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Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg, was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as its first chancellor from 1871 to 1890. Bismarck's Realpolitik and firm governance earned him the nickname Iron Chancellor.
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politics · Chancellor of Germany from 1871 to 1890 · politician · diplomat · jurist · military officer · writer · volunteer serving one year · lord of the manor · chancellor · also Otto von Bismarck, Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg, Eduard Leopold, Prince von Bismarck-Schönhausen, Prince Bismarck, Iron Chancellor, Bismarck
Born 1 April 1815 · Died 30 July 1898 · Q8442
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Bulgaria, that little country between the Danube and the Balkans, is far from being an object of adequate importance... for which to plunge Europe from Moscow to the Pyrenees, and from the North Sea to Palermo, into a war whose issue no man can foresee. At the end of the conflict we should scarcely know why we had fought.
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2026· 7 entries
“Bulgaria, that little country between the Danube and the Balkans, is far from being an object of adequate importance... for which to plunge Europe from Moscow to the Pyrenees, and from the North Sea to Palermo, into a war whose issue no man can foresee. At the end of the conflict we should scarcely know why we had fought.”
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“My temperament is dreamy and sentimental. People who paint me all make the mistake of giving me a violent expression”
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“This is progress! It will be popular: a nation loves progress!”
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“had no doubt that a Franco-German war must take place before the construction of a united Germany could be realised”
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NWZonline: Kiebitzeier verbinden Jever bis heute mit Otto von Bismarck
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Bayerischer Rundfunk: 29. Januar 1859 Otto von Bismarck wird zum Gesandten von St. Petersburg
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1906· 1 entry
Is considered one of the greatest expressions of Imperial Germany's Bismarck cult and an important development in the history of German memorial art
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1905· 1 entry
A German plan for an alliance with Russia fell through because Russia was too close to France
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1898· 11 entries
Died 1898-07-30.
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“I grant that I am full of prejudices; I sucked them in with my mother's milk, and I cannot possibly argue them away.”
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“Faust complains of having two souls in his breast. I have a whole squabbling crowd. It goes on as in a republic.”
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“Politics is the art of the possible.”
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“A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.”
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“Let us lift Germany, so to speak, into the saddle. Surely when that is achieved, it will succeed at riding as well.”
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“He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.”
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“Be assured, we shall not go to Canossa, either bodily or spiritually.”
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“Politics is not an exact science.”
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“The social insecurity of the worker is the real cause of their being a peril to the state.”
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“Os cidadãos não poderiam dormir tranqüilos se soubessem como são feitas as salsichas e as leis.”
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1896· 1 entry
Awarded Order of Wilhelm I presented by Wilhelm II (1896).
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1895· 3 entries
Awarded honorary citizen of Coburg (1895).
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Awarded honorary citizen of Speyer (1895).
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Awarded honorary citizen of Rostock (1895).
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1894· 1 entry
Awarded honorary citizen of Halberstadt (1894).
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1890· 2 entries
Was granted the title of Herzog von Lauenburg ("Duke of Lauenburg"); the duchy was one of the territories that Prussia had seized from the king of Denmark in 1864
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The treaty was not renewed, thus creating a critical problem for Germany in the event of a war
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1885· 1 entry
Awarded honorary citizen of Bremerhaven (1885).
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1882· 1 entry
With Austria-Hungary and Italy, and Italy and Austria-Hungary soon reached the "Mediterranean Agreement" with Britain
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1881· 1 entry
But quickly fell apart, ending Russian-Austrian-Prussian solidarity, which had existed in various forms since 1813
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1880· 1 entry
Career landmark: commerce minister (1880–1890).
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1878· 2 entries
To preserve his remaining political capital since he now needed the Centre Party votes in his new battle against socialism
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Following two failed assassination attempts against Kaiser Wilhelm I which Bismarck, without support, blamed on the SDAP, the Reichstag passed the Anti-Socialist Laws
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1875· 2 entries
Civil ceremonies were required for civil weddings
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And its announcement of an increase in the size of its army, as well as talks of launching a preventive war against France
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1873· 5 entries
When Albrecht von Roon was appointed to the former office
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Germany and much of Europe and America entered the Long Depression, the Gründerkrise
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Formed the League of the Three Emperors (Dreikaiserbund), an alliance of Wilhelm, Tsar Alexander II of Russia, and Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria-Hungary
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Career landmark: Minister President of Prussia (1873–1890).
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More anti-Catholic laws allowed the Prussian government to supervise the education of the Roman Catholic clergy and curtailed the disciplinary powers of the Church
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1872· 1 entry
A protracted quarrel began to fester between Bismarck and Count Harry von Arnim, the imperial ambassador to France
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1871· 4 entries
Career landmark: Imperial chancellor (1871–1890).
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Bismarck emerged as a decisive figure in European history from 1871 to 1890
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At least temporarily solved the problem of dualism
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Bismarck was raised to the rank of Fürst (Prince)
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1870· 2 entries
Bismarck secured France's defeat with support from the independent South German states before overseeing the creation of a unified German Empire under Prussian rule
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When the German Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was offered the Spanish throne, vacant since a revolution in 1868
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1869· 1 entry
Awarded Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Netherlands Lion (1869).
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1867· 1 entry
Career landmark: Bundeskanzler (Norddeutscher Bund) (1867–1871).
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1866· 2 entries
Austria reneged on the agreement and demanded that the Diet determine the Schleswig–Holstein issue
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Replaced the German Confederation with the North German Confederation, which aligned the smaller North German states with Prussia while excluding Austria
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1865· 1 entry
And Fürst von Bismarck ("Prince of Bismarck") in 1871
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1864· 1 entry
Awarded Order of the Black Eagle (1864).
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1862· 4 entries
When the Landtag refused to authorise funding for a proposed re-organisation of the army
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Career landmark: foreign minister (1862).
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Career landmark: Minister President of Prussia (1862–1873).
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Career landmark: envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary (1862–1862).
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1859· 1 entry
Career landmark: envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary (1859–1862).
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1852· 1 entry
Awarded Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog (1852).
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1851· 4 entries
By Frederick William IV of Prussia, which had forbidden Prussian Cabinet Ministers from reporting directly to the King of Prussia and required them instead to report via the Prussian Prime Minister
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Frederick William IV appointed Bismarck as Prussia's envoy to the Diet of the German Confederation in Frankfurt
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Career landmark: ambassador to the German Confederation (1851).
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Career landmark: Legationsrat (1851).
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1849· 2 entries
Bismarck was elected to the Landtag
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Career landmark: member of the Prussian Second Chamber (1849).
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1847· 2 entries
Bismarck, aged thirty-two, was chosen as a representative to the newly created Prussian legislature, the Vereinigter Landtag
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Career landmark: member of parliament (1847).
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1846· 1 entry
Career landmark: Dijkgraaf (1846).
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1839· 2 entries
Studied at Königliche Staats- und landwirtschaftliche Akademie Eldena (1838–1839).
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Morton's Hope, or the Memoirs of a Provincial, about life in a German university
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1838· 2 entries
While stationed as an army reservist in Greifswald, he studied agriculture at the University of Greifswald
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Bismarck began a shortened compulsory military service in the Prussian Army; actively serving as a one-year volunteer before becoming an officer in the Landwehr (reserve)
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1837· 1 entry
Career landmark: Referendar (1837–1838).
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1836· 1 entry
Career landmark: Referendar (1836–1837).
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1835· 2 entries
Studied at Frederick William University Berlin (1834–1835).
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Career landmark: auscultator (1835–1836).
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1833· 1 entry
Studied at University of Göttingen (1832–1833).
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1832· 1 entry
Studied at Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium (1832).
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1827· 2 entries
Studied at Plamannsche Erziehungsanstalt (1821–1827).
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Studied at Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster (1827).
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1816· 1 entry
The family moved to its Pomeranian estate, Kniephof (now Konarzewo, Poland), northeast of Stettin (now Szczecin), in the then-Prussian province of Farther Pomerania
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1815· 2 entries
Born 1815-04-01.
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At Schönhausen, a noble family estate west of Berlin in Prussian Saxony
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