The miniseries The Fall of Eagles is infamous among historians of this period for not only having Patrick Stewart as Lenin but also for mixing historical details with exaggerated or fabricated details for dramatic effect. Wilhelm I is not immune from this process. The miniseries mixes a very embellished view of the King and future Emperor of Germany to create a Macbeth-like figure who needed to be prodded by his Lady Macbeth, Bismarck. This picture may have made for interesting plot development, but one that does not do justice to the historical Wilhelm I.

Maurice Denham portrays Wilhelm I as a Prussian nationalist that was prone to bouts of weeping and uncertainty which Bismarck exploits to get his way. This portrayal is only half-accurate. Wilhelm I was certainly a staunch Prussian nationalist who was more at home in the elite Guards units than drawing rooms or parliamentary chambers. A number of German men of his era were also renowned for their public displays of emotion such as crying. However, Wilhelm I was much more of a sober Prussian than a weepy one. Denham's at times histrionic portrayal was much suitable for Wilhelm I's elder brother Friedrich Wilhelm IV. The latter Hohenzollern was prone to extreme bouts of euphoria and depression according to a number of contemporaries and reports of his extreme moods became entrenched in German popular memory.

The historical Wilhelm I seldom behaved as his brother did in public. He was also a major proponent of German unification under the Prussian aegis. He would write in his private correspondence "whomever would rule Germany, must conquer it," and that Prussia was the ideal candidate for this task. He never really wavered from the idea that Prussia would lead German unification. Wilhelm I was aghast at the Convention of Olmütz in which Prussia agreed with Austria to work against unification efforts in the aftermath of the 1848 Revolutions. The future king in particular did not like the fact the Russia had sided with Austria in the matter and backed Olmütz.

Where the miniseries though is on the right track is depicting Wilhelm I as somewhat lost within the post-1848 milieu of a nascent system of mass politics. Wilhelm I may have hated the Olmütz system, but he generally did not understand it and could not wrap his head on a way out. Here the miniseries's depiction of Bismarck as a Lady Macbeth figure does ring true. One of Bismarck's main tasks was to cajole Wilhelm I and his entourage, including the Crown Prince Friedrich, onto the political course Bismarck desired. Bismarck employed a variety of methods ranging from flattery- which was key in his dealing with the Crown Prince- to emotional performances threatening to resign and leave his sovereign to twist in the wind. Bismarck recognized that he was dependent on his monarch's good graces for his political position, so he sought to make himself indispensable.

One of the episodes in drama of unification that illustrates this odd political relationship was in the debate over the imperial title and crown. While Wilhelm I was not reluctant to be at the head of a Prussian-led unification drive, he was reluctant to assume the mantle of Kaiser in 1870/71. There were several reasons for this. For one thing, as a staunch old-guard Hohenzollern, he associated the Kaiser title with the old HRE and the "repression" of Prussia in the eighteenth century. Wilhelm I also saw these Kaiser titles as schemes of his heir who had liberal tendencies. This spoke to the larger antipathy Wilhelm I held towards modernity and its politics. The Prussian King could understand Bismarck's "Iron and Blood" methods, but he never really grasped the importance of parliaments and constitutions. The new imperial title was not one that came out of a distant past, but one created and sanctified by newer institutions. Wilhelm I was a man who did not take such entities seriously, so he was in no rush to assume a new title that would supersede his older, more pedigreed, one. Bismarck maneuvered Wilhelm I to accept the Kaiser title by having it be a gift from his fellow German monarchs.

It was the wrangling over the imperial title that probably provided the basis for the creators of The Fall of Eagles to present a reluctant Wilhelm I. The Prussian monarch was certainly a man ill at ease with mass politics and all that it entailed such as nationalism or suffrage. But he did not really waver from his desire to unify Germany. Wilhelm I may have had little idea how to accomplish this and was uncomfortable with Bismarck's solutions to the matter of unification, but he in the end went along with them.

Sources

Clark, Christopher. Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008.

Pflanze, Otto. Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume I. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1971.

Steinberg, Jonathan. Bismarck: A Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.