Too bad you had the "pre-WWI" clause in there, because I was going to answer going back to the 80s.
1910, to take the throne of Kaiser Wilhelm.
Since I know what I do now, I'd do all of the following:
* Refuse alliance with Austria.
* Set up good relations with the U.S.
* Institute [token] democratic reforms.
* Secretly fund Hungarian, Romanian, Croat, Polish (in the Russian areas) and Korean nationalist organizations.
* Hold a conference with the U.S., Britain, France, and Italy to divy up the Ottoman Empire. I'd take the oil rich area of Libya.
* Advise the Czar to liberalize his country to prevent a communist takeover.
* Withdraw from German colonies in Asia, sell them to the Britain.
* Nationalize the major family-owned industries, resell parts of them to workers.
* Hire Frank Lloyd Wright to design new, modern government buildings.
* Change the German national anthem to the Soviet anthem. Even though I'm not a communist and wouldn't govern as one, it is good empire music. Another candidate is Darth Vader's theme.
* Seriously consider changing the flag to the Soviet one, as it's also a good empire flag.
* And the uniforms. Those spikey helmets have just got to go! Again, the Soviet Union had something going there with all the red stars and junk.
* Order research and development on things like "computers," "armored fighting vehicles," and "fighter airplanes."
* Abolish any state churches.
* Abduct Hitler's family and exile them to Ethiopia.
* Educate everyone in English, or else!
* Rename the country to what I like.
* Last, but not least -- like any good dictator, plaster my face everywhere.
Other than that, I don't know right now. I suppose if I lived back then, I'd have more time to think about it.
![[offtopic]](/images/smilies/offtopic.gif "Offtopic [offtopic]")
Perfection, did the compound have a drought or something? It looks a little brown.
