cult around his public persona. Finally, Wilhelm’s involvement in the dedication of the Cologne Cathedral and the Niederwald monument is used to demonstrate how the emperor instrumentalized these events into projections of the empire’s monarchical political order. Wilhelm’s monarchical federalism was key to having his new imperial role accepted in large parts of Germany. Paradoxically, this made it easier for his successors to pursue an understanding of the imperial role at the expense of the other German monarchs.