This made a clash of personalities inevitable, and there could be only one victor. However, the new emperor had a mind of his own and was intent on stamping his own imprint upon German government policy. But unfortunately for history, the new emperor was suffering from terminal cancer and was to reign for only 99 days before he, in turn, was succeeded by his eldest son, the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Albert Viktor – named after both of his grandfathers – who was subsequently crowned Wilhelm II, and was fated to become the last German Kaiser.īismarck’s successes with the first Wilhelm had been largely due to his ability to ‘browbeat’ the elderly monarch into acceding to his policies. When Wilhelm I died on 9 March, he was succeeded by his son Friedrich Wilhelm, who took the throne as Friedrich III. Heavily built and almost 6½ft tall, he had both literally and metaphorically stood head and shoulders above his contemporaries, serving three monarchs, all of whom in the fateful year 1888 – Germany’s ‘Year of the Three Emperors’. On Saturday 30 July 1898, Otto Eduard Leopold, Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen, Prinz von Bismarck and Duke of Lauenburg, passed away at the age of 83, having outlived his dismissal from Public Office by a little over eight years.
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