Let's read Erich Eyck (1878-1964) on Kaiser Wilhelm II
(from his 1953 book on the Weimar Republic):
... Even before the war, William II .. had accustomed not only Germany, but indeed the entire world, to the notion that he was the one and only arbiter of Germany's fate. "I," "I," and ever "I" echoed in endless oratory. "I am leading you towards wonderful days." But .. it became shamefully apparent how little there was behind all these fine phrases and imperial gestures, how incapable he was of filling the critical place that history had allotted him ... <William II> fell short in power of will, firmness of decision, toughness of nerve, sense of reality --- briefly put, in character ... William II merely played the role which fate had given him, and all his oratory and all his self-dramatization had only one result: there were times when even his most devoted admirers simply could not take His Majesty very seriously. His generals knew he was no commander; his ministers, that he was no statesman ... <William II> was too weak to stick by one of these decisions if it encountered the determined opposition of a willful man, even when such opposition extended far beyond its constitutional bounds ... A vacuum thus developed ...
Eyck fled from Germany in 1937 and became a citizen of the UK in 1945
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