Wilhelm I

Biography

Wilhelm was born in Berlin in 1797, the second son of the future King Frederick William III and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and was not expected to reign. Made an officer as a boy, he fought against Napoleon in 1814 and 1815, including at Ligny and Waterloo, and in the following decades rose to command divisions and army corps. In 1829 he married Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

His childless elder brother became king in 1840, making Wilhelm heir. In the revolution of 1848 he put down the rising in Berlin, had to flee briefly to England, and then led Prussian troops against the uprising in Baden; from 1849 he was governor-general of the Rhine Province and Westphalia. After his brother's stroke he became regent in 1858 and succeeded him as king in January 1861.

A clash with the liberal Landtag over the cost of army reform led him to appoint Otto von Bismarck as minister-president, the start of a partnership that lasted for the rest of his life. Prussia defeated Denmark and Austria, and after the war with France he was proclaimed German Emperor at Versailles on 18 January 1871, though he left most government business to Bismarck.

In 1878 he survived two assassination attempts in Berlin, the second of which badly wounded him, and Bismarck used them to pass the Anti-Socialist Laws. Wilhelm died in March 1888 at the age of 90 and was succeeded by his son Frederick III.