This novel has achieved enough critical acclaim and attention to be made into the proverbial 'major motion picture'. The setting is Wilhelm II's mansion in Holland in the spring of 1941 as he continues his over two-decade-long exile and hopes for an invitation to return to Berlin as the restored monarch. He receives as an overnight guest Heinrich Himmler, whom Wilhelm concludes is one of "the shirted gangsters". Although Wilhelm was virulently anti-semitic, he apparently was appalled by Kristallnacht.
'Willy' was in many ways a tragic figure, in completely over his head as Kaiser, and clearly one of those who led Europe into a conflagration it is still recovering from. The fascinating insight here is his total lack of intellectual consistency. He alights on topics, exposes beliefs and moves on in different directions simultaneously. He was a lightweight and like his cousin 'Nicky', a glaring example of the failure of hereditary monarchical systems.
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