Photographic account of a trip undertaken by the Kaiser’s eldest son to India in 1910-11. An interesting range of images, from the purely touristic to those covering official engagements and hunting trips undertaken on the sub-continent. The Crown Prince and his wife travelled out on the North German Lloyd ship Prinz Ludwig via Egypt. Several tourist images show the pyramids and other sites in Egypt, the Crown Princess on a donkey, also the First Officer of the ship and a group of Chinese stewards. The Royal party seem to have travelled widely in India, from Ceylon to the North West Frontier, visiting Delhi, Benares, Allahabad, Agra, Jaipur, and undertaking a river-trip on the Ganges.
The Crown Prince was a keen sportsman, he published Aus meinem Jagdtagebuch, selections from his hunting diaries in 1912, and there are pictures here from a tiger hunt in Mirazpur and a leopard hunt in Hyderabad. One of the coloured plates is of the Crown Prince with two leopards shot on the 23rd January 1911. Wilhelm’s connections with the British Army are also represented. He was Victoria’s great-grandson and in 1911 was made Colonel-in Chief of the 11th (Prince Albert’s Own) Hussars, images present of a parade in Sucunderabad, Dragoons in Muttra, and an English sentry at Abbotabad. Also two coloured plates, one of the Khyber Pass - “which carries traffic from India to Afghanistan” - and a group of sentries of the Khyber Rifles. Wilhelm apparently asked to be made Colonel-in-Chief of the Regiment but was denied as they were a local levy and not a Regular Regiment.
Other occasions recorded include the Crown Prince’s arrival in Bombay in December 1910; meetings with Lady Hardinge and the Maharajah of Bhurtpore; a visit to the International Exhibition at Allahabad in 1911, the Royal car is shown outside the German Engineering Court and receiving an Honorary Doctorate at Calcutta.
Wilhelm was quite a controversial figure in Germany, identifying with the most aggressively militaristic elements. Shortly after his return from India he was deprived of the command of the Death’s Head Hussars by his father following a quarrel over the Zabern Incident. Col. von Reuther, the German commander of Zabern [Saverne] in Alsace, had authorised troops to open fire on a crowd protesting about the heavy-handed German presence in the region. The Crown Prince supported the Colonel and Lt. Baron von Forstner, his co-defendant in the resulting court martial, and on their acquital told them to “Keep it up…”. On the outbreak of the Great War, however, he was given command of the Fifth Army and served for the duration with considerable success. He fled to Holland with his father shortly before the Armistice and abdicated all claim to the throne in December 1918. Smuggled back into Germany in 1923 he dabbled in fringe politics, supporting the Nazis and joining the Party Motorized Corps. At the end of WWII he fled to Bavaria, but was captured by the French. He died in 1951.
This copy has a lengthy presentation inscription on the inside of the upper board of the portfolio. Generalmajor Mueller, the Chairman of the Colonial War Association presents the volume to Herr J. von Restorff for his “kind efforts during our deliberations.” Dated in Berlin in 1912.
