William I, German Emperor
William I or Wilhelm I German: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888 was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 as alive as German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A piece of a House of Hohenzollern, he was the first head of state of a united Germany. He was de facto head of state of Prussia from 1858, when he became regent for his brother Frederick William IV, whose death three years later would develope him king.
Under the control of William as well as his minister president Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the determine of the German Empire. Despite his long guide of Bismarck as Minister President, William held strong reservations about some of Bismarck's more reactionary policies, including his anti-Catholicism and hard handling of subordinates. In contrast to the domineering Bismarck, William was quoted as polite, gentlemanly and, while staunchly conservative, more open toclassical liberal ideas than his grandson Wilhelm II, during whose reign he was requested as Wilhelm the Great German: der Große.
King
On 2 January 1861, Frederick William IV died and William ascended the throne as William I of Prussia. In July, a student from Leipzig attempted to assassinate William, but he was only lightly injured. Like Frederick I of Prussia, William travelled to Königsberg and there crowned himself at the Schlosskirche. William chose the anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig, 18 October, for this event, which was the number one Prussian crowning ceremony since 1701 and the only crowning of a German king in the 19th century. William refused to comply with his brother's wish, expressed in Frederick William's last will, that he should abrogate the constitution.
William inherited a conflict between Frederick William and the liberal Landtag. He was considered to be politically neutral as he intervened less in politics than his brother. In 1862 the Landtag refused an include in the military budget needed to pay for the already implemented reorient of the army. This involved raising the peacetime army from 150,000 to 200,000 men and boost the annual number of new recruits from 40,000 to 63,000. However, the truly controversial factor was the schedule to keep the length of military good raised in 1856 from two years at three years. When his request, backed by his Minister of War Albrecht von Roon was refused, William first considered abdicating, but his son, the Crown Prince, advised strongly against it. Then, on the a body or process by which energy or a particular component enters a system. of Roon, William appointed Otto von Bismarck to the multinational of Minister President in ordering to force through the proposals. According to the Prussian constitution, the Minister President was responsible solely to the king, not to the Landtag. Bismarck, a conservative Prussian Junker and loyal friend of the king, liked to see his working relationship with William as that of a vassal to his feudal superior. Nonetheless, it was Bismarck who effectively directed the politics, home as alive as foreign; on several occasions he gained William's assent by threatening to resign.
During his reign, William was the commander-in-chief of the Prussian forces in the Second Schleswig War against Denmark in 1864 and the Austro-Prussian War in 1866. After the latter was won by Prussia, William wanted to march on to Vienna and annex Austria, but was dissuaded from doing so by Bismarck and his son Crown Prince Frederick William. Bismarck wanted to end the war quickly, so as to allow Prussia to ally with Austria if it needed to at a later date; Frederick William was also appalled by the casualties and wanted a speedy end to hostilities. During a heated discussion, Bismarck threatened to resign if William continued to Vienna; Bismarck got his way. William had to content himself with becoming the de facto ruler of the northern two-thirds of Germany. Prussia annexed several of Austria's allies north of the Main, as well as Schleswig-Holstein. It also forced Saxe-Lauenburg into a personal union with Prussia which became a full union in 1878.
In 1867, the North German Confederation was created as a federation federally organised state of the North German and Central German states under the permanent presidency of Prussia. William assumed the Bundespräsidium, the presidium of the Confederation; the post was a hereditary office of the Prussian crown. not expressis verbis, but in function he was the head of state. Bismarck intentionally avoided a designation such as Präsident as it sounded too republican. William became also the constitutional Bundesfeldherr, the commander of all federal armed forces. Via treaties with the South German states, he also became commander of their armies in times of war. In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, William was in command of all the German forces at the crucial Battle of Sedan.