Emperor Frederick III.
- Thread starter mars90
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KAGGR#1
Well-known member
Great photosCabinet photos of Emperor Frederick III. from my collection...View attachment 66939View attachment 66940View attachment 66941 View attachment 66943
Thanks for the post
Steve
Really nice photos. One of the great ifs of history, had Frederick not died of cancer at 56, and instead ruled Germany as long as his father who lived to be 90. He was married to Queen Victoria's daughter, he had opposed Bismark's wars of unification in 1866 and 1870, preferring peaceful unification, and hoped to turn Germany into a liberal constitutional monarchy, like Britain. Had there been no aggressive and militaristic Germany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there most likely would have been no World War 1, no rise of Hitler and no World War 2 and the world would not have experienced the horrors attached to these events. Anyway, just some food for thought.
southsando
Well-known member
Indeed, one of the greatest "what ifs" of the last 200 years, by all accounts he would have been an enlightened monarch, but we never got to find out.
Sandmann
Well-known member
I doubt that this would have prevented the world wars, because in my opinion, World War I was largely brought about by France, not Germany.
Germany might have had better relations with Great Britain, but Frederick III also wanted a strong and independent German Empire, not a submissive vassal state of Great Britain, as his wife Victoria would have liked. Therefore, there would probably have been great resistance among the population to excessive British influence. The anti-British sentiments that existed among large sections of the population were not the result of the policies under Emperor Wilhelm II, but rather the result of Britain's excessive policies.
Until the very end, Great Britain could also have prevented World War I. But like all other nations, it decided to accept a war because it hoped to gain political advantages. Sooner or later, a world war would have broken out anyway. But the German Empire was probably the state least interested in war. Unfortunately, a strong army was and is necessary to prevent enemy attacks from neighboring countries. We can see what happens when you neglect your military, as Germany has done in recent decades. Russia no longer takes Europeans seriously and only accepts voices from countries with nuclear cruise missiles that could pulverize it. It would have been the same back then if Germany hadn't sufficiently armed its navy or military. Incidentally, German armaments were always only a reaction to the armaments of other European states. To my knowledge, Germany never armed itself first. Even the naval armament was only a reaction to British assaults on German merchant ships, which unfortunately took overhand. And yet Great Britain and the German Empire actually maintained friendly relations. Great Britain always played its military power at sea as it suited them. The claim that it was threatened by German warships was a pretext, because it never objected to the strengthening of the French or Russian navies, even though their navies were much stronger than the German navy for a long time.
Germany might have had better relations with Great Britain, but Frederick III also wanted a strong and independent German Empire, not a submissive vassal state of Great Britain, as his wife Victoria would have liked. Therefore, there would probably have been great resistance among the population to excessive British influence. The anti-British sentiments that existed among large sections of the population were not the result of the policies under Emperor Wilhelm II, but rather the result of Britain's excessive policies.
Until the very end, Great Britain could also have prevented World War I. But like all other nations, it decided to accept a war because it hoped to gain political advantages. Sooner or later, a world war would have broken out anyway. But the German Empire was probably the state least interested in war. Unfortunately, a strong army was and is necessary to prevent enemy attacks from neighboring countries. We can see what happens when you neglect your military, as Germany has done in recent decades. Russia no longer takes Europeans seriously and only accepts voices from countries with nuclear cruise missiles that could pulverize it. It would have been the same back then if Germany hadn't sufficiently armed its navy or military. Incidentally, German armaments were always only a reaction to the armaments of other European states. To my knowledge, Germany never armed itself first. Even the naval armament was only a reaction to British assaults on German merchant ships, which unfortunately took overhand. And yet Great Britain and the German Empire actually maintained friendly relations. Great Britain always played its military power at sea as it suited them. The claim that it was threatened by German warships was a pretext, because it never objected to the strengthening of the French or Russian navies, even though their navies were much stronger than the German navy for a long time.
