Yet she carried the day in the end, and her son is now the very first to acknowledge his mother’s cleverness and the fact that she showed herself more than a match in statecraft for the man reputed as the greatest statesman of the century, namely, Bismarck.

One of the cleverest of the many clever things that she did, was the manner in which she brought about the fall of Bismarck.  She was too shrewd to dream of exercising any direct pressure on her son.  It was done indirectly, and with so much diplomacy, that William never dreamt at the time of dismissing the iron chancellor that he was playing his mother’s game.  Abstaining from any steps towards a reconciliation with her son, she merely took advantage of the kaiser’s visit to Westphalia, to place in his path his old tutor, Professor Hintzpeter, a pedagogue of whom William had been very fond, and whose teachings had left a deep impression upon the mind of his imperial pupil.  The empress knew the professor’s characteristics, his fads, and his views.  She likewise recognized and understood, as only a mother can do, the complex character of her son, and she foresaw the effects that were likely to be achieved by bringing the two men once more into communication with each other.

Like William II., Hintzpeter is full of contrasts, for while on the one hand he has always professed the most advanced radical and even socialistic doctrines,—­doctrines with which he impregnated the mind of his princely charge,—­yet he would tolerate no familiarity or condescension on his part towards inferiors, and was even wont to force William to wash his hands when he had so far forgotten himself as to shake hands with anyone of a subordinate or menial rank.  Another trait of character of Professor Hintzpeter, is his firm conviction that difficulties, no matter how vast and intricate, are always capable of being settled and satisfactorily arranged by means of eloquent phrases and good intentions.

At the time when William renewed his acquaintance, in the capital of Westphalia, with his old tutor, the socialistic and labor problems were engaging the attention not merely of Germany, but likewise of all Europe.  Prince Bismarck was in favor of a continuance of harsh measures with regard to labor, and of persecution of the most resentless nature so far as the socialists were concerned.  Hintzpeter, full of his former sympathies for autocracy and socialism at one and the same time, called William’s attention to the fact that Bismarck’s policy had merely had the effect of vastly increasing the strength of the socialists as a factor in German politics, and of rendering the labor difficulties more acute.  He, therefore, suggested to the emperor the idea that he should endeavor to solve both problems by means of an international congress, under his own presidency, at which means should be devised for reconciling the interests of socialism with the state, and those of capital with labor.