What was Kaiser Wilhelm II's reaction to the Nazis, their victories in Western Europe, and WWII in general?
Culturally, he didn't like it. In terms of growing German influence, he loved it. I think these two quotes from his papers are quite indicative.
On the part of German influence, he said "The hand of God is creating a new world & working miracles... We are becoming the U.S. of Europe under German leadership, a united European Continent."
In another turn of phrase, he said: "The Jews [are] being thrust out of their nefarious positions in all countries, whom they have driven to hostility for centuries
(Petropoulos, Jonathan (2006), Royals and the Reich)
He was upset that nobody cared about the monarchy anymore, and that the cultural values were changing even more irrevocably towards republicanism.
For example, he was quite upset in 1940 that nobody observed it in Germany.
> Nobody knew anything about her.
Was what he said about the century anniversary of his mother's birth. Normally a more monarchist society would have held some sort of formal observation or whatnot.
(Kaiser Wilhelm II: Germany's Last Emperor By John Van der Kiste)
I think you can see that he was happy to see Germany "succeed" in the Utilitarian sense, and at least at some level content with the Nazis. The changes to German culture in regard to essentially venerating him and his extended family (both in Germany and in Greece), he did not like as much. Van der Kiste even goes as far as saying that he was "privately thrilled" at the German successes which eluded him when he was in power. I think the attitudes towards the Jews, the xenophobia towards England, the goal of German preeminence in Europe, and persistent Monarchism or culture shock all help inform us of his feelings about the Third Reich.
Wilhelm left Germany in November 1918 and spent the rest of his life in Doorn, a small Dutch town. During the remainder of his life, he remained ambivalent towards the Nazis. He expressed his distaste when the "Reichskristallnacht" took place in 1938, but sent a congratulatory note after the German victory over France. He died soon after and received a small funeral.
^I ^shouldn't ^be ^answering ^as ^I'm ^not ^a ^historian, ^but ^I ^was ^waiting ^for ^an ^answer, ^so ^after ^a ^quick ^search, ^this ^is ^mostly, ^what ^Dr ^Annika ^Mombauer ^(History ^Department), ^a ^senior ^lecturer ^in ^modern ^European ^history,has ^to ^say ^about ^the ^subject ^ (If ^it's ^tl;dr ^just ^read ^the ^last ^three ^sentences.)
From 1914, he increasingly became a mere 'shadow' Kaiser. When the WWI ended with Germany’s capitulation, the victors demanded the Kaiser’s abdication, and from within Germany, the new parliamentary government also wanted to end the Prussian monarchy. Wilhelm II fled via Belgium, on November 10th, 1918, to the Netherlands and escaped being tried as a war criminal by the victorious Allies. Holland refused to extradite Wilhelm as a war criminal to the Allies following the armistice.Famously, he crossed the border in a train which, in 7 carriages, contained many of his possessions. Another 63 carriages were sent to him the following year, and the new German Republic, which he so despised, made generous financial settlements. He was bitter about his people whom he felt had betrayed him. He had, so he claimed, been betrayed by a nation of pigs (‘Schweinebande’), by socialists and jews, and he longed to exact a terrible revenge on those who had forced him to abdicate. He lived the rest of his life comfortably off, and tended to by some forty servants, in a country house in Doorn in Holland, and never returned to Germany. During the Second World War, when the German army was once again engaged in a bloody battle against its neighbours, he hoped that Adolf Hitler would finish the job that had been started in 1914. He did not live to see the end of WWII. He died in June 1941, aged 82.
I believe he was exiled in German Africa and came public praising the Nazis for returning Germnay's glory.
I think he ignored by Hitler etc as he was seen as embarrassing.
I remember reading this somewhere so could be totally wrong