German Chancellor who headed Kaiser Wilhelm II's government during most of the war. Son of a minor government official and a French mother, he originally served in a dragoon regiment but later pursued law. He acceded to progressively more influential posts in the Prussian civil service. By 1907, he was Secretary of the Interior for the Reich and was Chancellor from 1909 to 1917. Unsuccessful with domestic policy, he focused on foreign affairs but still charted a course which ultimately led to failure. 

Bethmann gave Austria a free hand in dealing with the Serbia crisis, and throughout the war held fast to the goal of quietly making Germany the dominant political force of Europe, with economic control over satellites such as Poland and Belgium. He stood against the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. But by early 1917 he was not strong enough politically to stand up to the virtual military dictatorship of Hindenburg-Ludendorff, and thus fell from office. He spent the rest of his life writing his memoirs at his home in Hohenfinow. Bethmann died on 2 January 1921 a Hohenfinow, the place of his birth.