This is John Batchelor, speaking to British historian Nick Lloyd, his book The Western Front.

Nick reflects upon the reputation of the Kaiser, Kaiser Wilhelm, whose sons were in the war, whose grandchildren and great-grandchildren,

remember now what was sacrificed in Germany in those years, the Great War. The Kaiser, however, following Nick's reporting, was

oddly detached from the massacre on the Western Front of his people of Germany. This is the tragedy

that does not end the great war. More of this later tonight.

I don't think he changes.

I think his character, as you know, many historians have pointed out, he's like a weather vein, he moves.

You know, he can be very committed to one thing one minute and then the next minute he'll lose interest

or he'll switch to a different position so for those people around him they'd never really

know where he is and what he's thinking.

And ultimately, although he's a sort of commander-in-chief in name,

he's not really involved in the day-to-day war.

He can make important interventions at times, He can sack generals, he can promote people, he can have the say on grand, you know, something like submarine warfare, but he's not in a day-to-day commanding role. But of course, as the wall goes on and you get a number of people

involved that become very, very well known, particularly Hindenburg and Ludendorf from

1916, the Kaiser kind of shrinks, he becomes less, not less important, but as a figure, he becomes less of a figurehead and he becomes sort of in, you know, in the shadows.

And of course, he's quite insecure about all of this.

And so he finds the whole war quite frustrating.

And I think one of his early diary entries, he says to a friend,

he says, well, you know, people think I command but but I don't I just

sort of I go for walks and I chop board.