The Chancellor as Courtier: Bernhard von Bulow and the Governance of Germany, 1900-1909

Bernhard von Bülow was the longest-serving Reich Chancellor of Imperial Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II. Appointed State Secretary of the Foreign Office in 1897 and Chancellor in 1900, he played a crucial role in the political history of the German Empire for twelve important years before the First World War. Bülow was chosen by Wilhelm II to be 'his Bismarck' and he was widely regarded as the most talented and intelligent of Bismarck's successors. Nevertheless his Chancellorship failed to ...