Editing Wilhelm II (section)

===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}}