Who was Otto von Bismarck?

Germany’s Iron Chancellor

The proclamation of Wilhem I as German Emperor. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons, Anton von Werner

One of the giants of 19th-century European history, Bismarck is undoubtedly someone who deserves to be called a great man of history.

Born in 1815 in the Kingdom of Prussia, Bismarck was born into a rapidly changing world.

Only three months after Bismarck was born, Napoleon Bonaparte, the dominant figure of Europe’s early 19th century, was defeated definitely at the Battle of Waterloo.

With Napoleon defeated and sent into his final exile, the 1815 borders of Europe more or less resembled what the continent looked like in 1789 when the French Revolution broke out. In reality, beneath the surface, nothing was as it seemed.

Thanks to two decades of French conquests and occupation of much of Italy, Germany, the Low Countries, and even Poland, the ideas of the revolution spread far and wide. Though the conservative monarchies were now back in control, a rising class of urban liberal middle class, reformist aristocrats, and rapidly expanding working class was diametrically opposed to the old order.

Resentment was suppressed for decades, but it eventually broke into the open in the form of the 1848–49 revolutions, a series of events that shook the old order to its core.

Though most of the revolutions were eventually crushed, some concessions were still won by the revolutionaries. In Bismarck’s native Prussia, the King allowed the creation and maintenance of a modern Parliament.

While all these events were going on, Bismarck, despite being a young man, the 33 years old Bismarck was a conservative aristocrat who was horrified by the proposals of the revolutionaries, though he was smart enough to start to use their own weapons on them, by setting up pro-conservative newspapers and clubs.

During the King’s self-imposed exile from Berlin in 1848, Bismarck caught the attention of the King when Frederick William asked for his advice. Bismarck remained silent, sat down on the piano, and began to play the marching song of the Prussian infantry.

In the aftermath of the revolution, Bismarck was made Prussia’s ambassador to Frankfurt and later to Saint Petersburg and even Paris, but his real chance to gain power had to wait until 1862.

The old King, Frederick William, was dead by then, succeeded by his younger brother Wilhelm.

Eager to improve the armed forces of Prussia, Wilhelm wanted to raise taxes, but the Parliament resisted his efforts, leading to a blockage in government. Frustrated, the King briefly even contemplated abdicating in favor of his son but eventually was talked out of it and named Bismarck as the new Minister-President( effectively the leader of the government) in Prussia.

Minister President

Bismarck could not get the Parliament to back down and vote on the new budget either. Nonetheless, using a loophole in the constitution, he used the previous year’s budget, reallocating money to the army, and the planned military reforms went through.

Parliament did not much like the new Minister-President, and there were people who lobbied for his removal, but as Bismarck was responsible to the King, their opinion mattered little.

Bismarck did not hide his own dislike either, and in a speech where he addressed the Parliament, he famously remarked: “The great questions of the age will not be decided by votes and deliberations, that was the big mistake of 1848–49, but by iron and blood.”

Despite his earlier reservations about German unification that would have forced Bismarck’s conservative and Protestant Prussia into the same entity with liberals and Catholics, by the 1860s, Bismarck had a change of heart and now saw the usefulness of a unified Germany, but on his terms, lead by conservative Prussia.

Ever since then, historians have debated whether what happened next was a careful plan of a Machiavellian genius or just the actions of an incredibly agile gambler.

In any case, fate presented Bismarck with the perfect opportunity to begin his unification of Germany in late 1863, when King Frederick VII of Denmark died.

The old King was succeeded by his son Christian IX, but besides ruling Denmark, Christian also succeeded his father to the thrones of the Duchy of Schleswig and the Duchy of Holstein, two small states on the southern half of the Jutland peninsula, predominantly inhabited by ethnic Germans.

Despite sharing the same monarch, legally, the two duchies were separate entities to the Kingdom of Denmark and part of the German Confederation. When Christian adopted a new Danish constitution to form a closer union, Prussia protested, deeming that such reforms violated the constitution of the German Confederation and threatened war.

Bismarck alongside Helmuth von Moltke and Albrecht von Roon, the two man whose military reforms allowed Prussia to become the greatest power of continental Europe. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons,

The unification of Germany

Initially, Prussia looked like he would fight Denmark alone, but through his silver tongue, Bismarck talked Austria, the other heavyweight of the German confederation, into joining Prussia against Denmark, and war broke out in the early months of 1864.

Despite trying to resist, a small country like Denmark facing two such great powers did not stand a chance, and the Jutland peninsula was rapidly overran. Thanks to the lack of a Prussian or Austrian navy, the Danish-controlled islands were left untouched, but with no international assistance coming, Denmark had no choice but to sue for peace.

According to the peace agreement, Denmark lost nearly half of its territory and 1 million of its pre-war population, including more than 200,000 ethnic Danes.

Prussia and Austria took over administrative control over the duchies, though the naked aggression against a small country like Denmark did not improve the international standing of either Prussia or Austria. Austria, in particular, was left isolated after failing to support Russia in the Crimean War a decade earlier.

Less than two years after the defeat of Denmark, the Allies fell out about supposed irregularities in the administration of the duchies, leading to the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866.

In the leadup to the war, the Austrians may have felt confident, as apart from two brief conflicts with Denmark, Prussia hadn’t fought a major war since the fall of Napoleon, while the Austrian army took on the second French Empire, Piedmont-Savoy and the Hungarian revolutionaries in the previous decades. Nonetheless, if they expected to win, they were in for a very, very rude shock, as Prussia’s reformed army was net superior to the Austrians.

Bismarck, however, did not want to leave anything to chance and secured an alliance with the Kingdom of Italy, who would attack the Austrians in Lombardy, thus forcing Vienna into a two-front war while Bismarck also negotiated with Napoleon III, and received guarantees that the French will not intervene.

With everything ready, the Prussians invaded Bohemia in June 1866 and rapidly steamrolled the Austrians, causing very heavy casualties.

Smaller German states from the Confederation agreed to help Austria, but they were no match for the Prussians.

Despite having the upper hand over the Italians in Lombardy, the disastrous defeat in Bohemia left the road to Vienna open, and King Wilhelm and his generals were already dreaming of parading through the streets of the Austrian capital and lopping off large provinces from the Austrian Empire.

Bismarck, on the other hand, was opposed to the continuation of the war or territorial annexations. From his point of view, further conflict may draw in other powers into the conflict, especially France, while by humiliating Austria, Prussia would only create a bitter and resentful neighbor on her southern border, who would pounce on the first opportunity to get revenge.

Despite the validity of Bismarck’s line of thinking, the King and the generals were adamant to continue the war, and in a heated war council, the Minister-President even walked up to a window and threatened to fling himself off if the war went on. Bismarck’s threats and theatrics, in the end, carried the day, and his proposal was implemented.

Austria did not have to bear the shame of Prussian troops parading through Vienna, nor cede any land, only agreeing to the dissolution of the German Confederation, and the creation of a new north German confederation, of which they would not be a member.

By basically shutting Austria out of German politics, Bismarck’s unification of Germany was almost complete.

Almost, as some southern states like Bavaria or Wurttenberg were still out of the orbit of Prussia or Bismarck’s new North German Confederation.

The wily Bismarck believed he needed another war to forge his Germany, and fate presented him with the perfect opportunity in 1870.

When the Bourbon dynasty of Spain was forced out of the country, the Spanish throne was offered to the Catholic branch of the Hohenzollerns. Fearing encirclement, Napoleon III tried his best to foil this succession and sent a delegation to negotiate with King Wilhelm, who agreed. Bismarck, ever Macchiavellian, however, got his hands on the King’s message and carefully altered its wording, making it a lot more provocative.

Just to make sure it would have the wanted effect, it was also leaked to the French press, causing an uproar in Paris. With the nation ready to go to war, Napoleon III declared war on Prussia in the summer of 1870.

On the receiving end of aggression, as expected by Bismarck, the southern German states joined the “defense” of Prussia.

The superior Prussian army trounced the French in the early months of the conflict, and even Napoleon III was captured at Sedan. With the Emperor captured and the French troops in headlong retreat, the French Second Empire was thoroughly discredited and was overthrown in September 1870.

Despite even Paris being under siege, the government of the freshly proclaimed French Republic continued to fight until January 1871, when they were finally forced to concede defeat.

Riding the wave of national euphoria, Bismarck cajoled the princes of Germany and King Wilhelm to make the big step and pronounce Wilhelm as Emperor. Despite some earlier resistance from the King, who was content with being the King of Prussia, after some fiery shouting matches, Bismarck once again got his way, and at last, a newly unified Germany was created.

Its constitution was modeled on that of Prussia, and though the new Germany also had a Parliament elected by universal male suffrage, executive power still remained in the hands of the Emperor and the government, this latter being responsible to the Emperor rather than the Parliament.

Napoleon III surrendering to the Prussians. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Chancellor of Germany and last years

With Germany now unified, Bismarck maintained his old position as Minister-President of Prussia, while he also became the Chancellor of the German Empire.

The old Wilhelm, now in his seventies, trusted Bismarck completely and allowed him to effectively govern the empire in his name.

With Germany now created, Bismarck was eager to avoid further wars, and to this end, he tried to isolate a vengeful France from creating alliances with other continental powers. To this end, Bismarck created the League of the Three Emperors, made up of Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary, while in the 1880s, he also formed the Triple Alliance, a defensive alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy.

In internal politics, the Chancellor brought forward some very progressive legislation and began to lay down the foundations of Europe’s first welfare state. Nonetheless, the arch-conservative still remained weary of liberalism, Catholics, and all other forces he deemed dangerous to the unity of the new empire and scapegoated them for the rest of his tenure in power.

This tenure was to last until 1890.

Wilhelm I lived on to 1888, when he died, aged nearly 91. He was succeeded to the throne by his more liberal son Frederick. Though Frederick was only in his fifties still, he was mortally ill, suffering from throat cancer, and died only three months later.

Frederick, in turn, was succeeded by his son Wilhelm, a very conservative man just like his grandfather, but unlike Wilhelm I, Wilhelm II lacked the good sense to recognize that his sole qualification to power was the fact that he won the genetic lottery, and rather than allow the more competent man to rule, he wanted to take charge himself.

He clashed with Bismarck quite quickly, and 18 months after taking power, he dismissed the Chancellor and put his own sycophants into office.

Bismarck’s careful balancing politics that preserved the peace of Europe since 1870 were soon in ruin, and Germany found itself surrounded by the new Franco-Russian alliance, joined a decade later by Britain when Germany began to build up its fleet also, and the dominoes that led to the catastrophe of WWI began to slowly fall into place.

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