Does it only seem that way to me, or does the new German Chancellor really have this striking resemblance to Wilhelm II of Hohenzollern?

Of course not externally, I mean. Although you might be there too ... If you imagined the beard dress differently ... But that doesn't matter. I think about the appearance, the mental habitus, the character traits.

Do you still remember the former emperor? Its fabulous versatility and posability? The impulsiveness that sometimes bothered the political officials of the Second Reich? His piety, which seemed to be based on a kind of personal contact with God? The naive joy of traveling and talking that dominated him, so that he could be seen and heard "here soon, there soon", in uniform and civilian clothes, fair in all saddles, understanding something of everything, at home everywhere? He wanted to crush anyone who opposed him (for example, the evil Social Democrats); he intended to lead his people towards glorious times; he was the peace emperor and then of course slipped into war. (And he lost the war.)

And the new chancellor? In the short time that he is now in office, has not he developed a whole series of features that are strikingly reminiscent of the former German Kaiser?

Adolf Hitler also loves pithy speeches, speeches to his people, and has the technical advantage of radio and air in advance, facilities that did not exist at the time and whose handling William of the Exiled probably genuinely envied.

Adolf Hitler also regards the “Almighty God” as his special ally with whom he will bring about the resurrection of the nation, a “realm of greatness, strength, glory and justice, amen”, as he echoed the Our Father that Berlin Sportpalast speech on February 10th closed.

Hitler, too, wants to exterminate communism and "Marxism," as they now say; he wants to take Christianity and the family under his protection; he advocates the "preservation and consolidation of peace" and strives with all his might for disarmament. Then, of course, it happens to him in between (like Wilhelm see the Daily Telegraf affair) that an Englishman does not reproduce an interview perfectly and that misunderstandings about the Polish corridor and such have to be corrected.

On Friday evening he speaks to the enthusiastic audience in the Berlin Sportpalast about the future of Germany, on Sunday he opens the German automobile exhibition with an extremely knowledgeable speech and on his day is still in Kassel, “at the point from which an Kaiser and a Bismarck overlooked Friedrichsplatz ”(Völk. Observer of February 13), and on Sunday noon we find him in Leipzig celebrating Richard Wagner's 50th anniversary of his death. He must not be missing there.

Could not this return of William II in another guise be called almost spooky?

Anyway, it's no coincidence. The German people obviously want to have leaders like Wilhelm and Hitler.

Should we wish that the result would be different this time? Will it be able to end the glory of the Third Reich differently from that of the second?

1933, 8 · Erich Schairer