Born in 1797, he was the second son of Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia and, even though he was the second son, he could expect to inherit the throne from his childless brother. This brother, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, happily married to Elisabeth of Bavaria, was educated and had a love of culture and art. In the revolutionary year of 1848 there was a movement to create a new German Empire but, when Friedrich Wilhelm IV was offered the crown, he refused saying that he would
never "stoop to pick up a crown out of the gutter".
In 1857 Friedrich Wilhelm IV suffered two paralytic strokes and became mentally deranged so that Wilhelm, as his heir, took over the government and was formally recognised as Regent on 7 October 1858. When the King died, on 2 January 1861, Wilhelm became King of Prussia.
Staunchly conservative, after a struggle with his parliament he almost abdicated in favour of his only son, the future Friedrich III, but then appointed Otto von Bismarck as Minister-President who became the real ruler of Prussia for the rest of Wilhelm I's reign. Bismarck engineered a series of wars calculated to further Prussia's domination and, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War, Wilhelm I was persuaded to accept the title his brother had refused. Accordingly, on 8 January
1871 at Versailles, he was proclaimed Emperor of Germany.
In his later years he was a kindly, benevolent figure with massive white whiskers. However, his wife, Empress Augusta, alienated their grandson, the future Wilhelm II, from his mother while at the same time keeping up a friendly correspondence with her daughter-in-law's mother, Queen Victoria. He was almost ninety-one when he died, to be succeeded by his seriously ill son, Emperor Friedrich III.
 

Source: Leo van de Pas