Henry I, German Emperor
| Henry I | |
|---|---|
 | |
| German Emperor King of Prussia | |
| Reign | 15 June 1888 - 20 April 1929 |
| Predecessor | Frederick III |
| Successor | Sigismund |
| Chancellors | |
| Born | Prince Henry of Prussia 14 August 1862 Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia |
| Died | 20 April 1929 (aged 66) Berlin Palace, Berlin, German Empire |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (m. 1888) |
| Issue | |
| House | Hohenzollern |
| Father | Frederick III, German Emperor |
| Mother | Victoria, Princess Royal |
| Religion | Lutheranism |
Henry I (Albert William Henry; 14 August 1862 - 20 April 1929), or Heinrich I was German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 to 1929. Born as the second eldest son of Frederick III, German Emperor, Henry initially grew up and lived his childhood as a fairly average Prussian prince when in 1867, following the premature death of his older brother, Prince Wilhelm, who was next in line to the throne after their father, Crown Prince Frederick, at an early age due to injuries sustained from his riding lessons, a five-year-old Henry, as his father's oldest living descendant, was soon thrust into the spotlight as the future ruler of what later became the German Empire.
Prior to his ascension to the throne, Henry grew up to become a largely successful and accomplished career naval officer in the Imperial German Navy, eventually reaching the rank of Großadmiral prior to his ascension to the throne. Eventually, in 1888, after roughly 99 days on the throne, the brief reign of his father, Frederick III came to an end, resulting in the subsequent accession of Henry to the throne. For the first few years of his reign, Henry considerably struggled with the powerful influence of the powerful Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. However, Bismarck's retirement in 1895 due to old age eventually allowed Henry to chart his own course for the nation in a more unrestricted manner, as he mostly went on to appoint moderate or liberal-leaning candidates in Bismarck's former spot as chancellor, most of whom supported Henry's policy of maintaining the status quo established by Bismarck. Moreover, in realising the unfulfilled legacy of his late father, Henry also put in place a series of major reforms that greatly overhauled the German political system, resulting in, among others, the reduction in the Chancellor's powers and the concurrent enlargement of the Imperial Diet, and notably, the introduction of universal suffrage in 1893, making Germany one of the earliest nations in the world to do so alongside New Zealand in that same year, and the first European nation to do so as well.
In 1914, despite Germany's alliance with her ally, Austria-Hungary in the form of the Triple Alliance, Henry, after initially considering aligning the nation with the rival Triple Entente faction, instead declared his country's exclusion from the conflict, resulting in Austria-Hungary standing virtually alone against the Triple Entente after it declared war against Serbia for the assassination of its heir-apparent, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Then, following two years of war, the outnumbered and militarily inferior Austria-Hungary ultimately surrendered to the victorious Triple Entente, thereby leading to its subsequent dismemberment into several new and independent states, leaving the German Empire as the sole power in the Central Europe.
Later on, in his final years as German Emperor, Henry continued to preside over a continuous and uninterrupted growth of the German economy. On the other hand, in 1924, after having initially kept Germany out of any major armed conflicts, Henry oversaw his nation's participation and subsequent victory in a brief colonial war against Italy, then led by its fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, which ended in the German acquisition of almost all of Italy's colonial holdings in Africa with the notable exception of Italian Libya. Eventually, just a few months after his death, the Great Depression crisis came into motion, which would go on to affect most major economies of the world, including Germany's. Meanwhile, at forty-one years long, Henry is the longest-reigning German Emperor to date, having surpassed the previous record held by his grandfather, William I.