Otto von Bismarck

(1815-1898)

BIRTH

April 1, 1815

PLACE

Schönhausen, Germany

NAME

Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck

DEATH

July 30, 1898

PLACE

Friedrichsruh, Germany

FAMILY

FATHER

Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Bismarck

(1771–1845)

MOTHER

Wilhelmine Luise Mencken

(1789–1839)

WIFE

Johanna von Puttkamer

(1824-1894)

HOMES

NICKNAMES

Iron Chancellor

POLITICAL VIEWS

CATHOLIC CHURCH RESTRICTION ADVOCATE, GERMAN UNIFICATION ADVOCATE, SOCIAL INSURANCE ADVOCATE

CONSERVATIVE

RELIGIOUS VIEWS

CHRISTIAN

PROTESTANT

MEMBERSHIPS

CORPS HANNOVERA MEMBER

AWARDS

POUR LE MERITE FOR SCIENCES AND ARTS RECIPIENT, SUPREME ORDER OF CHRIST RECIPIENT

Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck unified Germany through three wars and was the first chancellor of the German Empire from 1871 to 1890. In 1847 he married Johanna von Puttkamer, and his conversion to a devout Pietist faith shaped his later life. Bismarck entered politics as an ultraconservative in the Prussian United Diet in 1847. He served as Prussia's envoy to the German Confederation in Frankfurt and then as ambassador to Russia and France.

EARLY LIFE

Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was born on April 1, 1815, at Schönhausen, his family's estate west of Berlin in the Prussian province of Saxony. His father, Ferdinand von Bismarck, was a Junker landowner, and his mother, Wilhelmine Mencken, came from a family of officials and scholars. He was educated at schools in Berlin and studied law at the universities of Göttingen and Berlin. After a brief and unhappy career in the Prussian civil service, he returned to manage family estates in Pomerania. In 1847 he married Johanna von Puttkamer, and his conversion to a devout Pietist faith shaped his later life.

Otto von Bismarck entered Prussian politics as a conservative defender of monarchy and aristocratic interests. Parliamentary service was followed by diplomatic appointments at the German federal assembly in Frankfurt, in Russia, and in France. Appointed Prussian minister-president in 1862 during a dispute over army funding, he maintained the government's military reforms despite parliamentary resistance, making constitutional conflict the setting for his rise.

Bismarck used diplomacy and limited wars to strengthen Prussia's position. The conflict with Denmark in 1864 placed Schleswig and Holstein under Prussian and Austrian control, and disputes over their administration preceded the war against Austria in 1866. Prussian victory excluded Austria from the new North German Confederation. War against France in 1870–1871 helped bring the southern German states into a united empire under the Prussian king, proclaimed German emperor at Versailles in January 1871. Bismarck became its first chancellor.

Within the empire he sought to preserve monarchical authority while working with changing parliamentary alliances. The Kulturkampf attempted to curb Catholic institutional influence and provoked sustained resistance. He later moderated that struggle and shifted away from liberal economic policies toward protection. Anti-socialist legislation restricted socialist organizations and publications, while social insurance measures for sickness, accidents, and old age sought to address insecurity and strengthen loyalty to the state.

Foreign policy aimed to protect the new empire and prevent a coalition against it, especially one joining France and Russia. Bismarck constructed and adjusted agreements with Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Italy, balancing incompatible interests. He presided at the Congress of Berlin in 1878 and hosted the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, which helped establish rules for European colonial expansion in Africa without African participation. Germany acquired colonial territories during his chancellorship despite his earlier reservations about overseas commitments.

Relations with Emperor Wilhelm II deteriorated over political control and policy, and Bismarck left office in 1890. In retirement he published memoirs and remained a force in public debate until his death in 1898. His career created a Prussian-led German state and reshaped European diplomacy, combining political negotiation with coercion and exclusion.

CAREER

DEATH

Bismarck spent his final years composing his memoirs (Gedanken und Erinnerungen, or Thoughts and Memories), a work lauded by historians. In the memoirs, Bismarck continued his feud with Wilhelm II by attacking him, by increasing the drama around every event and by often presenting himself in a favourable light. He also published the text of the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia, a major breach of national security, for which an individual of lesser status would have been heavily prosecuted. Bismarck's health began to fail in 1896. He was diagnosed with gangrene in his foot, but refused to accept treatment for it; as a result, he had difficulty walking and often used a wheelchair. By July 1898, he was a full-time wheelchair user, had trouble breathing, and was almost constantly feverish and in pain. His health rallied momentarily on the 28th, but then sharply deteriorated over the next two days. He died just after midnight on 30 July 1898, at the age of 83 in Friedrichsruh, where he is entombed in the Bismarck Mausoleum. He was succeeded as Prince Bismarck by his eldest son, Herbert. Bismarck managed a posthumous snub of Wilhelm II by having his own sarcophagus inscribed with the words, "A loyal German servant of Emperor Wilhelm I".

Bismarck Mausoleum

Bismarck Mausoleum, Friedrichsruh, 21521 Aumühle, Germany

GRAVE