kaiserbill

This is one of the best photographic portraits of Kaiser Wilhelm I've ever seen. And one of the few bare headed.

kind of an idiot.

You can see the family resemblance to Queen Victoria and her family, that is for sure.

The reason you can't see his left arm is because it was crippled and he was ashamed of that.

Please, befö: A mild form of madness was an hereditary chance, and the last(?) Kaiser may have inherited that. He did not want the Great War. He had been kept apart from his parents by Bismarck Bismarck was an unfit Chancellor - involving the Kaiserreich in alliances that did not work out as planned. His dismissal was far too late but quit proper, as he was doing the unthinkable: He was failing to consult his Kaiser on matters of national importance.

I had thought that this was Kaiser Wilhelm I , grandfather of Kaiser Wilhelm II, after being crowned emperor of the newly reunified Germany in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles in January, 1871.
I see from the estimable Miss Mertens' comment on what looks like a related picture that this is Wilhelm II, seen taking his leave of court chaplain Dr. Bernhard Rogge, who had given the main sermon during the coronation ceremony of his grandfather in 1871.

This is a Gustav Liersch postcard, with the identifying info blocked out at bottom:
www.ansichtskarten-center.de/webshop/shop/ProdukteBilder/...

No later than 1914 one would think!

they were first cousins

By October 1914, Germany and Russia were at war. And judging from coverage in NYT, relations had been poor in the Spring of 1914. My suspicion is that this picture was taken earlier, perhaps in May 1913, when Europe's royalty assembled in Berlin for the marriage of the Kaiser's daughter Viktoria Luise. NYT of May 23, 1913 query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990CEFDE143FE633A... which mentions that the Kaiser took the Czar for a drive in a motor car -- so that wasn't the occasion for this picture.

Interesting article. The czar and and the king of England both dressed in Prussian military uniforms for the banquet. Quite a shock in light of later events. However, one source says this was a custom of royalty of the era, dressing in each other's uniforms.

Some sources I found say the May, 1913 meeting was their last: "On May 24, 1913, Wilhelm's daughter, Viktoria Louise, was married to Prince Ernest August of Hanover, and the Kaiser invited his cousins, King George V of England and Tsar Nicholas II; this would be the last time the Royal cousins saw each other. " www.geocities.ws/kaiser_prussia/biography_wilhelm2_2.html Bain's photo is a heavily-cropped version of this: www.gwpda.org/wwi-www/willnick/pair2.jpg