It is of course a very broad subject...
because the alliance was concluded on August 2, 1914, as you know...
with the Ottoman-German secret treaty of August 2, 1914.
But there is a back-story, a background to it.
The background goes as far back as 1888.
What happened in 1888 or a little earlier – it goes back to 1878, to Bismarck’s resignation.
Now, of course in terms of the period we will handle the issue in a more general sense.
Here, I remember a famous quote by Hegel, the renowned philosopher Hegel.
“The truth is the whole,” says Hegel.
Let us first look at the whole.
This is what the whole is like...
When Bismarck resigned in 1888, he had not made a deal with Kaiser Wilhelm II...
for Kaiser Wilhelm II wanted to pursue world politics, Weltpolitik.
Bismarck, on the other hand, wanted Germany, which had just completed...
its union in 1871 and did so with blood and iron, with Bismarck’s own words...
to deal with its internal affairs. He wanted to strengthen the German Federation.
So, we can summarize it like this...
While Kaiser Wilhelm II wanted to open up to the world, to pursue the Weltpolitik...
Bismarck rather wanted to strengthen the inner bonds of the empire.
They did not reach an agreement.
Bismarck was Kanzler, in today's terms the Prime Minister.
Kaiser was the Kaiser.
But Bismarck had acquired so much power that the Kaiser...
as the person to establish the German Federation, as a political figure...
wanted both to be the prime minister and the Kaiser.
And upun this, Bismarck resigned.
After Bismarck resigned, Kaiser Wilhelm II had no obstacles on his road to pursuing the Weltpolitik.
