TALK: Friends of the Library talk

Wilhelm was an adult when his father Frederick become the second Kaiser. Frederick had been Crown Prince to his own father, Kaiser Wilhelm I, until age 58. He ruled for only 99 days in 1888, before succumbing to throat cancer. This tragedy had the liberal but literally voiceless father followed by the dangerously militaristic son.

Why was he so different? Medical factors commenced at his birth. He was the fist born, in 1859, his mother was petite, like her mother Queen Victoria; his father Frederick was a giant. Mother and baby were both almost lost at his birth; both survived, but the baby was found to have a paralysed left upper limb. It was probably a ‘Klumpke’ lesion of the Brachial Plexus, leading to weakness of grasp and elbow flexion, clawing of the hand and deficient growth of the entire limb – in adulthood, by 15cm. It was the worst kept ‘secret’ in high circles.

The effect of this on an intelligent determined strong youth, a hereditary prince who believed in the divine right of Kings can be seen in his own second book ‘My Early life’. He struggled to learn to ride horses, initially falling of repeatedly. He learnt to use his left hand at table with a special instrument. He struggled with painful gymnastic exercises, which helped his left arm little, but produced a powerful right arm. He became ‘an excellent shot’. These athletic skills were in spite of a problem with balance. His parents, heavily involved in liberal ideas, bafflingly put their child’s education into harsh hands - a governess, an artillery captain; and from age 7 for 13 years, Dr Hinzpeter – a Spartan disciplinarian, an intense German nationalist, demanding perfection and incapable of praise. Wilhelm had praise only from his adored grandfather. He really first felt at home in the Army, in the Officer’s Mess of different regiments, starting at age 18, having an amazingly accelerated promotion, and treated with much more respect than in his parents’ home. Thus came his passion for military uniforms, highly decorated and a tailoring challenge because of his asymmetry; prodigious in number, for every regiment and conceivable occasion. Photographs and portraits were always of his right side; the left was hidden, or the left hand was on the hilt of a sword. His relative shortness made him wear helmets of increasing complexity, to the delight of hostile cartoonists.

About the Speaker

Dr Des Gurry was born in Edinburgh of Australian parents and came to Australia 1939. He graduated from the University of Melbourne 1956 and came to the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in 1959. He married Patricia and decided to go into Paediatrics. Des went to London (MRCP), Sheffield, Liverpool (DCH) and Cleveland (FAAP). He returned to PMH in 1968 and UWA, working in Child Health/Paediatrics. Des retired in 1998 and is now heavily involved in Medical History. He has also been on the Council of Australasian Society of the History of Medicine. Des is very grateful to have missed all forms of armed conflict.

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