It is in these serious days of mourning that God's will places me at the head of the army, and it is from a heart stirred deeply, indeed, that I address my first words to my troops.
I enter with implicit confidence, however, upon this duty to which God has called me; for I know what a sense for honor and duty has been implanted in the army by my glorious ancestors, and I know to what degree this sense has ever and at all times displayed itself.
The absolutely inviolable dependence upon the war lord [_Kriegsherr_] is, in the army, the inheritance which descends from father to son, from generation to generation. I would direct your gaze to my grandfather, who stands before the eyes of all of you, the glorious war lord, worthy of all honor--a spectacle more beautiful than any other and one which speaks most tellingly to our hearts; I would direct your gaze to my dear father, who even as Crown Prince won for himself a distinguished place in the annals of the army, and to a long succession of famous ancestors whose names are resplendent in history and whose hearts beat warmly for the army.
So are we bound together--I and the army--so are we born for one another, and so shall we hold together indissolubly, whether, as God wills, we are to have peace or storm.
You are now about to swear to me the oath of fidelity and obedience, and I vow that I shall ever be mindful of the fact that the eyes of my forefathers look down upon me from that other world and that I one day shall have to render up to them an account of the fame and the honor of the army.
Three days after his pronouncements to the army and navy Emperor William II issued the following proclamation to his people. In temperament the son was quite unlike his father. The wife of Frederick I and the mother of the present Emperor was an English princess, Victoria (daughter of Queen Victoria), and through her Frederick is generally said to have been influenced by the more liberal English tradition. Critics of William II have occasionally annoyed him by repeating, justly or unjustly, that his father regarded certain elements in his character with disapproval. However that may be, it is true that the people regarded Frederick in a different light from that in which they have come to regard his son. In reading the speeches of William II one is conscious of the fact that he is speaking from a certain eminence, that the Emperor never forgets that he enjoys the advantage of position. He has, therefore, put between himself and his people a certain distance which did not exist in the case of his father. The father treated his subjects as if he were one of them, and it is this fact that led them fondly to call him "_Unser Fritz_." However great the respect which they feel for the son, none of his subjects would think of bestowing any such title on William II, and, even if they did, it is doubtful whether he would feel in any way complimented thereby. He is in this respect more like his ancestor Frederick the Great than like his father or grandfather, and it is a striking fact that in all his speeches he never once mentions this somewhat familiar title, of which his father was proud.