What did Hitler think of the former Kaiser? Being a WWI veteran I'm sure he had plenty to say. Likewise, how did Wilhelm view Hitler?
>>362597
They didn't like each other and never actually met. Hitler blamed him for Germany loosing the war and making it weak.
>>362597
They didn't really like each other for the most part.
Hitler never really gave him much attention (probably to avoid antagonising the monarchist elements in the army maybe?) but he did lay some of the blame for the failures of WW1 on him. He also made it clear that he wasn't looking to have Wilhelm reinstated to compete for power with him.
Willie on the other hand made it clear he didn't like Hitler at all, largely looking at him as a classless douchebag like most of the aristocracy did. The most he really did was congratulate him for kicking France's ass and even then he did it in a passive-aggressive, you-won-using-MY-troops way.
Willie kinda flipfloped on his dis/approval of Hitler's anti-jew policies too. He sometimes made comments along the lines of "Serves them right" but supposedly was absolutely ashamed when the Night of Broken Glass happened.
Hitler occupied the Netherlands in 1940 and posted the Wehrmacht Presidential guard (former Imperial Guard) to the house Wilhelm II was living in exile in. Hitler didn't need to the Presidential Guard as he took on the SS-Leibstandarte as he personal guard unit. Of course Wilhelm died less than a year later.
I don't know whether to think that it was a snub sending the guard of the Weimar Republic to guard Wilhelm, or whether it was a mark of respect. It might just be that Hitler wanted people to keep him under lock and key so that Hitler's power could not be threatened.
>>362597
Most accurately, it's complicated.
When Hitler came to power, Wilhelm was joyful because he assumed that Hitler would support a restoration of the monarchy. Hitler, as >>362609 said, thought that Kaiser Wilhelm II was the most responsible for Germany's defeat (Aside from Jews) during WWI, and therefore did not give much sympathy to this proposal.
Wilhelm said on the night of Kristallnacht that "For the first time, I am ashamed to be a German." He was disgusted with the Nazis' policies towards Jews.
After German success in Poland and France, Wilhelm sent a personal congratulatory letter to Hitler, using the term "my" to describe the German troops, and again calling for the restoration of the monarchy. Hitler was noted to have commented that the Kaiser was an idiot.
As he got older and senile, he became increasingly pro-Nazi. He believed that Germany was the land of Christ while Britain was the land of Satan and Jews. He believed that the Jews and Freemasons were attempting to take over the world, and that Hitler was attempting to unite the continent of Europe in opposition to the Jews.
When he died, he asked for no Nazi insignia at his memorial, but his request was denied.
>>362661
Fun fact. Wilhelm in 1919 advocated "regular international all-worlds pogrom à la Russe" as "the best cure" and further believed that Jews were a "nuisance that humanity must get rid of some way or other. I believe the best thing would be gas!"
He supported gassing Jews before Hitler did. It is interesting that he later viewed Kristallnacht as barbaric.
>>362609
I thought the Jews were to blame?
>>362673
I always assumed Wilhelm had a similar view to some German monarchy-nationalists. Which was that Jews were shit unless they proved their loyalty to the German nation.
I recall Hindenberg was willing to OK the new race laws against Jews but made sure Hitler amended it to exclude Jewish veterans and civil servants.
>>362597
Hitler wisely noticed that Wilhelm was an absolute retard who single-handedly ran the German empire into the dust.
Wilhelm, being a retard, thought Hitler was going to bring the monarchy back.
>>362677
Everyone was to blame in a vast overarching conspiracy. Including, but not limited to.
>The kaiser
>Jews
>Communists
>The Habsburgs
>Freemasons
>Republcans
>Catholics
>>362597
http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/pdf/Kaiser_Wm_and_Hitler.pdf
Here's an Interview Ol' Willy on the subject.
>>362638
>Willie kinda flipfloped on his dis/approval of Hitler's anti-jew policies too. He sometimes made comments along the lines of "Serves them right" but supposedly was absolutely ashamed when the Night of Broken Glass happened.
Hitler and other prominent Nazis didn't like it too much as well. I mean it was just an act of hooliganism that fit better the Kampfzeit strategy.
