Kaiser Wilhelm's Proclamation to the Army nearing defeat II

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Kaiser Wilhelm's Proclamation to the Army nearing defeat
by Wilhelm II

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This appeal was given by the Kaiser to a beleaguered army on 10 October 1918, six days after the Reichstag was advised to negotiate peace settlements. It had been preceded two days earlier by an earlier, similar speech. As appearing in the 1923 Source Records of the Great War, Vol. VI, edited by Charles F. Horne.

123815Kaiser Wilhelm's Proclamation to the Army nearing defeatWilhelm II

The hour is grave!

We are fighting for the future of the Fatherland and for the protection of the soil of the Homeland. To that end we need the united action of the intellectual, moral, and economic powers of Germany.

On the co-operation of those powers our invincibility rests. The will for defence must bind all separate views and separate wishes into one great unity of conception.

God grant us something of the spirit of the war of liberation.

WILHELM