Majestät brauchen Sonne

This documentary provides a trenchant analysis of German history before WW1 by focusing on the life and media persona of Kaiser Wilhelm II. I found it both extremely interesting and extremely entertaining, and I rather hope that a subtitled English version exists somewhere or will exist some day - the movie is highly recommendable for everybody actually interested in early 20th century history.

In a pleasantly minimalistic fashion, Schamoni provides a montage of authentic footage from the Wilhelminian period 1890-1914, as preserved by German (and other) archives, with a few bits of additional material from nowadays. The silent footage is explained by an almost continuous voice-over commentary (beautifully spoken by Mario Adorf). This commentary is solidly researched and actually manages to make at least one point of considerable historical relevance, previously rather understated in the literature on the period: the film material demonstrates amply how very much the Kaiser relied on the new media photography and film in order to create an impression of omnipresence and to impose himself (or rather, a media persona that better suited his fairly advanced vanity) on the minds of his subjects. The media multiplied the images of a ruler who hardly ceased traveling his country anyway, presumably in a somewhat desperate effort to suppress the slow erosion of monarchical values - of which he must have been dimly aware and which was ironically furthered substantially by his great talent to mess up national and international politics with his appalling political incompetence. The movie title - "His majesty need sun" - alludes to Wilhelm's incessant pursuit of sunshine for making public appearances - and to Germany's pursuit of "a place in the sun", a euphemism used to justify the heated quest for a colonial empire since the 1880s, a quest that helped set the stage for WW1 more than anything else.

While the movie has no share in the banality and intellectual barrenness so characteristic of history documentaries, it still manages to be extremely entertaining. Schamoni opts for a specific analytical standpoint, and he never conceals this decision from the viewer. The movie is a type of documentary aiming at analysis. Everything Schamoni does in order to drive his analysis further supports the documentary character of the movie. "Everything" here means two things, in particular: the use of satire, and the use of emotionalization.

As for satire, the combination of footage and the very choice of certain clips (particularly memorable for me: the Kaiser entertaining German notables with extraordinarily childish games on his yacht) often aim at ridicule. In addition, Otto Sander provides Kaiser imitations, absurd little soliloquies, which make the pictures come to their ridiculous lives. But all this remains in the framework of Schamoni's analysis of a society that was willing to tolerate sheer folly out of booming nationalism and increasingly outdated ideals of masculinity and adherence to a system of social hierarchization based on the presence of the monarch.

As for emotionalization, Schamoni provides occasional glimpses of the Kaiser's rather unhappy existence, for instance with respect to his childhood as a disabled heir-apparent (his left arm was paralyzed since birth), rather despised by his parents and subject to torturous discipline meant to enable him to hide his disability from the public. Occasionally, one feels sorry for Wilhelm when he loses control of his media images. And the pictures from his exile in Doorn (Netherlands) where he died in 1944, only, and where his most important pastime was to oversee the cutting down of most of the trees in the park, are actually somewhat heart-breaking. They reveal the near-autistic quality of Wilhelm's interactions with the world, and they arouse an ambivalent sort of pity - for the unhappy monarch and for the world he helped come to pieces. This device of emotionalization remains intimately bound up with the satirical side of the film, however, and always remains a tool of analysis, if a suggestive one, pointing at the likely tensions between Wilhelm's private and public personae, and keeping the movie off the dangerous track of interpreting history in a personalized fashion. Schamoni never forgets, it seems, that the Kaiser is just one part of a social system. All in all, I really do not know what else to ask of a historical documentary.

The movie is a documentation made of historical film material. While having seen lots and lots of pictures of the WW2 era, this was the first time for me to see a contiguous documentation of a person in the WW1 era in moving pictures. The most lasting scene for me was the burial of the emperor where you could see soldiers in the old kitschy and traditional royal uniforms walking together with soldiers in the rather modern and grim Nazi uniforms. For me this image served as a symbol for disparity of and as a link between these two Germanies. It was a strange situation. I recommend the film to historically interested persons.

It is almost impossible for Germans to discuss their last Empire/ Emperor in a neutral tone. The viewer is constantly reminded of how ridiculous it all was, and that we should be glad that this folly is over. So the slightly badinatory tone also bothered me in this documentary, which otherwise contained interesting footage.

This German/Dutch documentary is a fascinating glimpse at one of history's most controversial monarchs.

The film allows us to enter both the public and private worlds of this most complex leader. It even allows us to hear his declaration of war in 1914.

The films of the Kaiser show a man who had a sense of fun, rather unexpected in a man with the reputation of the Kaiser.

The film is also a bravura technical achievement, blending a huge assemblage of film and stills and even an extremely rare piece of colour film of a royal wedding in 1913 is included.

I hope the film is available in an English language version one day because WW1 had such massive impact on the world and an understanding of such a significant player in the events is essential for any student of history.

Somewhat meandering and thematically unfocused, though very informative and entertaining doc on the infamous German emperor and his media presence.

Despite some inadequacies, such as silent footage that has been unnecessarily pimped with sound-effects, the old film material alone is worth the price of admission, and Schamoni's clever off-text, along with numerous enlightening interviews, draws a multifaceted picture of Wilhelm II.

His childhood and adolescence are too hastily presented, though.

7 out of 10 imperial dachshunds