AGREED! Given Wilhelm’s disability, the various tortures put to him as a child, the strictures of royal life, and - most crucially - his mother’s disappointment, lack of understanding and love . . . it’s bizarre that the biographer & others in this program have chosen to see Wilhelm’s letters as “incestuous.” I can’t help but wonder if it’s a cynical play to draw attention to the program and ostensibly the forthcoming biography. I see his letters giving voice to the deepest yearning a neglected, rejected child could have - the acceptance & love of his own mother! So he fixated on her hands as a safe symbol of what he needed - so what? It’s heartbreaking! He talks about her gloved hand, then how beautiful & “dear” it is (in his dreams) to feel her ungloved hand upon him. Am I the only one who sees the analogy there?
Agreed, this doesn’t seem incestuous. Of course he was obsessed with her left hand!! After the trauma so throughly infused in him from all the attempts to treat and correct his own damaged LEFT arm, he’s been saddled with an unhealthy obsession with perfect hands, particularly the left. He’s trying to find some way to show his esteem for her and draw her closer, that should have been obvious. The people who say it was an incestuous obsession on his part are just transferring their own perversions onto him.
Those letters to his mother were NOT incestuous. He wrote about her HANDS. How perfect they were as opposed to his withered hand. She never accepted his hands and his letters seem to be begging her to accept him as he was. She didn't.
The way he does it implies he is strongly fetishizing her hands. It makes sense considering, but he is definitely beyond normal levels of admiration there.
@@reuvenknight1575 people tended to write letters in a very sentimental/affectionate way. You'd read letters between platonic friends back then and by our perceptions today assume they were lovers. I also thought he was just seeking her love and acceptance.
@@josiemakes I am more than well acquainted with the way people used to write letters. I'd assume so are the historians. This is unusual for that time period. Maybe if you replaced "hands" with "feet" you might understand it as fetish better. Or it may be his youth, but I would assume you would know as well as I do from talking to guys and from surveys of guys, that that is usually the age they start exploring things and experimenting. I'd say maybe the researchers are biased because they are guys, but those letters are fetishizing and I can't see how you don't see it. No friend in the Victorian Age talks about kissing special parts of someone's hand that is only privy to them. Any "friend" like that usually turns out to be a gay lover people just don't want to address because it's considered taboo for so-and-so to have possibly not been straight.
I’m 10 minutes in and It’s crazy to hear of another person (especially a royal) having the same condition as me! My arm was paralyzed the same way at birth. My parents took me to every treatment they could and now I almost have full control of my arm, unless I point it out you probably won’t notice. I can’t straighten it and it’s a tad bit shorter than my right arm among other small things that truly only I notice. I’m glad I lived in a time where I could get treatment form birth.
Glad you shared, and glad to hear you could make so much progress. It gives even more depth to this, because it shows what could have been (in regards to the emotional treatment of a child with yours and his condition. I'm so glad you were born in modern times which are not just more accepting, but also full of technological and medicinal advances. Believe me, I'm glad because sometimes I think back to what people did to kids with seizures, thinking they were evil faeries or possessed and as someone part irish with epilepsy, I'm so glad I was born now oml You can't help but really feel for these children with similar circumstances to you and put you in their shoes even more so than others.
Medicine has come a long way, hasn't it! Even if you hadn't recovered use of your arm, you are not the sum of your defects. They only give you challenges to work around. Your actions, especially those involving the treatment of others, show who you are.
This applies to those children who were separated and are being raised friendless and Loveless. Imagine how eager they will be to wreak some revenge on our culture as soon as they are old enough to be let out.
The letter Kaiser wrote to his mother were not incestuous in nature as the historian mentioned. Its his plea for his mother to give him the love he long desired since he was a child in disability. Its a tragic story. I blamed part of his jingoism towards England attitude on his mother Vicky albeit there seems to be a love hate relationship between the two countries.
He admired her beautiful hands ! How was that incestuous ? Can you not admire physical beauty without some idiot calling it wierd or perverted ? Or, did I miss something ? Don't think so.
Yea, I didn’t see anything inappropriate. In fact to me it made sense, all his life it was pointed out that he had this horrible arm and here is his mother with the perfect hands that he will never have. Naturally he would obsess and dream about the beauty he saw in them.
I was born disabled in 1970. Believe me, no one cared about my emotional development then, either. Not much has changed, actually. I deal with CPTSD every day. My heart goes out to poor Wilhelm. I know exactly how he felt.
I know what you mean. Was born in 1964 and i can tell you a few horror story. Even today it's as if it's wrong to have a disability and that we can't have a fufilling life (to some people anyway).
@No Body you to. We all deserve to be happy. And i know it's not easy. I was born with mine. I'm 57 and to this day, i have members of my family that doesn't understand that i want to do things on my own. I can't even go to the toilet on my onw without having someone coming along to make sure i'm fine. And they wonder why i get frustrated with them. I can't even make a desision on my own without having one of them being upset because i didn't include them. It get's very frustrating.
The accusation that he was sexually attracted to his mother is quite frankly disgusting and ridiculous He obviously lacked the motherly affection/attention we all need Absolute rubbish theory ! The fact that he was allowed to kiss the part of her hand that no others we allowed to, for me is a sign that his mother was compassionate to the wants and needs of a young boy instead of a young prince who was not supposed to show emotion I find the comment out of place and with no actual evidence, foolish !
I think the infatuation with his mother’s hand could maybe have come from his own disability. Seeing his mother’s hand as perfect while his was deformed and he was made to feel ashamed of it. Unless there was more in those letters that they did not read on screen
Poor Wilhelm's condition was not one of his own making. His mother blamed him for something he had no control of. Wonder how many children go through the same today?
And full use of his left arm/hand as she has. Anyone catch that he kissed her LEFT hand?? Hello. These smart educated people don’t have enough sense to know basic things evidently.
@@meganr9280 I caught that too actually. The repeated themes were with his mothers left hand, specifically. I assume that they over sexualised the analysis of the letters due to Freud's influence.
I find it fascinating that I had never heard about Kaiser Wilhelm when learning about the First World War. All my history teacher talked about was The Black Hand killing ArchDuke Ferdinand and then we jumped right into the war. Literally nothing was mentioned about it being a war between cousins. And that's really weird
We learned about Kaisar Wilhelm in my Highschool even his small arm, but not that it happened from a breech birth. We didn't learn what caused him to become the person he became. Except that his father was emotionally abusive with him .As to the letters the family mostly wrote in english even though they were kings & queens of other countries. They wrote over the top I love yous dear cousin , grandma etc , all of them wrote cringy dramatic, maybe the style of the day or a family thing.
Queen Victoria was not a particularly loving mother. Vicky learned her mothering skills from her. Odds are she wouldn't have been an affectionate mother even if Wilhelm was born without a disability.
But he wouldn't have been emotionally set aside with distaste if he wasn't disabled. The cool distance was indeed normal, but there were ritual moments built into the routine where the children were brought by staff before their parents and brief admiration and exchanges of conversation took place, he was kept out of even that.
If one researches you find that none of the Royals were good parents. They might spend one hour a day with their children other than that they were with their nannies only. In farther history one reads the children were even in other castles and not even with their parents from birth...I am not impressed with the Royals myself as I find it amazing how people in 2021 think another human has Royal blood which to me is such a farce. They were demigods and tyrants and ruled people as though they were less than the animals they owned.
@@mindyenglish5305 Study up on those Royals. What we know as love is not the same as the Royals "love" as they saw their children only as a continuance of their domain and as a legacy.
I always imagined that Albert would be the motherly type, showing as much affection and love as he was allowed, while Victoria was the ruthless, heartless authoritative parental figure. Victoria never wanted children, her dairies compared her pregnancies to that of being a cow... she hated them. 😨During a time where women of royalty were always excited over pregnancies. Queen Victoria hated them. She was basically a tyrannical man inside a womans' body. I saw an old documentary from the 1990s were they had interviewed people who were kids of those who worked with Victoria closely stating that she was the aggressor of the family. I wouldn't be shocked to know that Prince Alberts' death was due to satisfying Queen Victorias' sexual desires. He died pretty young. May be due to exhaustion. The guy tends to look worn out during those photos. There was a reason why he never took mistresses... how can he with a wife like Victoria who is always in need. 😣🤔😳🙃😮
So while I'm sure some of those letters to his mom have been omitted, it's weird that they didn't point out the fact that he was obsessing over her 'perfect' left hand. It was his left arm that was disabled. It doesn't take much to assume that there's a connection there. Maybe Jealousy? Maybe he was being sarcastic? It seems weird that they only focused on his objectification of her.
It can also be a form of obsessive admiration. Traumatized and rejected children often feel worthless and lesser than, and since he was rejected specifically for his disability, maybe he was expressing admiration for a part of her that he thought as "ugly" or "broken" on him, but "perfect"(implying healthy, beautiful and perfectly within norms) on her. I've often seen young people(children and teens) that were bullied and ostracized for certain traits(for example: being ugly by current standards)develop the same kind of obsessive admiration for those same traits in the object of their affection or infatuation. They would notice, fixate and compliment those traits constantly, and I think the same thing was happening with him in those letters, especially because they were a last, desperate effort to have a crumb of affection from his mother.
I totally agree! The child was having dreams which one cannot control but will reveal your subconscious, etc. So clearly he’s desiring his mother’s love and attention (not sexually!!! Dreams are so often symbolic). The hand is a focus and his hand was deformed. It sounds to me like an innocent dream revealing emotional pain from his handicap and maternal emotional neglect.
Or, perhaps, allowing him to kiss her hand was the only affection she would show him. I would argue that you could idolize a bodypart if it represents the whole of your mother's love that she refuses to impress onto him.
LOL Rosemary Kennedy's life was nothing close to what they did in the 20th century to the mentally ill and the disabled. Rosemary was just hidden and treated well. She did NOT go through any thing close to what Wilhelm did.
@@tamaragonzalez2227 We aren't comparing how the disabled/ mentally ill in general were treated, though. We're comparing how influential families have a tendency of treating "substandard" family members like shit. Edit: also Wilhelm made it out with his mental faculties intact. Rosemary had her prefrontal cortex scrambled like an egg. Saying she did not go through anything close is extremely disingenuous.
Same. My husband has CP, I have other disabilities. I feel like the healthcare system in my community does this today to us. My parents are drug attracted narcissists so they’re of no support to me. His parents are wealthy and completely clueless. The more we try to get along with others, the more we’re pushed back to each other to get angry at the world
comes to show you that the rich and powerful have a hell of their own. id rather be poor and unimportant than endure that kind of psychological torture big wig families often impose on their kids. they care more about an overall legacy and image than the individual.
@The Weathering Diaries after my first spinal surgery, i had to wear a plaster cast with the collar. Four months later, had a new one without the colar. Had that surgery march 1 1977. So yeah, had to wear that thing during summer and fall. Let me tell you, never again that i will wear a plaster cast. One was more than enough.
I didn’t interpret the letters as incestuous at all. He had a desire for a normal left arm and hands and his replica of that is his mother’s hands. He was yearning for her to accept him as he was.
Sounds like he had severe PTSD after his Traumatic childhood. It’s too bad there wasn’t a way to take him out of consideration of becoming King, and letting one of his other siblings do it.
When you said that, you meant it so they don't do those horrible treatment on him? If so then no he will get those horrible treatment for his illness even if he was the second or third in line as long as he is crippled he will get them.
Problem is that King is when Monarchy doesn't expand, and Emperor when he expands. German Empire once expanded then didn't expand for temporary while, it wasn't power hungry.
I would have been traumatised too, mentally and physically by the rejection of his mother. What a terrible shame. He desperately needed love, he just chose the wrong way to express them.
Wilhelm, to his hateful, ableist mother: "Please show me a little love for once! Please, see that I love and respect you as a son, that I only want to be allowed to show you that I love you as a son! Please love me back, my beautiful mother!" The historian: "See? He was incestuous! This is some sexual fantasy!" So. Much. Facepalm.
Serial killers have admitted to being sexually aroused by their mothers. It's not uncommon for sociopaths to have "forbidden" feelings for their mothers!
An interesting fact about Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, he became a historian after the abolition of the monarchy. Hitler wanted him to be involved with nazism, but his dad rejected the idea, thankfully. He renounced his royal position when he married a 'commoner'. Since then he's appeared in a couple of historical documentaries (this was his last appearance), as he died in 2015.
@John Mad Is it smearing to acknowledge that bad stuff happened and that your own great grandfather had some problems? It's not exactly a secret, there are documents that attest to this.
She thought she had problems. But how much worse her niece Tsarina Alexandra had to face with a haemophiliac son. And Alexandra at least loved and protected her child.
@@angelandi5140 - one, they were both Royalty. Second, Tsarina’s son was to inherit Russia as the next Tsar. SAME SITUATION but with different maternal love
Fair enough, but you know... Germany. Some people in Germany compared Wilhelm II to Trump in their diplomacy terms. On the other side, Boris Johnson tackled a Japanese grade schooler because grey were playing rugby. 😬
How sad but I kind of understand him, I was born deaf and given to my grandparents because mom had couldn’t handle it. Dad said it was best because mom didn’t want me. Instead of putting him through so much pain and anguish they should have prepared him for his future as kaiser, instead of concentrating on his arm. He had so much love for his mother and she just turned her back to him.
One key point they didn't make in this documentary (and should have) is that much of Wilhelm's upbringing was taken away from his mother by her in-laws, who raised Wilhelm to be disrespectful of his mother's English background, and to admire his militaristic grandfather. He was also rather disrespectful of his father, who was often absent due to military obligations, and who (to the distaste of his own father, Wilhelm I) was a political liberal. In fact, Vicky had at least once stated that Wilhelm was her favorite of her children, and she certainly spent a lot of time anguishing over him. So it really isn't very fair to see her as turning her back on him. Like Empress Sissi of Austria, her control over his upbringing was limited.
@@dianaarneson6590 Thank you that explains a lot, I would have been more sympathetic to his mom in the comment I made if I had known more of how things were
I had no idea that Kaiser Wilhelm had such a horrible childhood, and that just simply having a paralyzed arm could cause him to be treated so unfairly by his own family members. In spite of his wealth and privilege, he didn't get to experience real family love. This is in marked contrast to his cousin's family, Grand Duchess Alexandra of Russia and Tsar Nicholas. While Nicolas might have had some failing as a national leader, (partly due to being shoved into a job he neither wanted nor was ready for at the age of 25, when his father died unexpectedly), he and Alexandra truly loved one another and their five children, and they were a very close-knit family unit, unusual for royal families of the time. Their only son, Alexis, suffered from hemophilia, but unlike Wilhelm, was never considered as "damaged goods" by the rest of the family, but loved and cared for as a member of the family. When Alexandra languished over her son's health during times of his illnesses, Nicholas supported and encouraged her. Perhaps if Wilhelm had experienced the kind of love that the Romanovs had showed toward THEIR son, and their daughters as well, perhaps things might have turned out differently in the world!
But even today many parents still reject the disabled child as not The perfect child they were expecting - so they even mourn the perfect child never born but expected at birth -
I have 4 children, 3 boys and 1 girl. My youngest son was born with hypotonic cerebral palsy. I quit my job as a police officer to make sure I was the one raising him. I have so much love for all my children and especially my youngest. He didn’t choose to be born disabled and it is devastating for me as his mother because I feel responsible. It could have been prevented if my ob had taken my pregnancy as seriously as the other pregnancies. Since my son is the youngest of 4 he has always had other children around him. In my opinion it helped him because he loves being around people and he worked so hard to be able to be near people.
@John Madthe most beautiful cursive I ever saw was a guy I went to school with it was beautiful. My mother also has beautiful cursive mine not so much. I gave it up years ago. 😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
@Lord Typesalot Here in the states i started learning cursive in the 2nd grade now in two states it’s no longer taught and I believe 30 others are considering doing away with it. 😢
I very much appreciate the young woman explaining the physical condition she shares with this historical figure. It feels invasive having her display herself and her medical condition like this, and I am sure it grows tiresome detailing her handicap over and over, but it really adds to the story.
Had his mother given him the love and attention a child should receive, disabled or not, the world may not have suffered two world wars, and the geopolitical landscape we see today, may never existed. You may never have existed. Kind of crazy and scary to think about...
its more complicated than that. the tensions in europe were so hot not even a mothers love would have prevented them from boiling over into war - and it was DUE to these antiquated monarchies.
He had a good motivator / mentor / physhical trainer and therapist in a young Hussar officer August von Mackensen. Mackensen helped him learn how to ride and build his strenght. They became good friends and Mackensen later became the great Fieldmarshal many think of today. The Kaiser also learnt to shoot accurate and quick also. He became a better shot with one good arm than many with noth. Did not waste ammo on many hunts and occassions in many areas. Preferred light carbines and rifles,but was also very innovative in other ways also. One was a combined Fork/ spoon / knife combination he designed and had developed which became popular for many later. We now know as Spork.
@@Friederike42 Thanks for the rec ! Funny you mention this (well not... "funny", more like a rhetorical funny) because cases of anxiety, ocd, and many others are oftenly related to a parent having it and/or childhood trauma. "Oh I know it's ok, my dad/mom's the same."
Violence is a cycle, and human history so far has been a cycle as well. The same things keep happening because the same actions set them in place, and more often than not people can't even see it, so they blindly keep doing the same shit over and over.
Studying history is studying how some people got fucked and how they ended up fucking other people, and the vicious cycle never ends, people fucking up each other, until humans wake up and stop reproducing.
Hitler was treated badly by his father, only his mother loves him. He list his mother and become an artist while being homeless he survived hell. Stalin also had bad childhood. Make you wonder that evil were not born but made
Do the people of England not know that their monarchy is German on both sides and only changed their name to Windsor because of it. and also mountbatten changed his name from the German Von Battenburg.
This British person was told when she was 8 yrs old about the German connection of our Royal family by a German girl I used to play with when we lived in Germany. History has always fascinated me
@@karenlloyd945 Really? Because him, my country lost more than 2/3 in its territory. Many Hungarians become unwanted strangers in their own country and even home, house.
Prince Rainer has heterochromia! The coolest (in my opinion) of all genetic mutations! His eyes are beautiful - one bright blue, the other hazel/greenish
How curious that one situation creates such chaos in the world that leads to so much destruction...because one little boy was not loved. It affected my family when my grandfather came back from WW1 and couldn't love his family because of PTSD. And he married my grandmother whose family left because of chaos in Germany. This one little boy created my life. 😳.
He got even when he became an adult and was a thorn in his parents side. Treated her is a most disrespectful manor. He was very bombastic and a total pompous ass. Surrounded himself with sycophants. Most family members couldn’t stand the man. Even as an adult he acted like a spoiled child.
I really wish they made real history classes just as interesting to learn as these videos. I always liked history, but for the love of god, classes did not help me remember anything. You just had to remember 100 different years and timelines and not really focus on the ACTUAL history part.
It isn’t fair to down play this mans traumatic childhood full of physical pain then emotional rejection!! It’s damaging!!! I’m not shocked at all that he was making bad decisions!!
Personally, I think the 'incestuous dreams' were actually an extension of his own paralyzed arm. A mother's love can conquer anything in a young boy. Especially with his ailment, he subconsciously dreams the same dream constantly.
@sina No, not weird. The assumptions are wrong. Queen Victoria was a Narcissist. Vicky and her siblings were traumatised by their mother and Vicky seems to have not learned a thing about being able to nurture or protect her child. Wilhelm has suffered attachment trauma, from what I can see and poor little boy didn't get his basic needs met for love, safety and belonging. He knew that he was unacceptable, felt shame, and he developed Narcissism as a result. He must have had the genetic predisposition to it.
He did not have sexual feeling for his mother. I am speaking as a daughter who was abandoned by my mother. I did use to write in my diary what it would be like to meet live with her, to be hugged by her, just to be in her presence. People are weird. He loved his mother
the kaiser used to ride through the german countryside on the train and stop to speak with the citizens. he met my great great grandfather and urged him to get his family out of Germany. That is how we were told of the emigration of our family from Germany in the late 1800s
William also had been rejected by his beautifully cousin Princess Elizabeth of Hesse-Darmstadt. He never forgave her and held a grudge against her the rest of his life.
I think it was more that he hated her husband, Grand Duke Sergei (granted, the guy wasn't the greatest person around, probably the one good thing about him was that he loved his orphaned niece and nephew like they were his own) because he was the one who won Ella over, not him, but when the Russian Revolution happened, he tried to get Ella out of Russia, but she refused.
I am glad for that. Women should not have to marry anyone, and it proves their point when one rejected goes about resentful. Also when a spouse complains that he/she was whatever so adultery/ murder was a solution, it is not.
Poor Wilhelm! I wish (as I’m sure the rest of the world does) that things had turned out differently. I had an older brother with cerebral palsy, and even in the 1950s, the treatments were barbaric. Lots to digest here.
My right side (particularly my right arm and hand) disability happened at birth when I had a stroke. I spent the first month in an oxygen tent. Later I had physical therapy which helped. Something else that was recommended was tying my left arm in place to force me to use my right. I remember hating this, voicing my displeasure a lot. I fully sympathize with Wilhelm.
@@laurielovett8849 I am deeply aware of my mother's love. In retrospect the doctors' advice was sound. As I've aged I'm beset with a genetic problem, dystonia, a tremor affecting my left arm and hand. I can no longer write or play certain musical instruments. I can however hold a fork or spoon with my right and reach my mouth without spilling any food. Writing (actually printing) is almost legible.
I’m not so sure that was an erotic dream? I mean we are talking about someone with a forced obsession about a deformed left arm/hand having a dream about his mother’s perfect left hand.
It's funny that this thing wraps up with the judgment that _Vicky_ was a failure. Did Friedrich even exist? For a son, a father's influence can be even greater than a mother's, and where was the father during all of these events? No mention of him and his relationship with Wilhelm 🙄.
@She Elf Very few fathers in the so called 'noble families' had much if anything to do with their kids until a certain age... even less if the kid had some perceived imperfection... Im not surprised the father wasn't mentioned much
Unfortunately, for many years, Friedrich struggled with a severe cancer. It was an additional trauma for young Wilhelm as he saw the suffering and slow death of his father. Added to this was the enormous pressure and expectations of the environment that now Wilhelm had to meet the requirements and become a worthy successor to his father, and especially to his grandfather, Wilhelm I. Meanwhile, the political situation was becoming more and more complicated and unpredictable. It is easy to criticize, but even today no one would know how this great war could be avoided. After all, everyone believed that thanks to this war, they would all easily achieve their imaginary goals. But they miscalculated
As a german, i feel deep love for our poor Kaiser. I know what it‘s like, to beg for his own mothers affection. Doesn‘t really surprise me that he became sad, cold and kind of brutal against himself and the ones who rejected him as a child and young man.
I LOVE History! When I was a child, I learned after wanting help for so long, not knowing what was wrong with me that I had dyslexia. I loved reading and learning about history, but I couldn’t understand what I was reading most of the time. Same with math, I loved it but had trouble. After fighting for so long for help, I gave up..then a tutor fresh from Indiana University said this is new but she believes I have this dyslexia. Well, by this time..I lost interest in reading, sadly. I wish I had never given up on myself because even as a child, I loved learning about the past.
My mom had epilepsy and my grandmother was told by everyone who knew about to put her in a home but she refused and my mom grew up as normal as anyone.
People don't accept anyone who is different, especially neurotypicals. People always state my son's disability before anything else. But im here to love him hard and set the standard of the love he deserves. Not our broken people in a broken society. I do 💞💞💞💞
Pathetic how someone could love a child less because they're disabled. Absolutely horrendous and disgusting. There is no excuse for it royalty or not, point in time be dammed, no excusr!
Am I the only one who didn't feel those letters were incestuous? It sounded like a child begging his mother to love him. To look past his condition. He was starving for her affection and acceptance. If she, as his mother couldn't love him then who else ever could?
While things were worded differently back then, the words definitely were incestuous. If you noticed particularly the mentioning of her taking off her gloves-which would be the equivalent of taking off ones clothes today. Also, hand fetishes do exist and is more common than you think. So, think of the letters pertaining to her hand as a letter pertaining to sexual parts.
I think their problem was that *he* was "a cripple" not *why* he was disabled. A good explanation would still not take away the fact that he was disable, and it was the disability itself that made him look weak in the eyes of the other royal members. Still, there surely was a way to make him look good with his disability(as barbaric as that sounds...), by publicly explaining it away as the result of some heroic act, an hunting incident or(later ofc) some military training action or similar bullshit, but I guess that bunch of royal inbreds didn't have the mental capacity for that 🤷🏻♀️
@LadyLiberty a weakness sure, but not one that reflects poorly on the family He would have been injured while the training to lead his country military victory
So so so sad this all happened to the child .It tells us the mind set of people at that time was so different to us today.I suppose as time went on things got better. Poor little man, bless his heart.
I feel so sad for him and certainly relate ...my parents used to smack me around if they thought i was using my erbs palsy as a crutch... i dont hate them any more they thought they were doing what was best and in some ways it made me more independent but emotionally crippled still... that feeling of not being good enough...it never went away for me ..its a constant battle.
I saw a young woman in a wheelchair doing an ad for makeup. She had a beautifully expressive face and a confident smile. It was joyous to me that she could accept what she could not change and make her life about what she could do.
The letters containing the word 'hand' were extremely sad. I imagined what must have gotten on inside this young man's mind to try so desperately to engage with his mother, metaphorically through letters putting all his energy on exactly the body part that has cursed him all his life. She should have seen past the obscene first impression those letters give off and understand that he tried to flatter her by telling her how beautiful her hand was so she might one day return the same compliment and same physical warmth and affection to his "crippled" hand. Breaks my heart.
The dreams do not seem like they’re revealing sexual desire at all. The child’s dreams (which he cannot control) is very revealing to his subconscious mind. Though it doesn’t take digging deep into the subconscious to determine he’s clearly desiring his mother’s love, attention & acceptance. Dreams are so often symbolic, and these dreams don’t seem to be pointing to sexual desire at all. The hand is a focus in the dreams and his hand was deformed. It sounds to me like an innocent dream, revealing emotional pain from his handicap and maternal emotional neglect.
This is hardly 'secret history'. The details of Wilhelm's difficult birth, his disabled arm, and the treatments to which he was subjected are described fully in many of the biographies written about him.
Those letters are just Wilhelm wanting his mother to acknowledge and love him like a mother should to her child!!! OH FOR GOD SAKES!!! 😒😳😂I don't know whether to be annoyed or laugh at the incompetency of these historians. Clearly, Wilhelm wanted his mothers' love as a child deserve!
Great great documentary exactly what we want, minute details which took decisive role in major historical events, how small minute matters manifest itself in the plot of time.
All if the men who never came back from the War and to their families because a boy didn't have the love if his Mother. I agree it is sad for a disability to cause so much pain in young Wilhelm, but millions of soldiers and civilians had to pay a huge price for the mistakes of a few Royals?
@@elegantescape3961 we should teach all child both science and spiritualily simultaneously. By spirituality I am not meaning those mumbo-jumbo. But true insight about our own tendency. Here everyone is trying to consume everything and everyone who isn't superior to him. Some has great reach some hasn't this is the only difference.
NOPE THIS IS PURE BULLSHIT The Boy had ADHD........which is brain damage..........same as Donald J trump same as George W bush He had the thinking abilities of a 9 year old BOY poor impulse control inability to understand long range consequences to current actions poor judgement poor emotional control memory impairment always focused on short term instant gratification Its always Fucking, Fighting and Eating Food its brain damage to Executive Functions See "marshmallow Test"....
This is a tragic story. Queen Elizabeth’s uncle John had epilepsy and was hidden from the public for his entire life. He may have also been intellectually disabled. John died aged 12 from a major seizure. The medical profession had no medicine to help him like we do today. The lack of understanding at the time led to the idea that epilepsy might be contagious. Sad but true.
It is interesting and curious that so many responses here to this situation cannot understand the part that inadequate scientific knowledge combined with cultural attitudes of shame continue to play a part in our present society’s attitudes towards those who are “different”: physically disabled or intellectually disabled or emotionally disabled or a different color or a different religion or a different societal background. Anyone not belonging to the particular “tribe” that thinks of itself as normative generates negative responses from that tribe and sadly, all too often these are revealed in the political sphere. In this episode they remained in the family until the Kaiser was an adult and then he acted out these emotional harms and frustrations on the political level. What can be our excuse?
34:55 "If Victoria had lived some 13 or so more years" ... there would not have been a war! Poor commentator had not understood the dynamics of the relationships at all.
How heartbreaking, when it was the doctor’s fault. Breech births can be successful, but mostly when there’s no intervention during the birth. Since she was incoherent and her body was compromised by the chloroform, it became very dangerous and they’re very lucky worse damage didn’t happen. Vicky must’ve felt such blame and guilt.
No wonder he started a war!! Poor child!! It’s torture! No matter what they did it wasn’t going to work! Such trauma!! I can’t imagine how much he cried as a baby & small child! How could Vicky as a mother listen to that?! Breaks my heart!
In reality he didn't start the war. At least not alone. Austria did. Problem was, that due to his mother and him being disliked by his British family due to his mothers treatment and due to that him trying to be impressive in the German Kaiserreich, he swore alliance to Austria. I mean, in 1903 or so they had negotiations for treaties and alliance to Britain, which obviously failed. So he swore alliance to Austria, which makes sense given the fact that the two countries were so close together and mainly have the same traditions and cultures. Due to that alliance with Austria Germany also declared war. The outbreak of WW1 is extremely complex and nearly all European nations at that time, mainly France, Germany, Britain, Austria and Russia, were keen on war. They wanted to show off, the nations wanted war and they were all happy about it at first. But then the war became something people had never seen before. So Wilhelm didn't start the war alone, although his personality was the result of his childhood trauma and led to him not being liked by his relatives and that drive him to this deadly alliance with Austria which began the first world war.
One of the most fascinating documentaries ever! This might have been the reason why Germans were somewhat cold toward the people with disabilities for decades. It wasn't until the Disability Equality Law (Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz), passed in 2004, and General Equal Treatment Law (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz), passed in 2006, when attitude toward the disabilities started to change for better albeit slowly in Germany.
Poor Vicky & Fritz only 88 days on the throne. Everything that was hoped for when they were married in 1858 was destroyed 30 years later. And to think they could of had the throne much earlier. In 1862 King William I considered abdicating because of a depute with the Landtag of Prussia (the representative assembly of the Kingdom of Prussia implemented in 1849) but his son, the Crown Prince, advised strongly against it. When given the chance he should of agreed & history would of been different.
ngl learning about the royals failing and being so flawed makes me feel a little better about myself. My life may be a mess but at least I never waged war against my cousins
But then you weren't living under the strain of disability,and trying to over compensate,by making your country great, even in the1900s it was impossible for the Russian Royal family to disclose that the Prince had a fatal blood disease, they would have been discarded by " the people " and all treatments at the time were barbaric my mum was atsd nervous,was taken to tbe hospital,where it was decided she should undergo shock treatment, st23 years of she, she was a nervous wreck for life. Her pare ts thought they were doing right by her nowadays no medical person would even consider giving a child shock treatment and in those days without an anaesthetic
That letter is about a child longing to be LOVED BY HIS MOTHER a basic human need that we all have
AGREED!
Given Wilhelm’s disability, the various tortures put to him as a child, the strictures of royal life, and - most crucially - his mother’s disappointment, lack of understanding and love . . . it’s bizarre that the biographer & others in this program have chosen to see Wilhelm’s letters as “incestuous.” I can’t help but wonder if it’s a cynical play to draw attention to the program and ostensibly the forthcoming biography. I see his letters giving voice to the deepest yearning a neglected, rejected child could have - the acceptance & love of his own mother! So he fixated on her hands as a safe symbol of what he needed - so what? It’s heartbreaking! He talks about her gloved hand, then how beautiful & “dear” it is (in his dreams) to feel her ungloved hand upon him. Am I the only one who sees the analogy there?
But with royalties imperfections are everything. It's okay to be bald but not have a bum arm back in those days
Agreed, this doesn’t seem incestuous. Of course he was obsessed with her left hand!! After the trauma so throughly infused in him from all the attempts to treat and correct his own damaged LEFT arm, he’s been saddled with an unhealthy obsession with perfect hands, particularly the left. He’s trying to find some way to show his esteem for her and draw her closer, that should have been obvious. The people who say it was an incestuous obsession on his part are just transferring their own perversions onto him.
@@hideyourloveaway128 Seems like a bit of the ole click bait here. It is not in the least bit incestuous and insulting to say the least.
Yes, it is a cry for love. Nothing more. Very sad.
Those letters to his mother were NOT incestuous. He wrote about her HANDS. How perfect they were as opposed to his withered hand. She never accepted his hands and his letters seem to be begging her to accept him as he was. She didn't.
The way he does it implies he is strongly fetishizing her hands. It makes sense considering, but he is definitely beyond normal levels of admiration there.
@@reuvenknight1575 people tended to write letters in a very sentimental/affectionate way. You'd read letters between platonic friends back then and by our perceptions today assume they were lovers. I also thought he was just seeking her love and acceptance.
yeah it was just a very fancy way of saying xoxo please mom love me
I feel the same.
@@josiemakes I am more than well acquainted with the way people used to write letters. I'd assume so are the historians. This is unusual for that time period.
Maybe if you replaced "hands" with "feet" you might understand it as fetish better. Or it may be his youth, but I would assume you would know as well as I do from talking to guys and from surveys of guys, that that is usually the age they start exploring things and experimenting. I'd say maybe the researchers are biased because they are guys, but those letters are fetishizing and I can't see how you don't see it.
No friend in the Victorian Age talks about kissing special parts of someone's hand that is only privy to them. Any "friend" like that usually turns out to be a gay lover people just don't want to address because it's considered taboo for so-and-so to have possibly not been straight.
I’m 10 minutes in and It’s crazy to hear of another person (especially a royal) having the same condition as me! My arm was paralyzed the same way at birth. My parents took me to every treatment they could and now I almost have full control of my arm, unless I point it out you probably won’t notice. I can’t straighten it and it’s a tad bit shorter than my right arm among other small things that truly only I notice. I’m glad I lived in a time where I could get treatment form birth.
I also made it 69 likes!!
I’m sorry to hear your struggles, but also very happy to hear you’ve had proper treatment, and have nearly full use of your arm!
Thank you for sharing. And very pleased that you receive the proper treatment to help you 🙏🏽
Glad you shared, and glad to hear you could make so much progress. It gives even more depth to this, because it shows what could have been (in regards to the emotional treatment of a child with yours and his condition. I'm so glad you were born in modern times which are not just more accepting, but also full of technological and medicinal advances. Believe me, I'm glad because sometimes I think back to what people did to kids with seizures, thinking they were evil faeries or possessed and as someone part irish with epilepsy, I'm so glad I was born now oml
You can't help but really feel for these children with similar circumstances to you and put you in their shoes even more so than others.
Medicine has come a long way, hasn't it! Even if you hadn't recovered use of your arm, you are not the sum of your defects. They only give you challenges to work around. Your actions, especially those involving the treatment of others, show who you are.
" A child who isn't embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth".
-African proverb.
Dang. That proverb tells a whole story by itself.
Well said:)
This applies to those children who were separated and are being raised friendless and Loveless. Imagine how eager they will be to wreak some revenge on our culture as soon as they are old enough to be let out.
Wow that's deep. And true
@@LibertyLivery let out of what?
The letter Kaiser wrote to his mother were not incestuous in nature as the historian mentioned. Its his plea for his mother to give him the love he long desired since he was a child in disability. Its a tragic story. I blamed part of his jingoism towards England attitude on his mother Vicky albeit there seems to be a love hate relationship between the two countries.
He admired her beautiful hands ! How was that incestuous ? Can you not admire physical beauty without some idiot calling it wierd or perverted ? Or, did I miss something ? Don't think so.
Nonsense,forbidden love, never heard so much nonsense in my life he just loved his gran,and she loved him
He always had his disability it's not a phase he went through or placement he was put in
Vicky responded honestly and maturely.
Yea, I didn’t see anything inappropriate. In fact to me it made sense, all his life it was pointed out that he had this horrible arm and here is his mother with the perfect hands that he will never have. Naturally he would obsess and dream about the beauty he saw in them.
I was born disabled in 1970. Believe me, no one cared about my emotional development then, either. Not much has changed, actually. I deal with CPTSD every day. My heart goes out to poor Wilhelm. I know exactly how he felt.
I know what you mean. Was born in 1964 and i can tell you a few horror story. Even today it's as if it's wrong to have a disability and that we can't have a fufilling life (to some people anyway).
Not sure if autism counts, but i was born in 2007 so i guess i was lucky.
@No Body you to. We all deserve to be happy. And i know it's not easy. I was born with mine. I'm 57 and to this day, i have members of my family that doesn't understand that i want to do things on my own. I can't even go to the toilet on my onw without having someone coming along to make sure i'm fine. And they wonder why i get frustrated with them. I can't even make a desision on my own without having one of them being upset because i didn't include them. It get's very frustrating.
@No Body I’m sorry; I can empathize... unfortunately I know how that goes. I hope you are at least feeling okay.
I have a big head
The accusation that he was sexually attracted to his mother is quite frankly disgusting and ridiculous
He obviously lacked the motherly affection/attention we all need
Absolute rubbish theory !
The fact that he was allowed to kiss the part of her hand that no others we allowed to, for me is a sign that his mother was compassionate to the wants and needs of a young boy instead of a young prince who was not supposed to show emotion
I find the comment out of place and with no actual evidence, foolish !
Agreed
I think the infatuation with his mother’s hand could maybe have come from his own disability. Seeing his mother’s hand as perfect while his was deformed and he was made to feel ashamed of it. Unless there was more in those letters that they did not read on screen
That's Freud for you he was nuts
@@alanaadams7440 There is a good reason that while Freud is respected in Psychology today for his work that his theories aren't actually in use.
We don't know what passages were left out, in order to keep this documentary rated G.
Poor Wilhelm's condition was not one of his own making. His mother blamed him for something he had no control of. Wonder how many children go through the same today?
where is the incest The guy was talking about his mother’s hands. You people are sick. He just wanted his mother’s love.
That's exactly what I thought. There be present day dudes who give their moms a smooch on the mouth and no one says boo. ¯\_ಠ_ಠ_/¯
1 😱
Agreed, Andale Jones. You're absolutely correct.
And full use of his left arm/hand as she has. Anyone catch that he kissed her LEFT hand?? Hello. These smart educated people don’t have enough sense to know basic things evidently.
@@meganr9280 I caught that too actually. The repeated themes were with his mothers left hand, specifically. I assume that they over sexualised the analysis of the letters due to Freud's influence.
I find it fascinating that I had never heard about Kaiser Wilhelm when learning about the First World War. All my history teacher talked about was The Black Hand killing ArchDuke Ferdinand and then we jumped right into the war. Literally nothing was mentioned about it being a war between cousins. And that's really weird
Weird!! 10's of millions ppl innocent people died due to a family feud..let that sink in 😔
We learned about Kaisar Wilhelm in my Highschool even his small arm, but not that it happened from a breech birth. We didn't learn what caused him to become the person he became. Except that his father was emotionally abusive with him .As to the letters the family mostly wrote in english even though they were kings & queens of other countries. They wrote over the top I love yous dear cousin , grandma etc , all of them wrote cringy dramatic, maybe the style of the day or a family thing.
@@karensmith8361
It’s a bit more complicated than that.
That is weird we learned about it pretty thoroughly in my classes.
My new 'WW1 in a sentence':
"Inbred cousins, with limitless wealth and no care for humanity, made millions fight and suffer after their Grandma died"
Odd that the narrator referred to the problem as a “deformity” - which it was not! If anything, it was an INJURY.
Underrated comment!
Queen Victoria was not a particularly loving mother. Vicky learned her mothering skills from her. Odds are she wouldn't have been an affectionate mother even if Wilhelm was born without a disability.
But he wouldn't have been emotionally set aside with distaste if he wasn't disabled. The cool distance was indeed normal, but there were ritual moments built into the routine where the children were brought by staff before their parents and brief admiration and exchanges of conversation took place, he was kept out of even that.
If one researches you find that none of the Royals were good parents. They might spend one hour a day with their children other than that they were with their nannies only. In farther history one reads the children were even in other castles and not even with their parents from birth...I am not impressed with the Royals myself as I find it amazing how people in 2021 think another human has Royal blood which to me is such a farce. They were demigods and tyrants and ruled people as though they were less than the animals they owned.
But they said that she helped love on her other children.
@@mindyenglish5305 Study up on those Royals. What we know as love is not the same as the Royals "love" as they saw their children only as a continuance of their domain and as a legacy.
I always imagined that Albert would be the motherly type, showing as much affection and love as he was allowed, while Victoria was the ruthless, heartless authoritative parental figure. Victoria never wanted children, her dairies compared her pregnancies to that of being a cow... she hated them. 😨During a time where women of royalty were always excited over pregnancies. Queen Victoria hated them. She was basically a tyrannical man inside a womans' body. I saw an old documentary from the 1990s were they had interviewed people who were kids of those who worked with Victoria closely stating that she was the aggressor of the family. I wouldn't be shocked to know that Prince Alberts' death was due to satisfying Queen Victorias' sexual desires. He died pretty young. May be due to exhaustion. The guy tends to look worn out during those photos. There was a reason why he never took mistresses... how can he with a wife like Victoria who is always in need. 😣🤔😳🙃😮
Whenever I read these medical horror stories from back then, I am so glad that I was born in the modern times.
Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the USA so the horrors continue in a more sterile manner
These new vaccines ARE A MEDICAL HORROR STORY !!
!
Really?!
@@briteeyes2133 What?!!!!!!!!!!
So while I'm sure some of those letters to his mom have been omitted, it's weird that they didn't point out the fact that he was obsessing over her 'perfect' left hand. It was his left arm that was disabled. It doesn't take much to assume that there's a connection there. Maybe Jealousy? Maybe he was being sarcastic? It seems weird that they only focused on his objectification of her.
It can also be a form of obsessive admiration. Traumatized and rejected children often feel worthless and lesser than, and since he was rejected specifically for his disability, maybe he was expressing admiration for a part of her that he thought as "ugly" or "broken" on him, but "perfect"(implying healthy, beautiful and perfectly within norms) on her.
I've often seen young people(children and teens) that were bullied and ostracized for certain traits(for example: being ugly by current standards)develop the same kind of obsessive admiration for those same traits in the object of their affection or infatuation. They would notice, fixate and compliment those traits constantly, and I think the same thing was happening with him in those letters, especially because they were a last, desperate effort to have a crumb of affection from his mother.
I totally agree! The child was having dreams which one cannot control but will reveal your subconscious, etc. So clearly he’s desiring his mother’s love and attention (not sexually!!! Dreams are so often symbolic). The hand is a focus and his hand was deformed. It sounds to me like an innocent dream revealing emotional pain from his handicap and maternal emotional neglect.
Or, perhaps, allowing him to kiss her hand was the only affection she would show him.
I would argue that you could idolize a bodypart if it represents the whole of your mother's love that she refuses to impress onto him.
The way Wilhelm was treated reminds me so much of what happened to poor Rosemary Kennedy. Barbaric.
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LOL Rosemary Kennedy's life was nothing close to what they did in the 20th century to the mentally ill and the disabled. Rosemary was just hidden and treated well. She did NOT go through any thing close to what Wilhelm did.
@@tamaragonzalez2227 We aren't comparing how the disabled/ mentally ill in general were treated, though. We're comparing how influential families have a tendency of treating "substandard" family members like shit.
Edit: also Wilhelm made it out with his mental faculties intact. Rosemary had her prefrontal cortex scrambled like an egg. Saying she did not go through anything close is extremely disingenuous.
@@tamaragonzalez2227 No , she was lobotomized too
Even worse, there was nothing wrong with her to begin with. Her family parents just ruined her for no reason.
i have cerebral palsy. watching the recollections of his early life was almost physically painful for me.
I'm so sorry....
@@lourdesprudencio5647 thank you 💜 luckily i have parents and a society that treat me like a whole person, unlike this poor kid.
I hope you have a fulfilling life and positive people around you till the end of ages
@@psychadelicpotato8580 i do, thank you!! :)
Same. My husband has CP, I have other disabilities. I feel like the healthcare system in my community does this today to us. My parents are drug attracted narcissists so they’re of no support to me. His parents are wealthy and completely clueless. The more we try to get along with others, the more we’re pushed back to each other to get angry at the world
Poor boy, I cant even begin to imagine how he felt enduring such a traumatic child hood
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@@wolfgangkranek376
Ok
@@wolfgangkranek376 Crazy royals.
comes to show you that the rich and powerful have a hell of their own. id rather be poor and unimportant than endure that kind of psychological torture big wig families often impose on their kids. they care more about an overall legacy and image than the individual.
@The Weathering Diaries after my first spinal surgery, i had to wear a plaster cast with the collar. Four months later, had a new one without the colar. Had that surgery march 1 1977. So yeah, had to wear that thing during summer and fall. Let me tell you, never again that i will wear a plaster cast. One was more than enough.
I didn’t interpret the letters as incestuous at all. He had a desire for a normal left arm and hands and his replica of that is his mother’s hands. He was yearning for her to accept him as he was.
Sounds like he had severe PTSD after his Traumatic childhood. It’s too bad there wasn’t a way to take him out of consideration of becoming King, and letting one of his other siblings do it.
When you said that, you meant it so they don't do those horrible treatment on him? If so then no he will get those horrible treatment for his illness even if he was the second or third in line as long as he is crippled he will get them.
He wasn’t a king. He was an emperor.
@@VikSapphireH He was both. King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany.
Problem is that King is when Monarchy doesn't expand, and Emperor when he expands. German Empire once expanded then didn't expand for temporary while, it wasn't power hungry.
@@andreakhaid pretty sure the fact he had hemophilia was a problem.
Well, maybe if they wouldn't have treated him like shit, his future would have been quite different..
I would have been traumatised too, mentally and physically by the rejection of his mother.
What a terrible shame. He desperately needed love, he just chose the wrong way to express them.
@@jeanross7430 NONE of the royals have ever had sole care of their children. THAT is what nannies were for - to RAISE the offspring
Well said.
They needed to do medical research on him to figure out what would help him and others similarly afflicted
Exactly!
Wilhelm, to his hateful, ableist mother: "Please show me a little love for once! Please, see that I love and respect you as a son, that I only want to be allowed to show you that I love you as a son! Please love me back, my beautiful mother!"
The historian: "See? He was incestuous! This is some sexual fantasy!"
So. Much. Facepalm.
I agree that quite often historical facts nowadays are judged from our "modern" understanding how people communicate or express their feelings.
She was a......
Victorian lmao
@@akzidentz0 exactly
Serial killers have admitted to being sexually aroused by their mothers. It's not uncommon for sociopaths to have "forbidden" feelings for their mothers!
She wasn’t “hateful”, you clown. She was doing her best to make her son be a strong and suitable king, and to secure the integrity of her dynasty.
An interesting fact about Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, he became a historian after the abolition of the monarchy. Hitler wanted him to be involved with nazism, but his dad rejected the idea, thankfully. He renounced his royal position when he married a 'commoner'. Since then he's appeared in a couple of historical documentaries (this was his last appearance), as he died in 2015.
Ki
@@beverlyshields5685 )]l
@John Mad Is it smearing to acknowledge that bad stuff happened and that your own great grandfather had some problems? It's not exactly a secret, there are documents that attest to this.
sooo long
She thought she had problems. But how much worse her niece Tsarina Alexandra had to face with a haemophiliac son. And Alexandra at least loved and protected her child.
But her niece wasn't a direct child of a reigning queen. So...
@@angelandi5140 - one, they were both Royalty. Second, Tsarina’s son was to inherit Russia as the next Tsar. SAME SITUATION but with different maternal love
For which the unfortunate mother was crucified for
The British calling other countries' leaders "power hungry" is the most hilarious thing ever😂😂 did you guys study what you did to the world..
Fair enough, but you know... Germany.
Some people in Germany compared Wilhelm II to Trump in their diplomacy terms.
On the other side, Boris Johnson tackled a Japanese grade schooler because grey were playing rugby. 😬
@@radschele1815 trump is still the best one USA has produced after two war monger globalist. Bush & Obama
@@maku8075
Troll
@@Celisar1 facts.
paid bot how much do you earn.
Britain did horrible things against humanity in Ireland
This is so painful to watch ,the physical and emotional pain he suffered and had to grow up feeling unworthy of being loved
How sad but I kind of understand him, I was born deaf and given to my grandparents because mom had couldn’t handle it. Dad said it was best because mom didn’t want me. Instead of putting him through so much pain and anguish they should have prepared him for his future as kaiser, instead of concentrating on his arm. He had so much love for his mother and she just turned her back to him.
Yes, so aad
One key point they didn't make in this documentary (and should have) is that much of Wilhelm's upbringing was taken away from his mother by her in-laws, who raised Wilhelm to be disrespectful of his mother's English background, and to admire his militaristic grandfather. He was also rather disrespectful of his father, who was often absent due to military obligations, and who (to the distaste of his own father, Wilhelm I) was a political liberal. In fact, Vicky had at least once stated that Wilhelm was her favorite of her children, and she certainly spent a lot of time anguishing over him. So it really isn't very fair to see her as turning her back on him. Like Empress Sissi of Austria, her control over his upbringing was limited.
@@dianaarneson6590 Thank you that explains a lot, I would have been more sympathetic to his mom in the comment I made if I had known more of how things were
Sad!!
This is so goddamn tragic I'm gonna go back in time and whoop some butts. Brb.
😂😂😂
😹😹😹😹😹
Let me know how it goes!! 🤞🏼
@@lepotatoes He did not make it back😔
Wait! I want to join!
So he had a birth injury. So heartbreaking 💔
I had no idea that Kaiser Wilhelm had such a horrible childhood, and that just simply having a paralyzed arm could cause him to be treated so unfairly by his own family members. In spite of his wealth and privilege, he didn't get to experience real family love. This is in marked contrast to his cousin's family, Grand Duchess Alexandra of Russia and Tsar Nicholas. While Nicolas might have had some failing as a national leader, (partly due to being shoved into a job he neither wanted nor was ready for at the age of 25, when his father died unexpectedly), he and Alexandra truly loved one another and their five children, and they were a very close-knit family unit, unusual for royal families of the time. Their only son, Alexis, suffered from hemophilia, but unlike Wilhelm, was never considered as "damaged goods" by the rest of the family, but loved and cared for as a member of the family. When Alexandra languished over her son's health during times of his illnesses, Nicholas supported and encouraged her. Perhaps if Wilhelm had experienced the kind of love that the Romanovs had showed toward THEIR son, and their daughters as well, perhaps things might have turned out differently in the world!
But even today many parents still reject the disabled child as not The perfect child they were expecting - so they even mourn the perfect child never born but expected at birth -
I have 4 children, 3 boys and 1 girl. My youngest son was born with hypotonic cerebral palsy. I quit my job as a police officer to make sure I was the one raising him. I have so much love for all my children and especially my youngest. He didn’t choose to be born disabled and it is devastating for me as his mother because I feel responsible. It could have been prevented if my ob had taken my pregnancy as seriously as the other pregnancies. Since my son is the youngest of 4 he has always had other children around him. In my opinion it helped him because he loves being around people and he worked so hard to be able to be near people.
@bindu
Good observation.
So many abortions are rejection of an "imperfect" child.
It's Narcissism at work.
A horror story written in such beautiful handwriting, good old Victorians
But his grammar as Vicky said was not good.
@@notnek202 But brilliant compared to today's standards. 😐
@@jena.alexia OMG by today’s standards he’s a genius. And his penmanship absolutely beautiful !!!!! Is Cursive even taught in the schools now day’s.
@John Madthe most beautiful cursive I ever saw was a guy I went to school with it was beautiful. My mother also has beautiful cursive mine not so much. I gave it up years ago. 😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
@Lord Typesalot Here in the states i started learning cursive in the 2nd grade now in two states it’s no longer taught and I believe 30 others are considering doing away with it. 😢
I very much appreciate the young woman explaining the physical condition she shares with this historical figure. It feels invasive having her display herself and her medical condition like this, and I am sure it grows tiresome detailing her handicap over and over, but it really adds to the story.
Had his mother given him the love and attention a child should receive, disabled or not, the world may not have suffered two world wars, and the geopolitical landscape we see today, may never existed. You may never have existed. Kind of crazy and scary to think about...
Sounds good
its more complicated than that. the tensions in europe were so hot not even a mothers love would have prevented them from boiling over into war - and it was DUE to these antiquated monarchies.
As an adult, he had control over the choices he made.
First WW would have happened anyway.
Nah, Germanic nature has always been one of ruthlessness. They were always feared as far back as the first centuries.
He had a good motivator / mentor / physhical trainer and therapist in a young Hussar officer August von Mackensen. Mackensen helped him learn how to ride and build his strenght. They became good friends and Mackensen later became the great Fieldmarshal many think of today.
The Kaiser also learnt to shoot accurate and quick also. He became a better shot with one good arm than many with noth. Did not waste ammo on many hunts and occassions in many areas. Preferred light carbines and rifles,but was also very innovative in other ways also.
One was a combined Fork/ spoon / knife combination he designed and had developed which became popular for many later. We now know as Spork.
Where did get these info?
I would like to learn more about how he coped...
the tragic history of humankind is in fact the tragic history of traumatised children and cruelty
thinking that Vicky was still a child too, she was 17 and in labor
@@Friederike42 Thanks for the rec !
Funny you mention this (well not... "funny", more like a rhetorical funny) because cases of anxiety, ocd, and many others are oftenly related to a parent having it and/or childhood trauma. "Oh I know it's ok, my dad/mom's the same."
Violence is a cycle, and human history so far has been a cycle as well. The same things keep happening because the same actions set them in place, and more often than not people can't even see it, so they blindly keep doing the same shit over and over.
Studying history is studying how some people got fucked and how they ended up fucking other people, and the vicious cycle never ends, people fucking up each other, until humans wake up and stop reproducing.
Hitler was treated badly by his father, only his mother loves him. He list his mother and become an artist while being homeless he survived hell. Stalin also had bad childhood. Make you wonder that evil were not born but made
Do the people of England not know that their monarchy is German on both sides and only changed their name to Windsor because of it. and also mountbatten changed his name from the German Von Battenburg.
And that the Mountbattens aren't so much German as they are Danish?
This British person was told when she was 8 yrs old about the German connection of our Royal family by a German girl I used to play with when we lived in Germany. History has always fascinated me
- von Battenberg -
And Saxe-Coburg-Gothe
@@karenlloyd945 Really? Because him, my country lost more than 2/3 in its territory. Many Hungarians become unwanted strangers in their own country and even home, house.
Prince Rainer has heterochromia! The coolest (in my opinion) of all genetic mutations!
His eyes are beautiful - one bright blue, the other hazel/greenish
How curious that one situation creates such chaos in the world that leads to so much destruction...because one little boy was not loved. It affected my family when my grandfather came back from WW1 and couldn't love his family because of PTSD. And he married my grandmother whose family left because of chaos in Germany. This one little boy created my life. 😳.
This is wonderful documentary I had no Idea about that Wilhelm II had disability. This explains quite a lot about him, his attitude and so on.
No. You did only. Hear. The victor.
That poor man, I would've been pissed at my mother AND my grandmother. My grandmother for allowing it to happen.
This is just heartbreaking. He longed for the love of his mother, and she was seemingly ill equipped to love him.
He got even when he became an adult and was a thorn in his parents side. Treated her is a most disrespectful manor. He was very bombastic and a total pompous ass. Surrounded himself with sycophants. Most family members couldn’t stand the man. Even as an adult he acted like a spoiled child.
@@notnek202 it’s manner, not manor.
@@alexgreene5864 it was a typo sorry
I really wish they made real history classes just as interesting to learn as these videos.
I always liked history, but for the love of god, classes did not help me remember anything. You just had to remember 100 different years and timelines and not really focus on the ACTUAL history part.
sooooo agree
Wasnot sexual - just needed affection from Mom that was missing all those yrs
He said he wanted her naked in his bed...
Grifo Cold missed that- didnot hear that- wow
@@GrifoStelle Wait where?
@@GrifoStelle timestamp?
It isn’t fair to down play this mans traumatic childhood full of physical pain then emotional rejection!! It’s damaging!!! I’m not shocked at all that he was making bad decisions!!
He only make bad decision at diplomacy but yeah he often make stupid decisions
Who could blame a mother whose reputation was staked by an incident that she had no control. Sorry for her physically and emotionally damaged son.
Personally, I think the 'incestuous dreams' were actually an extension of his own paralyzed arm. A mother's love can conquer anything in a young boy. Especially with his ailment, he subconsciously dreams the same dream constantly.
Wilhelm had incestuous feeling for her hands? Even in our age how can anyone be so perverted to imagine that!
What a sad story. If only he had an understanding mother. But where was the father?
Exactly
As soon as I heard the narrator, I thought about butler at Downton Abbey. Jim Carter has an incredible voice.
He sounds like Nicol Williamson.
His letters didn’t sound erotic at all... is the weird?
That's Frued for you he was nuts
There were probably more passages not fit for this documentary.
@sina
No, not weird. The assumptions are wrong.
Queen Victoria was a Narcissist.
Vicky and her siblings were traumatised by their mother and Vicky seems to have not learned a thing about being able to nurture or protect her child.
Wilhelm has suffered attachment trauma, from what I can see and poor little boy didn't get his basic needs met for love, safety and belonging.
He knew that he was unacceptable, felt shame, and he developed Narcissism as a result. He must have had the genetic predisposition to it.
My aunty was born during WW1, and she wrote of the atrocities to get her arm right after being born feet first. She also had a twisted ankle.
He did not have sexual feeling for his mother. I am speaking as a daughter who was abandoned by my mother. I did use to write in my diary what it would be like to meet live with her, to be hugged by her, just to be in her presence. People are weird. He loved his mother
So sorry u went through that sis.I bet ur an amazing mother to your children
@@MistressKarma6969 Thank you for your empathy. Yes I give my children much love and freedom, I think I spoiled my oldest
the kaiser used to ride through the german countryside on the train and stop to speak with the citizens. he met my great great grandfather and urged him to get his family out of Germany. That is how we were told of the emigration of our family from Germany in the late 1800s
Why out then?
@@larapalma3744 maybe they warned them about the coming war?
William also had been rejected by his beautifully cousin Princess Elizabeth of Hesse-Darmstadt. He never forgave her and held a grudge against her the rest of his life.
I think it was more that he hated her husband, Grand Duke Sergei (granted, the guy wasn't the greatest person around, probably the one good thing about him was that he loved his orphaned niece and nephew like they were his own) because he was the one who won Ella over, not him, but when the Russian Revolution happened, he tried to get Ella out of Russia, but she refused.
I am glad for that. Women should not have to marry anyone, and it proves their point when one rejected goes about resentful. Also when a spouse complains that he/she was whatever so adultery/ murder was a solution, it is not.
Poor Wilhelm! I wish (as I’m sure the rest of the world does) that things had turned out differently. I had an older brother with cerebral palsy, and even in the 1950s, the treatments were barbaric. Lots to digest here.
My right side (particularly my right arm and hand) disability happened at birth when I had a stroke. I spent the first month in an oxygen tent. Later I had physical therapy which helped. Something else that was recommended was tying my left arm in place to force me to use my right. I remember hating this, voicing my displeasure a lot. I fully sympathize with Wilhelm.
And never forget,your mother thought what she was doing for you was correct,which it was at the time
@@laurielovett8849 I am deeply aware of my mother's love. In retrospect the doctors' advice was sound. As I've aged I'm beset with a genetic problem, dystonia, a tremor affecting my left arm and hand. I can no longer write or play certain musical instruments. I can however hold a fork or spoon with my right and reach my mouth without spilling any food. Writing (actually printing) is almost legible.
Fascinating! I had no idea. Poor guy was doomed from the start:c
Ahh Carson's voice, love it 🤩
It was so kind of the Crawleys of Downton Abbey to loan out Carson to voice this episode
I’m not so sure that was an erotic dream? I mean we are talking about someone with a forced obsession about a deformed left arm/hand having a dream about his mother’s perfect left hand.
It's funny that this thing wraps up with the judgment that _Vicky_ was a failure. Did Friedrich even exist? For a son, a father's influence can be even greater than a mother's, and where was the father during all of these events? No mention of him and his relationship with Wilhelm 🙄.
@She Elf Very few fathers in the so called 'noble families' had much if anything to do with their kids until a certain age... even less if the kid had some perceived imperfection... Im not surprised the father wasn't mentioned much
Unfortunately, for many years, Friedrich struggled with a severe cancer. It was an additional trauma for young Wilhelm as he saw the suffering and slow death of his father. Added to this was the enormous pressure and expectations of the environment that now Wilhelm had to meet the requirements and become a worthy successor to his father, and especially to his grandfather, Wilhelm I. Meanwhile, the political situation was becoming more and more complicated and unpredictable. It is easy to criticize, but even today no one would know how this great war could be avoided. After all, everyone believed that thanks to this war, they would all easily achieve their imaginary goals. But they miscalculated
As a german, i feel deep love for our poor Kaiser. I know what it‘s like, to beg for his own mothers affection. Doesn‘t really surprise me that he became sad, cold and kind of brutal against himself and the ones who rejected him as a child and young man.
I LOVE History!
When I was a child, I learned after wanting help for so long, not knowing what was wrong with me that I had dyslexia. I loved reading and learning about history, but I couldn’t understand what I was reading most of the time. Same with math, I loved it but had trouble. After fighting for so long for help, I gave up..then a tutor fresh from Indiana University said this is new but she believes I have this dyslexia. Well, by this time..I lost interest in reading, sadly. I wish I had never given up on myself because even as a child, I loved learning about the past.
My mom had epilepsy and my grandmother was told by everyone who knew about to put her in a home but she refused and my mom grew up as normal as anyone.
People don't accept anyone who is different, especially neurotypicals. People always state my son's disability before anything else. But im here to love him hard and set the standard of the love he deserves. Not our broken people in a broken society.
I do 💞💞💞💞
Kaiser is bad, but I understand why, this is human nature. He was rejected, hmmmmmm
Pathetic how someone could love a child less because they're disabled. Absolutely horrendous and disgusting. There is no excuse for it royalty or not, point in time be dammed, no excusr!
Poor baby Wilhelm 😭
he was a good boy he didn't deserve anything his mother treated him like
It is sad to know he was mistreated and outlasted as something he is not
Am I the only one who didn't feel those letters were incestuous? It sounded like a child begging his mother to love him. To look past his condition. He was starving for her affection and acceptance. If she, as his mother couldn't love him then who else ever could?
While things were worded differently back then, the words definitely were incestuous. If you noticed particularly the mentioning of her taking off her gloves-which would be the equivalent of taking off ones clothes today.
Also, hand fetishes do exist and is more common than you think. So, think of the letters pertaining to her hand as a letter pertaining to sexual parts.
@@chadfish1856 ok if you look at it that way I guess you are right.
So this is what Mr Carson is doing during retirement. Narration. Hi Mrs Hughes!!
Thank you! I was going crazy trying to figure out who was narrating.
Omg I'm just realizing how many times I've heard his voice in narration and didn't even notice lol! Hahaha hi Mrs Hughes! 😂
That’s who I thought it was! I love Mr. Carson!
Couldn't they just come up with some story about why his arm lost use?
Riding a horse n fell, or some such tale
That would sound like a normal thing to do.
I think their problem was that *he* was "a cripple" not *why* he was disabled. A good explanation would still not take away the fact that he was disable, and it was the disability itself that made him look weak in the eyes of the other royal members.
Still, there surely was a way to make him look good with his disability(as barbaric as that sounds...), by publicly explaining it away as the result of some heroic act, an hunting incident or(later ofc) some military training action or similar bullshit, but I guess that bunch of royal inbreds didn't have the mental capacity for that 🤷🏻♀️
Lots of people are BORN with disabilities! What’s YOUR problem?!? 🙄
@LadyLiberty a weakness sure, but not one that reflects poorly on the family
He would have been injured while the training to lead his country military victory
People would still have rejected him
So so so sad this all happened to the child .It tells us the mind set of people at that time was so different to us today.I suppose as time went on things got better. Poor little man, bless his heart.
Calling his feelings fr his mother incest is disrespectful & humiliation to a beautiful but unfortunate child's memories 😭
I feel so sad for him and certainly relate ...my parents used to smack me around if they thought i was using my erbs palsy as a crutch... i dont hate them any more they thought they were doing what was best and in some ways it made me more independent but emotionally crippled still... that feeling of not being good enough...it never went away for me ..its a constant battle.
I'm sorry. But glad you are working through it
Praying for you🙏🏻
I saw a young woman in a wheelchair doing an ad for makeup. She had a beautifully expressive face and a confident smile. It was joyous to me that she could accept what she could not change and make her life about what she could do.
The letters containing the word 'hand' were extremely sad. I imagined what must have gotten on inside this young man's mind to try so desperately to engage with his mother, metaphorically through letters putting all his energy on exactly the body part that has cursed him all his life. She should have seen past the obscene first impression those letters give off and understand that he tried to flatter her by telling her how beautiful her hand was so she might one day return the same compliment and same physical warmth and affection to his "crippled" hand. Breaks my heart.
Very interesting but extremely sad for the child. His mother was a bit of a nut. Happy he had his grandma 🌸
Laying the war solely at the feet of William is problematic. The British monarchy also shares in the blame.
Same with his Russian cousins and firing Bismarck
Austria's relentless opression of its subjects is also to blame for starting the fire
The dreams do not seem like they’re revealing sexual desire at all. The child’s dreams (which he cannot control) is very revealing to his subconscious mind. Though it doesn’t take digging deep into the subconscious to determine he’s clearly desiring his mother’s love, attention & acceptance. Dreams are so often symbolic, and these dreams don’t seem to be pointing to sexual desire at all. The hand is a focus in the dreams and his hand was deformed. It sounds to me like an innocent dream, revealing emotional pain from his handicap and maternal emotional neglect.
This is hardly 'secret history'. The details of Wilhelm's difficult birth, his disabled arm, and the treatments to which he was subjected are described fully in many of the biographies written about him.
Its called secretly as it was hardly known by many ww1 historians
Those letters are just Wilhelm wanting his mother to acknowledge and love him like a mother should to her child!!! OH FOR GOD SAKES!!! 😒😳😂I don't know whether to be annoyed or laugh at the incompetency of these historians. Clearly, Wilhelm wanted his mothers' love as a child deserve!
My thoughts exactly.
So sad that Vicky was so blinded by the ignorance of her time, that she could not bring herself to love her own son😢😢😢
This is my absolute fave channel.
Tony Robinson is the best !!
I've binged so many of these videos, I didn't even realize I wasn't subscribed until now.
What a perfect narrator!! Thank you Carson 🥰
Great great documentary exactly what we want, minute details which took decisive role in major historical events, how small minute matters manifest itself in the plot of time.
All if the men who never came back from the War and to their families because a boy didn't have the love if his Mother.
I agree it is sad for a disability to cause so much pain in young Wilhelm, but millions of soldiers and civilians had to pay a huge price for the mistakes of a few Royals?
@@elegantescape3961 we should teach all child both science and spiritualily simultaneously. By spirituality I am not meaning those mumbo-jumbo. But true insight about our own tendency. Here everyone is trying to consume everything and everyone who isn't superior to him. Some has great reach some hasn't this is the only difference.
NOPE THIS IS PURE BULLSHIT
The Boy had ADHD........which is brain damage..........same as Donald J trump
same as George W bush
He had the thinking abilities of a 9 year old BOY
poor impulse control
inability to understand long range consequences to current actions
poor judgement
poor emotional control
memory impairment
always focused on short term instant gratification
Its always Fucking, Fighting and Eating Food
its brain damage to Executive Functions
See "marshmallow Test"....
@@agaragar21 ?
Does anyone notice how much Wilhelm ||looks like queen Elizabeth || as a child ? Its crazy !!!
He looks like Queen Victoria tbh, he grew out of it though after the age of 18 when lost his cute baby face.
Come on guys he only just wanted his mother’s love ❤️
Wow!! The hand writing is amazing in this!
This is a tragic story. Queen Elizabeth’s uncle John had epilepsy and was hidden from the public for his entire life. He may have also been intellectually disabled.
John died aged 12 from a major seizure. The medical profession had no medicine to help him like we do today. The lack of understanding at the time led to the idea that epilepsy might be contagious. Sad but true.
It is interesting and curious that so many responses here to this situation cannot understand the part that inadequate scientific knowledge combined with cultural attitudes of shame continue to play a part in our present society’s attitudes towards those who are “different”: physically disabled or intellectually disabled or emotionally disabled or a different color or a different religion or a different societal background. Anyone not belonging to the particular “tribe” that thinks of itself as normative generates negative responses from that tribe and sadly, all too often these are revealed in the political sphere. In this episode they remained in the family until the Kaiser was an adult and then he acted out these emotional harms and frustrations on the political level. What can be our excuse?
It's biological, the weakest slow the herd
Perfect example of the many ways people destroy their children's hopes, dreams, and minds.
6:34 wow Queen Victoria's daughter was a beauty
Omg, no wonder he was messed up. I know pain from the left region... and i can empathise with him so much.
34:55 "If Victoria had lived some 13 or so more years" ... there would not have been a war! Poor commentator had not understood the dynamics of the relationships at all.
How heartbreaking, when it was the doctor’s fault. Breech births can be successful, but mostly when there’s no intervention during the birth. Since she was incoherent and her body was compromised by the chloroform, it became very dangerous and they’re very lucky worse damage didn’t happen. Vicky must’ve felt such blame and guilt.
Unfortunatelly i don't think she would have seen it that way, if she had she might have treat Wilhelm better than she did
What are you talking about? Breech babies need to be turned or assisted in some other way to exit the birth canal.
It was not the Drs fault. Breech babies happen. Lucky the child lived in those days
I can't believe I'm in this early on an Absolute History video. When did these become so integral to my life?
Y D TV
Maybe my grandfather wouldn’t have had to go fight a war had Whilhem II not been tortured as a child!
No wonder he started a war!! Poor child!! It’s torture! No matter what they did it wasn’t going to work! Such trauma!! I can’t imagine how much he cried as a baby & small child! How could Vicky as a mother listen to that?! Breaks my heart!
Big castles, the children are much further away in the nursery than the rest of the adults.
Though it would have been still mentally troubling.
In reality he didn't start the war. At least not alone. Austria did. Problem was, that due to his mother and him being disliked by his British family due to his mothers treatment and due to that him trying to be impressive in the German Kaiserreich, he swore alliance to Austria. I mean, in 1903 or so they had negotiations for treaties and alliance to Britain, which obviously failed. So he swore alliance to Austria, which makes sense given the fact that the two countries were so close together and mainly have the same traditions and cultures. Due to that alliance with Austria Germany also declared war. The outbreak of WW1 is extremely complex and nearly all European nations at that time, mainly France, Germany, Britain, Austria and Russia, were keen on war. They wanted to show off, the nations wanted war and they were all happy about it at first. But then the war became something people had never seen before. So Wilhelm didn't start the war alone, although his personality was the result of his childhood trauma and led to him not being liked by his relatives and that drive him to this deadly alliance with Austria which began the first world war.
One of the most fascinating documentaries ever! This might have been the reason why Germans were somewhat cold toward the people with disabilities for decades. It wasn't until the Disability Equality Law (Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz), passed in 2004, and General Equal Treatment Law (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz), passed in 2006, when attitude toward the disabilities started to change for better albeit slowly in Germany.
Germany can't possibly treat disabled people worse than they are treated in Asia.
Poor Vicky & Fritz only 88 days on the throne. Everything that was hoped for when they were married in 1858 was destroyed 30 years later. And to think they could of had the throne much earlier. In 1862 King William I considered abdicating because of a depute with the
Landtag of Prussia (the representative assembly of the Kingdom of Prussia implemented in 1849) but his son, the Crown Prince, advised strongly against it. When given the chance he should of agreed & history would of been different.
ngl learning about the royals failing and being so flawed makes me feel a little better about myself. My life may be a mess but at least I never waged war against my cousins
But then you weren't living under the strain of disability,and trying to over compensate,by making your country great, even in the1900s it was impossible for the Russian Royal family to disclose that the Prince had a fatal blood disease, they would have been discarded by " the people " and all treatments at the time were barbaric my mum was atsd nervous,was taken to tbe hospital,where it was decided she should undergo shock treatment, st23 years of she, she was a nervous wreck for life. Her pare ts thought they were doing right by her nowadays no medical person would even consider giving a child shock treatment and in those days without an anaesthetic
@@laurielovett8849 You forgot the fact that I don't have an entire army at my disposal
Love is the most important thing. Love everey child.
I never understood why people hated the idea of disabilities so much. They should have just been grateful that he was even alive