Britzer

History Graduate | Researching Kaiser Wilhelm II, Personal Monarchy & Imperial Culture | Tory

[Britzer @Britzer_]

Just finished university and it feels rather anticlimactic.

I miss my dissertation work. One day I’d love to write a book on the Kaiser and culture as there are so many brilliant anecdotes that show a different side.

Would anyone actually read that? Is it a worth pursuing?

[Tom Harwood @tomhfh]

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Nothing was called ‘UK’ until remarkably recently. This horrid initialism rose to prominence within my short lifetime.

The United Kingdom has historically been known as Britain.

It’s the British Army, not the ‘UK’ Army. It’s HM Government, not ‘UK’ Government. STOP THIS SICK FILTH.

[Britzer @Britzer_]

Saxony was one of the leading cultural hubs in Imperial Germany, with Dresden being far more culturally established than Berlin.

Richard Strauss moved there after disagreeing with Wilhelm. His opera, Der Rosenkavalier, famously saw extra trains put on due to its popularity.

[9Kings1910 @9Kings1910]

King John of Saxony (1801-1873), shown here with his wife Queen Amalie Auguste (1801-1877), was a kindly scholarly man who translated and annotated the works of Dante. One of countless unsung decent German monarchs.

Germany gave all that up in 1918 for...what, exactly?

[Britzer @Britzer_]

…and yet he still took it.

A countries honour systems should be timeless reflections of traditions and history.

Moralistic virtue signallers are some of the most tedious people ever.

[GB News @GBNEWS]

'It's a big mistake': Elvis Costello urges King Charles to drop 'Empire' from OBE honours

https://t.co/yGJFKJ3Nu7

[Britzer @Britzer_]

By far the best film.

[Empire Aesthetics @Empireaesth]

On-set group portrait of the actors playing the British soldiers at the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in the film Zulu (1963)

[Britzer @Britzer_]

@PekkTinNUFC Don’t forget Spain and Portugal with the infamous Peninsular Wars

[DAKKADAKKA @DAKKADAKKA1]

Public service announcement. You can watch Zulu for free in high definition on YouTube right now without ads because the DVD manufacturer who owns the rights uploaded it in full—

[Britzer @Britzer_]

The achievements of Imperial Germany are vast and were universally acknowledged at the time, particularly by the American press. It’s disappointing that they have all been buried.

[Michael Alexander 🇩🇪 🇵🇱 📚 ❄️🚂🚆 @Saxonia_Gleis1]

@GanzeGeschichte Die Errungenschaften der Kaiserzeit werden oft nicht ausreichend gewürdigt.

[Markus Patzke @PatzkeMarkus]

@Britzer_ Thank you for this fair and nuanced assessment of the Emperor and this period of German history. It is telling that this perspective comes from a historian from the United Kingdom.

[Britzer @Britzer_]

@9Kings1910 He had a genuine fascination since childhood and would often bypass protocol to prioritise scientists in court. There was a big American-German academic exchange which was again sponsored by Wilhelm too. I don’t believe there has been a monarch as interested in every field as him

[Britzer @Britzer_]

To Wilhelm culture and art were central to his understanding of kingship. He was deeply involved and interested in it and excreted great influence within those regions that republics and constitutional monarchs could not rival.

[Jacobo Robusti @arouet71]

@GanzeGeschichte Das Kaiserreich war eine nie wieder erreichte Blütezeit deutscher Wissenschaft und Kultur.

[Britzer @Britzer_]

@PatzkeMarkus Researching Wilhelm II has been absolutely fascinating and should be given more time by everyone. I’m currently expanding my research on the Kaiser and culture beyond Anglo-American press responses (which was my dissertation), though I think I’ll need to improve my German first!

[Britzer @Britzer_]

It’s striking how posts marking Kaiser Wilhelm II’s death fall back on the same tired script: Bismarck was infallible, and Wilhelm was a bloodthirsty warmonger / proto-Hitler.

His reign brought remarkable progress and should be treated with nuance and fairness, not caricatures.

[Britzer @Britzer_]

@RvbiconMedia I could be wrong, but the field is certainly dominated anglosphere historians largely because German history must always link back to nazism in some form or another. I think Christopher Clark has done a remedied some of the historiography.

[Britzer @Britzer_]

@GanzeGeschichte Röhl has contributed the most I’d say to the unfair assessment. His work has unfairly set the clock back on understanding Wilhelm’s reign.

[alexmassie @alexmassie]

I would cheerfully pay a £12 surcharge to help provide for Quiet Car Marshals armed with Tasers.

[Britzer @Britzer_]

Today we remember D-Day 82 years ago.

I honour my Great-Grandfather who served in the 13th/18th Royal Hussars. He was on Sword Beach in a DD Sherman tank, then fought through the liberation of France until 28 Aug 1944, when his tank hit a mine, costing him his leg.

[Britzer @Britzer_]

@the_calcium_kid Bismark was certainly becoming more out of touch with the emerging mass politics that saw his Conservative bloc collapse. That combined with Wilhelm’s desire to be popular (and dislike for absolute capitalism) and Bismarcks bullyboy tactics meant that his position was untenable.

[Britzer @Britzer_]

@CapelLofft Completely agree, I’d say the 1884 siege of Khartoum being the climax of that failure

[Corona-Nachrichten @CoronaRedaktion]

Heute vor 85 Jahren starb der vorläufig letzte Deutsche Kaiser. Wilhelm II. soll am 4. Juni 1941 mit „Ich versinke, ich versinke…“, sein irdisches Leben zurückgegeben haben. Mehr als 22 Jahre lebte er in den Niederlanden. Ohne Monarchie in D. wolllte er nicht zurückkehren.

[Britzer @Britzer_]

@9Kings1910 Both of which have been horribly caricatured due to war and illness