Year of the Three Emperors

The year of the three emperors ( German Dreikaiserjahr ) is 1888 in the German Empire , during which three Kaisers from the house of the Hohenzollern - grandfather, son and grandson visited the throne of the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia .

On March 9, 1888, after a short illness, the first German Kaiser Wilhelm I died before he was 91 years old. The throne passed to the 56-year-old son of William, Crown Prince Frederick William, who took the name Frederick III (who continued to number the Prussian kings, and not the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire or German kings of the Middle Ages). Frederick III at the time of accession to the throne was mortally ill with laryngeal cancer and after a tracheotomy made to him a month before, could not speak. The reign lasted only 99 days, on June 15, Frederick died. After the death of Frederick, Kaiser became his eldest son, 29-year-old William II , who was destined to become the last monarch of Germany (renounced in 1918 ).

Thus, during 1888, Germany was ruled not only by three emperors, but also by all the Kaisers of the Second Reich.

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  Wilhelm I

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  Frederick III

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  Wilhelm II

Despite two changes of the head of state, Otto von Bismarck remained the Chancellor of Germany and the Minister-President of Prussia (he left his posts only in 1890). However, Frederick III managed to make minor changes in his office (the resignation of the Minister of the Interior Puttkamera), they were continued by William II.

To remember the year of the three emperors, German schoolchildren memorize a mnemonic phrase at the history lessons: Eins und dreimal acht - drei Kaiser an der Macht ( Russian. Unit and three eights - three Kaisers in power ).