On 27 February 1881, the future Wilhelm II, German Emperor, married Auguste Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein.
They became secretly engaged on 14 February 1880 after his parents, and in particular his mother, Victoria, future German Empress, played a crucial role in overcoming the protests of other family members. Especially his grandfather, Wilhelm I, who had objected to Auguste Viktoria’s relatively humble status as her father was not a sovereign. The fact that one of Auguste Viktoria’s aunts (Princess Henriette of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg) was married to a surgeon became a running joke among those who objected to the match.1 Wilhelm and his mother were not close, and her help with this marriage would not bring them any closer if that had been her goal.
During the negotiations, Wilhelm had written, “I will use everything, everything I can and have to win your dear, glorious Dona, and that shall be a sacred promise. I will not rest until I can publicly call her mine, because deep down, I hope she already is.”2 After the engagement, they could finally correspond frequently, and despite the negativity, the wedding planning went ahead. On 2 June 1880, the official engagement finally took place.
The wedding date of 27 February was set, despite a suggestion by Prince Christian (Augusta Victoria’s uncle and husband of Wilhelm’s mother’s sister, Princess Helena) that the wedding should not take place until April or May. This was rejected by Wilhelm’s mother, who wrote to her husband, “After a horrible Berlin winter of court festivities, I find it highly impractical to start everything all over again, new fatigue, new toilet expenses, etc. – it also prevents us from travelling. [ . . .] Your poor mistress really can’t stand wedding festivities right after the winter!”3
By mid-January 1881, the marriage pacts were drawn up and presented to Wilhelm and at the beginning of February, he asked his grandfather to formally appoint his court. Potsdam Palace and the Marble Palace were being renovated for the couple, and they had water pipes installed. Two days before the wedding, Auguste Viktoria arrived in Berlin and was received by a large crowd. She made a ceremonial entry into the palace the following day.
The wedding took place in the palace chapel of the Berlin Schloss and was attended by the Emperor and Empress, the Crown Prince and Princess, Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen and his wife, Charlotte, Prince Henry, the bride’s mother, sister, and brother, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein with his wife Helena, the King and Queen of Saxony, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess of Baden with their children, the Grand Duke of Hesse, Archduke Carl Ludwig of Austria, Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, the Duke of Aosta, Prince Arnulf of Bavaria, Prince August of Württemberg, the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Princes Alexander, Albrecht, Carl and Friedrich Carl of Prussia, and numerous other German royals.4
Auguste Viktoria was crowned with the Princess Crown in Empress Augusta’s Chinese Cabinet and then returned to Wilhelm, who was wearing the uniform of the 1st Guards Regiments and the chain of the Order of the Black Eagle. The wedding speech was delivered by Rudolf Kögel, and the couple exchanged rings. A 36-gun salute announced to the rest of Berlin that the wedding had taken place.5
After the wedding, Wilhelm’s mother wrote to her mother, Queen Victoria, “All went off very well last night; it was exhausting, suffocating and interminable as all the Berlin state weddings are. I had my diadem on for seven and a half hours. The standing was such that my legs feel as if they are going to come off. Sweet Dona (Auguste Viktoria’s nickname) looked quite lovely – so sweet and self-possessed, not shy and yet so modest and gentle. She wore a radiant smile on her face, and her wedding dress became her so well. Even the stiff crown suited her. She was most graceful and dignified during the Fackeltanz, and everyone sung her praises and seemed charmed. Of the service, I will say nothing. It consists in a harangue which the young couple listened to standing, and which is so cold and so funereal that one has not the impression of attending a wedding! Service it cannot be called. The assembly was most brilliant. I am sure you would have been touched at the dear young bride’s appearance and demeanour. May he make her happy and be as good a husband as she deserves.”6
The couple went on to have seven children together, six sons and one daughter. They became Emperor and Empress in 1888.
- Wilhelm II. Die Jugend des Kaisers 1859-1888 by John C. G. Röhl p.368
- Wilhelm II. Die Jugend des Kaisers 1859-1888 by John C. G. Röhl, p.351
- Wilhelm II. Die Jugend des Kaisers 1859-1888 by John C. G. Röhl p.374
- Wilhelm II. Die Jugend des Kaisers 1859-1888 by John C. G. Röhl p.374 – 375
- Auguste Viktoria by Randy Fink p.29
- Beloved Mama edited by Roger Fulford p.96
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