Within a couple of decades Kaiser Wilhelm II had led the German Reich into World War and collapse. How did the Kaiser come to have so much power? Using new archival sources, this book analyzes the Kaiser and the nature of his rule. After an original character sketch of the Kaiser, the book then examines the Kaiser’s friends and favorites, the neo-absolutist culture of the court and of Berlin society, and the nature of his relationship with the court and with the administrative corps in Prussia and the Reich. A final chapter reveals for the first time the extent of the exiled Kaiser’s anti-Semitism.