Queen Victoria’s eldest
child, Vicky, married the German Crown Prince in 1858. One year after her
wedding Vicky endured a difficult birth that almost ended her life and left her
baby, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II, with a permanently paralysed arm. Soon
Vicky presided over a series of bizarre and often cruel attempts to cure Wilhelm
of his disability.
These included regular
animal baths in which the body of a freshly slaughtered hare was wrapped around
Wilhelm’s arm in the belief that its blood would bring life to his limb. These
procedures created a highly dysfunctional relationship between Vicky and
Wilhelm, he developed a growing hatred for his mother’s country while at the
same time expressing his desire for ‘forbidden love’ with her.