Enemy WW1 leaders; men who started the slaughter

Kaiser Wilhelm II 1859-1941 German emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia from 1888 to the end of World War One in 1918, known for his militaristic manner as well as for his indecisive policies.

Wilhelm was the eldest child of Crown Prince Frederick (later Emperor Frederick III) and Victoria. That made him Queen Victoria's grand son , nephew to the English King Edward VII and cousin to King George V with whom he went to war.

In 1888 Wilhelm's grandfather died.

Crown Prince Frederick died shortly afterwards and, aged just 29, Wilhelm became Kaiser.

Within two years he had forced the resignation of Chancellor Bismarck and later appointed von Bülow to the position.

Wilhelm wanted von Bülow to persuade the Reichstag to accept whatever policies the Kaiser and the upper classes wanted, usually completely unsuitable for the rapidly industrialising Germany.

Responsible for government appointments and Commander in Chief of the armed forces, Wilhelm was the only person in Germany who could ensure that military and diplomatic policies were in tune.

During and immediately after the war he was vilified in Britain for causing the war.

However, his real failure was to encourage Germany's leaders instead of restraining them at a time when German expansion made some form of conflict with the established great powers seem inevitable.

Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, Wilhelm encouraged the Austrians to adopt an uncompromising line but lost his nerve and was unable to stop his generals mobilising their forces.

While theoretically supreme commander, once at war he found himself excluded from decisions.

He crippled chances of a compromise peace by encouraging the grandiose war aims of the generals and of many politicians. After Germany surrendered, he was forced to abdicate and left for the Netherlands.

Kaiser Wilhelm II. The troops called him Kaiser Bill.

This removed the possibility of any form of monarchy and the resulting Weimar Republic saw the rise of Hitler.

Paul von Hindenburg was born in Posen in 1847. After being educated at the cadet schools at Wahlstatt and Berlin he fought at the Battle of Koniggratz (1866) and in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71).

Promoted to the rank of general in 1903, Hindenburg retired from the army in 1911.

On the outbreak of the First World War Hindenburg was recalled to the German Army and after being sent to the Eastern Front won decisive victories over the Russians at Tannenberg (1914) and the Masaurian Lakes (1915).

Seen as the saviour of East Prussia, he was promoted to field marshal and on the 29th August 1916 became Chief of Staff of the German Army.

With the support of senior military officers and right-wing industrialists, Hindenburg and his quartermaster general, Erich von Ludendorff, formed what became known as the Third Supreme Command.

This military-industrial dictatorship held power until 29th September 1918, when with defeat inevitable, the government of Germany was returned to the Reichstag.

Hindenburg retired from the German Army in October, 1918, but continued to take an active interest in politics. In 1925 Hindenburg replaced Friedrich Ebert as President of Germany. Re-elected in 1932 he did not oppose the rise of Adolf Hitler and in January 1933, appointed him Chancellor.

He is seen in this poster supporting Hitler and the NAZI Party >>>

Paul von Hindenburg was so popular with the German people that Hitler was unable to overthrow constitutional government until his death in 1934

General Karl von Einem 1853-1934

Einem was officer in the cavalry in 1870, General-Colonel 1903, Einem was commander in the Franco-Prussian war . He soon became General Staff Officer and in 1901 he became director of the War Department.

In 1903 he was War Minister and conducted ,under this period, rearmament and reorganization of the field artillery, he also brought machineguns to the infantry. In 1909 he became chief over the 7th Army Corps which in the outbreak of the war 1914 was a part of the Second Army. He became chief over the 3rd army with which he was extremely successful against the Enemy. He beat back the French attack in Champagne in Feb 1915 and also the attack of 1915 and also the attacks in 1917-1918 . None of the attacks directed on his army succeeded.

His Highness Prince Hussein Kamil Pasha Sultan, 1915

Admiral Hasan Ramis Pasha, Commander of the Ottoman / Turkish Navy >>>

Austro-Hungarian Empire
- Union between Austria and Hungary took place in 1867. Overall political authority was held by Emperor Franz Josef. Over 51 million people lived in the 675,000 square kilometres of the empire. The two largest ethnic groups were Germans (10 million) and Hungarians (9 million). There were also Poles, Croats, Bosnians, Serbians, Italians, Czechs, Ruthenes, Slovenes, Slovaks and Romanians. Overall, fifteen different languages were spoken in the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Ottoman Empire.
- At the beginning of the 20th century a large area of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, was ruled by the Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II and his appointed Grand Vizier. However, the governors of the Empire's four provinces: Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Kurdistan and Arabia enjoyed a certain amount of autonomy.
  
  A series of military defeats in the 19th century had compelled the Turks to grant zones of influence to European powers: Britain (Egypt), France (Syria and the Lebanon), Austria-Hungary (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Italy (Libya). Russia was interested in Armenia and Italy wanted parts of the eastern Mediterranean.
  
  Abdul Hamid II was forced to summon a parliament in 1908 by the Young Turks movement. He attempted a counter revolution in April 1909, and when this failed he was deposed and exiled to Salonika. Enver Pasha, eventually emerged as the new leader of the country.
  
  In 1914 the Ottoman Empire contained an estimated 25 million people. Although there were 14 million Turks, there was also large Arab, Assyrians, Armenian, Kurdish, Greek and Circassion minorities within the Empire. As a result, there existed nationalist, separatist movements in several areas of the territory under the control of the Turks.
Bulgaria
- Raised by conscription, the Bulgarian Army comprised some 85,000 troops in peacetime. All men aged between 20 and 46 could be called up during a war. After the Balkan Wars (1912-13) the size of the army was increased to ten divisions. Each division of 24,000 men were supported by cavalry squadrons, machine-gun troops and field artillery.
  
  With no major arms industry, the Bulgarian Army relied heavily on supplies of shells, bullets, artillery and machine guns from the German Army. The German Army Air Service also provided both personnel and aircraft.
  
  Bulgarian troops were concentrated on the Balkan Front and took part in the invasion of Serbia in October 1915. They also kept guard over Allied troops in Salonika and protected the Thrace border against attack from Greece.
  
  The Bulgarian Army retreated during the Vardar Offensive and this continued until the Armistice was signed on 30th September, 1918.
  
  About 1.2 million Bulgarians fought during the First World War. An estimated 100,000 were killed and some 160,000 wounded. After the war the Neuilly Treaty restricted the Bulgarian Army to 33,000 men.