Otto von Bismarck
\n:
Alternate meanings: See Bismarck (disambiguation)
Prince
Otto von Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg (
April 1,
1815 -
July 30,
1898) was one of the most prominent leaders of the
19th century; as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of
Prussia (
1862 -
1890) he unified
Germany with a series of successful wars and became the first
Chancellor (
1871 -
1890) of the
German Empire. Initially a deeply
conservative,
aristocratic, and
monarchist politician, Bismarck fought the growing
social democracy movement in the
1880s by outlawing several organizations and pragmatically instituting mandatory old-age
pensions, and health and accident
insurance for workers. He became known as the
Iron Chancellor.
He was born Otto Eduard Leopold Graf (count) von Bismarck in Schönhausen and studied law at
Göttingen and
Berlin. \nHe married Johanna von Puttkamer in
1847 in a long and happy
marriage that produced 3 children.
Delighted after the failure of the
revolution of 1848, he was elected to the Prussian
parliament in
1849. Appointed to represent Prussia in
Frankfurt, Bismarck slowly became convinced that a Prussian-led unified German nation was an important goal (this was considered a liberal objective at the time). Subsequently, he worked as ambassador in
St. Petersburg and
Paris. In
1862, the Prussian king
Wilhelm I appointed him
Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister of Prussia, as part of a conflict between the increasingly liberal Prussian parliament and the king.
Bismarck then succeeded in unifying Germany by initiating several wars. First, in cooperation with Austria,
Schleswig and
Holstein were conquered and taken from
Denmark in the
Second War of Schleswig; a peace treaty was concluded in
Vienna on
October 30,
1864. Although already in
1865 Austria was pressured to let Prussia take care of these northern lands, in
1866 he attacked Austria and won quickly at the
Battle of Königgratz, annexing
Hanover,
Hesse-Kassel,
Nassau, and
Frankfurt to Prussia and forming the
North German Confederation. After Bismarck provoked
France, which at this time was ruled by
Napoleon III, the
Franco-Prussian War broke out in
1870 and the southern German states, viewing France as the aggressor, joined the North German Confederation. France suffered a humiliating defeat, and Wilhelm I was crowned German Emperor in the Galerie des Glaces (Spiegelsaal) in
Versailles, which served as the headquarter of the Prussian army, on
January 18,
1871. Bismarck thus largely created the Prussia-led 1871
German Empire, at the exclusion of Austria.
\nCelebrated as a national hero, Bismarck was the first
Reichskanzler (Chancellor) of the new Empire. In foreign policy, he now devoted himself to keeping peace among the
European powers of France, Austria, Germany and Russia. Bismarck's belief was that Germany's \ncentral location in Europe would cause it to be devastated\nin case of any war.
Internally, he was concerned about the emergence of two new
parties: the
Catholic Centre Party and the
Social Democratic Party. The campaign against
Catholicism that started in
1872, called
Kulturkampf, was largely a failure. He attacked the Social Democrats in two ways: the party and its organizations were outlawed, while the working class was appeased with (very progressive) legislation guaranteeing accident and health insurance as well as old-age pensions.\n
\nIn the elections of
1890, both the Catholic Centre and the Social Democrats made great gains, and Bismarck resigned at the insistence of Kaiser
Wilhelm II, who had risen to the throne in 1888. Bismarck spent his last years gathering his memoirs ("Gedanken und Erinnerungen", i.e. Thoughts and Memories), and died
1898 in Friedrichsruh. He is buried in the Bismarck-Mausoleum there.\n \nBoth the
Kriegsmarine battleship DKM Bismarck as well as two ships of the Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine), and
Bismarck, North Dakota, were named in his honor, as was the
Bismarck Archipelago outside the former German colony of
New Guinea, and several streets and schools in Germany.
External link
\n*http://www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/bismarck.htm
\n