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Otto von Bismarck

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   Otto von Bismarck
   Otto von Bismarck
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chancellor of Germany
   In office
   1871 –  1890
   Preceded by None
   Succeeded by Leo von Caprivi
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born 1 April 1815
   Schönhausen, Saxony
   Died 30 July 1898
   Friedrichsruh
   Political party None

   Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince von Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg ( April 1,
   1815 – July 30, 1898) was one of the most prominent European
   aristocrats and statesmen of the nineteenth century. As
   Minister-President of Prussia from 1862 to 1890, he engineered the
   unification of the numerous states of Germany. From 1867 on, he was
   Chancellor of the North German Confederation. When the German Empire
   was declared in 1871, Bismarck served as its first Chancellor. He was
   made the Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen in 1865, and in 1871 became
   Prince ( Fürst) of Bismarck. In 1890 he was also made the Duke of
   Lauenburg. The ducal title, which he received upon his dismissal from
   office, he refused initially only to later accept, which was the
   highest rank of the non-sovereign nobility, and was styled Serene
   Highness. Bismarck is also known as the Iron Chancellor ("der eiserne
   Kanzler").

Overview

   As a Junker, Bismarck held deep conservative, monarchist and
   aristocratic views. His most significant political objective was that
   of turning Prussia into the most powerful state within the German
   Confederation. He took advantage of his great skills in the field of
   diplomacy and led two wars to achieve this goal. After that, Bismarck
   broke France's supremacy over continental Europe in the Franco-Prussian
   war of 1870.

   It was only with reluctance that Bismarck had accepted the idea of
   uniting Germany. However, from 1871 onwards, Bismarck carefully built
   the external security of the new German state upon his skillful
   diplomacy, which isolated France internationally and created a vast and
   complex system of alliances for mutual military support with most of
   Europe's nations. In the role of an 'honest broker', Bismarck was also
   successful in maintaining peace and stability in Europe by settling
   arising political conflicts through negotiations. Essentially a
   cautious politician, Bismarck never pursued an imperialistic course in
   Europe. In Africa, however, Bismarck followed a policy of imperial
   conquest, in a manner similar to the other European powers.

   In the area of domestic policies, Bismarck was less successful. In the
   Kulturkampf, he wrested some important cultural powers away from the
   Protestant and Roman Catholic Church. Bismarck's Sozialistengesetze
   failed to suppress the labour movements but made him appear as a
   reactionary, a reputation he partially refuted with the new and
   generous social reform and welfare legislation he enacted.

   Emperor Wilhelm I died in 1888 and his successor, Emperor Friedrich
   III, succumbed to cancer the same year. The crown finally went to
   29-year old Emperor Wilhelm II who disliked Bismarck personally and in
   1890 Bismarck offered his resignation, when Wilhelm II refused to let
   him take control of a crisis that Bismarck himself had created again.
   To Bismarck's surprise Wilhelm II accepted and forced him to leave all
   his political offices.

Biography

   Bismarck, in 1836.
   Enlarge
   Bismarck, in 1836.

   Bismarck was born in Schönhausen, in his Austro-Prussian family's
   estate in the old Prussian province Mark Brandenburg (now
   Saxony-Anhalt) west of Berlin. His father, Ferdinand von Bismarck, was
   a landowner and a former Prussian military officer; his mother,
   Wilhelmine Mencken, originally belonged to a well-off commoner family.
   Otto von Bismarck had several siblings, but only an elder brother and a
   younger sister (Malvina) survived into adulthood. Otto von Bismarck was
   educated at the Friedrich-Wilhelm- Gymnasium and the Graues
   Kloster-Gymnasium. Thereafter, at the age of seventeen, he joined the
   Georg August University of Göttingen, where he spent only a year as a
   member of the Corps Hannovera before enrolling in the Friedrich Wilhelm
   University of Berlin. Although he hoped to become a diplomat, he could
   only obtain minor administrative positions in Aachen and Potsdam. As
   his work proved monotonous and uninteresting, his years were marked by
   conscious neglect of his official duties; he instead preferred to mix
   with "high society." Upon his mother's death in 1839, Bismarck took
   over the management of his family's estates in Pomerania. About eight
   years later, he returned to Schönhausen, where he became engaged in
   local politics. He married the noblewoman Johanna von Puttkamer in
   1847. Like Puttkamer, he became a Pietist Lutheran. Their long and
   happy marriage produced one daughter (Marie) and two sons ( Herbert and
   Wilhelm), all of whom survived into adulthood. He also had a hand in
   the upbringing of an orphan neighbour, Vally von Blumenthal, whom he
   called "my Sunday's Child."

Early political career

   In the year of his marriage, Bismarck was chosen as a representative to
   the newly created Prussian legislature, the Vereinigter Landtag. There,
   he gained a reputation as a royalist and reactionary politician; he
   openly advocated the idea that the monarch had a divine right to rule.

   In March of the next year, Prussia faced a revolution (one of the
   Revolutions of 1848 which shook many European nations), which
   completely overwhelmed King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. The monarch, though
   initially inclined to use armed forces to suppress the rebellion,
   ultimately succumbed to the revolutionary movement. He offered numerous
   concessions to the liberals: he promised to promulgate a constitution,
   agreed that Prussia and other German states should merge into a single
   nation, and appointed a liberal, Ludolf Camphausen, as
   Minister-President. The liberal victory, however, was short-lived; it
   perished by the end of the year 1848. The movement became weak due to
   fighting between internal factions, whilst the conservatives regrouped,
   gained the support of the King, and retook control of Berlin. Although
   a constitution was still granted, its provisions fell far short of the
   demands of the revolutionaries.

   In 1849, he was elected to the Landtag, the lower house of the new
   Prussian legislature. At this stage in his career, he opposed the
   unification of Germany, arguing that Prussia would lose its
   independence in the process. He accepted his appointment as one of
   Prussia's representatives at the Erfurt Parliament, an assembly of
   German states that met to discuss plans for union, but only in order to
   oppose that body's proposals more effectively. The Parliament, in any
   event, failed to bring about unification, for it lacked the support of
   the two most important German states, Prussia and Austria.

   In 1851, Friedrich Wilhelm appointed Bismarck as Prussia's envoy to the
   diet of the German Confederation in Frankfurt. His eight years in
   Frankfurt were marked by changes in his political opinions. No longer
   under the influence of his ultraconservative Prussian friends, Bismarck
   became less reactionary and more moderate. He became convinced that
   Prussia would have to ally itself with other German states in order to
   countervail Austria's growing influence. Thus, he grew more accepting
   of the notion of a united German nation.

   In 1858, Friedrich Wilhelm IV suffered a stroke that left him paralysed
   and mentally disabled. His brother, Wilhelm, took over the government
   of Prussia as Regent. Shortly thereafter, Bismarck was replaced as the
   Prussian envoy in Frankfurt; he was instead made Prussia's ambassador
   to Russia. This was a promotion in his career as Russia was one of the
   two most powerful neighbors of Prussia (the other being Austria). Other
   changes were made by the Regent; Helmuth von Moltke was appointed the
   new Chief of Staff for the Prussian army, and Albrecht von Roon was
   appointed Prussian Minister of War and given the job of reorganizing
   the Prussian army. These three men over the next 12 years would
   transform Prussia.

   Bismark stayed in St. Petersburg for four years, during which time he
   befriended his future adversary, the Russian Prince Gorchakov. In June
   1862, he was sent to Paris, so that he could serve as the Prussian
   ambassador to France. Despite his lengthy stay abroad, Bismarck was not
   entirely detached from German domestic affairs; he remained
   well-informed due to his friendship with Albrecht von Roon, and they
   formed a lasting political alliance.

Ministerpräsident (Prime Minister) of Prussia

   The Regent became King Wilhelm I upon his brother's death in 1861. The
   new monarch was often in conflict with the increasingly liberal
   Prussian Diet. A crisis arose in 1862, when the Diet refused to
   authorise funding for a proposed re-organisation of the army. The
   King's ministers were unable to convince legislators to pass the
   budget, and the King was unwilling to make concessions, so the deadlock
   continued. Wilhelm believed that Bismarck was the only politician
   capable of handling the crisis, but was ambivalent about appointing a
   man who demanded unfettered control over foreign affairs. When, in
   September 1862, the Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Deputies) overwhelmingly
   rejected the proposed budget, Wilhelm was persuaded to recall Bismarck
   to Prussia on the advice of Roon. On 23 September 1862, Wilhelm
   appointed Bismarck Minister-President and Foreign Minister.

   He was intent on maintaining royal supremacy by ending the budget
   deadlock in the King's favour, even if he had to use extralegal means
   to do so. He contended that, since the Constitution did not provide for
   cases in which legislators failed to approve a budget, he could merely
   apply the previous year's budget. Thus, on the basis of the budget of
   1861, tax collection continued for four years.

   Bismarck's conflict with the legislators grew more heated during the
   following years. In 1863, the House of Deputies passed a resolution
   declaring that it could no longer come to terms with Bismarck; in
   response, the King dissolved the Diet, accusing it of trying to obtain
   unconstitutional control over the ministry. Bismarck then issued an
   edict restricting the freedom of the press; this policy even gained the
   public opposition of the Crown Prince, Friedrich Wilhelm (the future
   King Friedrich III). Despite attempts to silence critics, Bismarck
   remained a largely unpopular politician. His supporters fared poorly in
   the elections of October 1863, in which a liberal coalition (whose
   primary member was the Progressive Party, or Fortschrittspartei) won
   over two-thirds of the seats in the House of Deputies.

   Notwithstanding unpopularity and numerous conflicts with the Diet,
   Bismarck retained power because he had the support of the King. Wilhelm
   I feared that if he dismissed Bismarck, a liberal ministry would
   follow; thus, he did not dismiss the Minister-President, despite the
   repeated calls of the House of Deputies.

The defeat of Denmark and Austria

   Before unification, Germany consisted of a multitude of principalities
   loosely bound together as members of the German Confederation. Bismarck
   played a crucial role in uniting most of the Confederation's members
   into a single nation. In his first speech as Minister-President, he had
   referred to the issue of German unification in a now famous remark:
   "the great questions of the day will not be decided by speeches and the
   resolutions of majorities — that was the great mistake from 1848 to
   1849 — but by iron and blood." This was later changed to the now famous
   "blood and iron". He was referring to the failed Frankfurt Parliament
   as the great mistakes of 1848 and 1849. Bismarck used both diplomacy
   and the Prussian military in order to achieve the objective of German
   unification. He excluded Austria from unified Germany, for he sought to
   make Prussia the most powerful and dominant component of the nation.
   Bismarck, left, with Roon (center) and Moltke (right). The three
   leaders of Prussia in the 1860s
   Enlarge
   Bismarck, left, with Roon (centre) and Moltke (right). The three
   leaders of Prussia in the 1860s

   Bismarck faced a diplomatic crisis when Frederick VII of Denmark died
   in November 1863. Succession to the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein
   was disputed; they were claimed by Christian IX (Frederick VII's heir
   as King) and by Frederick von Augustenburg (a German duke). Prussian
   public opinion strongly favoured Augustenburg's claim; however,
   Bismarck took an unpopular step by insisting that the territories
   legally belonged to the Danish monarch under the London Protocols
   signed a decade earlier. Nonetheless, Bismarck did denounce Christian's
   decision to annex the duchy of Schleswig to Denmark proper. With
   support from Austria, he issued an ultimatum for Christian IX to return
   Schleswig to its former status; when the Danes refused, Austria and
   Prussia invaded, commencing the Second war of Schleswig. As a result of
   the German victory, Denmark was forced to cede both duchies.
   Originally, it was proposed that the Diet of the German Confederation
   (in which all the states of Germany were represented) determine the
   fate of the duchies; however, before this scheme could be effected,
   Bismarck induced Austria to agree to the Gastein Convention. Under this
   agreement signed August 20, 1865, Prussia received Schleswig, while
   Holstein went to the Austrians.

   In 1866, Austria reneged on its prior agreement with Prussia by
   demanding that the Diet of the German Confederation determine the
   Schleswig-Holstein issue. Bismarck used Austria's demand as an excuse;
   charging that the Austrians had violated the Convention of Gastein, he
   sent Prussian troops to occupy Holstein. Provoked, Austria called for
   the aid of other German states, who quickly became involved in the
   Austro-Prussian War. With the aid of Albrecht von Roon's army
   reorganization, the Prussian army was nearly the equal in numbers to
   the Austrian army. With the organizational genius of Helmuth von
   Moltke, the Prussian army fought battles it was able to win.

   Prussia quickly defeated Austria and its allies, deciding the conflict
   with a crushing victory at the Battle of Königgrätz (aka "Battle of
   Sadowa"). As a result of the Peace of Prague, the German Confederation
   was dissolved; Prussia annexed Schleswig, Holstein, Frankfurt, Hanover,
   Hesse-Kassel, and Nassau; and Austria promised not to intervene in
   German affairs. To solidify Prussian hegemony, Prussia and several
   other North German states joined the North German Confederation in
   1867; King Wilhelm I served as its President, and Bismarck as its
   Chancellor.

   Military success brought Bismarck tremendous political support in
   Prussia. In the elections to the House of Deputies held in 1866, the
   liberals suffered a major defeat, losing their large majority. The new,
   largely conservative House was on much better terms with Bismarck than
   previous bodies; at the Minister-President's request, it retroactively
   approved the budgets of the past four years, which had been implemented
   without parliamentary consent. Hence, Bismarck is considered one of the
   most talented statesmen in history.

The establishment of the German Empire

   Prussia's victory over Austria increased tensions with France. The
   French Emperor, Napoleon III, feared that a powerful Prussia would
   upset the balance of power in Europe. Bismarck, at the same time,
   sought war with France; he believed that if the German states perceived
   France as the aggressor, they would unite behind the King of Prussia. A
   suitable premise for war arose in 1870, when the German Prince Leopold
   of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was offered the Spanish throne, which had
   been vacant since a revolution in 1868. The French not only blocked the
   candidacy, but also demanded assurances that no member of the House of
   Hohenzollern become King of Spain. Bismarck then published the Ems
   Dispatch, a carefully edited version of a conversation between King
   Wilhelm and the French ambassador to Prussia. The publication was
   intended to provoke France into declaring war on Prussia.
   Wilhelm I was crowned German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors in
   Versailles, France.
   Enlarge
   Wilhelm I was crowned German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors in
   Versailles, France.

   The Ems Dispatch had the desired effect. France mobilized and declared
   war, but was seen as the aggressor; as a result, German states, swept
   up by nationalism and patriotic zeal, rallied to Prussia's side and
   provided troops (the Bismarck family contributed its two sons to the
   Prussian cavalry). The Franco-Prussian War (1870) was a great success
   for Prussia. The German army, commanded by Moltke, won victory after
   victory. The major battles were all fought in one month ( August 7 till
   September 1), the French were defeated in every battle. The remainder
   of the war featured very careful German operations and massive
   confusion on the part of the French.

   At the end, France was forced to pay a large indemnity and surrender
   Alsace and part of Lorraine. Bismarck opposed the annexation, arguing
   it would be the "Achilles' Heel" of the new empire, but Moltke and his
   generals insisted that it was needed to keep France in a defensive
   posture.

   Bismarck decided to act immediately to secure the unification of
   Germany. He opened negotiations with representatives of southern German
   states, offering special concessions if they were to acquiesce to
   unification. The negotiations were successful; King Wilhelm was crowned
   "German Emperor" on 18 January 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors in the
   Château de Versailles (thereby further humiliating France). The new
   German Empire was a federal one: each of its twenty-five constituent
   states (kingdoms, grand duchies, duchies, principalities, and free
   cities) retained some autonomy. The King of Prussia, as German Emperor,
   was not sovereign over the entirety of Germany; he was only primus
   inter pares, or first amongst equals. The King of Prussia however held
   presidency of this body - the Bundesrat, which met to discuss policy
   presented from the Chancellor (who the president appointed.)

   In his later years Bismarck liked to say that Prussia’s wars against
   Austria and France had come about through his careful design. Many
   historians have since taken his statements at face value, and it has
   become received wisdom that this was the case, although study of the
   facts as they occurred (particularly in the case of the Franco-Prussian
   war) shows that this, like many of Bismarck’s later assertions, was far
   from the truth.

War with Austria

   In the case of Austria, Bismarck did not initiate the quarrel. Although
   his aim was always the aggrandisement of Prussia to a state of equality
   with the then dominant Austria, he was carrying on a policy established
   by his predecessors since 1849. For decades, Prussian statesmen had
   insisted that equality was the necessary condition for Austro-Prussian
   friendship in the German Confederation. Manteuffel refused to back
   Austria during the Crimean war; Schleinitz demanded military supremacy
   north of the Main in 1859; Bernstorff repeated this demand in 1861.

   In December 1862, Bismarck told the Austrian ambassador that the
   situation would eventually lead to war unless equality became a fact.
   This was not a demand that Austria be excluded from Germany, but a
   repetition of the old demand to divide influence at the River Main.
   Bismarck hoped and believed that the demand could be achieved without
   war, as he could not believe that Austria would risk war for such a
   purpose. He misjudged Vienna, however, as later developments would
   show.

   In May 1866 Bismarck again offered Austria a peaceful division of
   hegemony along the Main; the offer was again refused. The countries
   slid into war later that year — there were no formal declarations of
   war, hostilities simply beginning of their own accord. (References from
   "Bismarck, The Man and the Statesman" by Prof AJP Taylor)

The Franco–Prussian War

   Bismarck spent much of the year prior to the outbreak of hostilities at
   Varzin, his country home, recovering from jaundice, and was hardly in a
   position to initiate a war. There is no evidence that he worked
   deliberately for the war with France. Bismarck had not shown any traces
   of hostility towards France — on the contrary, he made repeated
   gestures of friendship towards Napoleon III.

   The situation was worsened by the fact that Wilhelm disliked the
   French; although Bismarck tried to improve relations he was not always
   successful.

   The trouble came to a head in May 1870, when Napoleon quarrelled with
   his pacific foreign minister Daru; Gramont, Daru's replacement, was an
   extreme cleric who intended to humble Prussia at the first opportunity.
   Gramont, egged on by the Empress Eugenie, with a sick Napoleon bringing
   up the rear, chose to take the nomination of Prince Leopold of
   Hohenzollern to the throne of Spain as his opportunity. Had he wished
   merely to bar Leopold from the throne of Spain he should have protested
   in Madrid, and the Spaniards would have given way, as they did a
   fortnight later. But, after the realignment caused by the Prussian war
   with Austria, Gramont wanted to humiliate Prussia so as to restore
   French primacy in Europe. Gramont said on 6th July: "We have
   unanimously agreed to march. We have carried the Chamber with us, we
   shall carry the nation also."

   Meanwhile, Bismarck remained at Varzin, ignoring Wilhelm's requests for
   advice. On July 12th, Bismarck at last left Varzin. By the time he
   arrived in Berlin, Napoleon III and Gramont had fired a new shot from
   Paris. They made further extreme demands, intended to either humiliate
   Prussia or force a war. These demands were:
     * Wilhelm must endorse Leopold's withdrawal
     * Wilhelm must apologise for the candidature
     * Wilhelm must promise that the candidature would never be renewed

   These demands were presented to Wilhelm at Ems on 13th July, and were
   promptly rejected. When Wilhelm's report of these proceedings reached
   Berlin, Bismarck took charge at last. He cut out Wilhelm's conciliatory
   phrases and emphasized the real issue — the French had made certain
   demands under threat of war, and Wilhelm had refused them. Bismarck's
   emendation, the so called Ems Dispatch was followed by a second message
   from Wilhelm confirming Bismarck's version. To the French it was a
   provocation of war. (References from "Bismarck, The Man and the
   Statesman" by Prof AJP Taylor, and "Napoleon III and his Carnival
   Empire" by John Bierman)

Chancellor of the German Empire

   Otto von Bismarck, wearing a pickelhaube, became Chancellor of Germany
   in 1871.
   Enlarge
   Otto von Bismarck, wearing a pickelhaube, became Chancellor of Germany
   in 1871.

   Otto von Bismarck, until 1871 a Graf (Count), was raised to the rank of
   Fürst (Prince). He was also appointed Imperial Chancellor of the German
   Empire, but retained his Prussian offices (including those of
   Minister-President and Foreign Minister); thus, he held almost complete
   control of both domestic and foreign policy. The office of
   Minister-President of Prussia was temporarily separated from that of
   Chancellor in 1873, when Albrecht von Roon was appointed to the former
   office. By the end of the year, however, Roon resigned due to ill
   health, and Bismarck once again became Minister-President.

   In the following years, one of Bismarck's primary political objectives
   was the reduction of the influence of the Catholic church in Germany.
   This may have been due to the anti-liberal message of Pope Pius IX in
   the Syllabus of Errors, 1864 and the dogma of Papal infallibility,
   1870. Prussia (with the exception of the Rhineland) and most other
   northern German states were predominantly Protestant; however, many
   Catholics lived in the southern German states (especially Bavaria). In
   total, Catholics accounted for around one third of the population.
   Bismarck believed that the Roman Catholic Church held too much
   political power; moreover, he was concerned about the emergence of the
   Catholic Centre Party (organised in 1870). Accordingly, he began an
   anti-Catholic campaign known as the Kulturkampf. In 1871, the Catholic
   Department of the Prussian Ministry of Culture was abolished, and in
   1872, the Jesuits were expelled from Germany. The emerging anti-Roman
   Old Catholic Churches as well as Lutheranism were somewhat supported by
   Bismarck instead. More severe anti-Roman Catholic laws passed in 1873
   allowed the government to supervise the education of the Roman Catholic
   clergy, and curtailed the disciplinary powers of the Church. In 1875,
   civil ceremonies were required for weddings, which could hitherto be
   performed in churches. These efforts, however, only strengthened the
   Catholic Centre Party. Largely unsuccessful, Bismarck abandoned the
   Kulturkampf in 1878. This date was significant as Pius died that same
   year, replaced by a more pragmatic Pope Leo XIII.

   The Kulturkampf won Bismarck a new supporter in the secular National
   Liberal Party. The National Liberals were Bismarck's chief allies in
   the Reichstag until the end of the Kulturkampf. During 1873, Germany,
   and much of the rest of Europe, had endured the Long Depression since
   the crash of the Vienna Stock Exchange in 1873, the Gründerkrise. To
   aid faltering industries, the Chancellor decided to abandon free trade
   and establish protectionist tariffs; by doing so, however, he alienated
   the National Liberals. for the first time in Germany since vast
   industrial development in the 1850s after the 1848–49 revolutions, a
   downturn had hit the German economy. This marked a rapid decline in
   support for the National Liberals, who advocated free trade, and by
   1879, the close ties Bismarck had enjoyed with them had all but ended.
   Bismarck, on the other hand, returned to conservative factions —
   including the Centre Party — for support. To prevent the
   Austro-Hungarian problems of different nationalities within one state,
   the government tried to Germanize the state's national minorities,
   situated mainly in the borders of the empire, such as the Danes in the
   North of Germany, the French of Alsace-Lorraine and the Poles in the
   East of Germany.

   Although Bismarck had no personal dislike for Poles — and himself spoke
   Polish — his policies concerning the Poles of Prussia, which were
   usually motivated by tactical considerations of what was best for
   Germany, were generally unfavourable to them, and sometimes were viewed
   as anti-Polish , furthering enmity between the German and Polish
   peoples.

   Bismarck was worried about the growth of the socialist movement — in
   particular, that of the Social Democratic Party. In 1878, he instituted
   a variety of anti-socialist laws. Socialist organizations and meetings
   were forbidden, as was the circulation of socialist literature.
   Moreover, socialist leaders were arrested and tried by police courts.
   Despite these efforts, the movement continued to gain supporters.
   Although socialist organisations were forbidden, socialists could still
   gain seats in the Reichstag; under the German Constitution, candidates
   could run independently, unaffiliated with any party. The strength of
   the socialists in the Reichstag continued to grow steadily despite
   Bismarck's measures.

   The Chancellor, then, adopted a different approach to tackling
   socialism. In order to appease the working class — and thereby reduce
   socialism's appeal to the public — he enacted a variety of
   paternalistic social reforms, which can be considered as the first
   European labor laws. The year 1883 saw the passage of the Health
   Insurance Act, which entitled workers to health insurance; the worker
   paid two-thirds, and the employer one-third, of the premiums. Accident
   insurance was provided in 1884, whilst old age pensions and disability
   insurance were established in 1889. Other laws restricted the
   employment of women and children. These efforts, however, were not
   entirely successful; the working class largely remained unreconciled
   with Bismarck's conservative government.

Foreign policies

   In foreign affairs, he devoted himself to keeping peace in Europe, so
   that the strength of the German Empire would not be threatened. He was,
   however, forced to contend with French revanchism — the desire to
   avenge the loss in the Franco-Prussian War. Bismarck adopted a policy
   of diplomatically isolating France, whilst maintaining cordial
   relations with other nations in Europe. In order to avoid alienating
   the United Kingdom, he declined to seek a colonial empire or an
   expansion of the navy. In 1872, he extended the hand of friendship to
   the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia, whose rulers joined Wilhelm I
   in the League of the Three Emperors. Bismarck also maintained good
   relations with Italy.

   After Russia's victory over the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish
   War, Bismarck helped negotiate a settlement at the Congress of Berlin (
   1878). Russia had previously secured great advantages in southeastern
   Europe when it made peace by ratifying the Treaty of San Stefano.
   Bismarck and other European leaders, however, opposed the growth of
   Russian influence, and sought to protect the power of the Ottoman
   Empire (see Eastern Question). The Treaty of Berlin revised the Treaty
   of San Stefano, reducing the concessions offered to Russia. As a
   result, Russo-German relations suffered; the Russian Prince Gorchakov
   denounced Bismarck for compromising his nation's victory. The
   relationship between Russia and Germany was further weakened by the
   latter's protectionist policies. The League of the Three Emperors
   having fallen apart, Bismarck negotiated the Dual Alliance with
   Austria-Hungary in 1879. The Dual Alliance became the Triple Alliance
   in 1882 with the addition of Italy. Attempts to reconcile Germany and
   Russia failed to have any lasting effect: the Three Emperors' League
   was re-established in 1881, but quickly fell apart, and the Reinsurance
   Treaty of 1887 was allowed to expire in 1890.

   At first, Bismarck opposed the idea of seeking colonies, arguing that
   the burden of obtaining and defending them would outweigh the potential
   benefits. During the late 1870s, however, public opinion shifted to
   favour the idea of a colonial empire. In this regard, Germans were not
   unique; other European nations also began to acquire colonies rapidly
   (see New Imperialism). During the early 1880s, Germany joined other
   European powers in the Scramble for Africa. Among Germany's colonies
   were Togoland (now part of Ghana and Togo), Cameroon, German East
   Africa (now Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania), and German South-West
   Africa (now Namibia). The Berlin Conference ( 1884– 1885) established
   regulations for the acquisition of African colonies; in particular, it
   protected free trade in certain parts of the Congo basin.

Premonition about a European war

   In February 1888, during a Bulgarian crisis, Bismarck addressed the
   Reichstag on the dangers of a European war.

          For the first time he dwells upon the imminent possibility that
          Germany will have to fight on two fronts; he speaks of the
          desire for peace, not of the certainty thereof; then he sets
          forth the Balkan case for war and demonstrates its futility:

     "Bulgaria, that little country between the Danube and the Balkans,
     is far from being an object of adequate importance… for which to
     plunge Europe from Moscow to the Pyrenees, and from the North Sea to
     Palermo, into a war whose issue no man can foresee. At the end of
     the conflict we should scarcely know why we had fought."

     —[Emil Ludwig, Wilhelm Hohenzollern: The last of the Kaisers, New
     York (1927) p. 73 (trans. by Ethel Colburn Mayne)]

Titles from Birth to Death

     * 1865-30 July 1898: His Illustrious Highness Count von
       Bismarck-Schönhausen
     * 1871-30 July 1898: His Serene Highness Prince von Bismarck
     * 1890-30 July 1898: His Highness Duke von Lauenburg

   His full style was; His Serene Highness, Prince von Bismarck, Duke von
   Lauenburg, and Count von Bismarck-Schönhausen.

Last years

   Bismarck on his 80th birthday (April 1, 1895)
   Enlarge
   Bismarck on his 80th birthday ( April 1, 1895)

   The German Emperor, Wilhelm I, died in 1888, leaving the throne to his
   son, Friedrich III. The new monarch, however, was already suffering
   from an incurable cancer and spent all three months of his reign
   fighting the disease before dying. He was replaced by his son, Wilhelm
   II. The new Emperor opposed Bismarck's careful foreign policy,
   preferring vigorous and rapid expansion to protect Germany's "place in
   the sun."

   Early conflicts between Wilhelm II and his chancellor soon poisoned the
   relationship between the two men. Bismarck believed that Wilhelm was a
   lightweight who could be dominated, and he showed scant respect for
   Wilhelm's policies in the late 1880s. Following an attempt by Bismarck
   to implement a far-reaching anti-Socialist law in early 1890, the final
   split between monarch and statesman occurred soon after.

   It was during this time that Bismark, after gaining a favorable
   absolute majority toward his policies in the Reichstag, decided to make
   the anti-socialist laws permanent. His Kartell majority of the
   amalgamated Conservative Party and the National Liberal Party was
   willing to make the laws permanent with one exception: the police power
   to expel socialist agitators from their homes, a power used excessively
   at times against political opponents. Hence, the Kartell split on this
   issue, with the National Liberal Party unwilling to the make the
   expulsion clause of the law permanent. The Conservatives supported only
   the entirety of the bill and threatened to and eventually vetoed the
   entire bill in session because Bismarck wouldn't give his assent to a
   modified bill. At the debate continued, Wilhelm became increasingly
   interested in social problems, especially the treatment of mine workers
   who went on strike in 1889, and keeping with his active policy in
   government, routinely interrupted Bismark in Council to make clear his
   social policy. Bismarck sharply disagreed with Wilhelm's policy and
   worked to circumvent it. Even though Wilhelm supported the altered
   anti-socialist bill, Bismarck pushed for his support to veto the bill
   in its entirety, but when Bismarck's arguments couldn't convince
   Wilhelm, he became excited and agitated until uncharacteristically
   blurting out his motive to see the bill fail: to have the socialists
   agitate until a violent clash occurred that could be used as a pretext
   to crush them. Wilhelm replied that he wasn't willing to open his reign
   with a bloody campaign against his subjects. The next day, after
   realizing his blunder, Bismarck attempted to reach a compromise with
   Wilhelm by agreeing to his social policy towards industrial workers,
   and even suggested a European council to discuss working conditions,
   presided by the German Emperor.
   "Dropping the pilot"
   Enlarge
   "Dropping the pilot"

   Despite this, a turn of events eventually led to his distance from
   Wilhelm. Bismarck, feeling pressured and unappreciated by the Emperor
   and undermined by ambitious advisors, refused to sign a proclamation
   regarding the protection of workers along with Wilhelm, as was required
   by the German Constitution, to protest Wilhelm's ever increasing
   interference to Bismarck's previously unquestioned authority. Bismarck
   also worked behind the scenes to break the Continental labor council
   Wilhelm had set so dearly to his heart. The final break came as
   Bismarck searched for a new parliamentary majority, with his Kartell
   voted from power due to the anti socialist bill fiasco. The remaining
   powers in the Reichstag were the Catholic Centre Party and the
   Conservative Party. Bismarck wished to form a new block with the Centre
   Party, and invited Ludwig Windthorst, the parliamentary leader to
   discuss an alliance. This would be Bismarck's last political maneuver.
   Wilhelm was furious to hear about Windthorst's visit. In a
   parliamentary state, the head of government depends on the confidence
   of the parliamentary majority, and certainly has the right to form
   coalitions to ensure his policies a majority, but in Germany, the
   Chancellor depended on the confidence of the Emperor alone, and Wilhelm
   believed that the Emperor had the right to be informed before his
   minister's meeting. After a heated argument in Bismarck's estate over
   imperial authority, Wilhelm, stormed out, both parting ways
   permanently. Bismarck, forced for the first time into a situation he
   could not use to his advantage, wrote a blistering letter of
   resignation, decrying Wilhelm's interference in foreign and domestic
   policy, which was only published after Bismarck's death.

   Bismarck resigned at Wilhelm II's insistence in 1890, at age 75, to be
   succeeded as Chancellor of Germany and Minister-President of Prussia by
   Leo von Caprivi. Bismarck was discarded ("dropping the pilot"), given a
   new title, the Duke of Lauenburg, and entered into restless, resentful
   retirement to his estates at Varzin (in today's Poland) and within one
   month after the death of his wife on 27 November 1894, moved to
   Friedrichsruh near Hamburg — always waiting, and waiting in vain to be
   petitioned for advice and counsel.

   As soon as he had to leave his office, citizens started to praise him,
   collecting money to build monuments like the Bismarck Memorial or
   towers dedicated to him. There was much honour given to him in Germany,
   many buildings have his name, books about him were bestsellers, and he
   was often painted, e.g., by Franz von Lenbach and C.W. Allers.

   Bismarck spent his final years gathering his memoirs (Gedanken und
   Erinnerungen, or Thoughts and Memories). He died in 1898 (at the age of
   eighty-three) at Friedrichsruh, where he is entombed in the
   Bismarck-Mausoleum. He was succeeded as Fürst von Bismarck-Schönhausen
   by his eldest son Herbert.

Last Warning and Prediction

   Bismarck-Monument, Hamburg
   Enlarge
   Bismarck-Monument, Hamburg

   In December 1897, William II visited Bismarck for the last time.
   Bismarck again warned the Kaiser about the dangers of improvising
   government policy based on the intrigues of courtiers and militarists.
   Bismarck’s last warning was:

     "Your Majesty, so long as you have this present officer corps, you
     can do as you please. But when this is no longer the case, it will
     be very different for you."

     —[Alan Palmer, Bismarck, Charles Scribner’s Sons (1976) p. 267]

   Subsequently, Bismarck made the accurate prediction:

     " Jena came twenty years after the death of Frederick the Great; the
     crash will come twenty years after my departure if things go on like
     this" ― a prophecy fulfilled almost to the month.

     —[A.J.P. Taylor, Bismarck, Alfred A Knopf, New York (1969) p. 264]

Legacy

   Memorial to Otto von Bismarck, Tiergarten, Berlin
   Enlarge
   Memorial to Otto von Bismarck, Tiergarten, Berlin

   Bismarck's most important legacy involves the unification of Germany.
   Germany had existed as a collection of separate principalities and Free
   Cities since the era of Charlemagne. Over the next thousand years
   various kings and rulers had tried to unify the German states without
   success until Bismarck. Largely as a result of Bismarck's efforts, the
   various German kingdoms were united into a single country. Following
   unification, Germany became one of the most powerful nations in Europe.
   Bismarck's astute, cautious, and pragmatic foreign policies allowed
   Germany to retain peacefully the powerful position into which he had
   brought it; maintaining amiable diplomacy with almost all European
   nations. France, the main exception, was devastated by Bismarck's wars
   and his harsh subsequent policies towards it; France became one of
   Germany's most bitter enemies in Europe. Austria, too, was weakened by
   the creation of a German Empire, though to a much lesser extent than
   France. Bismarck's diplomatic feats were subsequently entirely undone,
   however, by Kaiser Wilhelm II, whose arrogant policies succeeded in not
   only offending and alienating, but actually unifying other European
   powers against Germany in time for World War I.

   During most of his nearly thirty year-long tenure, Bismarck held
   undisputed control over the government's policies. He was well
   supported by his friend Albrecht von Roon, the war minister, as well as
   the leader of the Prussian army Helmuth von Moltke. Bismark's
   diplomatic moves relied on a victorious Prussian military, and these
   two men gave Bismark the victories he needed to convince the smaller
   German states to join Prussia.

   Bismark took steps to silence or restrain political opposition, as
   evidenced by laws restricting the freedom of the press, the
   Kulturkampf, and the anti-socialist laws. His king (later Emperor)
   Wilhelm I rarely challenged the Chancellor's decisions; on several
   occasions, Bismarck obtained his monarch's approval by threatening to
   resign. Wilhelm II, however, intended to govern the country himself,
   making the ousting of Bismarck one of his first tasks as Kaiser.
   Bismarck's successors as Chancellor were much less influential, as
   power was concentrated in the Emperor's hands.

   Two ships of the German Imperial Navy ( Kaiserliche Marine), as well as
   a battleship from the World War II-era, were named after him. Also
   named in his honour were the Bismarck Sea and Bismarck Archipelago
   (both near the former German colony of New Guinea), as well as
   Bismarck, North Dakota (a city and state capital in the United States).
   Memorial dedicated to Bismarck as a student at the Rudelsburg
   Enlarge
   Memorial dedicated to Bismarck as a student at the Rudelsburg

   Numerous statues and memorials dot the cities, towns, and countryside
   of Germany, including the famous Bismarck Memorial in Berlin. The only
   memorial showing him as a student at Göttingen University (together
   with his dog Ariel) and as a member of his Corps Hannovera was
   reerrected in 2006 at the Rudelsburg.

   His student fellow at Göttingen university, John Lothrop Motley,
   describes Bismarck as Otto v. Rabenmark in his novel Morton's Hope, or
   the Memoirs of a Provincial (1839).

   A young Bismarck features as a character in 'Royal Flash', part of the
   Flashman series of novels written by George MacDonald Fraser.

Personality

   Otto von Bismarck was a celebrated entertainer who greatly appreciated
   funny stories and wordplay. Other than his native German, he was fluent
   in English, French, Russian, Polish — and a diplomat of excellent
   manners and politeness. His friends were chosen independent of origin,
   creed, or political beliefs, with the exclusion of socialists and
   social democrats, whom he despised. Bismarck loved good food and drink
   and had a tendency to indulge in both excessively. His most important
   tool in politics was his talent in successfully planning complex
   international developments.

Quotations

     * "Politics is the art of the possible." (1867)

     * "The problems of our times will be solved by blood and iron."
       (Inaugural address 1862)

     * "We Germans fear God and naught else in this world! It is this fear
       of God that makes us love and cherish peace." (Final addess to the
       Reichstag, 1888)

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