Kaiserbrief

The Kaiserbrief (English: Imperial Letter), is the letter to the German Federal princes signed by North German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck on 27 November 1870 and Bavarian King Ludwig II (born 1845, reign 1864–1886) on 30 November 1870. Ludwig's uncle, Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, the later Prince Regent (1886–1912), on 3 December 1870 personally handed over the Imperial Letter to the Prussian king. Ludwig II gave the impetus to the emperor's proclamation of William I in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles with this letter, which the Prussian King William I proposed to the imperial dignity of the newly founded German Empire, where, during the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War, representatives of the free cities congregated on 18 January 1871. An excerpt of the Imperial Letter: After the acceptance of Southern Germany to the German Constitutional Alliance, Your Majesty will extend presidential rights across the German states. I have agreed, in their conviction, that this would satisfy the interests of the German fatherland and its allied princes, but at the same time, trust that the rights conferred on the Federal Presidium by the restoration of a German Empire and of the German Emperor's dignity as rights which Your Majesty may exercise in the name of the entire German fatherland, on account of the unification of its princes. I have, therefore, appealed to the German princes, with the suggestion that they should bring with me to Your Majesty the suggestion that the exercise of the presidential rights of the Confederation be connected with the title of German Emperor.