Otto von bismarck quotes

What is Otto von Bismarck’s background?

When Bismarck was born in April 1815, Napoleon was about to be defeated for good by a coalition that included a collective German force with many enthusiastic volunteers. The warm afterglow of this joint effort coloured Bismarck’s childhood with bloodthirsty war stories about heroism and sacrifice. His father Karl was a junker (Prussian aristocrat) with staunchly conservative views. By contrast, his mother Wilhelmine was the daughter of a cabinet secretary and was keenly intelligent and witty. Their son Otto would be a combination of the two: an arch-conservative junker with the Machiavellian mind of a politician.

How did Otto von Bismarck rise to power?

As a young man, Bismarck led a drifter’s life, trying to find purpose and meaning as the second son of a minor noble family. But in 1847 his life changed forever. By chance, he was asked to step in for a member of the Prussian parliament who had fallen ill. There, he found his calling in the intrigues and machinations of the political world. He quickly made a name for himself as a s

Otto von Bismarck: Early Years

Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was born April 1, 1815, at his family’s estate in the Prussian heartland west of Berlin. His father was a fifth-generation Junker (a Prussian landowning noble), and his mother came from a family of successful academics and government ministers. Throughout his life Bismarck would emphasize his rural Junker roots, underplaying his considerable intellect and cosmopolitan outlook.

Did you know? Although German leader Otto von Bismarck wore a general's uniform in public for much of his later life (and successfully prosecuted three wars as chancellor), his only prior military service was a brief, unwilling stint in a reserve unit.

Bismarck was educated in Berlin and after university took a series of minor diplomatic posts before retiring, at age 24, to run his family’s estate at Kneiphof. In 1847 he married and was sent to Berlin as a delegate to the new Prussian parliament, where he emerged as a reactionary voice against the liberal, anti-autocratic Revolutions of 1848.

From 1851 to 1862 Bismarck served a series o

Otto von Bismarck

First Chancellor of the German Empire

Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg[a] (; born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a Prussian statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany. Bismarck's Realpolitik and firm governance resulted in him being popularly known as the Iron Chancellor (German: Eiserner Kanzler).

From Junker landowner origins, Otto von Bismarck rose rapidly in Prussian politics under King Wilhelm I of Prussia. He served as the Prussian ambassador to Russia and France and in both houses of the Prussian parliament. From 1862 to 1890, he held office as the minister president and foreign minister of Prussia. Under Bismarck's leadership, Prussia provoked three short, decisive wars against Denmark, Austria, and France. After Austria's defeat in 1866, he replaced the German Confederation with the North German Confederation, which aligned the smaller North German states with Prussia while excluding Austria. In 1870, Bismarck secured France's defeat

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