Now all roads lead to France and heavy is the tread
Of the living; but the dead returning lightly dance.
Edward Thomas, Roads

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

The Kaiser's Sons at War

By Assistant Editor Kimball Worcester

Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife, the Empress Augusta Viktoria, had six sons and one daughter. Five of their six sons were serving frontline officers in the Great War.


1. Crown Prince Wilhelm — commander of the 5th Army at age 32; instrumental in the Verdun offensive of 1916

2. Prince Eitel Friedrich — wounded at Bapaume commanding the Prussian First Foot Guards, awarded Iron Cross, First & Second Class (1914); transferred to Eastern Front 1915; Pour le Mérite (1915)

3. Prince Adalbert — served in the Kaiserliche Marine on three ships: Kaiser (1914) as lieutenant, Danzig (1917) as lieutenant commander, and Dresden (1918) as commander

4. Prince August Wilhelm — appointed district administrator for Ruppin in Brandenburg

5. Prince Oskar — colonel of the Grenadier Regiment “Konig Wilhelm I” (2. Westpreussisches Nr. 7); served in Belgium and at Verdun (1914), wounded, earning Iron Cross, First & Second Class; wounded again on the Eastern Front

6. Prince Joachim — lieutenant in the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards and the 4th Reserve Regiment of Grenadier Guards

This abundance of sons in uniform seems a fair representation of the military culture of Germany at the time and indeed of the Kaiser’s personal inclination. Given how many spare heirs he had on hand, any threat to the succession probably seemed minimal, so risking their lives in military glory could be worthwhile. Ironically, all six survived the war. Five stayed in Germany, although the Crown Prince was briefly exiled from 1918 to 1923, and Prince Adalbert decamped to Switzerland.


These are but royal heirs. European nobility suffered considerable losses of multiple sons and heirs. But the most sons and heirs lost were the countless, mostly now nameless men in the millions on all fronts.

8 comments:

  1. Prinz Joachim shot himself in 1920. Wilhelm II also had 19 grandchildren who lived to adulthood.

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    1. What caused him to do that, the suicide?

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    2. Some vague reasons posited: his inability to come to terms with the postwar fall of the Hohenzollerns; the failure of his marriage (which could also have been caused by the fall from power. Hard to say exactly. Royalty didn't exactly share details.

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  2. Thanks for this great entry. I did not know about the sons' military service. In the books I've read that examine the Kaiser, King George, and Czar Nicholas not much at all is said about the Kaiser's children, and they don't feature in that old warhorse series The Fall of Eagles.

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  3. Any one have a good reference on the subsequent genealogy of the Kaiser's family. Where are his descendants today? Is there a Crown Prince or Princess awaiting the return of Germany (or just Prussia) as a kingdom or empire?

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    1. Plenty of Hohenzollerns and their kin around today. Not sure who is the current "pretender" to the throne, but shouldn't be hard to find thru the Internet. Any restoration of the throne, though, is not likely :)

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  4. Learning the military contributions of the German royal family, and that their service was not trivial, is certainly valuable for the serious student of the Great War. I likewise am interested in the Kaiser's descendants, their involvement in the Third Reich, and their whereabouts today. I apologize for my ignorance; isn't the German Nobility still intact to this day?

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    1. Nobility, yes. Royalty, yes (see above). But any power is long gone and not coming back. There's lots of fun to be had by following threads on the Internet. Have at it!

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