Recaps

Oscar used a lottery company to build wealth and win imperial protection, then designed an advanced battleship that the Naval Technical Committee rejected. Wilhelm II backed Oscar’s plan to build it himself and offered him the Imperial Shipyard in Danzig, which Oscar agreed to acquire for fifty million marks on installments.

• Oscar rejected naval academy training, then promised Director Birkenhagen a battleship donation in exchange for leaving the academy and proving his progress within two years.
• Oscar and Karl founded the German Welfare Lottery Company, whose Double Color Ball lottery quickly became profitable and made Hans a five-million-mark winner.
• Oscar secured Wilhelm II’s protection for the lottery company by pledging twenty percent of its profits to the Imperial Family and another twenty percent to social welfare.
• Oscar gave Wilhelm II blueprints for an all-big-gun battleship and argued to Wilhelm II and Count Tirpitz that Germany needed superior ships to challenge Britain and survive a blockade.
• Oscar presented his battleship design to the Naval Technical Committee, which unanimously rejected it despite his arguments for triple turrets, larger guns, oil-fired boilers, and steam turbines.
• Oscar refused to apologize for confronting the committee and declared he would build the battleship himself, prompting Wilhelm II to support him.
• Oscar warned Wilhelm II that the committee could obstruct shipyards, and Wilhelm II offered him the Imperial Shipyard in Danzig, agreeing to expand it and let Oscar pay its fifty-million-mark price in installments.

Oscar expanded the German Shipyard, secured contracts for his Nassau-class battleships, and helped Germany respond to Britain’s Dreadnought with larger battleships and battlecruisers. Wilhelm II approved a secret program of naval expansion backed by Oscar’s loans, while Crown Prince Wilhelm grew furious at being excluded.

• Oscar secured Wilhelm II’s agreement to transfer the Imperial Shipyard and lend him 120 million Marks, then renamed it the German Shipyard and put Brutt in charge of its expansion.
• Oscar expanded his business plans abroad, negotiated with Bertha Krupp for large-caliber naval guns, and recruited Diesel to lead engine development at the German Engine Manufacturing Company.
• As tensions with France over Morocco escalated, Wilhelm II and his advisers weighed the risk of war and recognized Germany’s naval inferiority to Britain.
• Oscar began building four Nassau-class battleships in November 1905, while the Algeciras Conference settled the Morocco dispute and Germany increased its naval spending.
• Britain launched HMS Dreadnought, prompting Wilhelm II and his advisers to acknowledge that Oscar’s rejected design had anticipated the new battleship era and to adopt his ships for the Navy.
• Oscar offered to fund future naval construction, presented designs for larger battleships, and helped establish the five-ship Helgoland class across five shipyards.
• Oscar persuaded Wilhelm II and Tirpitz to support colonial resistance and Irish independence as ways to weaken Britain, then proposed fast, heavily armed battlecruisers to raid its sea lanes.
• Wilhelm II approved three Blücher-class battlecruisers for construction at the German Shipyard, while Crown Prince Wilhelm grew angry after realizing he had been left out of the naval discussions.

Oscar prepared Germany for war by building oil reserves and expanding into motorcycles and military vehicles, winning support from the Navy and Army. After Crown Prince Wilhelm arranged an assassination attempt and was later gravely injured, Wilhelm II weighed Oscar as a possible successor while investigating the accident.

• Oscar persuaded Wilhelm II and the Imperial Council to reserve five million tons of petroleum, while Crown Prince Wilhelm grew more hostile toward him.
• Oscar founded the German Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Company, acquired ninety percent of Daimler Company, and launched motorcycles that quickly sold out.
• Oscar demonstrated military motorcycles to Army leaders and donated twenty thousand vehicles, winning the generals’ goodwill despite Moltke the Younger’s hostility.
• Crown Prince Wilhelm enlisted Friedrich Franz III to arrange Oscar’s assassination, and an assassin shot Oscar outside the German Welfare Lottery Company.
• Wilhelm II confined Crown Prince Wilhelm in Potsdam after the attack, while Oscar recovered and resolved to respond ruthlessly to future threats.
• Oscar hired Gustav Lilienthal to develop military aircraft and set demanding performance targets for his research.
• Crown Prince Wilhelm was badly injured when his horse fell into a hidden pit, and Wilhelm II ordered an investigation while considering Oscar as a possible heir.
• Tirpitz urged Oscar to prepare to become Crown Prince, and Oscar left the decision to Wilhelm II.

Oscar became acting Crown Prince and pushed Germany to prepare for a growing confrontation with Britain and its allies. He expanded the navy’s battleship program and joined forces with Krupp to develop naval guns and new infantry weapons.

• Wilhelm II appointed Oscar acting Crown Prince after Crown Prince Wilhelm fell into a coma, despite opposition from Moltke the Younger and the succession law.
• Britain, France, and Russia formed the Triple Entente, and Oscar warned Wilhelm II that Italy might abandon its alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary.
• Wilhelm II chose to prepare Germany for war, while Britain accelerated its naval construction after Admiral Sir John Fisher learned of German capital ships.
• Oscar handed the Nassau battleship over to the German Navy and presented plans for Moltke-class battlecruisers and Kaiser-class battleships, which Wilhelm II approved.
• Oscar urged Tirpitz to prepare for Britain’s naval growth and told Wilhelm II he planned to establish German Arms Company.
• Oscar persuaded Gustav Krupp and Bertha Krupp to back German Arms Company, with Krupp providing technology and 30 million marks for a 40 percent stake.
• Oscar presented Krupp with designs for light machine guns, rifles, grenade launchers, and mortars, then explained how France’s M1897 75mm gun achieved its rapid rate of fire.