German monarch Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert, better known as Kaiser Wilhelm II, was BOTD in 1859. Born in Potsdam near Berlin, he was the eldest child of Kaiser Frederick III and the Empress Victoria, the daughter of Britain’s Queen Victoria. Born with a damaged left arm, which never grew to full size, a disability hidden by cunning tailoring and flattering photography. He had a typically eccentric aristocratic upbringing, schooled by his mother to become an English gentleman, and encouraged by his father to fulfil the ideals of a Prussian warrior-king. In 1881, he married Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, with whom he had seven children. He became Kaiser in 1888, aged just 28, promptly dismissing Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Ignoring liberal demands that the Chancellor be accountable to the Reichstag (Parliament), he assumed control over government policy, expanding the Navy, acquiring colonies in China and the Pacific, and alienating political allies with tactless public statements and aggressive foreign policy. In 1914, he supported the Austro-Hungarian Empire in its war with Serbia, tipping the political balance of Europe into World War One. Largely delegating military control of the war to his generals, he was forced to abdicate in 1918 after Germany’s crushing military defeat, and fled to the Netherlands. He narrowly avoided prosecution for war crimes, retaining much of his wealth, and later expressed his support for Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. Invariably surrounded by handsome soldiers, he had an intimate (and possibly sexual) relationship with Prince Philip of Eulenberg, whose homosexuality was exposed in a highly publicised sex scandal. Following the revelations, Wilhelm banished Phillipp from court. Biographers and historians have speculated extensively about the true nature of Wilhelm’s sexuality, and argued that his love of military culture and need to prove his (heterosexual) masculinity pushed Germany towards war. He died in 1941, aged 82.