Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany (6 May 1882 – 20 July 1951) was the last Crown Prince of the German Empire and the head of the German House of Hohenzollern from 1941 until his 1951 death.
Biography[]
Wilhelm was born on 6 May 1882 in Potsdam, German Empire, the son of Wilhelm II of Germany and Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. Wilhelm was spoiled and lived a lavish life, and his father disliked his son for his womanizing. In August 1914, however, Kaiser Wilhelm II gave the crown prince command of an army at the start of World War I, and he led an army group at the Battle of Verdun in 1916. After the November Revolution of 1918, Wilhelm went into exile in the Netherlands, and he was still influenced by his father, who was angered when Wilhelm swore to never re-enter politics in a 9 November 1923 speech; it was the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of Kaiser Wilhelm, and it was an ironic insult to the former king and his family. Wilhelm supported the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party until his friend Kurt von Schleicher was executed during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, and he was angered when Hitler decided not to restore the German monarchy. Wilhelm was kept under Gestapo supervision after the Operation Valkyrie bomb plot of 20 July 1944, and he was captured by Moroccan soldiers of the French Army in Baad, Austria at the end of World War II. He was briefly interned as a World War I war criminal by France before retiring to Hechingen, West Germany. He died on 20 July 1951, three days before his rival at Verdun, Philippe Petain.