The Huns

In today’s episode of Dave Does History, we journey back to a summer day in 1900, when Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II stepped onto a platform in Bremerhaven and let loose one of the most infamous speeches in modern imperial history. As German troops prepared to sail for China to join the fight against the Boxer Rebellion, the Kaiser delivered what has come to be known as the "Hun Speech." It was fiery, reckless, and meant to inspire fear. Instead, it handed Germany a nickname that would haunt it through two world wars. We’ll explore the background of the speech, what Wilhelm actually said, and why his choice of words landed with such historical force. Did his reference to Attila’s Huns really cause the British to brand Germans with that epithet in World War I? Or is the story more complicated than that? Join us as we unpack a few hundred words that echoed for decades.