Otto von Bismarck is an iron chancellor with a human face. Otto Bismarck: brief biography, activities, quotes. Interesting facts about Otto von Bismarck Post about von Bismarck

Otto von Bismarck

"The most urgent question will be decided not by speeches and majority votes, but by iron and blood."

Otto von Bismarck

"People are a lot dumber than I thought they were."

Otto von Bismarck

The life of the founder of the Second Reich of Germany, the legendary Iron Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, upon its careful and detailed consideration, appears before us as an amazing example of persistent and consistent struggle, during which, thanks to the rigid supremacy of the will, a person managed to complete a long chain of unsuccessful attempts with a colossal victory, which allowed him to take a prominent line in world history.

An unbiased look at success and the strategy for achieving it, no doubt, will not allow us to ignore the birth and development of this extraordinary personality, a man who became a legend during his lifetime.

Otto von Bismarck was the fourth child of a Prussian landowner. The fact that two older brothers of the future chancellor died in infancy, and his immediate predecessor turned out to be in very poor health, had a considerable influence on the attitude of father and mother towards the fourth boy and, accordingly, on the attitude of the latter to himself. Otto was not just loved - the hopes of his parents were connected with him, he was given the lion's share of parental attention and he was inspired by the belief that he had a great future. It was this attitude towards the fourth son that contributed to the transformation of the boy into an unpredictable and determined egoist, ready for any eccentric act and believing in his own infallibility. And looking ahead, it can be argued that later this played a significant role in the appearance in his mature years of his thoughts about his own messianism - coming to German soil to glorify it.

Being a junker (German landowner), Bismarck-father formally belonged to the nobility, but was not the owner of such material wealth that would guarantee him the necessary degree of influence in the state. On the other hand, the origin of the mother (she was from the family of an official close to the court of King Frederick William II) played a significant role directly in determining Bismarck's life path and even opened up some starting opportunities for him. In addition, Bismarck's mother, who lived in childhood and early youth at the royal court, not only learned about the art of court intrigues, but also managed to develop a flexible inventive mind, no doubt passed on to her son, in whom she almost unconditionally believed.

Some biographers of Bismarck argue that the fact of his father's non-participation in the liberation war of 1813-1814. definitely affected the character of the boy, because the patriotic mood of that time often forced children to defend the honor of their family with their fists. So, Alan Palmer even came to the conclusion that in childhood Otto was "an aggressive outsider, acutely aware of his inferiority." It is possible that the trembling experiences of childhood and early youth, the unpleasant and shameful feelings of one's own vulnerability, the difficulty of overcoming frustration for the militant and indomitable character of Bismarck later aroused in him a thirst for significance precisely in the field of German statehood and the development of the national idea. An equally important factor influencing the formation of Bismar's super-idea was the mother, who not only passed on ardent ambitions to her sons, but also provided them with a completely decent education. The latter was an important factor, given that we are talking about the prestigious and extravagant Plaman School in Berlin at that time, where, at the firm insistence of the mother, both boys were sent. It seems that it was in this educational institution, where special attention was paid to the development of original personal qualities, that the young Bismarck mastered the basics of multifaceted strategic thinking in five years of study. In addition, the school has become not only a gym for the development of a young, rather tenacious and prolific mind, but also a good tempering of independence. Although, paying tribute to objectivity, it is worth noting that the future chancellor of Germany was very burdened by the rather strict discipline of the school. It could not be otherwise - cut off from home and being in a tightly controlled team from the age of seven, he, on the one hand, was forced to abandon childish self-pity, and on the other, he learned early to live in the world with his sometimes very violent emotions and experiences. Moreover, the result of such independence was the emergence of an unshakable self-confidence, which played such a significant role in his later life.

Important for the later life of the young Bismarck was the fact that after graduating from school, he not only did not leave the big city, but, on the contrary, continued his studies, even managing to change two gymnasiums. Most likely, the role of the mother was decisive in this key turn of events. It is also quite obvious that early isolation from the parental home and forced independence, which almost always gave rise to impressionability and a certain isolation of thoughts that almost always accompany them, determined the bias of the young man's education - the educational institutions attended by Otto had a clear humanitarian orientation. The early originality of the young Bismarck is also confirmed by the fact that he was an unremarkable average student, that is, he treated school as it was supposed to - as a mandatory, quite ordinary, and therefore not very important for a future life, almost a chimerical occupation without a specific goal. . But at the same time, he very early became self-confident and arrogant. So much so that, as a university student, he managed to participate in twenty-five duels in the first nine months. This is an excellent illustration of Bismarck's early desire for the realization of ambitious behavior. He did not agree to accept the position of an "ordinary" or "average" student, and a fierce protest served as a perverted and caustic form of self-expression. The unwillingness of a young person to respond to the demands of mentors and his attempts from the very beginning of his life to find his own style of perceiving information can also be attributed to a certain character trait. However, in return for studies and good grades, the boy read avidly, mainly English and German authors, and later directed his efforts to mastering the peculiarities of international relations between European countries. It is possible that the latter was precisely the result of the negative experiences of childhood associated with the protection of family honor. But reading avidly, as usual, served him well - later, it was the unique knowledge of history and, in general, the peculiarities of the relationship of European states, coupled with the synthesis of the current political situation, which the flexible Bismarckian mind turned out to be capable of, determined the direction of the main efforts and the final choice of life path.

It is interesting that if the father did not express any distinct attitude towards the education of his sons, then the much more demanding and pretentious mother was extremely dissatisfied with his level. For example, in her opinion, young men should have had a much more accurate idea of ​​​​the ideas that they were to devote their future lives to. Surprisingly, it was the woman's flair and intuition that told Bismarck's mother that ideas are the driving force behind human development. She could not realize only one thing - ideas are not born in spiritual bondage, they come only at moments of the greatest creative insight, a favorable environment for which is the atmosphere of complete freedom of peace of mind. The tenets of the Berlin studies, even with their progress, weighed down the development of Bismarck's ideas about his role, despite the fact that they opened the way for him into the world of reflection.

Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning the influence on the young Bismarck of one mentor - the theologian Dr. Schleiermacher, who instilled in Otto a rational approach not only to religion, but also to life itself. However, the attitude towards religion in general after talking with a famous scientist forever remained only emphatically cold - the pragmatic mind of the emerging personality did not find a rational grain in it. At the end of the gymnasium at the age of seventeen (according to the recollection of the chancellor himself), he had a firm conviction that "the republic is the most reasonable form of government."

However, the real idea was still so far away that it might never have been born.

The fledgling and rather ambitious Bismarck was again pushed onto the true path by his mother, insisting on sending him to the Georg August University in Göttingen. Obviously, the developed maternal feeling did not fail here either - the educational institution was famous for its serene free-thinking and the breadth of its intellectual outlook, unusual for that time. It seems that the mother felt a certain lack of complexes and narrow-mindedness in her son's views and therefore made another effort to unobtrusively determine his life path. It is not surprising, however, that the future chancellor's attitude to academic studies did not change at the university either. On the contrary, his self-respect began to take on such outlandish forms that, without exaggeration, one could already be called delusions of grandeur. The attitude towards the professors, among whom were well-known in the country, venerable colossi of science, was contemptuously ironic. Although there were exceptions, of course. But it is surprising that Bismarck's degree of respect for this or that scientist was in no way connected with the perception of the rest of the students and with the official assessments of the teacher's merits before science - already at such a young age he managed to separate the true charm from the props of titles and symbols. In other words, in the judgments of the young Bismarck there was a level of freedom and radicalism inherent only in people who are ready for serious deeds, confident in their own aspirations and not burdened by the influence of the surrounding masses. The latter, no doubt, was the achievement of the mother, demonstrating a non-conformism towards her husband, unique for that time.

Bismarck, a student, even dressed pretentiously, which confirms the unbridled desire to stand out from the crowd, to be different from the faceless mass, although at that moment there were no internal prerequisites for this. At the same time, the very irresistible physical desire to be different, which found expression in extraordinary behavior, a tendency to exaltation and chaotic semi-wild antics, gave rise to an internal need to somehow reinforce one's exclusivity. In order to succeed in originality and color, Bismarck, it seems, was ready for anything. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to assume that already in his early student period he was in search of a worthy idea and deliberately developed audacity, which served as a clear sign of disagreement with a faceless and weak-willed world.

It is hardly surprising that the quite capable student Bismarck did not complete his studies at the University of Göttingen - bringing the local professors to the extreme degree of indignation with his pointedly inadequate defiant behavior, unwillingness to accept the academic school and obey the established authorities. In addition, feeling financial difficulties from too lush and inadequate income life in Göttingen, and also, it is possible, realizing the futility of efforts to obtain a formal education, he decided to move to the capital's educational institution. From the point of view of the formation of an idea and the inclusion of strong-willed efforts in the implementation of a life strategy, at least two events of the near-student period of the future statesman's life, which were imprinted on his entire later life, are of interest. The first is connected with his studies in Berlin, where he not only studied desperately with tutors, but stubbornly and furiously, with incredible efforts, bit into the very essence of knowledge with the help of books, while continuing to defiantly and with his characteristic cholericness to ignore attending lectures. This testifies not only to the strength of character, ready for difficulties (after all, Bismarck proved to himself and others that he had a rather unique intellectual potential when he completed his dissertation in philosophy and political economy), but also that he was still under the influence of mother, who inspired her mad son that the path to greatness definitely lies through knowledge and acquired, even if ephemeral, titles. It was she who pointed out to her son a quite prestigious and rather interesting diplomatic career. The second point is unique in Bismarck's approach to solving any problem - using absolutely all means: going ahead, pre-emptive action and cunning. His set of dynamic and extraordinary tools has become the basis of a unique and completely new diplomacy with an undeniably strategic vision of the European map, as well as a willingness to fight on several fronts at once, while despising any opponent. The reaction to the first tangible life obstacle and failure associated with the refusal of the Prussian Foreign Minister to satisfy the ambitions of a young man, whose stormy, like a mountain river, temperament, pride and narcissism did not inspire any confidence in the cautious and balanced first diplomat of the country, is also interesting. It is noteworthy that the young man, who had barely completed his university education, managed to get through to an appointment with the minister and, discarding excessive timidity, quite specifically asked him for assistance. Such an act is not only evidence of extreme decisiveness and calculation. This is, first of all, an indicator that Bismarck, already in his youth, was ready for any action, including asymmetric situations of action (which, by the way, neither his opponents nor those who surrendered under his inexorable onslaught were ready for). ) to move him towards his goal. Bismarck was ready to use all means, if only their application would bring results. In addition, he was ready to play, and it is possible that this dizzying balancing act on the verge of a fatal fall became the source of the idea to realize oneself in gambling diplomacy. This unique feature, characteristic only of very successful and surprisingly persistent and assertive people, was carried by them through all the changeable and all-weather life and, of course, brought dividends. In the case of the audience, the only problem was that Bismarck did not yet have a clearly formulated goal, or a specific program of action, or violent intentions, or the very idea in which he would already believe himself and for the implementation of which he would be ready to involve all his unshakable will and fantastic energy. However, he was already ready to go through a chain of unsuccessful attempts, because he reacted to the minister's advice with a certain amount of irony.

No less interesting is the fact that already at the age of nineteen, the young man had vague thoughts about the transformations of Prussia. One gets the impression that he, not yet knowing where to direct his energy, had already entered the phase of active search and considered the idea of ​​sculpting himself as a heroic image of a statesman as one of several ways of self-realization. But it also seems that the immature Bismarck had no doubts that he had to become SOMETHING. By whom, he did not yet know. But the presence of thoughts of this kind is a very important detail in the formation of any genius and creator.

Is it possible to say that Bismarck was created by his mother, giving him the best education and arbitrarily putting him on the starting track of a diplomatic career? Knowledge, connections and her instinct of a former court lady acquired in her younger years played an extraordinary role. But even if Bismarck had been consistent in carrying out his mother's advice and silenced his own voice, desperately breaking through to the surface, he could only count on the routine career of an average diplomat and would never have managed to write his name into history. But Bismarck's charismatic impulsiveness, his choleric exaltation, his precocious ability to move ahead and contempt for the foundations, multiplied by knowledge and reinforced by maternal support, gave him starting opportunities. With the help of his mother, from a young age, Bismarck learned to look at the world through the prism of his own interests - a trait that is essential for any victory. Perhaps this was the main achievement of the many years of educational process of the young Bismarck.

It is typical for every person who has ever achieved success to master a certain package of books, which, if not formed his character, then left an indisputable and indelible imprint on the development and formation of his personality. In practice, the composition of such a package can vary significantly, but in reality, in the life of a person of the second millennium, hardly anything can replace its presence, because the synthesis of human experience is one of the main conditions for the birth of a new genius. Bismarck was no exception to the rule. It was formed by the writings of Goethe and Schiller, the works of Shakespeare, the works of Byron and Scott, as well as materials on the history of politics. Undoubtedly, the bet of the mother of two Bismarck sons on “penetrating into the world of ideas” and the well-founded disappointment associated with this is undoubtedly interesting: neither Otto nor his brother Bernhard demonstrated the presence of any noteworthy ideas at the time of graduation. It seems that at this time the mother made more ambitious plans than her fledgling children. In the end, it was thanks to her that Otto went to Aachen to serve in the administrative board of the city, where the service was not burdensome, but slightly opened the way to self-improvement. It cannot but be noted that the young Bismarck easily succumbed to the fleeting inclinations of youth and did not burden himself at all with the performance of official duties. This is only additional evidence of his lack of a real idea at that time, and a chain of frivolous mistakes dominated the beginning of his rather mediocre diplomatic career. Undoubtedly, the choleric temperament, clearly expressed by extravagant deeds, led him along the edge of the abyss, falling into which once, he would never have got out of it. In the end, he showed himself again, practically leaving his place of service for the sake of amorous deeds without any convincing explanations. The series of erroneous and mysterious ill-conceived steps was thus continued. Not surprisingly, the mother was beside herself with the completely unpredictable frivolous behavior of her son. The only and absolutely irremovable reason that Bismarck had nowhere to direct his crushing energy and brilliant mind prone to dynamic combinations was the absence of an idea as such. He, like a powerful ship of a new unique design, could not move forward on a long voyage, because he did not have sails.

Not surprisingly, with the death of a mother who pushed her son through her own connections and insisted on taking his career more seriously, the diplomatic card of the young Bismarck was practically beaten. Resignation followed almost immediately. But at that time he had already formed as a person who not only loved to stand out from the general homogeneous mass, but was eager to literally shock others so that, God forbid, he would not turn out to be colorless. He went through life like an icebreaker, crushing and crushing everything that could not or did not want to accept his way of thinking and seeing the world, without experiencing any feelings and not succumbing to anyone's influence. To some extent, Bismarck's behavior after failures in the diplomatic field can be regarded as the usual overcompensation for his own weakness and the need to prove his own importance by using the prism of a dim environment. But at the same time, he continued to persistently and seriously work on books, delving into literature and the history of diplomacy, without ignoring, however, philosophy. Several years of seclusion hastened the end of the internal crisis and began to form the first outlines of a future fundamental idea. Thinking about his own role so exhausted him that he even entered the service of the Potsdam administration, but soon could not stand office work and returned to rural seclusion. Twice undertakings to build the foundation of a career failed ... Undoubtedly, the twenty-nine-year-old Bismarck was actively searching for himself, not finding a channel in which he could direct his fury and extreme energy.

But each one who seeks himself more than once is presented with a real opportunity to change everything and continue to dare not in thoughts, but in reality. And the point here is not at all in fate and diabolical fate, but in the fact that the world is ready to be transformed by the hand of the strong, if only the one who decided on something serious would believe in himself. Bismarck is ripe for the transformation of his life. His will, knowledge obtained from books and aspirations to vague, obscure and transcendental heights were ready to forcefully break the ridiculous ring that had formed around him, which was not characteristic of his violent passions of peace and dull voluptuousness. Bismarck craved fights and victories. This is how he created himself and could no longer hold his demonic will captive.

And the key turn in the life of the dejected landowner, who most of all admired the harsh spectacle of ice drift, nevertheless occurred when, in an effort to expand the circle of acquaintances, he was introduced to the Gerlach brothers, quite influential in the country. The latter were at that time advisers to King Frederick William IV. During meetings with them, Bismarck quickly demonstrated both the skills of large-scale statesmanship and his whirlwind temperament, perceived as a capacity for strong deeds. And when the opportunity presented itself to replace the ill deputy from Magdeburg in the United Landtag, Bismarck, in the role of a novice politician, did not hesitate to go to Berlin.

This was already the third attempt, but neither the failed career of a diplomat, nor the impulse to become an employee that ended in resignation undermined the young man's self-confidence. And the demonstrative type of his personality was the best suited for the realization of a political career. True, for a long time he experienced difficulties in order not to tell the enemy everything that he thought about him. Although sometimes frank statements on his part were perceived as a game and added points to Bismarck himself. It is not surprising that the blood of Bismarck, stagnant in the village over the long years of hermit life, began to play at the first opportunity to realize itself. He already had enough knowledge - the direction had not yet been finally formed. The latter was to be found.

Bismarck did not want to wait. He felt that if he took the initiative, he could catch the wave. The main thing is that now it was already the scale of the country, and therefore everything looked much more attractive than the first step of a diplomatic career somewhere in the backyards of a great power. Intuitively, he understood that the brightness of the personality can be a contributing factor to ascent, especially in the political arena. He introduced an iron rule into his life, which consists in the fact that not a single one of his public appearances as a politician or statesman should go unnoticed. The solution of such a task required both incredible efforts and extensive knowledge, but on the other hand, the sharpness of the young Bismarck in dealing with opponents, multiplied by oratorical virtuosity and a clear understanding of both the rapidly changing situation in the international arena and the general balance of power on the continent, instantly distinguished him from unvaried mass of more or less mediocre politically active Germans. He suppressed all more or less noticeable personalities claiming authority with his assertiveness and extraordinary determination. In general, his activity was so volcanic that it was sometimes unclear how he managed not to get tired for a long time. It is very curious that even in his mature years, Bismarck paid no less attention to oratory than, say, acting, and sometimes he managed to completely control the audience, which, of course, influenced his popularity and perception as the savior of Germany. Moreover, in both young and mature years, this statesman gave vent to emotions during his speeches, so that it was very difficult for his opponents to distinguish acting from true feelings, which often played into the hands of promoting Bismarckian intrigues. So, when he first spoke at the age of thirty-two from the rostrum of the Landtag on the topic of national honor, Bismarck practically did not change himself - almost every appearance on the rostrum was associated with a scandal in which he assigned himself the role of defender of the German national feeling.

Only one tough and extraordinary speech in the Landtag led to the fact that in one day he achieved what he could not achieve for many years: a scandalous celebrity and the transformation into an odious, but recognizable figure were provided. It seems that this is what contributed to overcoming the main milestone for any politician - he came to the attention of the first persons of the state. And although the king during official receptions did not indulge in the attention of an unrestrained and furious parliamentarian, nevertheless, having met the barely married Bismarck with his young wife in Venice, he suddenly invited the couple to dine. Obviously, even then, the monarch's thoughts regarding the future role of the young ambitious politician, already ripening, made him take a closer look at him.

For a long time, Bismarck made many mistakes in his desire to play the most significant role for his environment and his burning desire to draw as much attention to his person as possible. However, Bismarck's mistakes and miscalculations, like those of other statesmen of the highest rank, continued throughout his life; they drowned and dissolved in dynamism, activity and those successes that accurate hits brought. And it seems that it was during this period of the formation of a politician and statesman that he firmly decided what he would devote his life to. Bismarck found a worthy goal - to realize himself as a statesman, and this idea was adequate to his inflated ambitions. Now, when Bismarck was ready and strode with the broad gait of a strong man who had cultivated an unshakable will in himself, comprehended the art of intrigue and tasted with pleasure the smell of the excitement of a great game, he found himself armed with the main weapon - the thirst for ascent. He, like a climber who finally got into high mountains, saw the clear outlines of his peak - alluring and dazzling. Most importantly, psychologically, he was prepared for breakdowns and falls. Finally, he was ready to become more patient, although his stormy and impetuous nature languished from the wait that diplomats so needed. Bismarck, who had previously left the civil service twice, was now much less likely to rush headlong into extremes - even the fact of his informal meeting with the brilliant and disgraced foreign policy chancellor of Austria Clemens Metternich, who for 39 years set the tone not only in the German Union, but also in Europe in On the whole, it confirms the desire of the future chancellor to comprehensively study the situation in Europe, feel all the undercurrents and understand where traps can be set for unlucky leaders. Having reached the age of Jesus, he was full of strength and ready to withstand any fight. In addition, it was precisely now that Bismarck was becoming a danger to so many. But most importantly, he now had a reason to live and a reason to fight.

This text is an introductory piece.

Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen (German: Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen). Born April 1, 1815 in Schönhausen - died July 30, 1898 in Friedrichsruh. German statesman, prince, first chancellor of the German Empire (Second Reich), nicknamed the "Iron Chancellor".

Otto von Bismarck was born on April 1, 1815 into a family of small estate nobles in Schönhausen, in the Brandenburg province (now Saxony-Anhalt). All generations of the Bismarck family served the rulers of Brandenburg in the peaceful and military fields, but did not show themselves in anything special. Simply put, the Bismarcks were Junkers, the descendants of the conquering knights who founded settlements in the lands east of the Elbe. The Bismarcks could not boast of extensive landholdings, wealth or aristocratic luxury, but were considered noble.

From 1822 to 1827, Otto studied at the Plament school, which emphasized physical development. But young Otto was not happy with this, which he often wrote to his parents about. At the age of twelve, Otto left the Plaman school, but did not leave Berlin, continuing his studies at the Friedrich the Great gymnasium on Friedrichstrasse, and when he was fifteen, he moved to the Gray Monastery gymnasium. Otto showed himself to be an average, not outstanding student. But he studied French and German well, being fond of reading foreign literature. The main interests of the young man lay in the field of politics of the past years, the history of military and peaceful rivalry of various countries. At that time, the young man, unlike his mother, was far from religion.

After graduating from high school, his mother assigned Otto to the Georg August University in Göttingen, which was located in the Kingdom of Hanover. It was assumed that there the young Bismarck would study law and, in the future, enter the diplomatic service. However, Bismarck was not in the mood for serious study and preferred entertainment with friends, of which there were many in Göttingen. Otto often took part in duels, in one of which he was wounded for the first and only time in his life - he had a scar on his cheek from a wound. In general, Otto von Bismarck at that time was not much different from the "golden" German youth.

Bismarck did not complete his education in Göttingen - life on a grand scale turned out to be burdensome for his pocket, and, under the threat of arrest by the university authorities, he left the city. For a whole year he was enrolled at the New Capital University of Berlin, where he defended his dissertation in philosophy and political economy. This was the end of his university education. Naturally, Bismarck immediately decided to start a career in the diplomatic field, which his mother had high hopes for. But the then Prussian foreign minister turned down the young Bismarck, advising him "to look for a place in some administrative institution within Germany, and not in the sphere of European diplomacy." It is possible that the minister's decision was influenced by rumors about Otto's turbulent student life and his passion for sorting things out through a duel.

As a result, Bismarck went to work in Aachen, which had recently become part of Prussia. The influence of France was still felt in this resort town and Bismarck was mainly concerned with the problems connected with the accession of this frontier territory to the Prussian-dominated customs union. But the work, in the words of Bismarck himself, "was not burdensome" and he had plenty of time to read and enjoy life. In the same period, he had many love affairs with visitors to the resort. Once he even almost married the daughter of an English parish priest, Isabella Lorraine-Smith.

Having fallen out of favor in Aachen, Bismarck was forced to enter military service - in the spring of 1838 he enrolled in the guards battalion of huntsmen. However, his mother's illness shortened his term of service: many years of caring for children and the estate undermined her health. The death of his mother put an end to Bismarck's throwing in search of a business - it became quite clear that he would have to manage his Pomeranian estates.

Having settled in Pomerania, Otto von Bismarck began to think about ways to increase the profitability of his estates and soon won the respect of his neighbors both with theoretical knowledge and practical success. Life on the estate disciplined Bismarck greatly, especially when compared with his student years. He proved to be a quick-witted and practical landowner. But still, student habits made themselves felt, and soon the surrounding junkers called him "mad."

Bismarck became very close to his younger sister Malvina, who finished her studies in Berlin. A spiritual closeness arose between brother and sister, caused by similarities in tastes and sympathies. Otto introduced Malvina to his friend Arnim, and a year later they got married.

Bismarck never again ceased to consider himself a believer in God and a follower of Martin Luther. Every morning he began by reading passages from the Bible. Otto decided to get engaged to Maria's friend Johanna von Puttkamer, which he achieved without any problems.

Around this time, Bismarck had his first opportunity to enter politics as a deputy to the newly formed United Landtag of the Prussian Kingdom. He decided not to lose this chance and on May 11, 1847, he took his deputy seat, temporarily postponing his own wedding. It was the time of the sharpest confrontation between the liberals and conservative pro-royal forces: the liberals demanded a Constitution and greater civil liberties from Frederick William IV, but the king was in no hurry to grant them; he needed money to build a railway from Berlin to East Prussia. It was for this purpose that he convened in April 1847 the United Diet, consisting of eight provincial Diet.

After his first speech in the Landtag, Bismarck gained notoriety. In his speech, he tried to refute the liberal deputy's assertion about the constitutional nature of the 1813 war of liberation. As a result, thanks to the press, the "mad" junker from Kniphof turned into a "mad" deputy of the Berlin Landtag. A month later, Otto earned himself the nickname "Fincke's pursuer" because of his constant attacks on the idol and mouthpiece of the liberals Georg von Fincke. Revolutionary moods gradually matured in the country; especially among the urban lower classes, dissatisfied with rising food prices. Under these conditions, Otto von Bismarck and Johanna von Puttkamer finally got married.

1848 brought a whole wave of revolutions - in France, Italy, Austria. In Prussia, the revolution also broke out under the pressure of patriotic liberals who demanded the unification of Germany and the creation of a Constitution. The king was forced to accept the demands. Bismarck was at first afraid of the revolution and was even going to help lead the army to Berlin, but soon his ardor cooled down, and only despondency and disappointment remained in the monarch, who made concessions.

Due to his reputation as an incorrigible conservative, Bismarck had no chance of getting into the new Prussian National Assembly, elected by popular vote of the male part of the population. Otto was afraid for the traditional rights of the junkers, but soon calmed down and admitted that the revolution was less radical than it seemed. He had no choice but to return to his estates and write for the new conservative newspaper, the Kreuzeitung. At this time, there was a gradual strengthening of the so-called "camarilla" - a block of conservative politicians, which included Otto von Bismarck.

The logical outcome of the strengthening of the camarilla was the counter-revolutionary coup of 1848, when the king interrupted the parliament session and sent troops to Berlin. Despite all the merits of Bismarck in preparing this coup, the king refused him a ministerial post, branding him an "inveterate reactionary." The king was not at all in the mood to untie the hands of the reactionaries: soon after the coup, he published the Constitution, which combined the principle of monarchy with the creation of a bicameral parliament. The monarch also reserved the right to absolute veto and the right to rule by emergency decrees. This Constitution did not live up to the aspirations of the liberals, but Bismarck still seemed too progressive.

But he was forced to put up with it and decided to try to move to the lower house of parliament. With great difficulty, Bismarck managed to get through both rounds of elections. He took his place as a deputy on February 26, 1849. However, Bismarck's negative attitude towards German unification and the Frankfurt Parliament hit his reputation hard. After the dissolution of parliament by the king, Bismarck practically lost his chances of being re-elected. But this time he was lucky, because the king changed the electoral system, which saved Bismarck from having to conduct an election campaign. On August 7, Otto von Bismarck again took his deputy seat.

A little time passed, and a serious conflict arose between Austria and Prussia, which could develop into a full-scale war. Both states considered themselves leaders of the German world and tried to draw small German principalities into the orbit of their influence. This time, Erfurt became the stumbling block, and Prussia had to give in, concluding the Olmütz Agreement. Bismarck actively supported this agreement, as he believed that Prussia could not win this war. After some hesitation, the king appointed Bismarck as Prussian representative to the Frankfurt Federal Diet. Bismarck did not yet have the diplomatic qualities necessary for this post, but he had a natural mind and political insight. Soon Bismarck met the most famous political figure in Austria, Clement Metternich.

During the Crimean War, Bismarck resisted Austrian attempts to mobilize German armies for war with Russia. He became an ardent supporter of the German Confederation and an opponent of Austrian domination. As a result, Bismarck became the main supporter of an alliance with Russia and France (still quite recently at war with each other), directed against Austria. First of all, it was necessary to establish contact with France, for which Bismarck left for Paris on April 4, 1857, where he met with Emperor Napoleon III, who did not make much impression on him. But due to the illness of the king and a sharp turn in the foreign policy of Prussia, Bismarck's plans were not destined to come true, and he was sent as an ambassador to Russia. In January 1861, King Frederick William IV died and the former regent Wilhelm I took his place, after which Bismarck was transferred as ambassador to Paris.

But he did not stay long in Paris. In Berlin, at that time, another crisis broke out between the king and parliament. And in order to resolve it, despite the resistance of the empress and the crown prince, Wilhelm I appointed Bismarck head of government, transferring to him the posts of minister-president and minister of foreign affairs. The long era of Bismarck Chancellor began. Otto formed his cabinet from conservative ministers, among whom there were practically no bright personalities, except for Roon, who headed the military department. After the approval of the cabinet, Bismarck delivered a speech in the lower house of the Landtag, where he uttered the famous phrase about "blood and iron." Bismarck was sure that it was a good time for Prussia and Austria to compete for German lands.

In 1863, conflict broke out between Prussia and Denmark over the status of Schleswig and Holstein, which were the southern part of Denmark but were dominated by ethnic Germans. The conflict had been smoldering for a long time, but in 1863 it escalated with renewed vigor under pressure from nationalists on both sides. As a result, at the beginning of 1864, Prussian troops occupied Schleswig-Holstein and soon these duchies were divided between Prussia and Austria. However, this was not the end of the conflict, the crisis in relations between Austria and Prussia constantly smoldered, but did not fade away.

In 1866, it became clear that war could not be avoided, and both sides began to mobilize their military forces. Prussia was in close alliance with Italy, which put pressure on Austria from the southwest and sought to occupy Venice. The Prussian armies quickly occupied most of the northern German lands and were ready for the main campaign against Austria. The Austrians suffered one defeat after another and were forced to accept a peace treaty imposed by Prussia. Hesse, Nassau, Hanover, Schleswig-Holstein and Frankfurt went to her.

The war with Austria greatly exhausted the chancellor and undermined his health. Bismarck took a vacation. But he did not have long to rest. From the beginning of 1867, Bismarck worked hard to create the Constitution of the North German Confederation. After some concessions to the Landtag, the Constitution was adopted and the North German Confederation was born. Bismarck became Chancellor two weeks later. This strengthening of Prussia greatly agitated the rulers of France and Russia. And, if relations with Alexander II remained quite warm, then the French were very negative towards the Germans. Passions were fueled by the Spanish succession crisis. One of the contenders for the Spanish throne was Leopold, who belonged to the Brandenburg dynasty of Hohenzollern, and France could not admit him to the important Spanish throne. Patriotic sentiments began to rule in both countries. The war was not long in coming.

The war was devastating for the French, especially the crushing defeat at Sedan, which they remember to this day. Soon the French were ready to capitulate. Bismarck demanded from France the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, which was completely unacceptable for both Emperor Napoleon III and the republicans who founded the Third Republic. The Germans managed to take Paris, and the resistance of the French gradually faded away. German troops marched triumphantly through the streets of Paris. During the Franco-Prussian War, patriotic sentiments intensified in all German lands, which allowed Bismarck to further rally the North German Confederation by announcing the creation of the Second Reich, and Wilhelm I took the title of Emperor (Kaiser) of Germany. Bismarck himself, in the wake of universal popularity, received the title of prince and the new estate of Friedrichsruhe.

In the Reichstag, meanwhile, a powerful opposition coalition was forming, the core of which was the newly created centrist Catholic Party, which united with parties representing national minorities. In order to resist the clericalism of the Catholic Center, Bismarck went to rapprochement with the National Liberals, who had the largest share in the Reichstag. The "Kulturkampf" began - Bismarck's struggle with the Catholic Church and Catholic parties. This struggle had a negative effect on the unity of Germany, but it became a matter of principle for Bismarck.

In 1872, Bismarck and Gorchakov organized a meeting in Berlin of three emperors - German, Austrian and Russian. They came to an agreement to jointly confront the revolutionary danger. After that, Bismarck had a conflict with the German ambassador to France, Arnim, who, like Bismarck, belonged to the conservative wing, which alienated the chancellor from the conservative junkers. The result of this confrontation was the arrest of Arnim under the pretext of improper handling of documents. The long struggle with Arnim and the implacable resistance of the center party of Windhorst could not but affect the health and character of the chancellor.

In 1879, Franco-German relations deteriorated and Russia demanded in an ultimatum from Germany not to start a new war. This testified to the loss of mutual understanding with Russia. Bismarck found himself in a very difficult international situation that threatened isolation. He even resigned, but the Kaiser refused to accept it and sent the chancellor on an indefinite leave that lasted five months.

In addition to the external danger, the internal danger, namely the socialist movement in the industrial regions, became ever stronger. To combat it, Bismarck tried to enact new repressive legislation, but it was rejected by the centrists and liberal progressives. Bismarck increasingly spoke of the "red threat", especially after the assassination attempt on the emperor. At this difficult time for Germany, the Berlin Congress of the leading powers opened in Berlin to consider the results of the Russian-Turkish war. The Congress turned out to be surprisingly effective, although Bismarck had to constantly maneuver between representatives of all the great powers to do this.

Immediately after the end of the congress in Germany, elections were held to the Reichstag (1879), in which conservatives and centrists received a confident majority at the expense of liberals and socialists. This allowed Bismarck to push a bill against the Socialists through the Reichstag. Another outcome of the new alignment of forces in the Reichstag was the opportunity to introduce protectionist economic reforms to overcome the economic crisis that began in 1873. With these reforms, the chancellor managed to greatly disorient the national liberals and win over the centrists, which was simply unimaginable a few years earlier. It became clear that the Kulturkampf period had been overcome.

Fearing a rapprochement between France and Russia, Bismarck renewed the Union of the Three Emperors in 1881, but relations between Germany and Russia continued to be strained, which was exacerbated by increased contacts between St. Petersburg and Paris. Fearing the performance of Russia and France against Germany, as a counterbalance to the Franco-Russian alliance, in 1882 an agreement was signed on the creation of the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria and Italy).

The elections of 1881 were in fact a defeat for Bismarck: Bismarck's conservative parties and liberals lost to the Center parties, progressive liberals and socialists. The situation became even more serious when the opposition parties united in order to cut the cost of maintaining the army. Once again, there was a danger that Bismarck would not stay in the chancellor's chair. Constant work and unrest undermined Bismarck's health - he was too fat and suffered from insomnia. Dr. Schwenniger helped him regain his health, who put the chancellor on a diet and forbade drinking strong wines. The result was not long in coming - very soon the former efficiency returned to the chancellor, and he set to work with renewed vigor.

This time, colonial politics came into his field of vision. For the previous twelve years, Bismarck had argued that colonies were a luxury that Germany could not afford. But in the course of 1884 Germany acquired vast territories in Africa. German colonialism brought Germany closer to her eternal rival France, but created tension with England. Otto von Bismarck managed to draw his son Herbert into the colonial affairs, who was involved in settling issues with England. But there were also enough problems with his son - he inherited only bad traits from his father and drank.

In March 1887, Bismarck succeeded in forming a stable conservative majority in the Reichstag, which was nicknamed "The Cartel". In the wake of chauvinistic hysteria and the threat of war with France, the voters decided to rally around the Chancellor. This gave him the opportunity to push through the Reichstag a law on a seven-year term of service. At the beginning of 1888, Emperor Wilhelm I died, which did not bode well for the chancellor.

The new emperor was Frederick III, terminally ill with throat cancer, who by that time was in a terrible physical and mental state. He also died a few months later. The throne of the empire was occupied by the young Wilhelm II, who was rather cool towards the chancellor. The emperor began to actively intervene in politics, pushing the elderly Bismarck into the background. Particularly divisive was the anti-socialist bill, in which social reforms went hand in hand with political repression (which was very much in the spirit of the Chancellor). This conflict led Bismarck to resign on March 20, 1890.

Otto von Bismarck spent the rest of his life in his Friedrichsruhe estate near Hamburg, rarely leaving it. In 1884 his wife Johanna died. In the last years of his life, Bismarck was pessimistic about the prospects for European politics. Emperor Wilhelm II visited him several times. In 1898, the health of the ex-chancellor deteriorated sharply, and on July 30 he died in Friedrichsruhe.

Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck is the most important German statesman and politician of the 19th century. His service had an important impact on the course of European history. He is considered the founder of the German Empire. For nearly three decades he shaped Germany: from 1862 to 1873 as Prime Minister of Prussia, and from 1871 to 1890 as the first Chancellor of Germany.

Bismarck family

Otto was born on April 1, 1815 at the Schönhausen estate, on the outskirts of Brandenburg, north of Magdeburg, which was in the Prussian province of Saxony. His family, starting from the 14th century, belonged to the nobility, and many ancestors held high government posts in the kingdom of Prussia. Otto always remembered his father with love, considering him a modest person. In his youth, Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand served in the army and was demobilized with the rank of captain of the cavalry (captain). His mother, Louise Wilhelmina von Bismarck, née Mencken, was middle-class, heavily influenced by her father, reasonably rational and strong of character. Louise focused on raising her sons, but Bismarck, in his memoirs of childhood, did not describe the special tenderness that traditionally comes from mothers.

The marriage produced six children, three of his siblings died in childhood. They lived a relatively long life: an older brother, born in 1810, Otto himself, who was born fourth, and a sister born in 1827. A year after the birth, the family moved to the Prussian province of Pomerania, the town of Konarzewo, where the first years of the childhood of the future chancellor passed. Beloved sister Malvina and brother Bernard were born here. Otto's father inherited the Pomeranian estates from his cousin in 1816 and moved to Konarzewo. At that time, the manor was a modest building with a brick foundation and wooden walls. Information about the house was preserved thanks to the drawings of the elder brother, from which one can clearly see a simple two-story building with two short one-story wings on either side of the main entrance.

Childhood and youth

At the age of 7, Otto was sent to an elite private boarding school in , then he continued his education at the Graue Kloster gymnasium. At the age of seventeen, on May 10, 1832, he entered the law faculty of the University of Göttingen, where he spent just over a year. He took a leading place in the public life of students. From November 1833 he continued his studies at the University of Berlin. Education allowed him to engage in diplomacy, but at first he devoted several months to purely administrative work, after which he was transferred to the judicial field in the court of appeal. The young man did not work long in the public service, since it seemed unthinkable and routine for him to observe strict discipline. He worked in 1836 as a government clerk in Aachen, and the following year in Potsdam. This is followed by a year of service as a volunteer in the Greifswald Rifle Battalion Guards. In 1839, together with his brother, he took over the management of the family estates in Pomerania after the death of his mother.

He returned to Konarzevo at the age of 24. In 1846, he first leased the estate, and then sold the property inherited from his father to his nephew Philip in 1868. The property remained with the von Bismarck family until 1945. The last owners were the brothers Klaus and Philipp, sons of Gottfried von Bismarck.

In 1844, after his sister's marriage, he went to live with his father in Schönhausen. As a passionate hunter and duelist, he gains a reputation as a "savage".

Carier start

After the death of his father, Otto and his brother take an active part in the life of the district. In 1846, he began working in an office in charge of the work of the dikes, which served as protection against flooding of the regions located on the Elbe. During these years he traveled extensively in England, France and Switzerland. The views inherited from his mother, his own broad outlook and a critical attitude towards everything, disposed him to free views with an extreme right bias. He quite original and actively defended the rights of the king and the Christian monarchy in the fight against liberalism. After the start of the revolution, Otto offered to bring peasants from Schönhausen to Berlin to protect the king from the revolutionary movement. He did not take part in the meetings, but was actively involved in the formation of the Conservative Party alliance and was one of the founders of the Kreuz-Zeitung, which has since become the newspaper of the monarchist party in Prussia. In the parliament elected at the beginning of 1849, he became one of the sharpest speakers from among the representatives of the young nobility. He figured prominently in discussions about the new Prussian constitution, always defending the power of the king. His speeches were distinguished by a unique manner of debating, combined with originality. Otto understood that the party disputes were only power struggles between revolutionary forces and that no compromise was possible between these principles. A clear position on the foreign policy of the Prussian government was also known, in which he actively opposed plans to create an alliance that forced them to obey a single parliament. In 1850, he held a seat in the Erfurt parliament, where he vehemently opposed the constitution created by the parliament, foreseeing that such a policy of the government would lead to a struggle against Austria, in which Prussia would be the loser. This position of Bismarck prompted the king in 1851 to appoint him first as the chief Prussian representative, and then as a minister in the Bundestag in Frankfurt am Main. This was a rather bold appointment, since Bismarck had no experience in diplomatic work.

Here he is trying to achieve equal rights for Prussia with Austria, lobbying for the recognition of the Bundestag and is a supporter of small German associations, without Austrian participation. During the eight years he spent in Frankfurt, he became an excellent understanding of politics, thanks to which he became an indispensable diplomat. However, the period he spent in Frankfurt was accompanied by important changes in political views. In June 1863, Bismarck published regulations governing freedom of the press and the crown prince publicly repudiated his father's ministerial policies.

Bismarck in the Russian Empire

During the Crimean War, he advocated an alliance with Russia. Bismarck was appointed Prussian ambassador to St. Petersburg, where he stayed from 1859 to 1862. Here he studied the experience of Russian diplomacy. By his own admission, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Gorchakov, is a great connoisseur of the art of diplomacy. During his time in Russia, Bismarck not only learned the language, but also developed a relationship with Alexander II and with the Empress Dowager, a Prussian princess.

During the first two years he had little influence on the Prussian government: the liberal ministers did not trust his opinion, and the regent was mortified by Bismarck's willingness to form an alliance with the Italians. The rift between King Wilhelm and the Liberal Party opened the way for Otto to power. Albrecht von Roon, who was appointed Minister of War in 1861, was an old friend of his, and thanks to him Bismarck was able to follow the state of affairs in Berlin. When a crisis arose in 1862 due to the refusal of parliament to vote on the allocation of funds necessary for the reorganization of the army, he was called to Berlin. The king still could not make up his mind to increase the role of Bismarck, but he clearly understood that Otto was the only person who had the courage and ability to fight parliament.

After the death of Friedrich Wilhelm IV, his place on the throne was taken by regent Wilhelm I Friedrich Ludwig. When Bismarck left his post in the Russian Empire in 1862, the tsar offered him a position in the Russian service, but Bismarck refused.

In June 1862 he was appointed ambassador to Paris under Napoleon III. He studies in detail the school of French Bonapartism. In September, the king, on the advice of Roon, summoned Bismarck to Berlin and appointed him prime minister and foreign minister.

new field

Bismarck's main duty as minister was to support the king in the reorganization of the army. The dissatisfaction caused by his appointment was serious. His reputation as a peremptory ultra-conservative, reinforced by his first speech about the belief that the German question could not be settled only by speeches and parliamentary decisions, but only by blood and iron, increased the fears of the opposition. There can be no doubt about his determination to bring to an end the long struggle for the supremacy of the House of Hohenzollern Elector dynasty over the Habsburgs. However, two unforeseen events completely changed the situation in Europe and forced the confrontation to be postponed for three years. The first was an outbreak of rebellion in Poland. Bismarck, heir to the old Prussian traditions, mindful of the contribution of the Poles to the greatness of Prussia, offered his help to the tsar. By this he placed himself in opposition to Western Europe. As a political dividend, there was the gratitude of the tsar and the support of Russia. Even more serious were the difficulties that arose in Denmark. Bismarck was again forced to confront national sentiment.

German unification

Through the efforts of Bismarck's political will, the North German Confederation was founded by 1867.

The North German Confederation included:

• Kingdom of Prussia,
• Kingdom of Saxony,
• Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin,
• Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz,
• Grand Duchy of Oldenburg
• Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach,
• Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg,
• Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,
• Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen,
• Duchy of Brunswick,
• Duchy of Anhalt,
• Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen,
• Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt,
• Principality of Reiss-Greutz,
• Principality of Reiss-Gera,
• Principality of Lippe,
• Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe,
• Principality of Waldeck,
• Cities: , and .

Bismarck founded the union, introduced the direct suffrage of the Reichstag and the exclusive responsibility of the federal chancellor. He himself assumed the office of chancellor on July 14, 1867. As chancellor, he controlled the foreign policy of the country and was responsible for all the internal politics of the empire, and his influence was traced in every state department.

Fighting the Roman Catholic Church

After the unification of the country, the government faced the question of the unification of faith more than ever. The core of the country, being purely Protestant, faced religious opposition from adherents of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1873, Bismarck was not only heavily criticized, but also wounded by an aggressive believer. This was not the first attempt. In 1866, shortly before the start of the war, he was attacked by Cohen, a native of Württemberg, who thus wanted to save Germany from fratricidal war.

The Catholic Center Party unites, attracting the nobility. However, the Chancellor signs the May Laws, taking advantage of the numerical superiority of the national Liberal Party. Another fanatic, apprentice Franz Kuhlmann, on July 13, 1874, makes another attack on the authorities. Long and hard work affects the health of a politician. Bismarck resigned several times. After his retirement, he lived in Friedrichsruh.

Chancellor's personal life

In 1844, in Konarzewo, Otto met the Prussian noblewoman Joanna von Puttkamer. On July 28, 1847, their wedding took place in a parish church near Reinfeld. Undemanding and deeply religious, Joanna was a loyal companion who provided significant support throughout her husband's career. Despite the heavy loss of his first lover and the intrigue with the wife of the Russian ambassador, Orlova, his marriage turned out to be happy. The couple had three children: Mary in 1848, Herbert in 1849 and William in 1852.

Joanna died on November 27, 1894 at the Bismarck estate at the age of 70. The husband built a chapel in which she was buried. Later, her remains were moved to the Bismarck Mausoleum in Friedrichsruh.

Last years

In 1871, the emperor gave him part of the possessions of the Duchy of Lauenburg. By his seventieth birthday, he was given a large amount of money, part of which went to buy out the estate of his ancestors in Schönhausen, part to buy an estate in Pomerania, which from now on he used as a country residence, and the rest of the funds were given to create a fund to help schoolchildren.

In retirement, the emperor granted him the title of Duke of Lauenburg, but he never used this title. Bismarck spent his last years not far from. He fiercely criticized the government, sometimes in conversation, sometimes from the pages of Hamburg publications. His eightieth birthday in 1895 was celebrated on a grand scale. He died in Friedrichsruh on 31 July 1898.

Otto Eduard Leopold Karl-Wilhelm-Ferdinand Duke von Lauenburg Prince von Bismarck und Schönhausen(German Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen ; April 1, 1815 - July 30, 1898) - prince, politician, statesman, the first chancellor of the German Empire (Second Reich), nicknamed the "Iron Chancellor". He had the honorary rank (peacetime) of the Prussian Colonel General with the rank of Field Marshal (March 20, 1890).

As Reich Chancellor and Prussian Minister-President, he had a significant influence on the politics of the created Reich until his resignation in the city. In foreign policy, Bismarck adhered to the principle of the balance of power (or European balance, see below). Bismarck's system of alliances)

In domestic politics, the time of his reign from 1999 can be divided into two phases. He first formed an alliance with moderate liberals. Numerous internal reforms took place during this period, such as the introduction of civil marriage, which was used by Bismarck to weaken the influence of the Catholic Church (see below). Kulturkampf). Beginning in the late 1870s, Bismarck separated from the liberals. During this phase, he resorts to a policy of protectionism and state intervention in the economy. In the 1880s, an anti-socialist law was introduced. Disagreements with the then Kaiser Wilhelm II led to Bismarck's resignation.

In later years, Bismarck played a prominent political role, criticizing his successors. Thanks to the popularity of his memoirs, Bismarck managed to influence the formation of his own image in the public mind for a long time.

By the middle of the 20th century, an unconditionally positive assessment of the role of Bismarck as a politician responsible for the unification of the German principalities into a single national state dominated in German historical literature, which partially satisfied national interests. After his death, numerous monuments were erected in his honor as a symbol of strong personal power. He created a new nation and implemented progressive welfare systems. Bismarck, being loyal to the king, strengthened the state with a strong, well-trained bureaucracy. After the Second World War, critical voices became louder, accusing Bismarck, in particular, of curtailing democracy in Germany. More attention was paid to the shortcomings of his policies, and the activities were considered in the current context.

Biography

Origin

Otto von Bismarck was born on April 1, 1815 into a family of small estate nobles in the Brandenburg province (now Saxony-Anhalt). All generations of the Bismarck family served the rulers in the peaceful and military fields, but did not show themselves in anything special. Simply put, the Bismarcks were Junkers - the descendants of the conquering knights who founded settlements in the lands east of the Elbe River. The Bismarcks could not boast of extensive landholdings, wealth or aristocratic luxury, but were considered noble.

Youth

iron and blood

The regent under the incapacitated King Frederick William IV - Prince Wilhelm, who was closely associated with the army, was extremely dissatisfied with the existence of the Landwehr - the territorial army, which played a decisive role in the fight against Napoleon and maintained liberal sentiments. Moreover, the Landwehr, relatively independent of the government, proved ineffective in putting down the 1848 revolution. Therefore, he supported the Minister of War of Prussia, Roon, in developing a military reform that involved the creation of a regular army with an extended service life of up to 3 years in the infantry and four years in the cavalry. Military spending was supposed to increase by 25%. This met with resistance and the king dissolved the liberal government, replacing it with a reactionary administration. But again the budget was not approved.

At this time, European trade was actively developing, in which Prussia played an important role with its intensively developing industry, an obstacle to which was Austria, which practiced a position of protectionism. To inflict moral damage on her, Prussia recognized the legitimacy of the Italian king Victor Emmanuel, who came to power in the wake of the revolution against the Habsburgs.

Annexation of Schleswig and Holstein

Bismarck is a triumph.

Creation of the North German Confederation

Fight against Catholic opposition

Bismarck and Lasker in Parliament

The unification of Germany led to the fact that in one state there were communities that were once fiercely conflicting with each other. One of the most important problems facing the newly created empire was the question of interaction between the state and the Catholic Church. On this ground began Kulturkampf- Bismarck's struggle for the cultural unification of Germany.

Bismarck and Windthorst

Bismarck went to meet the liberals in order to ensure their support for his course, agreed with the proposed changes in civil and criminal legislation and ensuring freedom of speech, which did not always correspond to his desire. However, all this led to the strengthening of the influence of centrists and conservatives, who began to consider the offensive against the church as a manifestation of godless liberalism. As a result, Bismarck himself began to view his campaign as a serious mistake.

The long struggle with Arnim and the implacable resistance of the center party of Windthorst could not but affect the health and character of the chancellor.

Consolidation of peace in Europe

Introductory quotation to the exposition of the Bavarian War Museum. Ingolstadt

We do not need war, we belong to what the old prince Metternich had in mind, namely, to a state completely satisfied with its position, which, if necessary, can defend itself. And besides, even if it becomes necessary - do not forget about our peace initiatives. And I declare this not only in the Reichstag, but especially to the whole world, that this has been the policy of Kaiser Germany for the past sixteen years.

Soon after the creation of the Second Reich, Bismarck became convinced that Germany was not in a position to dominate Europe. He failed to realize the idea of ​​uniting all Germans in a single state that had existed for hundreds of years. Austria prevented this, striving for the same, but only on the condition of the dominant role in this state of the Habsburg dynasty.

Fearing French revenge in the future, Bismarck sought rapprochement with Russia. On March 13, 1871, together with representatives of Russia and other countries, he signed the London Convention, which abolished Russia's ban on having a navy in the Black Sea. In 1872, Bismarck and Gorchakov (with whom Bismarck had a personal relationship, like a talented student with his teacher), organized a meeting in Berlin of three emperors - German, Austrian and Russian. They came to an agreement to jointly confront the revolutionary danger. After that, Bismarck had a conflict with the German ambassador to France, Arnim, who, like Bismarck, belonged to the conservative wing, which alienated the chancellor from the conservative junkers. The result of this confrontation was the arrest of Arnim under the pretext of improper handling of documents.

Bismarck, given the central position of Germany in Europe and the real danger associated with this to be involved in a war on two fronts, created a formula that he followed throughout his reign: "A strong Germany strives to live peacefully and develop peacefully." To this end, she must have a strong army in order to "not be attacked by anyone who draws her sword."

During his entire service life, Bismarck experienced the "nightmare of coalitions" (le cauchemar des coalitions), and, figuratively speaking, unsuccessfully tried, juggling, to keep five balls in the air.

Now Bismarck could hope that England would concentrate on the problem of Egypt, which arose after France bought up shares in the Suez Canal, and Russia became involved in solving the Black Sea problems, and therefore the danger of creating an anti-German coalition was significantly reduced. Moreover, the rivalry between Austria and Russia in the Balkans meant that Russia needed German support. Thus, a situation was created where all significant forces in Europe, with the exception of France, would not be able to create dangerous coalitions, being involved in mutual rivalry.

At the same time, this created for Russia the need to avoid an aggravation of the international situation, and she was forced to lose some of the advantages of her victory at the London talks, which found their expression at the congress that opened on June 13 in Berlin. The Berlin Congress was created to consider the results of the Russian-Turkish war, which was chaired by Bismarck. The Congress turned out to be surprisingly effective, although Bismarck had to constantly maneuver between representatives of all the great powers to do this. On July 13, 1878, Bismarck signed the Treaty of Berlin with representatives of the great powers, establishing new frontiers in Europe. Then many of the territories that had passed to Russia were returned to Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina were transferred to Austria, the Turkish sultan, filled with gratitude, gave Cyprus to Britain.

In the Russian press, after this, an acute pan-Slavist campaign against Germany began. The nightmare of the coalition reappeared. On the verge of panic, Bismarck offered Austria to conclude a customs agreement, and when she refused, even a mutual non-aggression pact. Emperor Wilhelm I was frightened by the end of the former pro-Russian orientation of German foreign policy and warned Bismarck that things were moving towards an alliance between tsarist Russia and France, which had become a republic again. At the same time, he pointed out the unreliability of Austria as an ally, which could not deal with its internal problems, as well as the uncertainty of Britain's position.

Bismarck tried to justify his line by pointing out that his initiatives were taken in the interests of Russia as well. On October 7, he signed a “Dual Alliance” with Austria, which pushed Russia into an alliance with France. This was Bismarck's fatal mistake, destroying the close relations between Russia and Germany that had been established since the German War of Independence. A fierce tariff struggle began between Russia and Germany. Since that time, the General Staffs of both countries began to develop plans for a preventive war against each other.

According to this treaty, Austria and Germany were to jointly repel the attack of Russia. If Germany was attacked by France, Austria pledged to remain neutral. It quickly became clear to Bismarck that this defensive alliance would immediately turn into offensive action, especially if Austria was on the brink of defeat.

However, Bismarck still managed on June 18 to confirm the agreement with Russia, according to which the latter pledged to remain neutral in the event of a Franco-German war. But nothing was said about the relationship in the case of the Austro-Russian conflict. However, Bismarck showed understanding of Russia's claims to the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles in the hope that this would lead to conflict with Britain. Bismarck's supporters saw the move as further proof of Bismarck's diplomatic genius. However, the future showed that this was only a temporary measure in an attempt to avoid an impending international crisis.

Bismarck proceeded from his belief that stability in Europe could be achieved only if England joined the Mutual Treaty. In 1889, he approached Lord Salsbury with a proposal to conclude a military alliance, but the lord categorically refused. Although Britain was interested in resolving the colonial problem with Germany, she did not want to bind herself with any obligations in central Europe, where the potentially hostile states of France and Russia were located. Bismarck's hopes that the contradictions between England and Russia would contribute to its rapprochement with the countries of the "Mutual Treaty" were not confirmed.

Danger on the left

"While it's stormy - I'm at the helm"

To the 60th anniversary of the Chancellor

In addition to the external danger, the internal danger, namely the socialist movement in the industrial regions, became ever stronger. To combat it, Bismarck tried to enact new repressive legislation. Bismarck increasingly spoke of the "red threat", especially after the assassination attempt on the emperor.

Colonial politics

At certain points he showed a commitment to the colonial issue, but this was a political move, for example, during the election campaign of 1884, when he was accused of lack of patriotism. In addition, this was done in order to reduce the chances of the heir prince Frederick with his leftist views and far-reaching pro-English orientation. In addition, he understood that the key problem for the country's security was normal relations with England. In 1890, he exchanged Zanzibar from England for the island of Helgoland, which much later became the outpost of the German fleet in the oceans.

Otto von Bismarck managed to draw his son Herbert into the colonial affairs, who was involved in settling issues with England. But there were also enough problems with his son - he inherited only bad traits from his father and drank.

Resignation

Bismarck tried not only to influence the formation of his image in the eyes of his descendants, but also continued to interfere in contemporary politics, in particular, he undertook active campaigns in the press. Bismarck's attacks were most often subjected to his successor - Caprivi. Indirectly, he criticized the emperor, whom he could not forgive his resignation. In the summer, Mr. Bismarck took part in the elections to the Reichstag, however, he never took part in the work of his 19th constituency in Hanover, never used his mandate, and 1893. resigned his powers

The press campaign was successful. Public opinion leaned in favor of Bismarck, especially after Wilhelm II began to openly attack him. The authority of the new Reich Chancellor, Caprivi, was especially hard hit when he tried to prevent Bismarck from meeting with the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph. The trip to Vienna turned into a triumph for Bismarck, who declared that he had no obligations to the German authorities: "all bridges are burned"

Wilhelm II was forced to agree to reconciliation. Several meetings with Bismarck in the city went well, but did not lead to a real détente in relations. How unpopular Bismarck was in the Reichstag was shown by the fierce fighting over the approval of congratulations on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Because of the publication in 1896. With a top-secret reinsurance treaty, he attracted the attention of the German and foreign press.

Memory

Historiography

In the more than 150 years since the birth of Bismarck, many different interpretations of his personal and political activities have arisen, some of them are mutually opposed. Until the end of World War II, German-language literature was dominated by writers whose point of view was influenced by their own political and religious outlook. Historian Karina Urbach noted in 1994: “His biography was taught to at least six generations, and it is safe to say that each successive generation studied a different Bismarck. No other German politician has been used and distorted as much as he.

Empire times

Disputes around the figure of Bismarck existed even during his lifetime. Already in the first biographical editions, sometimes multi-volume, Bismarck's complexity and ambiguity were emphasized. Sociologist Max Weber critically assessed the role of Bismarck in the process of German unification: “The work of his life was not only in the external, but also in the internal unity of the nation, but each of us knows that this was not achieved. This cannot be achieved by his methods. Theodor Fontane painted a literary portrait in the last years of his life in which he compared Bismarck to Wallenstein. Bismarck's assessment from Fontane's point of view differs significantly from the assessment of most contemporaries: "he is a great genius, but a small man."

The negative assessment of Bismarck's role did not find support for a long time, thanks in part to his memoirs. They have become an almost inexhaustible source of quotes for his fans. For decades, the book underpinned the idea of ​​Bismarck by patriotic citizens. At the same time, it weakened the critical view of the founder of the empire. During his lifetime, Bismarck had a personal impact on his image in history as he controlled access to documents and sometimes corrected manuscripts. After the chancellor's death, his son, Herbert von Bismarck, assumed control of the formation of the image in history.

Professional historical science could not get rid of the influence of Bismarck's role in the unification of the German lands and joined in the idealization of his image. Heinrich von Treitschke changed his attitude towards Bismarck from being critical to becoming a dedicated admirer. The foundation of the German Empire he called the most striking example of heroism in the history of Germany. Treitschke and other representatives of the Little German-Borussian school of history were fascinated by Bismarck's strength of character. Bismarck's biographer Erich Marx wrote in 1906: "In fact, I must admit: living in those days was such a great experience that everything that has to do with it is of historical value." However, Marx, along with other historians of Wilhelm's time such as Heinrich von Siebel, noted the inconsistency of Bismarck's role in comparison to the achievements of the Hohenzollerns. So, in 1914. in school textbooks, Bismarck, Wilhelm I, was not called the founder of the German Empire.

The decisive contribution to the exaltation of Bismarck's role in history was made in the First World War. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Bismarck in 1915. articles were published that did not even hide their propaganda purpose. In a patriotic impulse, historians noted the duties of German soldiers to defend the unity and greatness of Germany obtained by Bismarck from foreign invaders, and at the same time, they were silent about Bismarck's numerous warnings about the inadmissibility of such a war in the middle of Europe. Bismarck scholars such as Erich Marx, Mack Lenz and Horst Kohl portrayed Bismarck as the vehicle for the German warlike spirit.

Weimar Republic and Third Reich

The defeat of Germany in the war and the creation of the Weimar Republic did not change the idealistic image of Bismarck, as the elite of historians remained loyal to the monarch. In such a helpless and chaotic state, Bismarck was like a guide, a father, a genius to look up to in order to end the "Versailles humiliation." If any criticism of his role in history was expressed, then it concerned the Little German way of solving the German question, and not the military or imposed unification of the state. Traditionalism protected from the emergence of innovative biographies of Bismarck. The publication of further documents in the 1920s once again helped to emphasize Bismarck's diplomatic skill. The most popular biography of Bismarck at that time was written by Mr. Emil Ludwig, which presented a critical psychological analysis, according to which Bismarck was portrayed as a Faustian hero in a historical drama of the 19th century.

During the Nazi period, the historical lineage between Bismarck and Adolf Hitler was more often portrayed to secure the Third Reich's leading role in the German unity movement. Erich Marx, a pioneer of Bismarck research, emphasized these ideologized historical interpretations. Bismarck was also portrayed in Great Britain as the predecessor of Hitler, who stood at the beginning of Germany's special path. As the Second World War progressed, Bismarck's weight in propaganda decreased somewhat; his warning about the inadmissibility of war with Russia was not mentioned since. But conservative representatives of the resistance movement saw Bismarck as their guide.

An important critical work was published by the German jurist in exile Erich Eyck, who wrote a biography of Bismarck in three volumes. He criticized Bismarck for being cynical about democratic, liberal, and humanist values ​​and blamed him for the destruction of democracy in Germany. The system of unions was very cleverly built, but, being an artificial construction, was doomed to disintegration from birth. However, Eick could not resist admiring the figure of Bismarck: “but no one, wherever he was, can not agree that he [Bismarck] was the main figure of his time ... No one can help but admire the strength of the charm of this man, who is always curious and important."

Post-war period until 1990

After World War II, influential German historians, notably Hans Rothfelds and Theodor Schieder, took a varied but positive view of Bismarck. Friedrich Meinecke, a former admirer of Bismarck, argued in 1946. in the book "The German catastrophe" (German. Die deutsche Katastrophe) that the painful defeat of the German nation-state shattered all praise for Bismarck for the foreseeable future.

Briton Alan J. P. Taylor published in 1955. psychological, and not least because of this limited, biography of Bismarck, in which he tried to show the struggle between paternal and maternal principles in the soul of his hero. Taylor positively described Bismarck's instinctive struggle for order in Europe against the aggressive foreign policy of the Wilhelmian era. The first post-war biography of Bismarck, written by Wilhelm Momsen, differed from the writings of its predecessors in a style that claims to be sober and objective. Momsen emphasized Bismarck's political flexibility, and believed that his failures could not overshadow the successes of state activity.

In the late 1970s, a movement of social historians against biographical research emerged. Since then, biographies of Bismarck began to appear, in which he is depicted either in extremely light or dark colors. A common feature of most of the new biographies of Bismarck is an attempt to synthesize Bismarck's influence and describe his position in the social structures and political processes of the time.

American historian Otto Pflanze released between and gg. a multi-volume biography of Bismarck, in which, unlike others, Bismarck's personality, studied by means of psychoanalysis, was brought to the fore. Bismarck was criticized by Pflanze for his treatment of political parties and subordination of the constitution to his own ends, which set a negative precedent to follow. According to Pflanze, Bismarck's image as the unifier of the German nation comes from Bismarck himself, who from the beginning only sought to increase Prussian power over the core states of Europe.

Phrases attributed to Bismarck

• By Providence itself I was destined to be a diplomat: after all, I was even born on the day of the first of April.
• Revolutions are conceived by geniuses, carried out by fanatics, and scoundrels use their results.
• People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war and before an election.
• Do not expect that once you take advantage of Russia's weakness, you will receive dividends forever. Russians always come for their money. And when they come - do not rely on the Jesuit agreements you signed, supposedly justifying you. They are not worth the paper they are written on. Therefore, it is worth either playing fair with the Russians, or not playing at all.
• The Russians take a long time to harness, but they go fast.
• Congratulate me - the comedy is over ... (during the departure from the post of chancellor).
• He, as always, with a prima donna's smile on his lips and with an ice compress on his heart (about the Chancellor of the Russian Empire, Gorchakov).
• You don't know this audience! Finally, the Jew Rothschild ... this, I tell you, is an incomparable beast. For the sake of speculation on the stock exchange, he is ready to bury the whole of Europe, but is it ... me?
• There will always be someone who doesn't like what you do. This is fine. Everyone in a row likes only kittens.
• Before his death, having regained consciousness for a short while, he said: “I am dying, but from the point of view of the interests of the state, this is impossible!”
• The war between Germany and Russia is the greatest stupidity. That is why it will definitely happen.
• Learn like you're going to live forever, live like you're going to die tomorrow.
• Even the most favorable outcome of the war will never lead to the disintegration of the main force of Russia, which is based on millions of Russians ... These latter, even if they are dissected by international treatises, just as quickly reunite with each other, like particles of a cut piece of mercury ...
• The great questions of the time are not decided by the decisions of the majority, but only by iron and blood!
• Woe to that statesman who does not take care to find a basis for war, which will still retain its significance after the war.
• Even a victorious war is an evil that must be prevented by the wisdom of the nations.
• Revolutions are prepared by geniuses, made by romantics, and crooks use its fruits.
• Russia is dangerous because of the meagerness of its needs.
• A preventive war against Russia is suicidal for fear of death.

Gallery

see also

Notes

1. Richard Carstensen / Bismarck anekdotisches. Muenchen: Bechtle Verlag. 1981. ISBN 3-7628-0406-0
2. Martin Kitchen. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Germany:-Cambridge University Press 1996 ISBN 0-521-45341-0
3. Nachum T. Gidal: Die Juden in Deutschland von der Römerzeit bis zur Weimarer Republik. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag 1988. ISBN 3-89508-540-5
4. Showing the significant role of Bismarck in European history, the author of the cartoon is mistaken about Russia, which in those years pursued a policy independent of Germany.
5. "Aber das kann man nicht von mir verlangen, dass ich, nachdem ich vierzig Jahre lang Politik getrieben, plötzlich mich gar nicht mehr damit abgeben soll." Zit. nach Ullrich: Bismarck. S. 122.
6. Ullrich: Bismarck. S. 7 f.
7. Alfred Vagts: Diederich Hahn - Ein Politikerleben. In: Jahrbuch der Manner vom Morgenstern. Band 46, Bremerhaven 1965, S. 161 f.
8. "Alle Brücken sind abgebrochen." Volker Ullrich: Otto von Bismarck. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-499-50602-5, S. 124.
9. Ullrich: Bismarck. S. 122-128.
10. Reinhard Pozorny(Hg) Deutsches National-Lexikon-DSZ-Verlag. 1992. ISBN 3-925924-09-4
11. In original: English. „His life has been taught to at least six generations, and one can fairly say that almost every second German generation has encountered another version of Bismarck. No other German political figure has been as used and abused for political purposes.“ Div.: Karina Urbach, Between Savior and Villain. 100 Years of Bismarck Biographies, in: The Historical Journal. Jg. 41, no. 4, December 1998, p. 1141-1160 (1142).
12. George Hesekiel: Das Buch vom Grafen Bismarck. Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld 1869; Ludwig Hahn: Furst von Bismarck. Sein politisches Leben und Wirken. 5 bd. Hertz, Berlin 1878-1891; Hermann Jahnke: Furst Bismarck, sein Leben und Wirken. Kittel, Berlin 1890; Hans Blum: Bismarck und Seine Zeit. Eine Biographie für das deutsche Volk. 6 bd. mit Reg-Bd. Beck, Munich 1894-1899.
13. "Denn dieses Lebenswerk hätte doch nicht nur zur äußeren, sondern auch zur inneren Einigung der Nation führen sollen und jeder von uns weiß: das ist nicht erreicht. Es konnte mit seinen Mitteln nicht erreicht werden." Zit. n. Volker Ullrich: Die nervous Großmacht. Aufstieg und Untergang des deutschen Kaiserreichs. 6. Aufl. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 978-3-596-11694-2, S. 29.
14. Theodor Fontana: Der Zivil-Wallenstein. In: Gotthard Erler (Hrsg.): Kahlebutz and Krautentochter. Markische Portrats. Aufbau Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 2007,

Otto von Bismarck (Eduard Leopold von Schönhausen) was born on April 1, 1815 in the family estate of Schönhausen in Brandenburg northwest of Berlin, the third son of the Prussian landowner Ferdinand von Bismarck-Schönhausen and Wilhelmina Mencken, at birth he received the name Otto Eduard Leopold.
Schönhausen Manor was located in the heart of the province of Brandenburg, which occupied a special place in the history of early Germany. Five miles to the west of the estate was the Elbe River, the main waterway of Northern Germany. Schönhausen Manor has been in the hands of the Bismarck family since 1562.
All generations of this family served the rulers of Brandenburg in peace and military fields.

The Bismarcks were considered Junkers, descendants of the conquering knights who founded the first German settlements in the vast lands east of the Elbe with a small Slavic population. Junkers belonged to the nobility, but in terms of wealth, influence and social status, they could not be compared with the aristocrats of Western Europe and the Habsburg possessions. The Bismarcks, of course, did not belong to the ranks of the land magnates; they were also pleased with the fact that they could boast of a noble origin - their genealogy can be traced back to the reign of Charlemagne.
Wilhelmina, Otto's mother, came from a family of civil servants and belonged to the middle class. Such marriages increased in the nineteenth century as the educated middle classes and the old aristocracy began to coalesce into a new elite.
At the urging of Wilhelmina, Bernhard, the older brother, and Otto were sent to study at the Plamann School in Berlin, where Otto studied from 1822 to 1827. At the age of 12, Otto left school and moved to the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium, where he studied for three years. In 1830, Otto moved to the gymnasium "At the Gray Monastery", where he felt freer than in previous educational institutions. Neither mathematics, nor the history of the ancient world, nor the achievements of the new German culture attracted the attention of the young cadet. Most of all, Otto was interested in the politics of past years, the history of military and peaceful rivalry between different countries.
After graduating from high school, on May 10, 1832, at the age of 17, Otto entered the University of Göttingen, where he studied law. When he was a student, he gained a reputation as a reveler and a fighter, and excelled in duels. Otto played cards for money and drank a lot. In September 1833, Otto moved to the New Capital University in Berlin, where life turned out to be cheaper. To be more precise, Bismarck was only listed at the university, since he hardly attended lectures, but used the services of tutors who attended him before exams. In 1835 he received a diploma and was soon enlisted to work at the Berlin Municipal Court. In 1837, Otto took up the post of tax official in Aachen, a year later - the same post in Potsdam. There he joined the Guards Jaeger Regiment. In the autumn of 1838, Bismarck moved to Greifswald, where, in addition to performing his military duties, he studied animal breeding methods at the Elden Academy.

Bismarck is a landowner.

On January 1, 1839, Otto von Bismarck's mother, Wilhelmina, died. The death of his mother did not make a strong impression on Otto: only much later came to him a true assessment of her qualities. However, this event resolved for some time an urgent problem - what should he do after the end of his military service. Otto helped his brother Bernhard manage the Pomeranian estates, and their father returned to Schönhausen. His father's financial loss, together with an innate distaste for the lifestyle of a Prussian official, forced Bismarck to resign in September 1839 and take over the management of the family estates in Pomerania. In private conversations, Otto explained this by the fact that, due to his temperament, he was not suitable for the position of a subordinate. He did not tolerate any superiors over himself: "My pride requires me to command, and not to carry out other people's orders". Otto von Bismarck, like his father, decided "to live and die in the village" .
Otto von Bismarck himself studied accounting, chemistry, and agriculture. His brother, Bernhard, took almost no part in the management of the estates. Bismarck proved to be a quick-witted and practical landowner, gaining the respect of his neighbors both with his theoretical knowledge of agriculture and with his practical successes. The value of the estates increased by more than a third in the nine years Otto ruled them, with three of the nine years having experienced a widespread agricultural crisis. And yet Otto could not be just a landowner.

He shocked his junker neighbors by driving around their meadows and forests on his huge stallion Caleb, not caring who these lands belonged to. In the same way, he acted in relation to the daughters of neighboring peasants. Later, in a fit of remorse, Bismarck admitted that in those years he "did not shy away from any sin, making friends with bad company of any kind". Sometimes during the evening Otto lost at cards everything that he managed to save after months of painstaking management. Much of what he did was pointless. So, Bismarck used to notify his friends of his arrival by shooting at the ceiling, and one day he appeared in a neighbor's living room and brought a frightened fox on a leash, like a dog, and then released her to loud hunting cries. For a violent temper, the neighbors nicknamed him "mad Bismarck".
On the estate, Bismarck continued his education, taking up the works of Hegel, Kant, Spinoza, David Friedrich Strauss and Feuerbach. Otto was an excellent student of English literature, for Bismarck was more interested in England and her affairs than in any other country. Intellectually, the "mad Bismarck" was far superior to his neighbors - the junkers.
In mid-1841, Otto von Bismarck wanted to marry Ottoline von Puttkamer, the daughter of a wealthy Junker. However, her mother refused him, and in order to unwind Otto went traveling, visiting England and France. This vacation helped Bismarck to dispel the boredom of rural life in Pomerania. Bismarck became more sociable and made many friends.

Bismarck's entry into politics.

After his father's death in 1845, the family property was divided and Bismarck received the Schönhausen and Kniephof estates in Pomerania. In 1847 he married Johanna von Puttkamer, a distant relative of the girl he courted in 1841. Among his new friends in Pomerania were Ernst Leopold von Gerlach and his brother, who not only were at the head of the Pomeranian pietists, but were also part of a group of court advisers.

Bismarck, a student of Gerlach, became known for his conservative stance during the constitutional struggle in Prussia in 1848-1850. From a "mad junker" Bismarck turned into a "mad deputy" of the Berlin Landtag. Opposing liberals, Bismarck contributed to the creation of various political organizations and newspapers, including the "New Prussian newspaper" ("Neue Preussische Zeitung"). He was a member of the lower house of the Prussian parliament in 1849 and of the Erfurt parliament in 1850, when he opposed a federation of German states (with or without Austria), because he believed that this union would strengthen the revolutionary movement that was gaining strength. In his Olmutz speech, Bismarck spoke in defense of King Frederick William IV, who capitulated to Austria and Russia. The contented monarch wrote of Bismarck: "Ardent reactionary. Use later" .
In May 1851, the King appointed Bismarck as Prussian representative to the Allied Diet in Frankfurt am Main. There, Bismarck almost immediately concluded that Prussia's goal could not be a German confederation under Austrian dominance, and that war with Austria was inevitable if Prussia were to dominate a united Germany. As Bismarck improved in the study of diplomacy and the art of government, he increasingly moved away from the views of the king and his camarilla. For his part, the king began to lose confidence in Bismarck. In 1859, the king's brother Wilhelm, who was then regent, relieved Bismarck of his duties and sent him as an envoy to St. Petersburg. There, Bismarck became close to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince A.M. Gorchakov, who assisted Bismarck in his efforts to diplomatically isolate first Austria and then France.

Otto von Bismarck - Minister-President of Prussia. His diplomacy.

In 1862, Bismarck was sent as an envoy to France at the court of Napoleon III. He was soon recalled by King William I to resolve the contradictions on the issue of military appropriations, which was vigorously discussed in the lower house of parliament.

In September of the same year, he became the head of the government, and a little later - the minister-president and minister of foreign affairs of Prussia.
A militant conservative, Bismarck announced to the liberal middle-class majority in parliament that the government would continue to collect taxes in accordance with the old budget, because parliament, due to internal contradictions, would not be able to pass the new budget. (This policy continued in 1863-1866, which allowed Bismarck to carry out military reform.) At a meeting of the parliamentary committee on September 29, Bismarck emphasized: "The great questions of the time will not be decided by speeches and majority resolutions - this was a blunder of 1848 and 1949 - but iron and blood." Since the upper and lower houses of parliament were unable to develop a unified strategy on the issue of national defense, the government, according to Bismarck, should take the initiative and force parliament to agree to its decisions. By limiting the activities of the press, Bismarck took serious measures to suppress the opposition.
For their part, the liberals sharply criticized Bismarck for offering to support the Russian Emperor Alexander II in suppressing the Polish uprising of 1863-1864 (the Alvensleben convention of 1863). Over the next decade, Bismarck's policies led to three wars: the war with Denmark in 1864, after which Schleswig, Holstein (Holstein) and Lauenburg were annexed to Prussia; Austria in 1866; and France (the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871).
On April 9, 1866, the day after Bismarck signed a secret agreement on a military alliance with Italy in the event of an attack on Austria, he submitted to the Bundestag his draft of a German parliament and universal secret suffrage for the country's male population. After the decisive Battle of Kötiggrätz (Sadova), in which the German troops defeated the Austrian ones, Bismarck managed to get the annexationist claims of Wilhelm I and the Prussian generals, who wanted to enter Vienna and demanded large territorial acquisitions, to be abandoned, and offered an honorable peace to Austria (Prague Peace of 1866) . Bismarck did not allow Wilhelm I to "bring Austria to its knees" by occupying Vienna. The future chancellor insisted on relatively easy peace terms for Austria in order to ensure her neutrality in the future conflict between Prussia and France, which year by year became inevitable. Austria was expelled from the German Confederation, Venice joined Italy, Hanover, Nassau, Hesse-Casel, Frankfurt, Schleswig and Holstein went to Prussia.
One of the most important consequences of the Austro-Prussian war was the formation of the North German Confederation, which, along with Prussia, included about 30 more states. All of them, according to the constitution adopted in 1867, formed a single territory with laws and institutions common to all. The foreign and military policy of the union was actually transferred into the hands of the Prussian king, who was declared its president. A customs and military treaty was soon concluded with the South German states. These steps clearly showed that Germany was rapidly moving towards its unification under the leadership of Prussia.
The southern German lands of Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden remained outside the North German Confederation. France did everything possible to prevent Bismarck from including these lands in the North German Confederation. Napoleon III did not want to see a united Germany on his eastern borders. Bismarck understood that this problem could not be solved without a war. In the next three years, Bismarck's secret diplomacy was directed against France. In Berlin, Bismarck introduced a bill to Parliament exempting him from liability for unconstitutional acts, which was approved by the Liberals. French and Prussian interests kept clashing on various issues. In France at that time militant anti-German sentiments were strong. Bismarck played on them.
Appearance "ems dispatch" was caused by scandalous events around the nomination of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern (nephew of Wilhelm I) to the Spanish throne, vacated after the revolution in Spain in 1868. Bismarck correctly calculated that France would never agree to such an option, and in the event of Leopold's accession in Spain, he would begin to rattle weapons and make belligerent statements against the North German Confederation, which would sooner or later end in war. Therefore, he vigorously promoted the candidacy of Leopold, assuring, however, Europe that the German government was completely uninvolved in the claims of the Hohenzollerns to the Spanish throne. In his circulars, and later in his memoirs, Bismarck denied his participation in this intrigue in every possible way, arguing that the nomination of Prince Leopold to the Spanish throne was a "family" affair of the Hohenzollerns. In fact, Bismarck and Minister of War Roon and Chief of Staff Moltke, who came to his aid, spent a lot of effort to convince the reluctant Wilhelm I to support Leopold's candidacy.
As Bismarck had hoped, Leopold's bid for the Spanish throne caused an uproar in Paris. On July 6, 1870, the French Foreign Minister, the Duke de Gramont, exclaimed: "This will not happen, we are sure of it ... Otherwise, we would be able to fulfill our duty without showing any weakness or hesitation." After this statement, Prince Leopold, without any consultation with the king and Bismarck, announced that he was renouncing his claims to the Spanish throne.
This step was not included in Bismarck's plans. Leopold's refusal destroyed his hopes that France herself would unleash a war against the North German Confederation. This was of fundamental importance for Bismarck, who sought to secure the neutrality of the leading European states in a future war, which he later succeeded largely due to the fact that it was France that was the attacking side. It is difficult to judge how sincere Bismarck was in his memoirs when he wrote that upon receiving the news of Leopold's refusal to take the Spanish throne "My first thought was to retire"(Bismarck repeatedly submitted his resignation to Wilhelm I, using them as one of the means of pressure on the king, who, without his chancellor, did not mean anything in politics), however, another of his memoirs dating back to the same time looks quite authentic: "I already at that time considered the war a necessity, from which we could not honorably evade" .
While Bismarck was thinking about other ways to provoke France into declaring war, the French themselves gave an excellent reason for this. On July 13, 1870, the French ambassador Benedetti came to William I, who was resting on the Ems waters, in the morning and conveyed to him a rather impudent request from his minister Gramont - to assure France that he (the king) would never give his consent if Prince Leopold again put forward his candidacy for Spanish throne. The king, outraged by such a trick that was really daring for the diplomatic etiquette of those times, answered with a sharp refusal and interrupted Benedetti's audience. A few minutes later, he received a letter from his ambassador in Paris, which stated that Gramont insisted that Wilhelm, in his own handwritten letter, assured Napoleon III that he had no intention of harming the interests and dignity of France. This news completely pissed off William I. When Benedetti asked for a new audience for a conversation on this topic, he refused to receive him and conveyed through his adjutant that he had said his last word.
Bismarck learned about these events from a dispatch sent that afternoon from Ems by adviser Abeken. The dispatch to Bismarck was delivered at lunchtime. Roon and Moltke dined with him. Bismarck read the dispatch to them. The dispatch made the most difficult impression on the two old soldiers. Bismarck recalled that Roon and Moltke were so upset that they "neglected food and drink." Having finished reading, after some time Bismarck asked Moltke about the state of the army and about its readiness for war. Moltke replied in the spirit that "an immediate outbreak of war is more advantageous than a delay." After that, Bismarck edited the telegram right there at the dinner table and read it to the generals. Here is its text: "After the news of the abdication of the Crown Prince of Hohenzollern was officially communicated to the French imperial government by the Spanish royal government, the French ambassador presented an additional demand to His Royal Majesty in Ems: to authorize him to telegraph to Paris that His Majesty the King undertakes for all future times never give his consent if the Hohenzollerns return to their candidacy. His Majesty the king refused to receive the French ambassador again and ordered the adjutant on duty to tell him that his majesty had nothing more to tell the ambassador. "
Even Bismarck's contemporaries suspected him of falsification "ems dispatch". The German Social Democrats Liebknecht and Bebel were the first to speak about this. Liebknecht in 1891 even published the pamphlet "The Ems Despatch, or How Wars Are Made". Bismarck, in his memoirs, wrote that he only crossed out "something" from the dispatch, but did not add "not a word" to it. What did Bismarck strike out of the Ems dispatch? First of all, something that could point to the true inspirer of the king's telegram appearing in print. Bismarck crossed out the wish of Wilhelm I to submit "to the discretion of your Excellency, i.e. Bismarck, the question of whether we should not inform both our representatives and the press about the new demand of Benedetti and the refusal of the king." To reinforce the impression of the French envoy's disrespect for William I, Bismarck did not include in the new text the mention that the king had responded to the ambassador "rather sharply." The rest of the reductions were not significant. The new edition of the Ems dispatch brought Roon and Moltke, who dined with Bismarck, out of depression. The latter exclaimed: "That sounds different; before it sounded like a signal to retreat, now it's a fanfare." Bismarck began to develop his future plans for them: “We must fight if we do not want to take on the role of the defeated without a fight. But success depends largely on the impressions that the origin of the war will cause in us and others; it is important that we are those who who was attacked, and Gallic arrogance and resentment will help us in this ... "
Further events unfolded in the most desirable direction for Bismarck. The publication of the "Ems dispatch" in many German newspapers caused an uproar in France. Foreign Minister Gramont shouted indignantly in parliament that Prussia had slapped France in the face. On July 15, 1870, the head of the French cabinet, Emile Olivier, demanded a loan of 50 million francs from Parliament and announced the government's decision to call up reservists into the army "in response to the call to war." The future President of France, Adolphe Thiers, who in 1871 would make peace with Prussia and drown the Paris Commune in blood, was still a member of Parliament in July 1870, and was perhaps the only sane politician in France in those days. He tried to convince the deputies to refuse credit to Olivier and to call up reservists, arguing that since Prince Leopold had renounced the Spanish crown, French diplomacy had achieved its goal and one should not quarrel with Prussia over words and bring matters to a rupture on a purely formal occasion. Olivier replied to this that he was "with a light heart" ready to bear the responsibility that henceforth fell on him. In the end, the deputies approved all the proposals of the government, and on July 19, France declared war on the North German Confederation.
Bismarck meanwhile communicated with the deputies of the Reichstag. It was important for him to carefully hide from the public his painstaking behind-the-scenes work to provoke France into declaring war. With his usual hypocrisy and resourcefulness, Bismarck convinced the deputies that in the whole story with Prince Leopold, the government and he personally did not participate. He shamelessly lied when he told the deputies that he learned about Prince Leopold's desire to take the Spanish throne not from the king, but from some "private person", that the North German ambassador from Paris left Paris himself "for personal reasons", but was not recalled by the government (in fact, Bismarck ordered the ambassador to leave France, being annoyed by his "softness" towards the French). Bismarck diluted this lie with a dose of truth. He did not lie when he said that the decision to publish the dispatch about the negotiations in Ems between William I and Benedetti was made by the government at the request of the king himself.
William I himself did not expect that the publication of the Ems Dispatch would lead to such a quick war with France. After reading Bismarck's edited text in the papers, he exclaimed: "This is war!" The king was afraid of this war. Bismarck later wrote in his memoirs that William I should not have negotiated with Benedetti at all, but he "left his person as a monarch to the shameless processing of this foreign agent" in large part due to the fact that he succumbed to the pressure of his wife Queen Augusta with "her justified in a feminine way by timidity and the national feeling that she lacked. Thus, Bismarck used Wilhelm I as a front for his behind-the-scenes intrigues against France.
When the Prussian generals began to win victory after victory over the French, not a single major European power stood up for France. This was the result of the preliminary diplomatic activity of Bismarck, who managed to achieve the neutrality of Russia and England. He promised Russia neutrality in the event of its withdrawal from the humiliating Treaty of Paris, which forbade it to have its own fleet in the Black Sea, the British were outraged by the draft treaty published at the direction of Bismarck on the annexation of Belgium by France. But the most important thing was that it was France that attacked the North German Confederation, despite the repeated peace-loving intentions and small concessions that Bismarck made towards her (withdrawal of Prussian troops from Luxembourg in 1867, statements of readiness to abandon Bavaria and create from it a neutral country, etc.). In editing the Ems dispatch, Bismarck did not impulsively improvise, but was guided by the real achievements of his diplomacy and therefore emerged victorious. And the winners, as you know, are not judged. The authority of Bismarck, even in retirement, was so high in Germany that it never occurred to anyone (except the Social Democrats) to pour tubs of dirt on him when, in 1892, the original text of the Ems dispatch was made public from the Reichstag rostrum.

Otto von Bismarck - Chancellor of the German Empire.

Exactly one month after the start of hostilities, a significant part of the French army was surrounded by German troops near Sedan and capitulated. Napoleon III himself surrendered to William I.
In November 1870, the South German states joined the Unified German Confederation, which had been transformed from the North. In December 1870, the Bavarian king offered to restore the German Empire and the German imperial dignity, destroyed in his time by Napoleon. This proposal was accepted, and the Reichstag turned to Wilhelm I with a request to accept the imperial crown. In 1871, at Versailles, William I wrote the address on an envelope - "Chancellor of the German Empire", thus confirming Bismarck's right to rule the empire that he created, and which was proclaimed on January 18 in the mirror hall of Versailles. On March 2, 1871, the Treaty of Paris was concluded - difficult and humiliating for France. The border regions of Alsace and Lorraine were ceded to Germany. France had to pay 5 billion indemnities. Wilhelm I returned to Berlin as a triumph, although all the merit belonged to the Chancellor.
The "Iron Chancellor", representing the interests of a minority and absolute power, ruled this empire in 1871-1890, relying on the consent of the Reichstag, where from 1866 to 1878 he was supported by the National Liberal Party. Bismarck reformed German law, administration and finance. The educational reforms he carried out in 1873 led to a conflict with the Roman Catholic Church, but the main reason for the conflict was the growing distrust of German Catholics (who accounted for about a third of the country's population) in Protestant Prussia. When these contradictions surfaced in the activities of the Catholic "Centre" party in the Reichstag in the early 1870s, Bismarck was forced to take action. The struggle against the dominance of the Catholic Church was called "Kulturkampf"(Kulturkampf, struggle for culture). During it, many bishops and priests were arrested, hundreds of dioceses were left without leaders. Now church appointments had to be coordinated with the state; church employees could not be in the service of the state apparatus. Schools were separated from the church, civil marriage was introduced, the Jesuits were expelled from Germany.
Bismarck built his foreign policy on the basis of the situation that developed in 1871 after the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian war and the capture of Alsace and Lorraine by Germany, which became a source of constant tension. With the help of a complex system of alliances that ensured the isolation of France, the rapprochement of Germany with Austria-Hungary and the maintenance of good relations with Russia (the alliance of the three emperors - Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia in 1873 and 1881; the Austro-German alliance of 1879; "Triple Alliance" between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy in 1882; "Mediterranean agreement" in 1887 between Austria-Hungary, Italy and England and "reinsurance agreement" with Russia in 1887), Bismarck managed to maintain peace in Europe. The German Empire under Chancellor Bismarck became one of the leaders in international politics.
In the realm of foreign policy, Bismarck made every effort to consolidate the gains of the Peace of Frankfurt in 1871, contributed to the diplomatic isolation of the French Republic, and sought to prevent the formation of any coalition that threatened German hegemony. He chose not to participate in the discussion of claims to the weakened Ottoman Empire. When at the Berlin Congress of 1878, under the chairmanship of Bismarck, the next phase of the discussion of the "Eastern Question" ended, he played the role of an "honest broker" in the dispute between the rival parties. Although the "Triple Alliance" was directed against Russia and France, Otto von Bismarck believed that a war with Russia would be extremely dangerous for Germany. The secret treaty with Russia in 1887 - the "treaty of reinsurance" - showed Bismarck's ability to work behind the backs of his allies, Austria and Italy, to maintain the status quo in the Balkans and the Middle East.
Until 1884, Bismarck did not give clear definitions of the course of colonial policy, mainly because of friendly relations with England. Other reasons were the desire to preserve Germany's capital and keep government spending to a minimum. Bismarck's first expansionist plans provoked vigorous protests from all parties - Catholics, statesmen, socialists and even representatives of his own class - the Junkers. Despite this, under Bismarck, Germany began to turn into a colonial empire.
In 1879, Bismarck broke with the liberals and relied on a coalition of large landowners, industrialists, senior military and government officials.

In 1879, Chancellor Bismarck secured the adoption by the Reichstag of a protectionist customs tariff. Liberals were forced out of big politics. The new course of German economic and financial policy corresponded to the interests of large industrialists and large farmers. Their union occupied a dominant position in political life and in public administration. Otto von Bismarck gradually moved from the Kulturkampf policy to the persecution of socialists. In 1878, after an attempt on the life of the emperor, Bismarck led through the Reichstag "exceptional law" against the socialists, forbidding the activities of social democratic organizations. On the basis of this law, many newspapers and societies, often far from socialism, were closed. The constructive side of his negative prohibitive stance was the introduction of a system of state insurance for sickness in 1883, in case of injury in 1884 and an old-age pension in 1889. However, these measures failed to isolate the German workers from the Social Democratic Party, although they diverted them from the revolutionary methods of solving social problems. At the same time, Bismarck opposed any legislation regulating the working conditions of workers.

Conflict with Wilhelm II and the resignation of Bismarck.

With the accession of Wilhelm II in 1888, Bismarck lost control of the government.

Under Wilhelm I and Frederick III, who ruled for less than six months, Bismarck's position could not be shaken by any of the opposition groups. The self-confident and ambitious Kaiser refused to play a secondary role, declaring at one of the banquets in 1891: "There is only one master in the country - this is me, and I will not tolerate another"; and his strained relationship with the Reich Chancellor became increasingly strained. Differences manifested themselves most seriously in the question of amending the "Exceptional Law Against Socialists" (in force in 1878-1890) and in the question of the right of ministers subordinate to the chancellor to a personal audience with the emperor. Wilhelm II hinted to Bismarck that his resignation was desirable and received a letter of resignation from Bismarck on March 18, 1890. The resignation was accepted two days later, Bismarck received the title of Duke of Lauenburg, he was also awarded the rank of Colonel General of the cavalry.
Bismarck's removal to Friedrichsruhe was not the end of his interest in political life. He was especially eloquent in his criticism of the newly appointed Reich Chancellor and Minister-President, Count Leo von Caprivi. In 1891, Bismarck was elected to the Reichstag from Hanover, but never took his seat there, and two years later refused to run for re-election. In 1894, the emperor and the already aging Bismarck met again in Berlin - at the suggestion of Clovis Hohenlohe, Prince Schillingfürst, Caprivi's successor. In 1895, all of Germany celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Iron Chancellor. In June 1896, Prince Otto von Bismarck participated in the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Bismarck died in Friedrichsruhe on July 30, 1898. The "Iron Chancellor" was buried at his own request in his Friedrichsruhe estate, the inscription was engraved on the tombstone of his tomb: "Devoted servant of the German Kaiser Wilhelm I". In April 1945, the house in Schönhausen, where Otto von Bismarck was born in 1815, was burned down by Soviet troops.
Bismarck's literary monument is his "Thoughts and Memories"(Gedanken und Erinnerungen), and "Big Politics of European Cabinets"(Die grosse Politik der europaischen Kabinette, 1871-1914, 1924-1928) in 47 volumes serves as a monument to his diplomatic art.

References.

1. Emil Ludwig. Bismarck. - M.: Zakharov-AST, 1999.
2. Alan Palmer. Bismarck. - Smolensk: Rusich, 1998.
3. Encyclopedia "The World Around Us" (cd)