51 “I never saw Bismarck enter”: Bülow, IV, 307
52 “unbearably ugly”: Taylor, 112
53 “Simplicity... complete lack of adornment”: Bülow, I, 27
54 “They eat here always until the walls burst”: Crankshaw, Bismarck, 386
55 “I have spent the whole night hating”: Taylor, 137
56 “This pressure on my brain”: Crankshaw, Bismarck, 386
57 “The Chancellor has aged”: Holstein Papers, II, 97
58 “I don’t like questions”: Taylor, 196
59 “inclination to transgress”: Holstein Papers, II, 48
60 “Herbert’s character is unevenly developed”: ibid., 199
61 “Even now, the ambassadors seek out Herbert”: ibid., 199
62 “The way to loosen Herbert’s tongue”: ibid.
63 “Both father and son”: ibid., 200
64 “eagerness to get rid of Hatzfeldt”: ibid., 208
65 “Please do not say anything”: Stern, 254
66 “In every great state”: Lamar Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 231
67 “I never go to Paris”: Robertson, f.n. 482
68 “an emperor who could not talk”: Lee, I, 643
69 “These audiences with young Bismarck”: Bülow, II, 60
70 “Lately, it almost appears”: ibid., 61
71 “Herbert, who is not yet forty”: ibid.
72 “You need not praise him”: ibid.
Chapter 4
Bismarck’s Grand Design
1 “We are satiated”: Robertson, 341
2 “You know where a war begins”: Holstein Papers, I, 92
3 “You forget the importance”: Mansergh, 18
4 “We remember that they are waiting for us”: ibid., 19
5 “Remember, I forbid you to take Tunis”: Robertson, 349
6 “If Vienna or London is chosen”: Dugdale, I, 61; DGP, II, 175
7 “tying our neat, sea-worthy Prussian frigate”: Crankshaw, Bismarck, 355
8 “that was worth the bones”: Taylor, 167
9 “If I must choose”: Crankshaw, Bismarck, 355
10 “Never will Prussia forget”: Eyck, 188
11 “Prince Bismarck himself states”: Crankshaw, Bismarck, 373
12 “Bismarck is more necessary than I”: Taylor, 188
13 “Those men who have compelled me”: Eyck, 265
14 “The most brilliant victories”: Stern, 439
15 “Our policy with its criss-cross of commitments”: Holstein Papers, II, xv
16 “that big Utopian Babbler”: Eckardstein, 52
17 “that inhuman exception”: E.T.S. Dugdale, I, 151
18 “very pleasant days”: ibid., 161; DGP, IV, 38
19 “would be compatible”: ibid.; ibid.
20 “England does not need an alliance”: ibid., 167; ibid., 47
21 “We are uncommonly grateful”: ibid., 168; ibid.
22 “My Lord, we are told”: Stern, 411
23 “Neither my colleagues nor I”: E.T.S. Dugdale, I, 177; DGP, IV, 63
24 “It is very hard for me”: ibid., 179; ibid.
25 “in my presence with Lord Derby”: ibid.; ibid.
26 “I replied to the noble Lord”: ibid.
27 “why the right to colonize”: ibid., 175
28 “So long as they remain”: ibid., 176; ibid., 60
29 “Our friendship can be of great help”: ibid., 171; ibid., 51
30 “If we fail to push our rights”: ibid., 182; ibid., 77
31 “The English... have no reason at all”: Bülow, I, 556
32 “profit England”: E.T.S. Dugdale, I, 190; DGP, IV, 101
33 “produced violent gesticulations”: ibid.; ibid.
34 “Herbert Bismarck has come over again”: Robertson, 443
35 “Even if you had no colonial aspirations”: E.T.S. Dugdale, I, 192; DGP, IV, 103
36 “There is no point in discussing”: ibid.
37 “the extension of Germany”: Crankshaw, Bismarck, 397
38 “they must take care in Berlin”: Balfour, 54
39 “lively... recollection of the kindness”: E.T.S. Dugdale, I, 208; DGP, IV, 132
40 “by your words that our former personal intercourse”: ibid., 209; ibid., 133
41 “I value Lord Salisbury’s friendship”: Eckardstein, 98
42 “Here is Russia”: Cowles, 105
43 “I am not a colonialist”: Eyck, 272
44 “a German Gladstone ministry”: Taylor, 194
45 “the sole object of German colonial policy”: Crankshaw, Bismarck, 396
46 “When we entered upon our colonial policy”: Eyck, 275
47 “I know of no other case”: Eckardstein, 133
48 “Meanwhile, we leave it on the table”: E.T.S. Dugdale, I, 374; DGP, IV, 405
49 “I see in England”: Robertson, 436
50 “We no longer ask for love”: Crankshaw, Bismarck, 406
52 “too much talk of the Chancellor”: Bismarck, New Chapters, 102
53 “a rascally young fop”: Kennan, 398
54 “to earn money on certain days”: Bismarck, New Chapters, 105
55 “The employers and shareholders”: ibid., 118
56 “the practical aimlessness of the scheme”: ibid., 110
57 “the increased expectations”: ibid., 113
58 “The waves will mount higher”: Nichols, 17
59 “They are not my ministers”: Eyck, 315
60 “cease all direct correspondence”: Röhl, 45
61 “The Chancellor... has taken sides”: Eyck, 317
62 “I am just leaving the political deathbed”: Robertson, 490
63 “So? I gave the order yesterday”: Bismarck, New Chapters, 166
64 “Well, of course you had him thrown out”: ibid.
65 “Not even when your sovereign commands it?”: ibid., 168
66 “How can I rule”: Taylor, 246
67 “un garçon mal élevé”: Nichols, 24
68 “I must greatly deplore”: Bismarck, New Chapters, 178
69 “With deep emotion”: Nichols, 25
70 “I am in better health”: Taylor, 235
71 “I will use it”: ibid., 251
72 “I am as miserable”: Bülow, IV, 637
73 “I deeply regret”: Queen Victoria, I, 581
74 “I ask only for sympathy”: Robertson, 492
75 “I have bid farewell”: Taylor, 251
76 “A state funeral”: Stern, 457
77 “They can make their minds easy”: Robertson, 508
78 “so that I will not have to see”: Taylor, 256
79 “We have not doubted”: Nichols, 197
80 “He has planned an audience”: ibid., 198
81 “Whatever the Germans may say or do”: Bülow, I, 391
82 “He stopped when he set foot”: Robertson, 507
83 “Would it be worthy”: Bülow, IV, 678
84 “to see how long the old man will last”: Taylor, 264
85 “Very well”: Bülow, I, 607
Chapter 5
The New Course: Kaiser William II, Caprivi, and Hohenlohe
1 “carries himself well”: Morley, I, 272
2 “If he laughs”: Balfour, 138
3 “He was small and... handsome”: Heckstall-Smith, 53
4 “So we are bound together”: Cowles, 76
5 “Recruits! You have sworn Me allegiance”: Nichols, 130
6 “There is only one ruler”: ibid., 106
7 “terrible responsibility to the Creator”: Bülow, I, 136
8 “enemies of the Empire”: Balfour, 159
9 “whether red, black or yellow monkeys”: Bülow, II, 7
10 “If only I could see the Reichstag”: Balfour, 159
11 “I adore England”: ibid., 84
12 “Not one of your ministers”: Topham, 207
13 “the damned family
”: Bülow, I, 544
14 “William the Great”: Magnus, 309
15 “Willy is a bully”: ibid., 214
16 “the most brilliant failure in history”: ibid., 250
17 “an old peacock”: Lee, I, 673
18 “He is a Satan”: Balfour, 265
19 “as an uncle treats a nephew”: Queen Victoria, I, 439
20 “discussions of this kind”: ibid., 440
21 “As regarding the Prince’s”: ibid.
22 “Most sincerely do I hope”: Lee, I, 652
23 “How this mistake”: Magnus, 212
24 “The whole affair is absolutely invented”: ibid., 213
25 “I am happy to see”: Queen Victoria, I, 505
26 “Fancy wearing the same uniform”: Lee, I, 654
27 “I am now able to feel”: Queen Victoria, I, 526
28 “A Tsar, an infallible Pope”: Empress Frederick, 429
29 “William never comes”: ibid., 330
30 “Of course, it would be better”: Cowles, 101
31 “William is as blind and green”: Barkeley, 191
32 “I wish I could put a padlock”: Empress Frederick, 434
33 “My mother and I”: Queen Victoria, I, 485
34 “this awful lumbago”: Empress Frederick, 463
35 “a typical Teuton”: Nichols, 31
36 “First, at least one successor”: ibid., 34
37 “What kind of a jackass”: ibid., 32
38 “I know that I shall be covered with mud”: ibid., 33
39 “If anything can lighten for me”: ibid., 34
40 “We are getting on well”: Lamar Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 258
41 “after Bismarck, the greatest German”: Nichols, 34
42 “to lead the nation back”: Röhl, 65
43 “previously, independent statesmen”: ibid., 64
44 “take the good wherever”: ibid., 65
45 “Caprivi has an absolutely stupid lack”: Lamar Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 259
46 “A horse which has done well”: ibid.
47 “would be forced, against his own convictions”: Bülow, I, 638
48 “I beg you to tell His Majesty”: Nichols, 53
49 “Nothing more satisfactory”: ibid., 54
50 “If Bismarck were still at the helm”: ibid., 55
51 “Bismarck was able to juggle”: Bülow, IV, 55
52 “simple and transparent”: Nichols, 58
53 “Well, then, it can’t be done”: ibid., 56
54 “One thing was said”: ibid., 62
55 “I drink to Holy Moscow”: Bülow, IV, 639
56 “of the difficulties of my situation”: Lamar Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 257
57 “With a beard like this”: Röhl, 72
58 “No, I would not dream of it”: ibid., 86
59 “A sensitive old fathead”: ibid.
60 “indescribable obstinacy”: Lamar Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 271
61 “One can’t get anywhere”: Nichols, 356
62 “Caprivi, you get terribly on my nerves”: ibid., 357
63 “Your Majesty, I have always”: ibid.
64 “For his successor”: ibid., 329
65 “My relations with the All Highest”: Röhl, 116
66 “Nor would it do any good”: ibid., 362
67 “some one closer to me”: Nichols, 329
68 “a man neither conservative nor liberal”: ibid., 353
69 “I’ve been trying”: Holstein Papers, II, 189
70 “I’m vainly trying”: ibid., 209
71 “a quiet man”: ibid., 220
72 “The Chancellor will never send”: ibid., 221
73 “Age, poor memory, illness”: Röhl, 121
74 “his shrunken figure”: ibid.
75 “He felt such contempt”: Bülow, IV, 467
76 “I am convinced”: Röhl, 128
77 “Things are going badly”: ibid., 161
78 “Domestic politics make more noise”: ibid.
79 “Hohenlohe’s back must be stiffened”: ibid., 173
80 “In Hohenlohe’s great compliance”: ibid.
81 “make one last, vigorous effort”: ibid.
82 “The Holstein of 1888”: ibid., 172
83 “I know no constitution”: ibid., 213
84 “I felt it was my official responsibility”: ibid.
85 “I know that you will do the job well”: ibid., 218
86 “If the Kaiser wants”: ibid., 229
87 “almost eighty years old”: Lamar Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 156
Chapter 6
“The Monster of the Labyrinth”
1 “weak chest”: Holstein Papers, I, x
2 “tall, erect and unsmiling”: ibid., 4
3 “I’d rather be late”: ibid., 5
4 “incredibly able intellectually”: ibid., II, 261
5 “He is very sensitive”: Bülow, III, 126
6 “I see”: ibid., IV, 623
7 “You want to know what I think”: ibid., 459
8 “I have described this scene”: Holstein Papers, II, 271
9 “I have sometimes gone beyond”: ibid., xvii
10 “For the first time in twenty-five years”: ibid., 276
11 “Holstein has once and for all”: Bülow, IV, 607
12 “You have been guilty of something”: Holstein Papers, I, 131
13 “Geheimrat Holstein begs to be excused”: Kürenberg, His Excellency the Spectre, 59
14 “I hear that I have an excellent official”: Lamar Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 263
15 “How often has it happened”: Eckardstein, 12
16 “The fellow didn’t bow to me”: Haller, II, 292
17 “As I perceive you are working... against me”: ibid., I, 287
18 “If His Majesty does nothing”: ibid., 286
19 “His rage was all the more senseless”: Bülow, IV, 458
20 “Neither Caprivi, nor Hohenlohe”: Haller, II, 297
21 “Holstein’s great talents”: ibid., I, 354
22 “The situation was made more difficult”: Bülow, I, 216
23 “Holstein was like the watchdog”: ibid.
24 “In his blind and petty hatred”: ibid., 266
25 “Bulow and I”: Haller, II, 292
26 “to keep in mind the need”: Paul Kennedy, Antagonism, 206
Chapter 7
Bülow and Weltmacht
1 “The question is not”: Paul Kennedy, Antagonism, 311
2 “as irresistible as a law of nature”: ibid.
3 “One of the conventional lies”: Carroll, 350
4 “England is still the state”: ibid., 383
5 “Only in war”: Padfield, 16
6 “The State is not an Academy of Art”: ibid., 18
7 “General Caprivi believed”: Röhl, 162
8 “has great tasks to accomplish”: Paul Kennedy, “The Kaiser and German Weltpolitik,” in Röhl and Sombart, Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations, 158
9 “The German Empire”: Carroll, 378
10 “I am the sole arbiter”: Lee, II, 136
11 “I am at my very best”: Bülow, II, 443
12 “Bülow will be my Bismarck”: Lamar Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 288
13 “With me, personal rule”: Kathy Lerman, “The Decisive Relationship,” in Röhl and Sombart, Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations, 222
14 “Bülow seemed more Latin than German”: Mansergh, 78
15 “an eel”: Lamar Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 37
16 “an eel is a leech”: Balfour, 202
17 “underneath the shiny paint”: ibid., 201
18 “He would be quite a fellow”: Lamar Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 282
19 “Bernhard makes a secret”: ibid.
20 “The closest friend of my life”: Bülow, II, 59
21 “My earliest memory of Herbert”: ibid.
22 “
a beautiful girl”: ibid., IV, 17
23 “wavered and swayed”: ibid., 207
24 “As I sat next morning”: ibid., 555
25 “My father said”: ibid., 558
26 “clean-shaven and pasty”: Holstein Papers, II, 188
27 “When Bulow wants to set”: ibid.
28 “A few days ago”: ibid., 204
29 “The beauty of it”: ibid., 189
30 “her wonderful eyes, black eyes”: Bülow, IV, 349
31 “For once in his life”: Holstein Papers, II, 188
32 “Only if you take the Kaiser”: Bülow, I, 5
33 “Ever since his apostasy”: ibid., 7
34 “older and weaker”: ibid., 10
35 “My dear Bernhard”: ibid., 18
36 “to build a fleet”: ibid., 19
37 “Now, what about my ships?”: ibid., 65
38 “Agreed, agreed”: ibid., 68
39 “When one has shared bright days”: Lamar Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 281
40 “I adore him”: Bülow, I, 161
41 “As a man”: Lamar Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 282
42 “He is so bedeutend”: ibid., 283
43 “leading a contemplative existence”: ibid., 288
44 “Build your nest”: ibid., 285
45 “An old man full of specters”: ibid., 287
46 “The sway of the counselors”: ibid.
47 “Would you accept”: Bülow, I, 433
48 “Candidly, for me”: ibid.
49 “Do accept”: ibid., 436
50 “Secretary of State Count Bülow speaking”: ibid.
51 “My dear Chancellor”: ibid., 443
52 “satisfaction that Chlodwig, the old mummy”: ibid., 453
53 “Under Prince Hohenlohe”: ibid., 459
54 “Holstein... suggested”: ibid., 454
55 “sobriety, objectivity”: ibid.
56 “Bülow gives me his full trust”: Lamar Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 294
57 “decades had to pass”: ibid., 38
58 “The air is thick”: Zedlitz-Trützschler, 104
59 “Whenever, by oversight”: ibid., 196
60 “Your light trousers”: ibid.
61 “Since I have Bülow”: Lerman, “The Decisive Relationship,” Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations, 241
Chapter 8
“Ships of My Own”
1 “I had a peculiar passion”: William II, My Early Life, 229
2 “Osborne is the scene”: ibid., 15
3 “I was allowed to play”: ibid., 74