Posted on 07/21/2023 10:40:19 AM PDT by DallasBiff
Under the Treaty of Versailles, the German emperor was supposed to be tried as a war criminal. Why wasn't he?
The accusations were explosive: a head of state had not only begun an illegal war but egged his troops on to a series of horrific atrocities that left thousands dead and an entire continent in ruins. By then, the accused was one of history’s most hated and debated figures, a monarch known for making erratic decisions and doubling down on his sometimes inexplicable actions.
There was just one problem: The accused, Wilhelm II of Germany, couldn’t testify. The accused had been dead for 75 years
It could have been the trial of the century—if it had been conducted a century before. The trial of Wilhelm II, Germany’s emperor between 1888 and 1918, was a moot one, conducted by historians and legal experts grappling with one of the great mysteries of 20th-century history. Was Wilhelm II guilty of war crimes?
It’s a question that was never answered during Wilhelm’s lifetime. Though the Allies accused him of starting one of history’s bloodiest wars and violating international law, and his troops of committing barbaric acts, he never stood trial. Today, these accusations are remembered as the first stirrings of a modern conception of war crimes. But at the end of World War I, Wilhelm’s responsibility for the bloodshed was a hotly contested—and ultimately unresolved—issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
And as a royal cousin!
France still had that regicide and revolution taint!
“Everybody’s missing the big question: why did the Germans have those pointy things on the tops of their helmets?”
They played a killer game of leapfrog.
That’s quite a story. Thanks for posting 👍
The monarchy would never have survived. The German people had had it with the Hohenzollerns. Not only were millions of men gone, Germany had lost much pre war territory, and the state, whoever ruled was subject to staggering reparations.
And that’s where that bastard Clemenceau and Company come in.
I think even then most of the US Navy was deployed in the Atlantic.
The real reason for WW1 & WW2.
The warm air blows across France from the Mediterranean sea.
The French are known not to bath on a regular basis.
The Germans can smell the French on warm days.
This has always bothered the Germans.
If you look closely at photos of the beginning of WW1 and WW2, you will see German soldiers marching with a rifle in one hand and a bar of soap in the other......
I think it actually took awhile to totally get the two-ocean Navy in place. But I doubt it could have come to fruition without some reliance on The Royal Navy.
But every German soldier in WW2 wanted to be stationed in Paris. And they did loves them those French women.
If Germany had defeated France. Note I’m assuming no UK participation. I can’t see Germany occupying France, or any annexation of French territory. It already had a restive Alsace-Lorraine. (Which baffled the Germans did these people not speak German? What’s wrong with them?) They may have grabbed a few French colonies. I think Germany would have preferred a return to the status quo in Europe, a status with an acknowment that Germany was the big dog. I think they would have been busy propping Russia up trying to keep Nicky or some Romanov on the throne.
Basically the Germans attitude was Britain can have their Empire, and we’ll have the Continent.
There is the back story of Serbia vs. A-H. The matter of an idiot of a Russian Foreign Minister, one Alexander Izvolsky, who on his own not consulting the Tsar’s old line major advisors, made efforts to gain access for the Russian Black Sea fleet to pass to the Bosphorus thru the Dardanelles by abandoning the long Russian backed guaranteed Serbian sovereignty against Austria in the Balkans.
Outwitted and fooled by Aloix Lexa von Aehrenthal A-H diplomat who arranged Austria’s annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina from Turkish territory which were then being administered by A-H. Aehrenthal acted to really antagonize the Russian-Austrian working together to solve the Balkan problem. Purpose? imho- Aehrenthal was working for international banking interests— driving the ethnic tensions that led to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand (who all the while this was going on was spending a lot of time with Wilhelm II the loonie intriguing for Germany against his cousin Nicholas.) and the war that followed on alliances which broke three monarchies of Europe for good.
Money in war— have heard.
Pretty much but I don’t think that means boots-the-ground control. I think it means something more like hegemony.
Now the sun’s gone to hell and
The moon’s riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it’s written in the starlight
And every line in your palm
We’re fools to make war
On our brothers in arms
-Dire Straits
I have heard that it was because French roads are treelined and the German Army liked to.march in the shade.
—after. IIRC—
I’m all for French jokes, but too soon, too soon...
... and not in a funny, sarcastic way.
Ahh that makes more sense now!
Von Hindenburg and Ludendorff should have been executed for war crimes, and the Kaiser should have been allowed to remain (like Hirohito later), as a unifying symbol in a Constitutional monarchy.
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