The Other Kaiser: Wilhelm I and British Cartoonists, 1861-1914

Abstract

The image of Kaiser Wilhelm II is one of the most prominent in the history of the political cartoon, but the treatment of his grandfather Wilhelm I is virtually unknown. This article aims to redress the imbalance, and shows that analysis of the cartoon Wilhelm I from the periodicals Punch, Fun and Judy (such as John Tenniel, Matt Morgan, William Boucher, Gordon Thomson and Tom Carrington) sheds much light on British attitudes towards Germany and Prussia in the late nineteenth century. In addition, it shows that in these comic weeklies of the 1860s and '70s can be found the origins of the Kaiser Cartoon genre that dominated political satire in the 1914-1918 war.