Germany's last crown prince waited 30 years for a throne that vanished
Wilhelm became heir to the German and Prussian crowns at six, in 1888, the Year of the Three Emperors. He remained crown prince for three decades, only to see his father abdicate and the empire collapse on 9 November 1918. The mock-Tudor house built for him in Potsdam later hosted the conference that reshaped post-war Europe.
Born in Potsdam's Marble Palace in 1882, he was the eldest child of the future Wilhelm II, and his arrival sparked a family quarrel: his father snubbed his own mother, Crown Princess Victoria, by asking an aunt to find a nurse, and Queen Victoria was furious. Among his lasting legacies is sporting rather than royal. In 1908 he donated a cup to the German Football Association, creating the Kronprinzenpokal, still the oldest cup competition in German football.
In August 1914, at 32 and never having led more than a regiment, he was handed command of the 5th Army, with orders from his father to defer to an experienced chief of staff. That October he told a foreign correspondent, in English, that it was the most stupid and senseless war of modern times, one forced on Germany. In 1916 his forces opened the failed Verdun offensive, and he personally ordered the first shot on 21 February. In practice, staff officers did the real planning.
After the revolution he fled to the Netherlands and was interned on the island of Wieringen. He returned in 1923 after promising Gustav Stresemann to stay out of politics, choosing 9 November for the date, which enraged his father. He broke the promise, backing Hitler after being barred from running for president in 1932, then cooled once it became clear the monarchy would not return.
He became head of the House of Hohenzollern in 1941. The Soviets seized Cecilienhof, his Potsdam home, at the end of the war and it became the venue of the Potsdam Conference. He died of a heart attack in Hechingen on 20 July 1951, and three days later his Verdun adversary, Philippe Petain, died in a French prison.
Source: Wilhelm, German Crown Prince
