THE PRIVATE LIVES OF
WILLIAM II. AND HIS CONSORT
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF WILLIAM I.
AND BISMARCK. With other Letters from and
to Prince Bismarck. Translated by J. A. FORD.
With Portrait and Facsimile Letters. In Two Vols.
Demy 8vo, price 205. net.
THE LOVE LETTERS OF PRINCE BIS-
MARCK. Edited by PRINCE HERBERT BISMARCK.
With Portraits. In Two Vols. Demy 8vo, price
2os. net.
PRINCE BISMARCK : An Historical Biography.
By CHARLES LOWE, M.A. With Two Portraits.
Cheap Edition. Crown 8vo, price as. 6d.
PORTRAITS OF THE KAISER AND
PRINCE BISMARCK. By WILLIAM NICHOLSON.
Mounted, price 23. 6d. each net.
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.
THE PRIVATE LIVES
OF WILLIAM II. & HIS
CONSORT: A SECRET HIS-
TORY OF THE COURT OF BERLIN
FROM THE PAPERS AND DIARIES EXTENDING OVER A
PERIOD BEGINNING JUNE 1888 TO THE SPRING OF 1898 OF A
LADY-IN-WAITING ON HER MAJESTY THE EMPRESS-QUEEN
BY
HENRY W. FISCHER
I
LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN
1906
First Edition, November 1904
Second Impression, December 1904
Third Impression, December 1904
Fourth Impression, April 1905
Fifth Impression, January 1906
reserved
This Edition enjoys copyright in all
countries signatory to the Berne
Treaty, and is not to be imported
into the United States of America
INTRODUCTION
Vive le roi ! " croaked the imperial standard floating
over the grey old Berlin Schloss when I alighted from
my carriage at the Court-marshal's gate to report for
duty on June 25, 1888, and " Long live the King ! " breathed
and echoed all the new brooms and old around me in the
antechambers, in the state and in the living and servants'
apartments of that immense pile. Yonder, just across
the Puppenbriicke, at half-mast and draped in black, were
seen the flags of two Queens, a widow of three and a half
months the one, the other had buried the noblest of
husbands but ten days before. Their palaces, which
scarcely ever possessed the brazen front of right royal
splendour, appeared deserted, gloomy, and melancholy
beyond hope as the emblem of death wafted above them ;
but with us the new masters all was life and excite-
ment.
I had seen royalty born, and had helped to distribute
its garter on the wedding-eve ; I had stood at its death-
bed, and in royal company had enjoyed the good things
of this world, in fact, the greater part of my life had
been spent at Court ; but where formerly I was welcomed
as a friend and companion, I was now such are the vicis-
situdes of life merely one of a few hundred attendants.
A lady of title and position, I had, after losing my
fortune, accepted their Majesties' command to join the
ranks of a retinue already noted for high-sounding names,
V
229860
vi INTRODUCTION
and by royal warrant was appointed Hofdame to the
Empress ; that is, a functionary whom " the first gentle-
man of Europe " cleverly characterised as " making an
occasional one of four large hoops in a gilded coach ; a
maid aiding the languor of an easy party in a royal box
at the play ; one that goes to the theatre, to concerts,
and oratorios gratis, and has physicians without fees and
medicine without chemists' bills." Was I to be that,
and nothing more ? The voice of Court-marshal von
Liebenau, now my superior, woke me from the reverie
into which I had fallen. The lord steward, at that time
omnipotent, had settled upon my immediate employ-
ment. " You will for the present assume the functions
of both Mattresse de Maison and maid of honour," he
said. " It is a ticklish post, that binds one closely to
their Majesties' heels, inasmuch as the care of the all-highest
persons is given into your hands, for it has already been
announced that there will be no change in the intimate
domestic arrangements. Kaiser and Kaiserin will con-
tinue to occupy one bed-chamber as formerly and you
must superintend the body-service of both the " all-
highest " master and mistress ; but as your Ladyship
has lived in the great world, and knows more about polite
requirements than many a Princess, the aspect will not
frighten you ; for my part, I place implicit trust in your
acumen and judgment. Later in the day, a list of special
instructions will be sent to you. And now, my dear
Countess," concluded the courtier, rising from his arm-
chair, " take a bit of friendly advice before you select
your suite of rooms among the apartments set aside for
her Majesty's ladies. If you want to succeed at our
Court, leave all thoughts of independence, all inborn notions
of truthfulness and common, every-day honesty, outside
the palace gate ; divest yourself of personality all in-
INTRODUCTION vii
dividualism save that of our masters' is odious be an
automaton pure and simple, smile upon her Majesty's
whims, do not be ruffled by a superior's insults, and if
at any time you must fly into a rage, retaliate upon those
under you."
I was about to speak, to protest, but the Court-marshal
anticipated me.
" I know what you want to say," he cried ; " you think
it mean and contemptible to let the innocent suffer for
their betters' wrongs, and I agree with you. But we all
do it, must do it ; it is a sort of lightning-rod for one's
ill-temper. And now, au revoir, Madame la Comiesse.
Once more be an automaton." With that Hen von
Liebenau kissed my hand, and a minute later I stood in
the court-yard quite beside myself with wrathful in-
dignation.
Nearly nine years have passed since I first cried my-
self to sleep in the big grey Schloss by the Spree while the
hot June sun was pouring into my room and all Berlin
discussed the Kaiser's first meeting with the Reichstag ; and
now that I commit to paper these memoirs of the Second
William's Court, let me say that in all that period I was
but used as a beast of burden by the great personages,
my masters, whom Providence sent into the world " ready
booted and spurred to ride," no better, no worse.
Special reasons for complaint I have none ; neither
will these pages wantonly afford umbrage to the exalted
ones of whom I write, unless, indeed, they object to truth,
that sentiment concerning which Dr. Johnson wrote some
one hundred and fifty years ago : " There is something
noble in publishing it, though it may condemn one's self."
I have no personal end in view with these papers ;
no excuses are offered for this narrative of Court life as
viii INTRODUCTION
I have seen it. If in part it borders on the unexpected, by
upsetting established notions, and again explains certain
things which have become history from a standpoint totally
different from the one popularly accepted and believed,
let the reader remember that truth is stranger than fiction,
and that history is but a lie, to borrow a phrase from the
Duchess of Orleans, the sister-in-law of Louis XV., " a
smart woman, an audacious woman," the same who ex-
claimed, on hearing the false report that Frederick the
Great was marching upon Versailles after Rossbach :
" So much the better, I shall at last see a King then."
I shall give only such incidents of the lives of William II.
and his consort as have come under my personal observa-
tion, or that I know of from reliable witnesses. The story
of a very few incidents that occurred before the present
Emperor's enthronisation I shall be obliged to credit to
the general gossip of the palace.
THE ROYAL HOHENZOLLERNS AND THEIR
KINDRED MENTIONED IN THIS
VOLUME
FREDERICK I., first King of Prussia, 1701-1713. Before 1701 the
Hohenzollerns were known as Prince-Electors of Brandenburg.
FREDERICK WILLIAM I., 1713-1740. Father of Frederick the Great.
FREDERICK II., the Great, 1740-1786. His best-known sister was
the Margravine of Baireuth (died in 1757), authoress of the cele-
brated Memoirs. Frederick the Great was succeeded by his
nephew :
FREDERICK WILLIAM II., 1786-1797. He was the notorious bigamist
and debt-contractor. He was succeeded by his son :
FREDERICK WILLIAM III., 1797-1840. He was the husband of Queen
Louise, a Princess of Strelitz (died in 1810), and the father of his
successors :
FREDERICK WILLIAM IV., 1840-1861. This King became mad and
died childless. A daughter of his brother William (died 1846),
Princess Marie, married Maximilian II., King of Bavaria. Queen
Marie (died 1889) had two sons, Ludwig II., King of Bavaria,
who died insane in 1886, and the present King Otto of Bavaria,
who is also insane. Frederick William IV. was succeeded by his
brother :
WILLIAM I., King, 1861-1888. Became German Emperor in 1871.
The Queen and Empress of William I. was Augusta, Princess of
Sachsen- Weimar, and a granddaughter (on her mother's side) of
Czar Paul I., who died insane. William I. had a daughter, Louise,
now Grand Duchess of Baden, and was succeeded by his son :
FREDERICK III., March-June, 1888. The Empress and Queen, styled
Empress Frederick, was the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria of
England, and was born in 1840. Her children are :
ix
x HOHENZOLLERNS AND THEIR KINDRED
WILLIAM II., born 1859, Emperor and King since June, 1888 ; Charlotte,
born 1860, Hereditary Princess of Sachsen-Meiningen ; Prince
Henry of Prussia, born 1862, married to Irene of Hesse, sister of
the Czarina; Victoria, born 1866, Princess of Lippe; Sophie, born
1870, Crown Princess of Greece; Marguerite, born 1872, Princess
Frederick Charles of Hesse-Cassel. William II. is married to
Auguste Victoria, born 1858, eldest daughter of Frederick, Duke
of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. The couple has
seven children, six boys and one girl.
PRINCE FREDERICK LEOPOLD OF PRUSSIA is the Kaiser's cousin
and brother-in-law, being married to Louise Sophie, Princess
of Schleswig-Holstein, sister of Empress Auguste Victoria.
THE PRINCELY HOUSES OF HOHENZOLLERN (Hohenzollern-Hechingen
and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen), whose possessions were ceded to
Prussia in 1849, are ) like tne r yal l me > descended from Rudolph,
Graf von Zollern, but, professing the Catholic faith, have not inter-
married with the royal line for several centuries. Members of the
royal and princely lines call each other " cousins " by courtesy.
CHARLES ANTON, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, is married to
Antonie, Royal Princess of Portugal. His eldest son :
THE HEREDITARY PRINCE WILLIAM, born 1864, is married to Therese,
Princess of the two Sicilies. Prince Charles Anton's second son :
FERDINAND, Crown Prince of Roumania, married Princess Marie of
Edinburgh. The Duke, her father, is now Duke of Sachsen-
Coburg-Gotha. A third son :
CARL ANTON, is married to Josephine, daughter of the Comte de
Flanders.
DUKE GUNTHER of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg is
the brother of Empress Auguste Victoria. Born 1863.
PRINCE CHRISTIAN, the husband of Princess Helene of Great Britain,
is an uncle of the Duke of Schleswig and of Empress Augusta
Victoria.
PRINCE CHRISTIAN'S BROTHER, FREDERICK (died July 2, 1865), married
Mary Lee, daughter of David Lee, of New York, November 30,
1864, after assuming the Austrian title of Prinz von Noer.
HOHENZOLLERNS AND THEIR KINDRED xi
PRINCESS VON NOER, his widow, who, by this marriage, became the
aunt of the German Empress, married, on April 14, 1874, General
late Field- Marshal Graf von Waldersee.
DUCHESS ADELAIDE of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg,
mother of the German Empress, is a Princess of Hohenlohe-
Langenburg and a cousin of Prince Hohenlohe, former Chancellor
of the German Empire. A-^Q- ^u* CM^W'^**"
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ....... v
THE ROYAL HOHENZOLLERNS AND THEIR KINDRED . . i x
CHAPTER I
Birth of the Kaiser His Health and Physical Characteristics
His fear of Malady ...... i
CHAPTER II
The Private Apartments of tjieir Majesties Home Life Rela-
tions between the Emperor and Empress Daily Life of
William II . 19
CHAPTER III
William II. and Mr. Vanderbilt The Emperor's Study His
Personal Habits His Wardrobe and Toilel-Room King
Leopold of 'Belgium . . " *'*",!' .' . .36
CHAPTER IV
House Regulations William II. as a Family Man William II.
and M. Herbette, the French Ambassador . . -55
CHAPTER V
The Role of the Bismarcks The Emperor and the Czar Liebenau,
Major-domo of the Palace The Emperor's Passion tor
Travel ........ 77
xiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER VI
PACK
The Emperor's Love of Travel (continued} -The Court of Denmark
William II. and Francis Joseph William II.'s Diversions
and Restlessness The "Song to ^Egir" The Kaiser as
Speech-Maker His Historical Blunders . . -93
CHAPTER VII
The Kaiser's Amusements The Menzel Festival . . 115
CHAPTER VIII
The Kaiser as Financier His Niggardliness The Kaiser as
Architect The Fall of Caprivi Hohenlohe, Chancellor . 137
CHAPTER IX
The Dispositions fond Affair The Kaiser and the Prussian Guards
The Guelph Fund . . . . . .161
CHAPTER X
The Emperor's Love of Shooting His Boon Companions . .187
CHAPTER XI
Treatment of Servants by their Majesties Imperial House-
keeping ........ 196
CHAPTER XII
The Anonymous Letter Scandal The Von Kotze Affair . . 205
CHAPTER XIII
The Emperor's Relations with His Ministers His Egomania
Parallel between William II. and Ludwig II. of Bavaria . 227
CHAPTER XIV
The Parallel between William II. and Ludwig II. (continued} . 254
CONTENTS xv
CHAPTER XV
PAGE
Examples of William II.'s Egotism The Emperor and Lord
Lonsdale The Question of Lese-Majeste and Egomania
The Emperor's Love of Beautiful hands . . -279
CHAPTER XVI
The Empress ........ 310
CHAPTER XVII
The Waldersees The Empress's Favourites The Berlin Riots
The Empress Frederick ..... 324
THE PRIVATE LIVES OF
WILLIAM II. AND HIS CONSORT
CHAPTER I
BIRTH OF THE KAISER HIS HEALTH AND PHYSICAL
CHARACTERISTICS HIS FEAR OF MALADY
" Is it a fine boy?
" VICTORIA,"
BUT one person, Major von Normann, of the First Guards^
was present, when, on June 15, 1888, at noon, scarcely
an hour after the gallant Frederick had breathed his last,
the new lord drew the above despatch from his father's
papers.
" What did his Majesty say on discovering the Queen's
telegram ? " I asked Normann at the Emperor's funeral.
" Not a word ; yet, if possible, he turned a shade paler,
while his left hand convulsively closed around the hilt of
his sabre."
That the newly made Kaiser should invite Normann to
attend him in his search for state papers and other docu*
ments, of which the one mentioned, while not the most
valuable, was certainly not the least interesting, shows
the extent of his confidence in this man, then esteemed
the strictest disciplinarian of his " corps," but in no other
way distinguished.
His Majesty's possible assistant, who died in September,
1890, by his own hand, and who had probably aided in
2 PRIVATE LIVES OF
drawing up the proclamations to the army and the navy
of June 15, 1888, was, in July of that year, already afflicted
with the species of moral insanity that hastened his demise.
After the death of the favourite, medical experts no longer
hesitated to say that von Normann's famous rigour had
really been monomania of vanity, while his brusqueness
and cruelty were nothing short of impulsive madness.
Queen Victoria's telegram was dated January 28, 1859,
twenty -four hours after the eldest son of Prince and
Princess Frederick- William had seen the light.
In England, royal babes have " grand governors " and
" deputy governors," a wet nurse and several dry nurses,
a first and second " rocker," and days before the event is
supposed to come off the great state officials, including the
Archbishop of Canterbury, assemble in the palace. And
when, at last, the royal mother is taken in labour, these
invited witnesses stand in an apartment adjoining the
lying-in-room, close to its only door, that must be ajar
to make the birth lawful, and all because there has been
some doubt about the paternity, or maternity if you prefer,
of certain British rulers.
How different it is with us, though our closets be no
less stocked with skeletons than those of the Stuarts and
Guelphs. The great Frederick himself, author of the
epigram : "If I have reason to believe that Michael
instead of John filled the tart, why should I blame the
result, and who cares whether the filling is pigeon or
grouse, as long as the pie is good ? " when a youth, was
more than once threatened with death by his royal father
because that gentleman failed to appreciate the maxim
that it is ridiculous to hunt for the sire of a prince, pro-
vided that prince is no blockhead.
William was born & la bourgeois, and quite economically,
a midwife receiving him, and a Court physician, assisted
WILLIAM II. AND HIS CONSORT 3
by the then highly reputed Berlin specialist for women's
diseases, the late Dr. Martin, looking gravely on after the
manner of his kind.
In Germany, you must know, a doctor thinks it beneath
himself to take the child, and is supposed to act only in
case grave complications arise.
In the case of the Princess Frederick William of Prussia,
Fraulein Stahl acted as sage-femme ; she is now a motherly
woman, and still continues her visits to the palace ; so I
often had occasion to talk with her about the great event
of her life.
" Her poor Royal Highness," says the old Fraulein,
" was only two months past eighteen years at the time,
and very weak and nervous. You see, with her it was
not an ordinary case of first motherhood ; politics were
mixed up in it to a frightful degree, and the poor young
thing felt the fate of Europe trembling in her lap, as it
were. For our good king was as crazy as a March hare,
and twenty-one years had passed since a midwife was
called to the Prince Regent's house to bring into the world
little Louise, now the Grand Duchess of Baden.
*' Our work had been divided as follows : Dr. Martin
was to have special care of her Royal Highness, inasmuch
as he was treating her for a nervous malady ; the Court
physician had to perform the ordinary duties for the ' all-
highest ' patient, while I was commanded to take the child.
But the moment the little one was born a despairing moan
from the mother overthrew all these fine dispositions.
" ' The Princess is dying ' ' she is paying dearly
for her son,' whispered the doctors, while working with
blanched faces over the prostrate body. Of course, I had
to abandon the child momentarily to help them, and when
the Princess having revived after a little while I
knelt down before the couch on which our heir rested,
4 PRIVATE LIVES OF
imagine my fright : he had not yet uttered a cry, nor did
he move a muscle. * Still-born, by Heaven ! ' I thought.
A gesture brought Dr. Martin to my side, and together we
laboured over the newly born, I do not know how long,
exhausting successively every means ordained by medical
books, or practised in the nursery, to bring the child to
life.
" When everything had been done that in decency could
be done," so runs her narrative, " I took that royal young-
ster under my left arm, and, grabbing a wet towel in my
right, began to belabour him in good homely fashion,
though the doctors groaned and everybody in the room
looked horrified.
" ' To the devil with etiquette,' I thought, seeing their
grimaces ; ' this is a matter of life or death.' So I spanked
away, now lighter, now harder, slap, slap, slap, until the
cannons announcing the birth in the Lustgarten yonder
had about half finished their official quota of a hundred
and one shots at last a faint cry broke from the young
one's pallid lips.
" He was alive 1 I had snatched our Prince from the
grave for which he seemed destined. The rest was easy
sailing ; the doctors again had their innings, and the
simple midwife was shoved aside/' this with a defiant
snort.
| u But what about the deformed hand and arm ? "
" That was discovered only the third or fourth day
after," replied Fraulein Stahl ; " you see, at first we were
all so busy putting life into the Prince, and keeping
it in him, that no one thought of examining his limbs.
Even when, on January 28, the Prince showed his son
to his relatives, friends, and the assembled royal and
princely households, no one observed that anything was
wrong. But on the last, or the last but one day of the
WILLIAM II. AND HIS CONSORT 5
month, it was noticed that the child could not move his
left arm ; an investigation was made, and, in the course
of it, the surgeons discovered that the elbow joint was
dislocated. That, as your Ladyship knows, is nothing
serious in a healthy child. However, in the case of Prince
William, the surrounding soft parts were so injured, and
the muscles attached in such a condition, that no one
dared attempt to set the bone then and there, as should
be done in all cases."
Fraulein Stahl has often reiterated the above in the
course of our long official acquaintance, and always con-
cluded her remarks with the statement : " I am well aware
that the present condition of the Kaiser's arm is attributed
to a mistake made by the persons officiating at the ac-
couchement ; but," and saying this the old maid's face
assumes its most determined look, " if that were not a
falsehood agreeable to the Emperor and his mother
for even Dr. Hinzpeter, who knows better, repeats
it if that were not a lie, I say, do you suppose for one
moment that I should be in this palace now to cripple
more Hohenzollerns ? " Saying this, Fraulein Stahl used
to bring down her fist forcibly, and conclude : " My own
opinion has always -been that the child's left forearm was
not properly made up by nature, as, indeed, his whole
left side was weak, and is weak to this day.
" Besides, every one in the palace knows that, though
his walk is brisk, it is but his Majesty's ever alert exertion
that makes it so ; if, at any time, the Kaiser ceased think-
ing of his shortcomings for only a moment, you would
see his left leg drag. All his aches and pains, too, locate
in his left ear and the whole left side of his head.
Now, Frau Grcifin, remember what I told you about the
Princess's condition. She was agitated by fears and
depressed in spirits ; tremendous responsibilities weighed
6 PRIVATE LIVES OF
upon her mind. Is it to be wondered at that her child
was affected ? The mother, poor girl ! transfused her
nervous ailments into the child she was carrying, and all
concentrated in its left side. That the accoucheurs were,
of course, unable to prevent or foresee ; besides, they were,
as already stated, far too busy completing nature's handi-
work by inflating and keeping the Prince's respiratory
organs going, to test the inferior parts of his body sepa-
rately. If, on the other hand, the Prince had been a lusty
boy, the dislocated joint would, undoubtedly, have been
promptly discovered, and nothing would have stood in the
way of its immediate correction."
So the chances are that Queen Victoria's telegram was
answered in the affirmative.
I once heard the Kaiser, in conversation with her
Majesty, roundly abuse Dr. Hinzpeter for saying in his
book : " The Prussian army never admitted a young man
physically so little fit to become a brilliant and dashing
cavalry officer as William."
The criticism was passed shortly after the appearance of
Hinzpeter's " Kaiser William II., a Sketch from Life," in
the fall of 1888, and the Emperor, after warning his Frau
against letting the volume fall into the children's hands,
meaning the elder boys, continued : " Our German philo-
sophers never know where to stop ; whether they write
truth or lies, they are bound to compromise and expose
their friends without ever realising it."
This fateful left arm the Kaiser hugs closely to his body,
allowing the hand, which is not deformed, but puny like a
child's, to rest against his waist, or upon his hip, if on
horseback. Any one following the German papers will
probably remember that the official journals issue ballons
d'essai from time to time to ascertain public sentiment in
respect to the introduction of a belt for armv officers, an
WILLIAM II. AND HIS CONSORT 7
article of accoutrement foreign to the Prussian uniform and
out of harmony with its general style. As the Empress
Eugenie re-established the crinoline in the sixties to hide
her interesting condition, so William wants to change
military dress to find a convenient resting-place for his
poor left hand and arm, which, being about six inches
shorter than the right, would attach to a belt unostenta-
tiously. But, alas ! the majority of officers feign to regard
those recurring proposals as manoeuvres of mercenary
army contractors, and treat them with fine scorn, so that
William, unwilling to own his secret reason for the innova-