Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. His mother’s death in 1839 gave him the opportunity of resigning in order to come to the assistance of his father, who was experiencing financial difficulties in the management of his estate. He told one of his fellow conservatives, “We are Prussians, and Prussians we shall remain…. Ο Όττο Έντουαρντ Λέοπολντ, πρίγκιπας του Μπίσμαρκ, Δούκας του Λάουενμπουργκ (Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen, 1 Απριλίου 1815 - 30 Ιουλίου 1898), ήταν ένας από τους πιο σημαντικούς Γερμανούς πολιτικούς του 19ου αιώνα. Quotations by Otto von Bismarck, German Leader, Born April 1, 1815. The French were seen as the aggressors, and the German states sided with Prussia in a military alliance. The French were concerned about a possible Spanish and German alliance, and a French minister approached Wilhelm, the Prussian king, who was in the resort town of Ems. Thus, he had 11 years of experience in foreign affairs before he became prime minister and foreign minster of Prussia in September 1862. April 1815 in Schönhausen (Elbe); † 30. Bismarck, Otto von. Otto von Bismarck, in full Otto Eduard Leopold, Fürst (prince) von Bismarck, Graf (count) von Bismarck-Schönhausen, Herzog (duke) von Lauenburg, (born April 1, 1815, Schönhausen, Altmark, Prussia [Germany]—died July 30, 1898, Friedrichsruh, near Hamburg), prime minister of Prussia (1862–73, 1873–90) and founder and first chancellor (1871–90) of the German Empire. Otto von Bismarck, in full Otto Eduard Leopold, Fürst (prince) von Bismarck, Graf (count) von Bismarck-Schönhausen, Herzog (duke) von Lauenburg, (born April 1, 1815, Schönhausen, Altmark, Prussia [Germany]—died July 30, 1898, Friedrichsruh, near Hamburg), prime minister of Prussia (1862–73, 1873–90) and founder and first chancellor (1871–90) of the German Empire. With other archconservatives, including Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach, he began contributing to the Kreuzzeitung newspaper (1848) as an organ of antirevolutionary sentiment. Within six weeks, Napoleon III was taken prisoner when his army was forced to surrender at Sedan. His mother, Wilhelmine Mencken, came from an educated bourgeois family that had produced a number of higher civil servants and academics. He was a poor student who excelled at dueling and was quite a historian and linguist. Among Bismarck's major diplomatic ac… Share with your friends. Bismarck was able to form the Reich, a unified German empire led by the Prussians. Otto von Bismarck — ‘God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.’ Omissions? Given his views, Bismarck was welcomed as a member of the religious conservative circle around the brothers von Gerlach, who were stout defenders of the noble estate against the encroachments of bureaucratic centralization. Enjoy the best Otto von Bismarck Quotes at BrainyQuote. From 1871 to 1890 Bismarck essentially ruled a unified Germany, modernizing its government as it transformed into an industrialized society. It was also unstable, its ancient monarchy and traditional Junker landowning class threatened by the rising forces of pan-German nationalism and liberal democratic revolution. Alsace-Lorraine became an imperial territory of Germany. Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck - Graf von Bismarck (conte), apoi Fürst von Bismarck-Schönhausen (principe) - (n. 1 aprilie 1815, Schönhausen, Germania – d. 30 iulie 1898, Friedrichsruh [*], Germania) a fost un om de stat al Prusiei / Germaniei de la sfârșitul secolului al XIX-lea, precum și o figură dominantă în afacerile mondiale. He believed in a Christian state that received its sanction ultimately from the deity. : containing views on Abraham Lincoln as expressed by Bismarck in 1878, from the recollections of Conrad von Bauditz Siem". In 1864 Bismarck, utilizing some brilliant diplomatic maneuvers, engineered a scenario in which Prussia provoked a war with Denmark and enlisted the help of Austria, which derived little benefit itself. Bismarck, also known as the "Iron Chancellor", was the founder and first chancellor of the German Empire, and through his diplomatic skills, he managed to maintain the peace in Europe for a generation. The economic policies of the urban middle-class radicals were rooted in pure self-interest, he maintained. Otto von Bismarck Facts 1. When Otto von Bismarck became its Prime Minister in 1862, Prussia was a second-rate power overshadowed by Russia, Austria, France, and Britain. But in domestic policies his patrimony was less benign, for he failed to rise above the authoritarian proclivities of the landed squirearchy to which he was born. As chancellor, he pursued pacific policies in foreign affairs, succeeding in preserving the peace in Europe for about two decades, but showed authoritarian tendencies in domestic affairs. He then studied law at the University of Göttingen but evidently was a mediocre student, and, after a brief stint at the university in Berlin, he entered the Prussian civil service. Born April 1, 1815, he was a rebellious child who managed to attend university and become a lawyer by the age of 21. When her son Otto was seven, she enrolled him in the progressive Plamann Institute in Berlin and moved to the capital to be near him. He even considered marching his peasants to Berlin to free Frederick William IV from the baneful influence of the rebels. This soon led to the Austro-Prussian War, which Prussia won while offering Austria fairly lenient surrender terms. Bismarck was also given the royal title of prince and awarded an estate. Otto von Bismarck became the greatest statesman of a generation, but he began as an intransigent and irresponsible youth. Beginning in 1864, Bismarck used his considerable influence to wage a series of wars. And he actually dominated European affairs for decades through his brilliant and ruthless implementation of realpolitik, a system of politics based on practical, and not necessarily moral, considerations. The existing social and political order was to be defended in order to prevent a Hobbesian chaos of all against all. After a brief stint at the university in Berlin, he entered the Prussian civil service, where he was plagued by boredom and an inability to adhere to the hierarchical principles of the bureaucracy. English: Otto von Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (April 1, 1815 – July 30, 1898) was a prominent European aristocrats and statesmen of the nineteenth century. Otto von Bismarck was born at Schönhausen, in the Kingdom of Prussia. The vast majority of Prussians, however, were peasants and artisans, who, in Bismarck’s view, were loyal monarchists. Von Bismarck quietly retired to his fat family estate in Queens where he died in 1949, two years before his mother's birth. In 1854 he opposed close cooperation with Austria, arguing that it entailed “binding our spruce and seaworthy frigate to the wormy old warship of Austria.” Gradually he began to consider the options that would make Prussia the undisputed power in Germany. Mimo iż Johanna nie posiadała ani nadzwyczajnej urody, ani wykształcenia, to małżeństwo z Bismarckiem okazało się wyjątkowo udane (trwało czterdzieści siedem lat, aż do śmierci Johanny). Without Jokes . Otto von Bismarck (Otto Eduard Leopold Fürst von Bismarck, Herzog von Lauenburg, Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen) (April 1, 1815 – July 30, 1898) was a German statesman who led Prussia, was the architect who unified Germany, and served as its first chancellor.In domestic affairs he strengthened the economy, fought the Catholics and socialists, and began the German welfare state. As Prime Minister of Prussia from 1862 to 1890, he was mainly responsible for unifying most of the many independent German countries into the new German Empire in 1871. Professor of History, University of California, Riverside. The young Bismarck resented exchanging an easy life in the country for a more circumscribed life in a large city, where in school he was pitted against the sons of Berlin’s best-educated families. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.' During the 1870s and 1880s, Bismarck engaged in a number of treaties which were considered diplomatic successes. Descended of a noble Prussian family, Bismarck certainly inherited the arrogance of the Prussian Junker class. The motivations of Bismarck were often not clear to his adversaries, and it's commonly believed that he provoked the war with France specifically to create a scenario in which the South German states would want to unify with Prussia. Ferdinand was a typical member of the Prussian landowning elite. Despite his lack of real military service, Bismarck publicly wore a general's uniform for much of his life. ', 'Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best', and 'Fools learn from experience. 1. I denne franske karikatur fra 1870 med titlen Pilori-phrénologie (Gabestoks-frenologi) er Bismarcks ansigt opdelt i områder med forskellige påskrifter; bl.a. A dispute arose in 1870 when the vacant throne of Spain was offered to a German prince. He took his university entrance examination (Abitur) in 1832. He lived in retirement, writing and commenting on international affairs, and died in 1898. If necessary, a war with Austria to destroy its hegemony was not to be excluded. Paris declared itself a republic, and the Prussians besieged the city. Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince von Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg, Count von Bismarck-Schönhausen., born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck (April 1, 1815 – July 30, 1898) was a European statesman of the 19th century, born to a wealthy family. Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck est né le 1 er avril 1815 à Schönhausen.Son père, Ferdinand von Bismarck, est officier militaire et propriétaire terrien prussien et sa mère, Wilhelmine Mencken, est la fille d'un homme politique [l 1].Son grand-père paternel est un disciple de Jean-Jacques Rousseau.Otto a un frère, Bernhard (1810 – 1893), et une sœur, Malwina (1827 – 1908) [w 1]. Once the empire was established, he actively and skillfully pursued pacific policies in foreign affairs, succeeding in preserving the peace in Europe for about two decades. Bismarck made no secret of his bitterness. His father, Ferdinand von Bismarck-Schönhausen, was a typical member of the Prussian landowning elite. In 1847 he attended the Prussian United Diet, where his speeches against Jewish emancipation and contemporary liberalism gained him the reputation of a backwoods conservative, out of touch with the dynamic forces of his age. In a meeting with legislators in late September 1862, Bismarck made a statement which would become notorious: “The great questions of the day will not be decided by speeches and resolutions of majorities...but by blood and iron.”. With his mother’s encouragement, he took up the study of law at the University of Göttingen in the kingdom of Hanover. He spent five years at the school and went on to the Frederick William gymnasium for three years. His Kulturkampf,or vehement opposition to the Catholic Church, was unsuccessful, and his anti-Socialist policies contributed to the wreckage of the Bismarckian parties in the 1890 election. Updates? Von 1862 bis 1890 – mit einer kurzen Unterbrechung im Jahr 1873 – war er in Preußen Ministerpräsident, von 1867 bis 1871 zugleich Bundeskanzler des Norddeutschen Bundes sowie von 1871 bis 1890 erster Reichskanzler des De… nævnes i panden de besejrede lande Danmark, Østrig og Frankrig. From 1839 to 1847 Bismarck lived the ordinary life of a Prussian country squire. Prince Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen Duke of Lauenburg (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was an aristocrat and statesman of the 19th century in Europe. In fact, Bismarck’s last words before dying in 1898 expressed the wish that he would once again see Johanna, who had passed away some years earlier. Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen , vévoda z Lauenburgu ( 1. dubna 1815 , Schönhausen , Pruské království – 30. července 1898 , Friedrichsruh , Německé císařství ) byl jeden z nejvýznamnějších politiků 19. století a budovatel sjednoceného Německa . The battleship Bismarck was named in honour of Otto Fürst von Bismarck, the architect of German unification and the arbiter of European politics during the second half of the 19th century. Bismarck had nothing but sarcasm for aristocratic liberals who viewed England as a model for Prussia. We do not wish to see the Kingdom of Prussia obliterated in the putrid brew of cosy south German sentimentality.” In 1851 Frederick William IV appointed Bismarck as the Prussian representative to the federal Diet in Frankfurt, a clear reward for his loyalty to the monarchy. In 1862 Prussian king Wilhelm wanted to create larger armies to effectively enforce Prussia’s foreign policy. Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenberg, was a conservative Prussian statesman who dominated German and European affairs from the 1860s until the 1890s and was the first Chancellor of the German Empire between 1871 and 1890. While he unified Germany and helped it become a modern power, he did not create political institutions that could live on without his personal guidance. This frequently expressed nostalgia may have been more guise than reality. Bismarck was bitterly opposed to the power of the Catholic Church, and his kulturkampf campaign against the church was controversial but ultimately not entirely successful. While courting Johanna, Bismarck experienced a religious conversion that was to give him inner strength and security. He became known for issuing sharp judgments on the foreign leaders he encountered. He was Amazon.com's first-ever history editor and has bylines in New York, the Chicago Tribune, and other national outlets. As Prime Minister of Prussia from 1862 to 1890, he engineered the unification of Germany.Thereafter, he served as the first Chancellor of the German Empire from 1871 to 1890. Not only did he find the constant deference to the Austrians in Frankfurt demeaning, but he also realized that the status quo meant acceptance of Prussia as a second-rate power in central Europe. Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck (Schönhausen, 1815. április 1. Otto von Bismarck var et yndet offer for samtidens karikaturtegnere. Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. A vision of a Prussian-dominated northern Europe and a redirection of Austrian power to the Slavic areas in the south took shape in his mind. Author of. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Wilhelm, in turn, sent a written report about the meeting to Bismarck, who published an edited version of it as the “Ems Telegram.” It led the French to believe that Prussia was ready to go to war, and France used it as a pretext to declare war on July 19, 1870. With the defeat of the revolution in central Europe, Austria had reasserted its supremacy in the German Confederation, and Bismarck, being an archconservative, was assumed to support the status quo, which included Austrian hegemony. Military leaders were suspicious of what they perceived as excessive moderation from Bismarck. Take a look below for 30 more interesting and awesome facts about Otto von Bismarck. For Bismarck’s future role, it is important to understand his analysis of the revolution. Bismarck’s genius lay in being able to maintain tension between rival nations, to the benefit of Germany. In 1859 Bismarck was sent to Russia as Prussian ambassador, and not long thereafter (May 1862) he moved to Paris as ambassador to the court of Napoleon III. The parliament was resistant to allocate the necessary funds, and the nation’s war minister convinced the king to entrust the government to Bismarck. – Friedrichsruh, 1898. július 30. Let’s have a look at the top 10 most interesting facts about Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck was born at Schönhausen, in the Kingdom of Prussia. The judgment of history on Bismarck is mixed. Once William I became the King of Prussia in 1861, he appointed Otto Von Bismarck to be his Chief Minister. Otto von Bismarck (April 1, 1818–July 30, 1898), a son of the Prussian aristocracy, unified Germany in the 1870s. Otto Eduard Leopold Von Bismarck-Schönhausen was a prime minister of Prussia and the first chancellor of the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm I.. And he actually dominated European affairs for decades through his brilliant and ruthless implementation of realpolitik, a system of politics … Implementation of such a policy would be anything but conservative because it would entail radical changes in the map of Europe as it had been drawn by the conservative powers at Vienna, Austria, in 1815. Corrections? These wars would give his country an extraordinary degree of influence and power. Otto von Bismarck (1815 – 1898) was the Prussian Prime Minister responsible for the unification of Germany. He identified the forces of change as confined solely to the educated and propertied middle class. Bismarck’s response to the liberal revolution that swept through Europe in 1848 confirmed his image as a reactionary. Otto von Bismarck (April 1, 1818–July 30, 1898), a son of the Prussian aristocracy, unified Germany in the 1870s. His father, Ferdinand von Bismarck, was a landowner and a former Prussian military officer; his mother, Wilhelmine Mencken, originally belonged to a well-off commoner family. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. The task of the forces of order was to confirm the loyalty of these two groups by means of material concessions. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The wise man learns from the mistakes of others. There is no question that the marriage was a very happy one. The French eventually surrendered on January 28, 1871. His politics during the 1840s did not diverge substantially from those of a typical country squire. A subsequent critic was to remark that Bismarck believed in a God who invariably agreed with him on all issues. The family’s economic circumstances were modest—Ferdinand’s farming skills being perhaps less than average—and Bismarck was not to know real wealth until the rewards flowed in after the achievement of German unification. Prussia’s victory in the war allowed it to annex more territory and greatly increased Bismarck’s own power. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1894), z którą już w lipcu 1847 r. doszło do zaręczyn. Bismarck was born in Schönhausen, his family's estate in the Old Prussian province of Mark Brandenburg (now Saxony-Anhalt), west of Berlin. Unable to accept t… He also married, and became involved in politics, becoming a substitute member of the Prussian parliament.​. This stature derives from his contribution to the creation and shaping of the modern German state as Prussian minister president and imperial chancellor from 1862 to 1890. Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen, vojvoda z Lauenburgu (* 1. apríl 1815, Schönhausen, Nemecký spolok – † 30. júl 1898, Friedrichsruhe, Nemecké cisárstvo) bol jeden z najvýznamnejších politikov 19. storočia a zakladateľ Nemecka. It was during this period that Bismarck embarked on the road to some of his greatest achievements. Otto von Bismarck sinh ra ở Schönhausen, phía Tây thành phố Berlin, tỉnh Sachsen thuộc Vương quốc Phổ, là con thứ tư trong một gia đình giàu có. Alsace-Lorraine was overtaken by Prussia. He opposed any concessions to the liberals and expressed contempt for the king’s willingness to bargain with the revolutionaries. But as a young man, he was hardly a success and was known for being a heavy drinker with no real direction in life. It has been noted that Kaiser Wilhelm II, through inexperience or arrogance, essentially undid much of what Bismarck accomplished, and thereby set the stage for World War I. Bismarck's imprint on history has been stained in some eyes as the Nazis, decades after his death, attempted at times to portray themselves as his heirs. However, he spent much of his time drinking with the other aristocrats in their exclusive fraternity. It was in Frankfurt that Bismarck began to reassess his view of German nationalism and the goals of Prussian foreign policy. Wilhelm was declared Kaiser or emperor, and Bismarck became chancellor. Bismarck modernized German administration, law, and education in harmony with the economic and technological revolution which was transforming Germany into an industrial society. The radicals would spur industrial growth at the expense of the lower middle class and the farm population. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Causes of World War I and the Rise of Germany, The Other Reichs: The First and Second Before Hitler's Third, Franco-Prussian War: Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Biography of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, American Civil War: Major General Carl Schurz, Origins and Symbolism of the German National Flag, War of the First Coalition in 1790s France, The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Industry and Agriculture History in Europe. When Otto von Bismarck was born, Germany was a collection of 39 weak states cowering between the superpowers of France, Austria, and Russia. Bismarck later complained that his words were taken out of context and misconstrued, but “blood and iron” became a popular nickname for his policies. In 1849 he was elected to the Prussian Chamber of Deputies (the lower chamber of the Prussian Diet) and moved his family to Berlin.