I hate Hohenzollerns, and a question about book recommendations

[winter]

*glares at a certain Kaiser*

A question to the LGBT and history-inclined portion of my friends-list: Can anyone recommend books about Wilhelm II of Germany? I'm looking in particular for information about his youth and private life, including the LGBT inclinations.

Comments

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

I know Reinhold Conrad Muschler wrote a biography of Prince Eulenburg called Philipp zu Eulenburg: Sein Leben und seine Zeit in 1930. I've no idea what languages it's available in, but its portrayal of the Kaiser is fairly sympathetic. I'm tossing this name in because Prince Eulenburg was at the centre of the Harden-Eulenburg Affair, and hence along with Kuno von Moltke kind of a focus for the whole possible gay thing. The Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II 1888-1918 by Isabel V. Hull came out in 1982 and also devotes some time to Eulenburg and the rest of Wilhelm's immediate posse.

As for the Kaiser, there's The Kaiser and His Times by Michael Balfour, but I'd almost suggest looking at Cecil Lamar's two-part biography: Wilhelm II: Prince and Emperor, 1859-1900 and Wilhelm II, Vol. 2: Emperor and Exile, 1900-1941, especially the first one. I wouldn't know what the ratio of politics to personal life is, but it's fairly definitive. I'll let you know if I come up with something else.

[winter]

I took a look at Lamar, but alas, he tends to skip a lot over Wilhelm's twenties, which is the period I'd be interested in. So far I've ordered MacDonogh's The Last Kaiser, which looked interesting when I browsed it on Amazon :) I've also got a lot of information off GoogleBooks.

Ah, the trials of a writer simply interested in writing historical characters into improbable situations...