In the final weeks of World War I, calls increased for the abdication of Prussian King and German Emperor Wilhelm II. Walter Simons, an advisor to Chancellor Max von Baden on international issues, thought that Wilhelm and the unpopular crown prince should abdicate so that a regency council could be established for the next heir to the throne, the then 12-year-old Wilhelm of Prussia. A law amending the constitution of the German Empire would have been needed to establish a Reichsverweser. Wilhelm II rejected the idea on 1 November 1918.
