Kaiser Wilhelm II cuts short his cruise and returns to Germany

From the beginning of July 1914 Kaiser Wilhelm II was on his annual summer cruise in the waters of Norway. Aboard the yacht Hohenzollern he visited his favourite places, above all Balestrand on the Sognefjord. The trip, begun as planned just after Austria-Hungary had been promised full support, also had a political meaning: the Kaiser’s absence gave the impression that nothing out of the ordinary was happening in Germany.

News from Vienna and Belgrade reached Norway too, however. From Norwegian newspapers the Kaiser learned of the ultimatum to Serbia and of the Serbian reply. Several times he telegraphed Berlin that he considered a return advisable, but Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg and the German Foreign Office asked him not to break off his voyage. They feared that a sudden return by the Kaiser would alarm Europe and undermine the claim that the Austro-Serbian conflict was a local matter.

Wilhelm II, however, decided to act on his own. On 25 July he set off for home and at the same time ordered the Hochseeflotte, then in Norwegian waters, to return to its bases. This decision, too, was taken against the wishes of the chancellor, who did not want to give the British any cause for alarm. On 26 July the Kaiser was on his way to Kiel on the Baltic. That same day the British embassy in Berlin was told that the German government regretted this unauthorised return, as it might give rise to disquieting rumours.

From Kiel Wilhelm II went on to Potsdam, where he arrived on 27 July. He found the German leadership divided. The chancellor and the diplomats still hoped that the conflict could be confined to the Balkans, whereas the chief of the general staff, Helmuth von Moltke, was convinced that war was unavoidable.

The Kaiser’s return ended the phase in which Berlin could pretend that the crisis was unfolding without its involvement. From then on the most important decisions were taken in Wilhelm II’s presence, and he himself, after reading the Serbian reply to the ultimatum, was for a short while to believe that war could still be avoided.