Journalist Max Harden had in 1906 caused perhaps the biggest domestic scandal of the German Empire when he accused Wilhelm II's confidantes Philipp von Eulenburg and Kuno von Moltke of (then criminalised) homosexuality. Originally an attempt to break the - in the eyes of Harden and others undue - influence of a suspected homosexual camarilla, Harden later regretted causing the scandal, suspecting that the Kaiser turning from his erstwhile confidantes to more militaristic advisors may have been the root cause for WWI.
Is this assessment at least partly true? Did this and other political scandals help shape the German Empire towards war?
While it is true that the Harden-Eulenburg affair had a great effect upon the Kaiser’s health, from what I have ascertained it did not have any tangible effect upon German policy.
With the destruction of his civilian entourage the Kaiser was left only with his group of officers at court. However, by 1914 these officers were now quite separate from the army and in many ways had become as civilian as the court had been with Eulenburg.
It’s also important to remember all the steps which Kaiser Wilhelm II took in order to avoid the war, while von Moltke and the general staff were calling for a preventative war against the French and Russians, the Kaiser had already devoted his reign to being ‘one of consolidation rather than expansion.’
Source: Clark, C. Kaiser Wilhelm II Abingdon and New York: Routledge