1918 renunciation of the throne of Prussia and the German Empire
The abdication of Wilhelm II as German Emperor and King of Prussia was declared unilaterally by Chancellor Max von Baden at the height of the German revolution on 9 November 1918, two days before the end of World War I. It was formally affirmed by a written statement from Wilhelm on 28 November while he was in exile in Amerongen, the Netherlands. The abdication ended the House of Hohenzollern's 500-year rule over Prussia and its predecessor state, Brandenburg. With the loss of the monarchical legitimacy that was embodied by the emperor, the rulers of the twenty-two constituent states of the Empire also relinquished their royal titles and domains.
Wilhelm's abdication was triggered by Germany's impending defeat in World War I. In an attempt to obtain better terms from the Allies, a number of changes were made in the government and the constitution to partially democratise the Empire. The political changes were not enough to satisfy US President Woodrow Wilson, who was leading the attempt to broker an armistice. When it became clear that he wanted Wilhelm to abdicate, both the military and the government began to make various plans to save the monarchy through a regency or some other means after Wilhelm stepped down. The outbreak of the German revolution in the first days of November 1918 increased the pressure on Wilhelm to abdicate, but he continued to refuse. In order to calm the volatile situation in Berlin, Chancellor Baden, without Wilhelm's knowledge or approval, announced on 9 November that the Emperor had abdicated. Later that afternoon, Germany was proclaimed a republic, and Wilhelm went into exile in the Netherlands the next day. His official abdication came on 28 November. The 500-year-old Hohenzollern dynasty ended quietly, with almost no violence or fanfare.
A significant number of Germans, including many who considered themselves monarchists, saw Wilhelm's flight to the Netherlands as cowardice and desertion, a view that seriously undermined the dynasty's monarchist standing. In the military, the Supreme Army Command under Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg quietly took over the emperor's role as "supreme warlord". Wilhelm hoped that the Nazis would return either him or one of his sons or grandsons to the throne, but Adolf Hitler had no interest in a restoration.
Lost war and revolution.
Wilhelm first learned that Germany could not win World War I militarily on 10 August 1918, two days after the Allies broke through the German lines at the Battle of Amiens. He took the news calmly, especially since First Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff assured him on 14 August that he would be able to break the enemy's will to fight through a determined defensive. The Emperor spent the next few weeks at Wilhelmshöhe Palace near Kassel and returned to Army Headquarters at Spa, Belgium on 10 September, where he was not told the truth about the rapidly deteriorating military and domestic political situations. Admiral Georg Alexander von Müller noted, "The dishonesty at Headquarters has reached a degree that can no longer be surpassed. Everywhere you look egoism, self-deception and deception of one's colleagues."
Change of government.
On 26 September, the Supreme Army Command (OHL) summoned government leaders to its headquarters and informed Chancellor Georg von Hertling and his state secretaries (equivalent to ministers) that the war was lost. Friedrich von Berg, a member of Wilhelm's privy cabinet, began to work on forming a government that would rule in opposition to the Reichstag. He initially sounded out Bernhard von Bülow, who had been chancellor from 1900 to 1909. When Bülow responded that governing against the majority parties in the Reichstag was no longer possible, Berg suggested a dictatorship by a general such as Alexander von Falkenhausen or Max von Gallwitz, but he was again rebuffed. Paul von Hintze, the state secretary for foreign affairs, supported by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and Ludendorff, proposed instead a "revolution from above": the Empire's system of rule was, at least in appearance, to be democratised, the Majority Social Democratic Party (MSPD) included in the new government and a request for peace sent to US President Woodrow Wilson. It was hoped that in this way lenient peace terms could be obtained – and that blame for the lost war could be placed at the feet of the democratic parties in the Reichstag. In order to shift responsibility away from himself, Ludendorff had planted the seeds of what later became known as the stab-in-the-back myth, the belief that Germany had not lost the war militarily but had been betrayed by people on the home front, notably socialists and Jews. The myth was fuelled by the fact that until the war was all but lost, Ludendorff left the public in the dark about the seriousness of the military situation and had even spread optimistic propaganda.
After the Hertling cabinet resigned on 30 September, Ludendorff suggested that Prince Max von Baden, heir to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Baden, be named the new chancellor. Although Wilhelm thought little of Prince Max, he consented. Friedrich von Berg had previously obtained the Prince's agreement that as chancellor he would "resist excessive democratisation". On 2 October, Wilhelm and Max privately discussed the goals of the chancellorship in Berlin, and the following day he accepted the appointment. Baden's selections for his cabinet – which included socialists for the first time – and the replacement of Wilhelm's closest advisor Friedrich von Berg by Clemens von Delbrück as head of the privy cabinet showed that the Emperor had already lost the power to fill important posts with the men of his choice. The historian Bernd Sösemann noted a clear "decline of the imperial concept during the First World War". For the political scientist Herfried Münkler, the rise of Hindenburg and First Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff to the top of the Army command had marked the "beginning of the end of the Hohenzollern monarchy in Germany".
The Wilson notes.
On 4 October, as called for by the OHL, the new chancellor sent a diplomatic note to President Wilson asking him to mediate an immediate armistice and a peace based on his Fourteen Points. In the subsequent two exchanges, Wilson's choice of words "failed to convey the idea that the Emperor's abdication was an essential condition for peace. The leading statesmen of the Empire were not yet ready to contemplate such a monstrous possibility." As a precondition for negotiations, Wilson demanded the withdrawal of German troops from all occupied territories, the cessation of submarine activities and, implicitly, the Emperor's abdication, writing on 23 October: "If the Government of the United States must deal with the military masters and the monarchical autocrats of Germany now, or if it is likely to have to deal with them later in regard to the international obligations of the German Empire, it must demand not peace negotiations but surrender." "Impudent lout!", Wilhelm is reported to have said, adding that what the Americans were calling for was "the purest Bolshevism".
At that point Ludendorff and Hindenburg called for an end to the exchange of notes with the Americans, since "throne and Fatherland" would be "at stake if there were not ... a resolute break in negotiations". Prince Max then told Wilhelm that in order to preserve the monarchy and obtain a peace that Germany would find bearable, the establishment of a parliamentary government and a reshuffle of the OHL were unavoidable.
Wilhelm gave in and replaced Ludendorff with General Wilhelm Groener on 26 October. Two days later, the October constitutional reforms changed the German Empire from a constitutional to a parliamentary monarchy. By leaving the emperor in supreme command of the military and with the right to appoint the government, the revised constitution did not go far enough to fulfil the American conditions. The Chancellor, who had been convinced since 20 October that Wilhelm could not remain Emperor, developed a plan along with the banker Max Warburg and other advisors to save the monarchy. It called for the Emperor to step down voluntarily in favour of his twelve-year-old grandson Wilhelm, for whom Prince Max would act as regent. As administrator of the Empire, he would then appoint a democratic politician with popular support as chancellor, for example the MSPD chairman Friedrich Ebert.
The government advised the press not to discuss the "imperial question" when reporting on Wilson's notes, "since it would create an equally bad impression both internally and externally". With censorship relaxed since the change of government, the German public was already widely discussing the advantages of Wilhelm's resignation. Gustav Noske of the MSPD, for example, called for a "grand gesture" from the Emperor during a Reichstag debate on 24 October. It was almost the only call for resignation from the MSPD, however, since Ebert wanted to preserve the monarchy as far as possible and raised the idea of an imperial trusteeship for Prince Max. It was supporters of the more leftist Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) who called not only for the abdication of the Emperor but also for an end of the monarchy. The USPD deputy Oskar Cohn ended his Reichstag speech on 25 October with the demand for a socialist republic. Two days later, demonstrators in Berlin who were celebrating the release of Karl Liebknecht from prison shouted, "Down with the Emperor!" and "Long live the German Republic!"
Wilhelm's resignation was also called for in middle-class circles that were generally monarchist. Max Warburg thought that the only possibility "for the Emperor to save the throne for his family [was] by stepping down in time." Vice Chancellor Friedrich von Payer lamented:The very fiercest assailants of the Emperor are the people on the Right. You can hear the gentlemen of high finance and big business, even high up in officer circles, saying with astonishing candour: the Emperor must step down immediately. The longer the agitation continues, the stronger the argument will be that we no longer need a monarchy at all but should establish a republic.Wilhelm's entourage, especially court preacher Ernst Dryander and Empress Augusta Victoria, encouraged Wilhelm to stand by his decision to remain in office.
Revolution.
In view of Germany's impending defeat, the High Seas Command, without the authorization of the government, made plans for a final battle against the British fleet. If necessary to save the honour of the German Navy, they would go down heroically with flags flying. On 29 October, sailors at Kiel mutinied when they learned of the plans. The sailors then spread the revolt across Germany, and it quickly developed into the German revolution. At the same time, former Chancellor Georg Michaelis and Admiral Reinhard Scheer independently had the idea that the Emperor should seek a heroic death. Michaelis thought of sending him to the front, while Scheer wanted him to perish on board the SMS König. They hoped that his death would lead to a final mass mobilisation.
Prince Max was simultaneously trying to persuade people close to Wilhelm to encourage him to step down. Wilhelm bitterly resisted the increasing pressure and on 29 October left Berlin for the Army Headquarters at Spa. Whether it was Hindenburg, members of his entourage or someone else who persuaded him to go is not known for certain,
Wilhelm at that point had four possible courses of action: lead the troops to Berlin to put down the revolution, die on the battlefield, continue to delay, or abdicate and leave Germany. Wilhelm definitively ruled out the latter. On 1 November, Prince Max sent the Prussian state secretary of the interior Bill Drews to the Emperor to persuade him to abdicate, but Wilhelm insisted on his oath. If he resigned, he said, chaos would break out. According to a letter dated 3 November, he made the following comments to Drews:All the dynasties [referring to the other monarchical Central Powers] are caving in, the Army has no leader, the front is disintegrating and flooding across the Rhine. The disloyal are massing, hanging, murdering, plundering; our enemies are helping them ... I am not even thinking of abdicating. The King of Prussia must not be unfaithful to Germany. ... I am not thinking of leaving the throne because of a few hundred Jews and a thousand labourers.When Hindenburg and Groener joined them, Drews emphasised the position of the MSPD, which would be satisfied with an English-style parliamentary monarchy after Wilhelm's abdication, but he added that their position