Centrals: Heads of State

German Empire : Wilhelm II ( 1859 - 1941 ) Reign : 1888 - 1918.

Of the House of Hohenzollern, hereditary rulers of the German state of Prussia. With the creation of a unified German Empire in 1871 (upon victory in the Franco - Prussian war), the new constitution stipulated that the King of Prussia would be Emperor (Kaiser) of Germany. Wilhelm II ascended to the royal and imperial thrones in 1888. He was 55 years old and in the 26th year of his reign in 1914, start of World War One. Wilhelm exercised actual and near-dictatorial powers in the conduct of Germany's war activities, supported unquestionably by the Prussian dominated military and a generally compliant Reichstag (parliament). For years he had conditioned German society and culture to the conservative principles of " personal rule " and the German Imperial Constitution reserved in the person of the Kaiser supreme command of the military and the right to make war - prerogatives which Wilhelm exercised fully. He lived throughout the war, abdicating in November 1918, just 3 days before the Armistice that ended World War One. He fled into exile to the Netherlands where he lived for another 23 years. With his abdication the 300 year Hohenzollern dynasty ended.


Rotary - England 1910.	Gust. Liersch No. 2478.	W.C.A. Series 146 U.S.A.


In Austrian Uniform 1914.	Red Cross Vienna No. 309.	Phot. Belge Bruxelles 1916.	In the uniform of a Turkish Fieldmarshal.


House "Doorn" (NL) where Wilhelm II went into exile.	In the garden of House "Doorn" with his 2nd wife Hermine. March 1926	House "Doorn" At the woodcutter's lodge (1931).

Of the House of Habsburg, hereditary rulers of the Austrian Empire. Franz Josef was also King of Hungary and King of Bohemia. From 1868, as a result of Austria's defeat in the Austro - Prussian war, Austria had been known as the "dual monarchy" and the "Austria - Hungary Empire". Franz Josef ascended to the throne in 1848. He was 84 years old and in the 66th year of his reign in 1914, start of World War One. He was the world's oldest and longest serving monarch in 1914, and known throughout Europe as " the venerable old gentleman ". He was little involved in the conduct of government and Austria's activities in the war. Although the office of Emperor (Kaiser) exercised close to absolutist political and military power, the Empire's diplomatic and military activities during the war were in the hands of the Army Chief of Staff Count Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf and State Chancellor Berchthold. Franz Josef died during the war, on November 21, 1916, and was succeeded by his great nephew the Archduke Karl, son of Franz Josef's deceased younger brother Karl Ludwig. Thereafter in the last years of the war von Hötzendorf and Berchthold were removed from power by Kaiser Karl.


France 1908	Vienna 1914.	Pietzer Vienna 1914.	W.C.A. Series 146 U.S.A.	Wohlfahrts- karte Berlin. 1916	Died Nov. 21, 1916


Emperor Franz Josef I and Archduke Karl.	Royal Wedding: Archduke Karl Franz Josef and Archduchess Zita. October 21, 1911	Archduke Karl. 1914


Emperor Karl I and Empress Zita.	Empress Zita, Crownprince Franz Josef Otto and Emperor Karl I.	Zita, Queen of Hungary (1916).

Mehmed V was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and as such by tradition technically the temporal and spiritual leader of the world's Muslims. He ascended to the throne in 1909 as a result of the deposition of his brother, the autocratic Sultan Abdul Hamid II, by reformist elements in the Army (called the "Young Turks"). Abdul Hamid II had ruled for 33 years and was sent into exile. Mehmed V was a totally figurehead monarch as the imposition of the constitution stripped the Sultan of almost all his prerogatives. As with Franz Josef I of Austria - Hungary, Turkey's diplomatic and wartime activities were in the hands of the military. In the case of the Ottoman Empire in the hands of triumvirate of military officers of whom the fanatically pro-German Enver Pasha was the dominant force. Mehmed V was 70 years old and in the 5th year of his reign in 1914, start of World War One which Turkey entered solely upon the dictates of Enver Pasha who had secretly ordered his Black Sea Navy ( also the German cruisers Breslau and Goeben under Turkish flag) to launch attacks upon Russia without provocation or declaration of war. Mehmed V died on July 3, 1918, just four months before Turkey's surrender to the Allied Nations.


Sultan Ghazi Mehmed Rechad V Photo Pietzner Vienna 1915 NPG No. 5202	"The Awakening of the Orient" Publ.J.C. König & Ebhardt Hannover 1914. Designed by Heinz Keune	Sultan Ghazi Mehmed Rechad V Photo Pietzner Vienna 1915 NPG No. 5212


Turkish priest proclaiming the Holy War in front of the Mosque of Faith in Constantinople.	Wohlfahrts Karte des "Reichs- verband zur Unterstützung deutscher Veteranen E.V. Publ. ca. 1920 "Proclamation of the Holy War"

Ferdinand was a Prince of the German House of Sachsen - Coburg when he was recruited to assume the throne of the Principality of Bulgaria. He ascended that throne in 1887 at a time when Bulgaria was a newly independent nation, but still technically a Principality (not a kingdom) under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. In 1908 at the time of the Bosnian Crisis when Austria - Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina from Turkey, Ferdinand declared Bulgaria's full independence and proclaimed himself Czar. The Ottoman Empire recognized Bulgaria's independence in return for payment of an indemnity. Ferdinand was 54 years old and in the 28th years of his reign in 1915, the year in which Bulgaria entered World War One on the side of the Central Powers. Ferdinand was a constitutional monarch but brought Bulgaria into the war against the wishes of the majority of his country's parliament, and while he did not exercise as much political power as did Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, he was an active and powerful force in the conduct of Bulgaria's diplomatic and military activities during the war. Bulgaria's front crumbled in September 1918 before a combined Allied force of Serbian, British, French, Italian and Greek armies, and on September 30, 1918 Bulgaria signed an Armistice of surrender. On October 4, 1918, 4 days after Bulgaria's surrender, Ferdinand abdicated and went into exile. The mantle of Czar passed to his son Boris.


"Ferdinand, First Prince of Bulgaria" France 1904	"H.M. Czar of Bulgaria Ferdinand I" Bulgaria 1915	Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria in German uniform. Gustav Liersch Berlin. No. 7525	Kaiser Wilhelm & Czar Ferdinand. NPG No. 5371