Editing Wilhelm II (section)

==Wilhelm in control==
{{More footnotes needed|section|date=February 2019}}

===The New Course===
Bismarck was succeeded as Chancellor of Germany and Minister-President of Prussia by [[Leo von Caprivi]]. At the opening of the Reichstag on 6 May 1890, the Kaiser stated that the most pressing issue was ''the further enlargement of the bill concerning the protection of the labourer.''{{Sfn | Gauss | 1915 | p = 55}} In 1891, the Reichstag passed the Workers Protection Acts, which improved working conditions, protected women and children and regulated labour relations.

Caprivi in turn was replaced by [[Chlodwig von Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst]] in 1894. Following the dismissal of Hohenlohe in 1900, Wilhelm appointed the man whom he regarded as "his own Bismarck", [[Bernhard von Bülow]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Events with high posterior probability |url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ark/bio/modelvis/events/eventclass100.html |access-date=16 September 2022 |website=cs.cmu.edu}}</ref>

In appointing Caprivi and then Hohenlohe, Wilhelm was embarking upon what is known to history as "the New Course", in which he hoped to exert decisive influence in the government of the empire.{{citation needed|date= February 2019}} There is debate amongst historians{{according to whom|date=February 2019}} as to the precise degree to which Wilhelm succeeded in implementing "personal rule" in this era, but what is clear is the very different dynamic which existed between the Crown and its chief political servant (the Chancellor) in the "[[Wilhelmism|Wilhelmine Era]]".{{Original research inline|date=February 2019}} These chancellors were senior civil servants and not seasoned politician-statesmen like Bismarck.{{POV statement|date=February 2019}} Wilhelm wanted to preclude the emergence of another Iron Chancellor, whom he ultimately detested as being "a boorish old killjoy" who had not permitted any minister to see the Emperor except in his presence, keeping a stranglehold on effective political power.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}} Upon his enforced retirement and until his dying day, Bismarck became a bitter critic of Wilhelm's policies, but without gaining the support of a majority within the Reichstag there was little chance of Bismarck exerting a decisive influence on policy.

In the early twentieth century, Wilhelm began to concentrate upon his real agenda: the creation of a [[Imperial German Navy|German Navy]] that would rival that of Britain and enable Germany to declare itself a world power. The last Kaiser ordered the high command of the armed forces to read [[United States Navy]] Admiral [[Alfred Thayer Mahan]]'s book, ''[[The Influence of Sea Power upon History]]'', and spent hours drawing sketches of the ships that he dreamed of having built. Bülow and [[Bethmann Hollweg]], his loyal chancellors, looked after domestic affairs, while Wilhelm obliviously began to spread alarm in the chancelleries of Europe with his increasingly eccentric and ill-advised statements on foreign affairs.

===Promoter of arts and sciences===
Wilhelm enthusiastically promoted the arts and sciences, as well as public education and social welfare. He sponsored the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Society]] for the promotion of scientific research; it was funded by wealthy private donors and by the state and comprised a number of research institutes in both pure and applied sciences. The [[Prussian Academy of Sciences]] was unable to avoid the Kaiser's pressure and lost some of its autonomy when it was forced to incorporate new programs in engineering, and award new fellowships in engineering sciences as a result of a gift from the Kaiser in 1900.{{Sfn | König | 2004 | pp = 359–377}}

Wilhelm supported the modernisers as they tried to reform the Prussian system of secondary education, which was rigidly traditional, elitist, politically authoritarian, and unchanged by the progress in the natural sciences. As hereditary Protector of the [[Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg)|Order of Saint John]], he offered encouragement to the Christian order's attempts to place German medicine at the forefront of modern medical practice through its system of hospitals, nursing sisterhood and nursing schools, and nursing homes throughout the German Empire. Wilhelm continued as Protector of the Order even after 1918, as the position was in essence attached to the head of the House of Hohenzollern.{{Sfn | Clark | 2003 | pp = 38–40, 44}}{{Sfn | Sainty | 1991 | p = 91}}