Editing Wilhelm I (section)

==German Emperor==
[[File:Kaiser-wilhelm-I.jpg|thumb|left|Wilhelm in a hussar's uniform, in a painting by [[Emil Hünten]]]]

During the [[Franco-Prussian War]], the South German states joined the North German Confederation, which was reorganized as the German Empire ''(Deutsches Reich).'' The title of ''Bundespräsidium'' was replaced with the title of German Emperor ''(Deutscher Kaiser).'' This was decided on by the legislative organs, the [[Reichstag (North German Confederation)|Reichstag]] and [[Bundesrat (German Empire)|Bundesrat]], and Wilhelm agreed to this on 8 December in the presence of a Reichstag delegation. The [[Constitution of the German Confederation 1871|new constitution]] and the title of Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871.<ref>Ernst Rudolf Huber: ''Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. Vol. III: Bismarck und das Reich.'' third edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, pp. 750/751.</ref>

Wilhelm, however, hesitated to accept the constitutional title, as he feared that it would overshadow his own title as King of Prussia. He also wanted it to be ''Kaiser von Deutschland'' ("Emperor of Germany"), but Bismarck warned him that the South German princes and the Emperor of Austria might protest.<ref name="Dawson2017">{{cite book|author=William Dawson|title=History of the German Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bmktDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT355|year=2017|publisher=Merkaba Press|pages=355}}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="huber">Ernst Rudolf Huber: ''Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. Band III: Bismarck und das Reich.'' third edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, pp. 750–753.</ref> Wilhelm eventually—though grudgingly—relented and on 18 January, he was formally proclaimed as emperor in the [[Hall of Mirrors]] in the [[Palace of Versailles]]. The date was chosen as the coronation date of the first Prussian king in 1701. In the [[national memory]], 18 January became the day of the foundation of the Empire (''Reichsgründungstag''), although it did not have a constitutional significance.<ref name="huber" />

[[File:Wernerprokla.jpg|thumb|Wilhelm is proclaimed [[List of German Kings and Emperors|German Emperor]] in the [[Hall of Mirrors]] in [[Versailles]], France flanked by his only son, [[Frederick III, German Emperor|Frederick]] and son in law – [[Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden]]. Painting by [[Anton von Werner]]]]
To many intellectuals, the coronation of Wilhelm was associated with the restoration of the Holy Roman Empire. [[Felix Dahn]] wrote a poem, "''Macte senex Imperator''" ('Hail thee, old emperor') in which he nicknamed Wilhelm ''Barbablanca'' (whitebeard), a play on the name of the medieval emperor [[Frederick Barbarossa|Frederick ''Barbarossa'']] (redbeard). According to the [[King asleep in mountain]] legend, Barbarossa slept under the [[Kyffhäuser]] mountain until Germany had need of him. Wilhelm I was thus portrayed as a second coming of Barbarossa. The [[Kyffhäuser Monument]] portrays both emperors.<ref>{{cite book |first=John B. |last=Freed |title=Frederick Barbarossa: The Prince and the Myth |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=2016 |page=631n |isbn=978-030012276-3 }}</ref>

In 1872, he arbitrated a boundary dispute between the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] and the United States, deciding in favor of the U.S. and placing the [[San Juan Islands]] of modern-day [[Washington (state)|Washington]] within U.S. national territory, thus ending the 12-year bloodless [[Pig War (1859)|Pig War]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Mike Vouri|title=The Pig War: Standoff at Griffin Bay|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OgsHYBCdG_oC&pg=PA248|year=2013|pages=248–250|publisher=Discover Your Northwest|isbn=9780914019626}}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In his memoirs, Bismarck describes Wilhelm as an old-fashioned, courteous, infallibly polite gentleman and a genuine Prussian officer, whose good common sense was occasionally undermined by "female influences". This was a reference to Wilhelm's wife, who had been educated by, among others [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]] and was intellectually superior to her husband. She was also at times very outspoken in her opposition to official policies as she was a [[Classical liberalism|liberal]].<ref name="Kings"/> Wilhelm, however, had long been strongly opposed to liberal ideas.<ref name="DHM"/> Despite possessing considerable power as Kaiser, Wilhelm left the task of governing mostly to his chancellor, limiting himself to representing the state and approving Bismarck's every policy.<ref name="DHM"/> In private he once remarked on his relationship with Bismarck: ''It is difficult to be emperor under such a chancellor.''<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/25/2/277/30327?redirectedFrom=fulltext |title= Der Weltkrieg: Vorläufige Orientierung von einem Schweizerischen Standpunkt aus  |publisher= Oxford University Press | author=S. von Zurlinden   |journal= The American Historical Review |date= January 1920 |volume= 25 |issue= 2 |pages= 277–279 |doi= 10.1086/ahr/25.2.277 | access-date= 13 April 2020 }}</ref><ref name="Bam2016">{{cite book|author=Ludwig Bamberger|title=Bismarck posthumus p. 8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R652vgAACAAJ|date=2 November 2016|publisher=Hansebooks|isbn=978-3-7433-8831-4}}</ref>
<gallery>
File: Wilhelm I and his only daughter.jpg|Wilhem I with his only daughter, [[Princess Louise of Prussia|Princess Louise]], {{circa|1860s}}
File: Wilhelm I German Emperor circa 1870.jpg|Portrait of Wilhelm I, {{circa|1870}}
File: Tsar Alexander II and Kaser Wilhelm I.jpg|Wilhelm I with his nephew, [[Tsar Alexander II]] on a hunting trip together, {{circa|1872}}
File: Kaiser Wilhelm I von Preußen und seine Schwester Alexandrine von Mecklenburg.jpg|Wilhelm I with his sister, [[Alexandrine of Prussia, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin|Princess Alexandrine]], {{circa|1882}}
File: König Wilhelm I von Preussischen (1).png|Prince Wilhelm (future Wilhelm I), {{circa|1858}}
</gallery>
===Assassination attempts and anti-socialist laws===
[[File:Caricature of Wilhelm I by Thomas Nast.jpg|thumb|Caricature of Wilhelm I by [[Thomas Nast]] which appeared in ''[[:s:The Fight at Dame Europa's School|The Fight at Dame Europa's School]]'' by [[Henry William Pullen]]]] 
On 11 May 1878, a plumber named Emil [[Max Hödel]] failed in an assassination attempt on Wilhelm in [[Berlin]]. Hödel used a revolver to shoot at the then 81-year-old Emperor, while he and his daughter, [[Princess Louise of Prussia|Princess Louise]], paraded in their carriage on ''[[Unter den Linden]]''.<ref name="DHM"/> When the bullet missed, Hödel ran across the street and fired another round which also missed. In the commotion one of the individuals who tried to apprehend Hödel suffered severe internal injuries and died two days later. Hödel was seized immediately. He was tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and executed on 16 August 1878.<ref name="Meyer">{{Meyers Online|8|603|603|spezialkapitel=Hödel|kapiteltext=Hödel, Max|bemerkung=|kurz=}} (in German)</ref>

A second attempt to assassinate Wilhelm I was made on 2 June 1878 by [[Karl Nobiling]]. As the Emperor drove past in an open carriage, the assassin fired two shots from a shotgun at him from the window of a house off the ''Unter den Linden''.<ref name="DHM"/> Wilhelm was severely wounded and was rushed back to the palace. Nobiling shot himself in an attempt to commit suicide. While Wilhelm survived this attack, the assassin died from his self-inflicted wound three months later.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}
[[File:Hodel1.jpg|thumb|left|Assassination attempt on Wilhelm I by Max Hödel on 11 May 1878]]
Despite the fact that Hödel had been expelled from the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]], his actions were used as a pretext by Bismarck to ban the party. To do this, Bismarck partnered with [[Ludwig Bamberger]], a Liberal, who had written on the subject of Socialism, "If I don't want any chickens, then I must smash the eggs." These attempts on Wilhelm's life thus became the pretext for the institution of the [[Anti-Socialist Laws]], which were introduced by Bismarck's government with the support of a majority in the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]] on 18 October 1878, for the purpose of fighting the ''socialist'' and working-class movement. These laws deprived the Social Democratic Party of Germany of its legal status; prohibited all organizations, workers' mass organizations and the socialist and workers' press; decreed confiscation of socialist literature; and subjected Social-Democrats to reprisals. The laws were extended every 2–3 years. Despite the reprisals the Social Democratic Party increased its influence among the masses. Under pressure of the mass working-class movement the laws were repealed on 1 October 1890.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}<ref name="Darmstaedter1948">{{cite book|author=Friedrich Darmstaedter|title=Bismarck and the Creation of the Second Reich, by F. Darmstaedter |pages=xiv, xvii|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2kMmAQAAMAAJ|year=1948|publisher=Russell & Russell}}</ref>

===Later years and death===
[[File:Beisetzung von Kaiser Wilhelm I 1888 - cropped.jpg|thumb|left|Wilhelm's funeral procession, 1888]]

In August 1878, [[Alexander II of Russia]], Wilhelm's nephew, wrote a letter (known as ''Ohrfeigenbrief'') to him complaining about the treatment Russian interests had received at the [[Congress of Berlin]]. In response Wilhelm, his wife Augusta, and his son travelled to Russia (against the advice of Bismarck) to mend fences in face-to-face talks. However, by once again threatening to resign, Bismarck overcame the opposition of Wilhelm to a closer alliance with [[Austria-Hungary]]. In October, Wilhelm agreed to the [[Dual Alliance (1879)|Dual Alliance]] (''Zweibund'') between Germany and Austria-Hungary, which was directed against Russia.<ref name="DHM"/>

Another assassination attempt failed on 28 September 1883 when Wilhelm unveiled the ''[[Niederwalddenkmal]]'' in [[Rüdesheim am Rhein|Rüdesheim]]. A group of anarchists had prepared an attack using dynamite which failed due to the wet weather.<ref name="DHM"/>

[[Image:Wilhelm10mark.jpeg|thumb|right|10 goldmark depicting Wilhelm and his titles]]
The [[Berlin Conference]] of 1884–85 organized by Otto von Bismarck can be seen as the formalization of the [[Scramble for Africa]]. Claiming much of the left-over territories in Africa and Oceania that were yet unclaimed, Germany managed to build the large [[German colonial empire]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.welt.de/kultur/article168705897/Diese-deutschen-Woerter-kennt-man-noch-in-der-Suedsee.html |date=17 September 2017 |title=Diese deutschen Wörter kennt man noch in der Südsee |first=Matthias |last=Heine |newspaper=Die Welt |quote=Einst hatten die Deutschen das drittgrößte Kolonialreich[...] }}</ref>

Despite the assassination attempts and Wilhelm's unpopular role in the 1848 uprising, he and his wife were very popular, especially in their later years. Many people considered them the personification of "the old Prussia" and liked their austere and simple lifestyle.<ref name="DHM"/><ref name="Kings"/> Wilhelm died on 9 March 1888 in Berlin after a short illness, at age 90. He was buried on 16 March at the Mausoleum at Park [[Charlottenburg Palace|Charlottenburg]]. He was succeeded by his son Frederick, who was already fatally unwell himself (suffering from throat cancer). Frederick spent the 99 days of his reign fighting his illness before dying and being succeeded by his eldest son [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm]] on 15 June.{{cn|date=January 2024}}

[[File:William_I_grave.jpg|thumb|left|Grave of Wilhelm I in the mausoleum of [[Schloss Charlottenburg]] in Berlin]]
To honour him a large number of memorials/statues were erected all over the country over the following years. The best known among them are the [[Kyffhäuser monument]] (1890–96) in [[Thuringia]], the monument at [[Porta Westfalica]] (1896) and the mounted statue of Wilhelm at the [[Deutsches Eck]] in Koblenz (1897). The [[National Kaiser Wilhelm Monument]] in in front of the [[Berlin Palace]] was destroyed by the government of [[East Berlin]] in 1950.<ref name="DHM"/>