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Kaiser is the German title meaning "Emperor," and Kaiserin is the German title meaning "Empress."
Word history and translations
Kaiser is derived from the Roman title of Caesar ("Kaiser" is pronounced similarly to how "caesar" was in Classical Latin), as is the Slavic title of Tsar. It is a sovereign Monarchic title of the highest rank, explicitly at par with padishah.
In German, the word Kaiser is also used in a generic sense equivalent to the English word "emperor" while Kaiserin is the feminine form as an empress. For instance, German-speaking historians would refer to an emperor of China as a Chinesischer Kaiser or Kaiser von China. Cognate, nearly homophone titles are used in the same ways in Germanic languages or those, mainly Baltic and Slavonic languages, which derived the term from German, for example:
- Kejser in Danish;
- Keizer in Dutch;
- Keiser in Estonian;
- Keisari in Faroese;
- Keisari in Finnish;
- Keisari in Icelandic;
- Keser in Lëtzebuergesch (in Luxembourg).
- Kejsare in Swedish;
- Kajzer in Polish (only with respect to German Empire (1871—1918))
Semitic Hebrew also uses the same word ("Keisar", Heb. קיסר) , though in this case the term did not go through German but came directly from Latin in the Roman period itself.
In contrast, most Romance and tributary vocabularies, including English, derive their terms for emperor from the Latin imperator.
German history and antecedents of the title
The Roman imperial style was first revived in the Frankish realm, the hegemon of the Catholic West, thus claiming equality with the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim Caliphate, by Charlemagne in 800, and when his empire was divided again through inheritances it came to be linked to the eastern ("German") kingdom. The Holy Roman Emperors (962—1806) (the "First German Reich", becoming an elective monarchy) called themselves Kaiser, while combining this imperial title with that of Roman King (assumed by the designated heir before the imperial coronation); they saw their rule as a continuation of that of the Roman Emperors and so used the name "Caesar" to reflect their supposed heritage.
The rulers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1804—1918), from the Habsburg dynasty that had provided all Holy Roman Emperors (though formally still elected) since 1440, again used the title Kaiser.
In English and most other foreign usage, however, the untranslated title is mainly associated with the emperors of the unified German Empire (1871—1918) (the "Second Reich") which chancellor Bismarck had welded skilfully from two federations covering most of the many principalities (mainly petty, known as Kleinstaaterei) that had constituted Germany, the core of the former Holy Roman Empire. The term is particularly associated in English with the last Kaiser, Wilhelm II.
When the Empire was formed, there was much debate about how to precisely phrase the title of the monarch. Kaiser von Deutschland ("Emperor of Germany") was one of the contributions to this debate, another one being Kaiser der Deutschen ("Emperor of the Germans"). Finally, Deutscher Kaiser ("German Emperor"), the version expressing the least degree of superiority to the rulers of the other principalities, was agreed upon.
There were three Kaisers of the German Empire. All belonged to the Hohenzollern dynasty, which had already ruled much of Germany as kings of (originally "in") Prussia, militarily the only great power among the German principalities, before ascending the brand new "German" imperial throne. These three Prussian Kaisers were:
- Wilhelm I (1871—1888);
- Friedrich III (1888), who ruled for 99 days;
- Wilhelm II (1888—1918), during whose reign the monarchy in Germany ended after World War I.