Kaiser Wilhelm II Land (also Wilhelm II Coast) is the part of Antarctica lying between Cape Penck, at 87°43'E, and Cape Filchner, at 91°54'E and is claimed as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory, although this claim is not universally recognized.
The area was discovered on February 22, 1902 during the Gauss expedition (1901-1903), led by Arctic veteran and geology professor Erich von Drygalski. Drygalski named it after Kaiser Wilhelm II who had funded the expedition with 1.2 million Goldmarks.
In the bay where Drygalski's expedition had their camp until February 8, 1903 is Gaussberg, a 370 metre high extinct volcano which was named after the mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss.
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document "Wilhelm II Coast" (content from the Geographic Names Information System).
Coordinates: 67°0′S 90°0′E / 67.000°S 90.000°E / -67.000; 90.000
Wilhelm II or William II (German: Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albrecht von Preußen; English: Frederick William Victor Albert of Prussia; 27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandchild of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe.
Crowned in 1888, he dismissed the Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, in 1890 and launched Germany on a bellicose "New Course" in foreign affairs that culminated in his support for Austria-Hungary in the crisis of July 1914 that led in a matter of days to the First World War. Bombastic and impetuous, he sometimes made tactless pronouncements on sensitive topics without consulting his ministers, culminating in a disastrous Daily Telegraph interview in 1908 that cost him most of his influence. His top generals, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war-time leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the Netherlands.
Wilhelm II may refer to: