Why didn’t Hitler restore Kaiser Wilhelm II to the throne?

0:03 One of my Patreons, Santtu Mäenpää, said:

0:07 “Hey TIK! I like your show. My question is: ’What did Adolf Hitler and the National

0:12 Socialists think of the German nobility, monarchism in general and what was the relationship between

0:18 the NSDAP and the members of the former German Imperial Family?’ Many thanks and keep up

0:23 the good work!”

0:24 To answer this question, I will have to explain Hitler’s views on revolutions, because otherwise

0:29 Hitler’s views on the monarchy won’t make sense. So, to be clear, Hitler was not in

0:35 favour of the November 1918 revolution in Germany, which he called the “so-called

0:40 revolution”.

0:41 “Hardly ever in five years has so much been torn away from the German nation as in these

0:47 years of the so-called successful Revolution. We have been rendered defenseless: we are

0:52 without rights: we have become the pariahs of the world.”

0:56 He said that the State that was created out of the November 1918 revolution was, quote,

1:02 a “Jew’s Paradise”. And he also called it a “Soviet” revolution, where Soviet

1:08 flags were hoisted by “Soviet revolutionaries”.

1:11 “In November 1918, the Marxist organizations seized the executive power by means of a Revolution.

1:18 The monarchs were dethroned, the authorities of Reich and Länder removed from office,

1:22 and thus a breach of the Constitution was committed. The success of the revolution in

1:27 a material sense protected these criminals from the grips of justice.”

1:32 But some of you will be surprised to learn that Hitler was actually pro-revolution, calling

1:39 his own seizure of power a “National Revolution”.

1:43 “...the Government of the National Revolution aims to eliminate the afflictions from our

1:47 völkisch life which would, in future, continue to foil any real recovery.”

1:52 “The Government of the National Revolution basically regards it as its duty, in accordance

1:57 with the spirit of the Volk’s vote of confidence, to prevent the elements which consciously

2:01 and intentionally negate the life of the nation from exercising influence on its formation.”

2:07 “Rarely has the course of a revolution of such great magnitude run in such a disciplined

2:12 and unbloody manner as the Erhebung of the German Volk during these past weeks.”

2:18 In fact, Hitler wasn’t against the idea of the November 1918 revolution in principle.

2:22 “We National Socialists would not fight against this republic if it were simultaneously

2:27 the German Reich. We fight against this republic because this republic proved incapable of

2:33 again filling the Germans with pride at being a German. We would not fight against the outer

2:39 form if the content were worthy of the German people.”

2:43 As Zitelmann says:

2:45 “In contrast to most of his right-wing and conservative compatriots, he [Hitler] did

2:51 not mourn the passing of the monarchy and the old authoritarian state.”

2:56 Rather, he mourned that the “November Criminals” stole the November 1918 Revolution and merely

3:03 changed the government (like in a democracy) rather than conducting a true revolution.

3:09 “[It] was not a revolution, but a revolt by the Jews. Capitalism was to be destroyed,

3:16 today it marches stronger than ever.”

3:18 “While the term revolution had been selected for the revolt of 1918 [...] in the final

3:24 analysis it had merely been a change of government.”

3:28 So he was in favour of a revolution, just not the type of revolution that occurred in

3:33 1918. This was why he was in favour of setting up a republic, but not the Weimar Republic.

3:41 “I am not a monarchist, because I do not thirst for the kind of monarchs we have had.

3:46 We are in favour of a republic, but against a republic of black-marketeers.”

3:52 Thus, Hitler didn’t reject the 1918 revolution because it got rid of the monarchy. In fact,

3:59 he thought that getting rid of the monarchy was the one thing the November revolution

4:03 did right.

4:05 “Smashed, for example, was the monarchy. The German nation can live without it, it

4:10 will live better without it…”

4:12 “That’s why I’m grateful to Social Democracy for having swept away all these royalties.”

4:18 “This point of view, however, did not in any way prevent Hitler from extolling the

4:23 virtues of a monarchy if he thought this to be advantageous for tactical considerations,

4:28 as for example to Reichs President Hindenburg, to whom he held out the prospect of restoring

4:33 the German imperial crown at a later date.”

4:36 And the interesting part is, Hitler actually had the chance of restoring the monarchy in

4:43 1940. Anthony Beever writes:

4:46 “Hitler was both amused and exasperated when he received a telegram from the former

4:52 Kaiser Wilhelm II, still in his Dutch exile at Doorn. ‘My Führer,’ it read, ‘I

4:59 congratulate you and hope that under your marvellous leadership the German monarchy

5:04 will be restored completely.’ Hitler was amazed that the old Kaiser expected him to

5:10 play Bismarck. ‘What an idiot!’ he said to his valet, Linge.”

5:16 Some of Hitler’s contemporaries wanted to restore the monarchy (certainly the conservatives

5:21 in Germany did), but Hitler and the leaders of the National Socialist Party did not. Later

5:28 that year, Goebbels wrote in his diary:

5:30 “The Führer shows me a recent photograph of Kaiser Wilhelm. Taken in Doorn. Wearing

5:36 the Iron Cross 1st Class and a straw hat. Grotesque. Like an old Jew. He may well have

5:45 Jewish blood in his veins. This would explain his character and his carping criticisms.”

5:51 And Hitler had made clear in 1933 the reasons why the restoration of the monarchy was not

5:58 going to happen.

5:59 “In its measures, the National Government is guided by no other factor than preserving

6:04 the German Volk, and in particular the mass of millions making up its working populace,

6:10 from unutterable misery. Thus it views the matter of restoring the monarchy as out of

6:16 the question at present in light of the very existence of these circumstances. It would

6:21 be forced to regard any attempt to solve this problem on the part of the individual Länder

6:27 as an attack on the legal entity of the Reich and take respective action.”

6:32 Wilhelm II died in June 1941, days before the attack on the Soviet Union. Goebbels wasn’t

6:41 upset.

6:43 “Wilhelm II is dead... No one loved him or hated him. He deserved a far worse end.

6:49 But nevertheless, he is dead. He had far outlived his time.”

6:53 So, what did Hitler and the National Socialists think of the monarchy? They didn’t like

6:58 it, and they didn’t want to restore it. Instead, theirs was a new revolution, aimed

7:03 at establishing a new Republic, and a new order in Europe. Thanks for watching, bye

7:09 for now.