William, German Crown Prince - Early Life

Early Life

William was born in the Marmorpalais of Potsdam in the Province of Brandenburg. He was the eldest son of Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) and his first wife Princess Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein (1858–1921). When he was born, he was third in line for the throne, behind his grandfather and father, as the reigning emperor was his great-grandfather, William I. He was the eldest of the Kaiser's seven children, and his birth sparked an argument between his parents and grandmother. Before William was born, his grandmother had expected to be asked to help find a nurse, but since her son did everything he could to snub her, Wilhelm asked his aunt Helena to help. His mother was hurt and his grandmother furious. When his great-grandfather and grandfather both died in 1888, he became the heir-apparent to the German and Prussian thrones.

William was a supporter of association football, then a relatively new sport in the country, donating a cup to the German Football Association in 1908 and thereby initiating the Kronprinzenpokal, the oldest cup competition in German football.

Read more about this topic:  William, German Crown Prince

Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:

    All of Western tradition, from the late bloom of the British Empire right through the early doom of Vietnam, dictates that you do something spectacular and irreversible whenever you find yourself in or whenever you impose yourself upon a wholly unfamiliar situation belonging to somebody else. Frequently it’s your soul or your honor or your manhood, or democracy itself, at stake.
    June Jordan (b. 1939)

    The clergyman is expected to be a kind of human Sunday. Things must not be done in him which are venial in the week-day classes. He is paid for this business of leading a stricter life than other people. It is his raison d’être.... This is why the clergyman is so often called a “vicar”Mhe being the person whose vicarious goodness is to stand for that of those entrusted to his charge.
    Samuel Butler (1835–1902)