Excerpt from Men Around the Kaiser: The Makers of Modern Germany William II., German Emperor and King of Prussia, is about to commemorate his Silver Jubilee. Twenty-five years of eventful sovereignty have brought his Empire to the pinnacle of national greatness. Under his dynamic leadership the Fatherland has advanced to front rank in the peaceful arts of commerce and trade, made herself the world's first military power, and become Britain's formidable rival for the mastery of the sea. No reign, medieval or modern, records a more inspiring story of a people's vault to affluence and might. Wondrous and eloquent are the statistical revelations of Germany's bounding growth in population, of Imperial Berlin's rise to metropolitan splendour, of the Empire's colossal foreign trade, of the amazing expansion of national wealth, of the development of the merchant marine, of the transformation of the Navy from a fleet of frigates into an Armada of Dreadnoughts, of triumphs countless in the realms of science, art and industry, which combine to make the German name synonymous with progress and power. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.