Misplaced Pages

#695304

100-718: The Freideutsche Jugend was an umbrella organisation established in Wilhelmine Germany that set out to create an autonomous youth culture free of adult supervision. It was part of the broader German youth movement , emerging from the Wandervogel . The organisation was set up at a gathering held on the Hoher Meissner , a mountain in Hesse , where several thousand youth gathered in October 1913 and formulated

200-518: A Wild West -style gunfight on 30 November 1900 made him very popular, long after his capture, trial, and execution for their murders in 1902. According to German forensic scientist Mark Benecke , however, Mathias Kneißl never saw himself as a Robin Hood figure and was, in reality, "just a man who went astray with no way of getting back." In 1891, the Imperial Capital of Berlin witnessed

300-563: A world power ( Weltmacht ). The desire for a "place in the sun" as coined by Foreign Secretary Bernhard von Bülow and was shared by a large number of German citizens and intellectuals. Pan-Germanism achieved a short-lived high point after the German colonial empire expanded in Africa, China, New Guinea, and in the South Seas and became the third largest colonial empire after those of

400-469: A Chancellor's policy objectives and is one of the only people who can forcibly remove an overly ambitious Chancellor from power. For these reasons, the last Kaiser believed that he had every right to be informed before Bismarck began coalition talks with the Opposition. In a deeply ironic moment, a mere decade after expelling religious orders , banning Catholic schools , and demonizing all members of

500-477: A blunt and jerky effect ... It is clear that a definite attempt is being made to use the language in a new way, an attempt to cure it of certain vices." Even though it is widely associated with the later plays of Berthold Brecht , the Second Reich also witnessed the iconoclastic invention of modern theatrical staging by Catholic poet and playwright Reinhard Sorge and stage director Max Reinhardt , under

600-682: A constitutional monarchy for King Battus III the Lame, of Cyrene , when Cyrenaica had become an unstable state, in about 548 BC. In the Kingdom of England , the Glorious Revolution of 1688 furthered the constitutional monarchy, restricted by laws such as the Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701 , although the first form of constitution was enacted with Magna Carta of 1215. At

700-682: A desire for its restoration continued to exist. During the Weimar Republic , the German National People's Party ( DNVP ) and it's paramilitary wing Der Stahlhelm , openly sought to restore the Monarchy but instead found itself manipulated, outmaneuvered, sidelined, and then banned outright by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party . During the same era, the death squad Organisation Consul , which considered both

800-576: A naval, imperial, and colonial power. This neo-Baroque style was particularly exemplified by the grandiose Siegesallee , a boulevard of what were intended to be heroic-looking marble statues of the last Kaiser's ancestors in the Tiergarten of Berlin. Even though the Siegesallee was widely ridiculed by the infamously irreverent and sarcastic Berliners of the era as die Puppenallee , 'The Boulevard of Dolls' and as an alley where, "even

900-598: A par with a president in a presidential or semi-presidential system . As a result, constitutional monarchies where the monarch has a largely ceremonial role may also be referred to as " parliamentary monarchies " to differentiate them from semi-constitutional monarchies. Strongly limited constitutional monarchies, such as those of the United Kingdom and Australia , have been referred to as crowned republics by writers H. G. Wells and Glenn Patmore. The oldest constitutional monarchy dating back to ancient times

1000-500: A peasant outlaw, copkiller, and poacher in the Dachau District of Kingdom of Bavaria witnessed the local Bavarian peasantry overwhelmingly cheering him on as a John Dillinger -style folk anti-hero . Policemen were assigned from other regions of Bavaria and often could not speak or understand the local dialect. What was worse, police corruption was considered so common in the region that Kneißl's slaying of two cops during

1100-604: A physical material" and, "honed down syntax to its bare essentials." Citing Stramm's fondness for "fashioning new words out of old," Adler has also written that, "what James Joyce did on a grand scale for English , Stramm achieved more modestly for German ." Adler has also written that August Stramm's "essential innovation (still too little recognized in Germany) was to create a new, non-representational kind of poetry," which is, "comparable," to Pablo Picasso 's creation of abstract art and to Arnold Schoenberg 's revolution in

SECTION 10

#1732772881696

1200-420: A possible approval of a referendum to legalize abortion in 2011 , it came as a surprise because the prince had not vetoed any law for over 30 years (in the end, this was moot, as the proposal was not approved). As originally conceived, a constitutional monarch was head of the executive branch and quite a powerful figure even though their power was limited by the constitution and the elected parliament. Some of

1300-533: A republic . Among supporters of constitutional monarchy, however, the event confirmed the monarchy's value as a source of checks and balances against elected politicians who might seek powers in excess of those conferred by the constitution, and ultimately as a safeguard against dictatorship. In Thailand's constitutional monarchy, the monarch is recognized as the Head of State, Head of the Armed Forces, Upholder of

1400-518: A survey of their readers by Quick magazine about who would be the most honorable person to become President of the Federal Republic of Germany , the last Kaiser's grandson and heir, Prince Louis Ferdinand , the only one of twelve candidates who was not a politician, won with 39.8% before Carlo Schmid and Ludwig Erhard . In a similar survey by the tabloid Bild , readers chose Louis Ferdinand by 55.6%. In an interview with Quick ,

1500-407: A universe of [the] mind, and the individual scenes are not replicas of three-densional physical reality, but visualizes stages of thought." Tragically and in an added parallel to the many other nations experiencing similar cultural ferment during the same era, many of Germany's most gifted and innovative poets, writers, artists, and intellectuals were soon to die prematurely upon the battlefields of

1600-464: Is a powerful political (and social) institution. By contrast, in ceremonial monarchies, the monarch holds little or no actual power or direct political influence, though they frequently still have a great deal of social and cultural influence. Ceremonial and executive monarchy should not be confused with democratic and non-democratic monarchical systems. For example, in Liechtenstein and Monaco,

1700-421: Is a simple, but disorienting trick of stagecraft, whose imaginative spatial reversal is self-consciously theatrical. So the audience is alerted to the fact that they are about to see a play and not a 'slice of life.'" According to Walter H. Sokel, "The lighting apparatus behaves like the mind. It drowns in darkness what it wishes to forget and bathes in light what it wishes to recall. Thus the entire stage becomes

1800-542: Is characterised as Germany's ship of state going dangerously off course, leading directly to the carnage of the First and Second World Wars. According to Bismarck apologists, in foreign policy the Iron Chancellor had achieved a fragile balance of interests between Germany, France and Russia. Peace was allegedly at hand and Bismarck tried to keep it that way despite growing popular sentiment against Britain (regarding

1900-538: Is germane to continental constitutional monarchies. German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , in his work Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820), gave the concept a philosophical justification that concurred with evolving contemporary political theory and the Protestant Christian view of natural law. Hegel's forecast of a constitutional monarch with very limited powers whose function

2000-661: Is known that meetings took place in which Prince Heinrich XIII sought the covert assistance of the Russian Federation 's diplomats and foreign intelligence services, the Russian Government has repeatedly denied involvement in the coup plot. While reporting on the arrests for The Spectator , journalist Katja Hoyer commented, "While this kind of extremism is still rare, there has long been residual monarchism in Germany. Around 10 percent of Germans support

2100-407: Is not alone in making decisions. Constitutional monarchies differ from absolute monarchies (in which a monarch is the only decision-maker) in that they are bound to exercise powers and authorities within limits prescribed by an established legal framework. Constitutional monarchies range from countries such as Liechtenstein , Monaco , Morocco , Jordan , Kuwait , Bahrain and Bhutan , where

SECTION 20

#1732772881696

2200-470: Is required to meet regularly with the monarch to explain his or her policies and intentions within the Government. A Chancellor in a constitutional monarchy also cannot afford to make an enemy of the monarch, who represents the only real check and balance against a Chancellor's otherwise absolute power . This is because a constitutional monarch has plenty of means at his or her disposal of quietly blocking

2300-532: Is to embody the national character and provide constitutional continuity in times of emergency was reflected in the development of constitutional monarchies in Europe and Japan. There exist at least two different types of constitutional monarchies in the modern world – executive and ceremonial. In executive monarchies (also called semi-constitutional monarchies ), the monarch wields significant (though not absolute ) power. The monarchy under this system of government

2400-586: The Reichsbürger , 'Citizens of the Reich'; movement, which considers the Federal Republic of Germany to be both illegal and illegitimate, and allegedly anti-Semitic "Patriotic Union" organization. The Patriotic Union, whose members included doctors, police officers, at least one judge, and many active duty German armed forces personnel, sought to violently overthrow the government of

2500-649: The Battle of Verdun in 1916, collected and published the collected works of Hölderlin in 1913 and succeeded in gaining for the Swabian poet in death the literary recognition that always eluded him in life. Norbert von Hellingrath is why Hölderlin is now widely considered one of the greatest poets ever to write in the German language. Jeremy Adler has written that war poet and playwright August Stramm , who began publishing his poetry in early 1914, treated, "language like

2600-618: The British Empire . Ironically, Germany during the Wilhelmian era was, on the other hand, distinguished by escalating secularization and growing belief in progress among intellectuals, in response to recent medical and scientific advances and the enormous prosperity of the heavily-industrialized German Empire, but which was at polar odds with the last Kaiser's belief in both Lutheranism and social conservatism . Even so, Otto von Bismarck's Anti-Socialist Laws were not renewed and

2700-719: The Catholic Church in Germany as ( German : Reichsfeinde , "traitors to the Empire") during the Kulturkampf , Bismarck decided to start coalition talks with the all-Catholic Centre Party. He invited that party's leader in the Reichstag, Baron Ludwig von Windthorst , to meet with him and begin the negotiations. The Kaiser, who always had a warm relationship with Baron von Windthorst, whose decades long defence of German Catholics, Poles, Jews, and other minorities against

2800-595: The First World War . Later, Fascist Italy could also be considered a constitutional monarchy, in that there was a king as the titular head of state while actual power was held by Benito Mussolini under a constitution. This eventually discredited the Italian monarchy and led to its abolition in 1946. After the Second World War , surviving European monarchies almost invariably adopted some variant of

2900-689: The German Social Democratic Party continued to expand its base and became the largest political party elected to the Reichstag during the 1912 national elections . Despite the party's stronger influence, internal developments were characterised, similarly to the Labour Party in Great Britain, by an increasing loyalty of the party leadership towards both the Monarchy and the German colonial empire . This attitude

3000-607: The German colonial empire ) and especially against Russia. With Bismarck's dismissal, the Russians allegedly expected a reversal of policy in Berlin, so they quickly negotiated a military alliance with the Third French Republic , beginning a process that by 1914 largely isolated Germany. In contrast, historian Modris Eksteins has argued that Bismarck's dismissal was actually long overdue . According to Eksteins,

3100-481: The Imperial German Flying Corps following the advent of aerial warfare. The most successful World War I flying aces such as Max Immelmann , Oswald Boelcke , Manfred von Richthofen , Werner Voss , and Karl Allmenröder , were regarded as national heroes and, if they fell, as martyrs. Their fellow World War I flying ace Hermann Göring was once similarly regarded, until his heroic image

Freideutsche Jugend - Misplaced Pages Continue

3200-558: The Meissner Proclamation . In this they declared “Free German Youth, on their own initiative, under their own responsibility, and with deep sincerity, are determined to independently shape their own lives. For the sake of this inner freedom, they will take united action under any and all circumstances.” They adopted an anti-rational viewpoint and opposed Gustav Wyneken 's Bund für freie Schulgemeinden . Wilhelmine Germany It represented an era of creative ferment in

3300-539: The United Kingdom and the Third French Republic . Meanwhile, European diplomatic relations deteriorated. In 1890, Germany refused to prolong the secret Reinsurance Treaty with the Russian Empire that had concluded by Bismarck in 1887, and Germany had to witness the forming of the Franco-Russian Alliance , which presenting a new threat of a two-front war . The distinctive spiked helmet,

3400-467: The constitution of the United Kingdom , which affords the monarch substantial, if limited, legislative and executive powers. Constitutional monarchy may refer to a system in which the monarch acts as a non-party political ceremonial head of state under the constitution , whether codified or uncodified . While most monarchs may hold formal authority and the government may legally operate in

3500-715: The British model. In the constitutional monarchy established under the Constitution of the German Empire which Bismarck inspired, the Kaiser retained considerable actual executive power, while the Imperial Chancellor needed no parliamentary vote of confidence and ruled solely by the imperial mandate. However, this model of constitutional monarchy was discredited and abolished following Germany's defeat in

3600-687: The Buddhist Religion, and Defender of the Faith. The immediate former King, Bhumibol Adulyadej , was the longest-reigning monarch in the world and in all of Thailand's history, before passing away on 13 October 2016. Bhumibol reigned through several political changes in the Thai government. He played an influential role in each incident, often acting as mediator between disputing political opponents. (See Bhumibol's role in Thai Politics .) Among

3700-530: The Cabinet. For example, in 1886 she vetoed Gladstone's choice of Hugh Childers as War Secretary in favour of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman . Today, the role of the British monarch is by convention effectively ceremonial. The British Parliament and the Government – chiefly in the office of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom – exercise their powers under "royal (or Crown) prerogative" : on behalf of

3800-582: The Crown). Today slightly more than a quarter of constitutional monarchies are Western European countries, including the United Kingdom , Spain , the Netherlands , Belgium , Norway , Denmark , Luxembourg , Monaco , Liechtenstein and Sweden . However, the two most populous constitutional monarchies in the world are in Asia: Japan and Thailand . In these countries, the prime minister holds

3900-869: The Federal Republic and place Prince Henrich XIII of the House of Reuß upon the throne as the new Kaiser of a Fourth Reich. The Patriotic Union intended, however, for the Fourth Reich to be a restoration of the Second Reich as it existed prior to the November Revolution of 1918, rather than as a continuation of the Third Reich . The coup was prevented only by nationwide arrests by the German Federal Criminal Police ( BKA ) , followed by multiple prosecutions. While it

4000-423: The German people or their government were incapable of laughing at their own military or their own actions towards it. On 16 October 1906, former convict Wilhelm Voigt secretly dressed himself in an elite Prussian Guards Captain's uniform, the elements of which he had purchased from different second hand shops. In an Oscar-worthy performance, Voigt bluffed a group of Imperial German Army enlisted men into placing

4100-520: The Government's budget by refusing to pass the necessary appropriation bills. On 11 November 1975, Whitlam intended to call a half-Senate election to try to break the deadlock. When he sought the Governor-General's approval of the election, the Governor-General instead dismissed him as Prime Minister. Shortly after that, he installed leader of the opposition Malcolm Fraser in his place. Acting quickly before all parliamentarians became aware of

Freideutsche Jugend - Misplaced Pages Continue

4200-602: The Great War. The Wilhelmian era ended in the November Revolution of 1918 , which had very close parallels to the February Revolution which had toppled the House of Romanov from the throne of the Russian Empire . First, riots broke out in the Imperial Capital, the last Kaiser announced his intention to divert troops from the battlefield to restore order, and found to his shock that he had lost

4300-549: The Iron Chancellor have since attracted high praise and comparisons to Irish nationalist statesmen Daniel O'Connell and Charles Stewart Parnell , was furious to hear about Bismarck's plans for coalition talks with the Centre Party only after they had already begun. After a heated argument at Bismarck's estate over the latter's alleged disrespect for the Imperial Family, Wilhelm stormed out. Bismarck, forced for

4400-474: The Iron Chancellor's efforts to renew them were the catalyst for his forced resignation at the last Kaiser's insistence. The final break between the Iron Chancellor and the last Kaiser came when Bismarck initiated discussions with the opposition to form a new parliamentary majority without consulting with the monarch first. The Kartell , the shifting coalition government that Bismarck had been able to maintain since 1867, had finally lost its majority of seats in

4500-437: The Iron Chancellor, in his need for a scapegoat , had demonized Classical Liberals in the 1860s, Roman Catholics in the 1870s, and Socialists in the 1880s with the highly successful and often repeated refrain, "The Reich is in danger." Therefore, in order to divide and rule , Bismarck ultimately left the German people even more divided in 1890 than they had ever been before 1871. In interviews with C.L. Sulzberger for

4600-504: The King or Queen would stop and wait at traffic lights, Louis Ferdinand stated that if the House of Hohenzollern were ever restored to the German throne during his lifetime, this same informality was a quality he fully intended to emulate. Even after German Reunification in 1990, nostalgia continues. For example, the rebuilding of cities in the former East Germany which remained devastated by World War II bombing raids has often involved

4700-520: The Mayor of Köpenick and city treasurer of under arrest for political corruption . Voigt then "confiscated" more that 4,000 marks from the city treasury, changed back into civilian clothing, and disappeared. Following a police and military investigation, Voigt was arrested, convicted of forgery , impersonating an officer , and false imprisonment , and incarcerated. The case was cited by British writers such as G.K. Chesterton to criticize what they saw as

4800-634: The Monarch and his Governors-General in the Commonwealth realms hold significant "reserve" or "prerogative" powers, to be wielded in times of extreme emergency or constitutional crises, usually to uphold parliamentary government. For example, during the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis , the Governor-General dismissed the Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam . The Australian Senate had threatened to block

4900-648: The Munich-based Der Blaue Reiter ( The Blue Rider ) group. In addition to witnessing the birth of modern art, the same era also witnessed the introduction of the Symbolist movement into German literature and the creation of the modern German literary language by passionately Francophile poet Stefan George and the George-Kreis , the circle of younger poets and writers that surrounded him. Among many other examples of

5000-416: The November Revolution and the Versailles Treaty to be treasonous, routinely targeted political leaders involved with both for assassination. Even when they were caught and prosecuted, Organisation Consul members tended to receive lenient sentences from judges sympathetic to their views. Even after the Second World War , nostalgia for the Wilhelmian era continued. In 1968 Der Spiegel reported that in

5100-399: The Reichstag due to the Anti-Socialist Laws fiasco. The remaining powers in the Reichstag were the Catholic Centre Party and the Conservative Party. In most parliamentary systems , the head of government depends upon the confidence of the parliamentary majority and has the right to form coalitions to maintain a majority of supporters. In a constitutional monarchy , however, the Chancellor

SECTION 50

#1732772881696

5200-426: The United Kingdom, a frequent debate centres on when it is appropriate for a British monarch to act. When a monarch does act, political controversy can often ensue, partially because the neutrality of the crown is seen to be compromised in favour of a partisan goal, while some political scientists champion the idea of an "interventionist monarch" as a check against possible illegal action by politicians. For instance,

5300-409: The Wilhelmian era also seethed with radical innovation, literary, artistic, and cultural ferment inside the literary coffee houses, theatres, and bohemian urban quarters of Berlin, Munich, and many other German cities. Meanwhile, the Dresden -based artist's group Die Brücke ( The Bridge ) was one of two groups of iconoclastic German painters fundamental to expressionism , the other being

5400-502: The bird-shit is made of marble", the neo-Baroque statues received Royal Assent in Kaiser Wilhelm's Rinnsteinrede ( German for 'gutter speech'), which was also a very harsh criticism of the recent birth of German modernist art which the last Kaiser considered degenerate art, at the formal unveiling of the Siegesallee on 18 December 1901. Foreign policy was founded on Kaiser Wilhelm's support for both his Government's colonialist ambitions and their efforts to establish Germany as

5500-413: The birth of organized crime in Germany in the form of oath bound secret societies for former convicts called the Ringvereine (Sporting Clubs"). The Ringvereine often carried romantic sounding names such as Immertreu ("Forever True"), Felsenfest ("Firm as a Rock"), Nordpiraten ("Northern Pirates"), and Apachenblut ("Apache Bloods") and completely dominated both racketeering , prostitution , and

5600-485: The book The Fall of Eagles , Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia , grandson and heir of Kaiser Wilhelm II, further commented, "Bismarck was certainly our greatest statesman, but he had very bad manners and he became increasingly overbearing with age. Frankly, I don't think his dismissal by my grandfather was a great tragedy. Russia was already on the other side because of the Berlin Congress of 1878. Had Bismarck stayed he would not have helped. He already wanted to abolish all

5700-559: The constitution grants substantial discretionary powers to the sovereign, to countries such as the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms , the Netherlands , Spain , Belgium , Denmark , Norway , Sweden , Lesotho , Malaysia , Thailand , Cambodia , and Japan , where the monarch retains significantly less, if any, personal discretion in the exercise of their authority. On the surface level, this distinction may be hard to establish, with numerous liberal democracies restraining monarchic power in practice rather than written law, e.g.,

5800-406: The constitutional monarchy model originally developed in Britain. Nowadays a parliamentary democracy that is a constitutional monarchy is considered to differ from one that is a republic only in detail rather than in substance. In both cases, the titular head of state – monarch or president – serves the traditional role of embodying and representing the nation, while

5900-401: The course of her reign. In 1839, she became the last sovereign to keep a prime minister in power against the will of Parliament when the Bedchamber crisis resulted in the retention of Lord Melbourne's administration. By the end of her reign, however, she could do nothing to block the unacceptable (to her) premierships of William Gladstone , although she still exercised power in appointments to

6000-432: The day-to-day powers of governance, while the monarch retains residual (but not always insignificant) powers. The powers of the monarch differ between countries. In Denmark and in Belgium, for example, the monarch formally appoints a representative to preside over the creation of a coalition government following a parliamentary election, while in Norway the King chairs special meetings of the cabinet . In nearly all cases,

6100-424: The desire of both the bride and groom to keep things modest and low key, "Germany's own Royal wedding" between Prince George Friedrich of Prussia , the last Kaiser's great-great grandson and heir, and Princess Sophie of Isenburg was televised live and widely covered by the German news media. A less benign form of nostalgia for the Wilhelmian era was on display in the 2022 German coup d'état plot , by members of

SECTION 60

#1732772881696

6200-421: The excessive militarism of the Second Reich and the blind obedience and subservience to authority in German culture . In contrast, the German people overwhelmingly found the exploit both clever and hysterically funny. Eventually the last Kaiser, who also admired Voigt's cleverness and boldness, pardoned him and ordered his early release from incarceration. Voigt then spent many years giving public lectures about

6300-493: The exploit to paying audiences and abandoned his former life of crime. Meanwhile, relations with Britain were badly strained by the Scramble for Africa and, even more so, by the Anglo-German naval arms race . Wilhelm's fascination with the Royal Navy , which led him to give his full support to Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz 's ambition to see the Imperial German Navy established as an instrument of national prestige, were still reflected in everyday German culture long after

6400-611: The first time in his career into a crisis that he could not twist to his own advantage, wrote a blistering letter of resignation, decrying the Monarchy's involvement in both foreign and domestic policy. The letter was published only after Bismarck's death. In later years, Bismarck created the "Bismarck myth"; the view (which some historians have argued was confirmed by subsequent events) that Wilhelm II's successful demand for Bismarck's resignation destroyed any chance Imperial Germany ever had of stable government and international peace. According to this view, what Wilhelm termed "The New Course"

6500-406: The flying aces of the Great War, Richthofen, in particular, is seen as embodying the best traditions of the officer corps of the last Kaiser's Germany. Even though the German people are traditionally stereotyped as law-abiding and subservient to the authority of the police and the courts, this stereotype does not fit the Wilhelmian era. For example, the 1900-1902 manhunt for Mathias Kneißl ,

6600-401: The framers of the U.S. Constitution may have envisioned the president as an elected constitutional monarch, as the term was then understood, following Montesquieu's account of the separation of powers. The present-day concept of a constitutional monarchy developed in the United Kingdom, where they democratically elected parliaments, and their leader, the prime minister , exercise power, with

6700-410: The government change, Fraser and his allies secured passage of the appropriation bills, and the Governor-General dissolved Parliament for a double dissolution election. Fraser and his government were returned with a massive majority. This led to much speculation among Whitlam's supporters as to whether this use of the Governor-General's reserve powers was appropriate, and whether Australia should become

6800-428: The government is carried on by a cabinet composed predominantly of elected Members of Parliament . However, three important factors distinguish monarchies such as the United Kingdom from systems where greater power might otherwise rest with Parliament . These are: Other privileges may be nominal or ceremonial (e.g., where the executive, judiciary, police or armed forces act on the authority of or owe allegiance to

6900-435: The illegal drug trade of Berlin. As early as 1895, the Ringvereine were having their first "business" dealings with the American Mafia , but their power and political influence only reached its height after the November Revolution of 1918. Only the secret police forces of Nazism and postwar Stalinism , who shot both real and suspected Ringverein members en masse and sent many others to concentration camps without requiring

7000-432: The influence of Stefan George, Friedrich Nietzsche , and Richard Dehmel . Sorge's The Beggar was written during the last three months of 1911. According to Michael Paterson, "The play opens with an ingenious inversion: the Poet and Friend converse in front of a closed curtain, behind which voices can be heard. It appears that we, the audience, are backstage and the voices are those of the imagined audience out front. It

7100-432: The last Kaiser's home in exile and ultimate burial place, Huis Doorn in the Netherlands, opened its doors as a historic house museum in 1956. It remains an annual site of secular pilgrimage on the anniversary of the last Kaiser's death, which are organized by German monarchist organisations, such as Cologne -based Tradition und Leben , whose members often attend wearing period costumes. In August 2011, despite

7200-414: The monarch and through powers still formally possessed by the monarch. No person may accept significant public office without swearing an oath of allegiance to the King . With few exceptions, the monarch is bound by constitutional convention to act on the advice of the government. Poland developed the first constitution for a monarchy in continental Europe, with the Constitution of 3 May 1791 ; it

7300-441: The monarch is still the nominal chief executive, but is bound by convention to act on the advice of the Cabinet. However, a few monarchies (most notably Japan and Sweden ) have amended their constitutions so that the monarch is no longer the nominal chief executive. There are fifteen constitutional monarchies under King Charles III , which are known as Commonwealth realms . Unlike some of their continental European counterparts,

7400-688: The monarch's name, in the form typical in Europe the monarch no longer personally sets public policy or chooses political leaders. Political scientist Vernon Bogdanor , paraphrasing Thomas Macaulay , has defined a constitutional monarch as "A sovereign who reigns but does not rule". In addition to acting as a visible symbol of national unity , a constitutional monarch may hold formal powers such as dissolving parliament or giving royal assent to legislation. However, such powers generally may only be exercised strictly in accordance with either written constitutional principles or unwritten constitutional conventions, rather than any personal political preferences of

7500-505: The monarchs having ceded power and remaining as a titular position. In many cases the monarchs, while still at the very top of the political and social hierarchy, were given the status of "servants of the people" to reflect the new, egalitarian position. In the course of France 's July Monarchy , Louis-Philippe I was styled "King of the French" rather than "King of France". Following the unification of Germany , Otto von Bismarck rejected

7600-469: The name Wilhelm and traceable to an intellectual initiative of the German Emperor . Rather, it relates to the image presented by Wilhelm II and his demeanour, as manifested by the public presentation of grandiose military parades and self-aggrandisement on his part. The latter tendency had already been noticed by his grandfather, Emperor Wilhelm I , while Wilhelm II's father, later Frederick III ,

7700-567: The niceties of evidence, broke the Sporting Clubs' power. In a December 1931 conversation in Frankfurt with journalist Heinrich Simon , Harry Graf Kessler was asked for the reasons why, despite being a descendant of the German nobility , he embraced the concept of Republicanism and opposed the post-1918 restoration of the House of Hohenzollern . According to Count von Kessler, "William II's downright perverse bad taste, I said,

7800-526: The ornate Germania postage stamps, numerous government buildings and the Wilhelmine Ring housing areas of Berlin and many other German cities, the term is also used to describe an essentially-Neo-Baroque and prestige-oriented style of architecture. Similarly to the architecture of other European Capitols of the era, the Neo-Baroque was calculated to express Germany's ambitions to become and remain

7900-742: The overthrow of the monarchy in 1918. Until the mid-20th century, young German boys were still dressed in sailor suits to impress them at an early age with the Navy's aura and prestige as the gentlemen's branch of the service. For this reason, the Imperial German Navy's most successful combat commanders of the Great War, such as Maximilian von Spee , Felix von Luckner , Karl von Müller , Hellmuth von Mücke , Otto Hersing , Otto Weddigen , and Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière , became widely revered national icons and, if they fell, martyrs. A very similar national iconization also took place within

8000-495: The power and influence the George-Kreis wielded over Germany cultural and literary life, the scholarly and editorial skills of one member, Norbert von Hellingrath , were singlehandedly responsible for the revival of interest in the German romantic poet Friedrich Hölderlin , who had died unrecognized following decades of incarceration in a tower at Tübingen following a mental breakdown in 1806. Hellingrath, who later fell at

8100-401: The powers retained by the Thai monarch under the constitution, lèse majesté protects the image of the monarch and enables him to play a role in politics. It carries strict criminal penalties for violators. Generally, the Thai people were reverent of Bhumibol. Much of his social influence arose from this reverence and from the socioeconomic improvement efforts undertaken by the royal family. In

8200-547: The prince indicated that he might accept the presidency but would not relinquish his claim to the Imperial or Prussian crowns. In interviews with C.L. Sulzberger for the book The Fall of Eagles , Prince Louis Ferdinand further expressed a deep sense of admiration for the informal bicycle monarchy and crowned republic style favored and used by the Dutch, Belgian, and Scandinavian royal families. Praising how vehicles carrying

8300-696: The reconstruction of demolished historic buildings from the German Empire or even earlier. East German Premier Walter Ulbricht had ordered the demolition of both the Berlin Imperial Palace and the Garrison Church in Potsdam , sites which were closely associated with the former German Imperial Family and the ideology of the German Empire. Both buildings, however, are now being rebuilt, almost exactly as they were. Moreover,

8400-673: The reforms that had been introduced. He was aspiring to establish a kind of Shogunate and hoped to treat our family in the same way the Japanese shoguns treated the Japanese emperors isolated in Kyoto . My grandfather had no choice but to dismiss him." Subsequent Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow continued to implement legislation at the last Kaiser's insistence that favored industrial worker's rights to organized labor and collective bargaining, while still opposing Marxist ideas. Nevertheless,

8500-574: The resignation of William Pitt the Younger as prime minister in 1801. The sovereign's influence on the choice of prime minister gradually declined over this period. King William IV was the last monarch to dismiss a prime minister, when in 1834 he removed Lord Melbourne as a result of Melbourne's choice of Lord John Russell as Leader of the House of Commons. Queen Victoria was the last monarch to exercise real personal power, but this diminished over

8600-416: The restoration of the royals; among those under thirty-four, that number is nearly one in five." Constitutional monarchy Philosophers Works List of forms of government Constitutional monarchy , also known as limited monarchy , parliamentary monarchy or democratic monarchy , is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and

8700-483: The ruling monarchs wield significant executive power. However, while they are theoretically very powerful within their small states, they are not absolute monarchs and have very limited de facto power compared to the Islamic monarchs , which is why their countries are generally considered to be liberal democracies and not undemocratic. For instance, when Hereditary Prince Alois of Liechtenstein threatened to veto

8800-466: The same person as hereditary monarchy under the Westminster system of constitutional governance. Two constitutional monarchies – Malaysia and Cambodia  – are elective monarchies , in which the ruler is periodically selected by a small electoral college . The concept of semi-constitutional monarch identifies constitutional monarchies where the monarch retains substantial powers, on

8900-754: The same time, in Scotland , the Convention of Estates enacted the Claim of Right Act 1689 , which placed similar limits on the Scottish monarchy. Queen Anne was the last monarch to veto an Act of Parliament when, on 11 March 1708, she blocked the Scottish Militia Bill . However Hanoverian monarchs continued to selectively dictate government policies. For instance King George III constantly blocked Catholic Emancipation , eventually precipitating

9000-560: The so-called Pickelhaube had existed previously and not only in the German Empire, but it now symbolises Wilhelmian era and the Imperial German Army and Prussian Army -inspired militarism in general. (In fact, various sign languages still have the extended forefinger placed in front of the forehead, indicating the spiked helmet, as the sign for "German".) While men in uniform were still treated with enormous respect in German culture , it should not be pretended that

9100-648: The society, politics, culture , art, literature, and architecture of Germany. It also roughly coincided with the late Victorian and Edwardian eras in the British Empire , the Gilded Age in the United States , the Belle Époque in the Third French Republic , and the Silver Age in the Russian Empire . The term "Wilhelminism" ( Wilhelminismus ) is not meant as a conception of society associated with

9200-478: The sovereign. In The English Constitution , British political theorist Walter Bagehot identified three main political rights which a constitutional monarch may freely exercise: the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn. Many constitutional monarchies still retain significant authorities or political influence, however, such as through certain reserve powers , and may also play an important political role. The Commonwealth realms share

9300-541: The support of the Generals, who all demanded his immediate abdication. In response to Paul von Hindenburg 's implied threat that the Imperial German Army would not protect the last Kaiser if he faced a similar death to that of his late cousin Tsar Nicholas II , Wilhelm II took Hindenburg's advice and requested political asylum in the neutral Netherlands . Nevertheless, nostalgia for the German Empire and

9400-605: The writing of Classical music . In his 1985 book, The German Poets of the First World War , Patrick Bridgwater dubbed the literary movement inspired by Stramm's poetry, "the German variety of Imagism ." Shortly before the outbreak of war in 1914, T.E. Hulme heard the kind of poetry that Stramm had created and inspired being read aloud at the Cabaret Gnu in Berlin. Hulme later wrote, "Very short sentences are used, sometimes so terse and elliptical as to produce

9500-617: Was Crown Prince. Wilhelminism also characterizes the social, literary, artistic, and cultural climate of Wilhelm II's reign, which on the one hand was dominated by the rigidly- conservative opinions of the Prussian Junker aristocracy , those associated with the German Agrarian League , and of the German industrialists, which closely mirrored those of the British upper class during the parallel Victorian era in

9600-540: Was condemned as " revisionism " by its opponents, but ultimately culminated in the Burgfrieden policy of agreeing to support the war effort during the patriotic euphoria later dubbed the Spirit of 1914 . These developments, however, were closely mirrored by other Leftist parties in other nations. While "Wilhelmism" is equally applied to the last Kaiser's favored styles in both the visual arts and architecture, such as

9700-460: Was first tarnished and then destroyed completely by his role in later chapters of German history . The gravesites of Oswald Boelcke and Manfred von Richthofen, on the other hand, remain sites of secular pilgrimage for both officers and enlisted men of the 21st century Air Force of the Federal Republic of Germany , which regards both World War I flying aces as their founding fathers. Furthermore, to many people worldwide who both admire and revere

9800-409: Was more responsible than anything else. Bad taste in the selection of his friends and advisors; bad taste in art, literature, politics and his style of living; bad taste revealed by every word he uttered... A crowned barbarian who gave the whole German nation a reputation for barbarity ." Despite Count von Kessler's later contempt for the cultural life during the final decades of the German Empire ,

9900-682: Was that of the Hittites . They were an ancient Anatolian people that lived during the Bronze Age whose king had to share his authority with an assembly, called the Panku , which was the equivalent to a modern-day deliberative assembly or a legislature. Members of the Panku came from scattered noble families who worked as representatives of their subjects in an adjutant or subaltern federal-type landscape. According to Herodotus , Demonax created

10000-561: Was the second single-document constitution in the world just after the first republican Constitution of the United States . Constitutional monarchy also occurred briefly in the early years of the French Revolution , but much more widely afterwards. Napoleon Bonaparte is considered the first monarch proclaiming himself as an embodiment of the nation, rather than as a divinely appointed ruler; this interpretation of monarchy

#695304