Germany was at the beginning of the nineteenth century a patchwork of kingdoms, electorates, principalities, grand duchies, bishoprics, and free cities. Among them all was the Holy Roman Empire, a political design hundreds of years old, a political entity which was dominated by the Austrian Emperor ruling from his throne in Vienna. But Austria was not itself a German state. While ruled by German speakers and possessing a fine German capital at Vienna, the Austrian Empire looked towards Hungary, the Balkans, and other non-German sources for the majority of its population and power. Thus, the five other kingdoms included in the Holy Roman Empire – Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, and Württemberg – held special grievances with the Austrians, each one wanting to usurp the control that Vienna held over Germany. Yet among the five, only Prussia possessed the tools to become the dominant force of political change in the region. Napoleon Bonaparte, perhaps the most feared man in Europe during the first fifteen years of the century, would rue the Prussians after they arrived late in the Battle of Waterloo, relieving Wellington and helping to send the Emperor into ignominious exile on St. Helena.
Prince Clemens von Metternich and the Congress of Vienna had rewarded Prussia handsomely for its participation in crushing Napoleon. Previously confined to the eastern portions of Germany, the Congress granted significant territories in the Rhineland and Westphalia to Prussia, including the cities of Aachen and Colbenz. Moreover these new areas possessed vast strength. Densely populated, and with large mineral wealth, the region would quickly take up the first tendrils of the Industrial Revolution, spawning among other things the genius of one Friedrich Krupp. Hailing from Essen, the Krupp family would have a lasting impact on the fortunes of Prussia, but the beginnings were humble – a small steel-foundry. Still however Prussia lagged behind her rivals in terms of population, a mere ten million citizens to the thirty million which France and Austria could each call on. Thus, despite the apparent advantages gained by Prussia at the Congress of Vienna it could still not openly challenge its rival for the control of Germany itself. Indeed, that would have to wait until the arrival of a supreme statesman, for while Austria could count on a man like Prince Clemens von Metternich, Prussia would receive her own trump card in the coming years with the arrival of Otto von Bismarck.
Otto von Bismarck was born on April 1st, 1815, in Schonhausen near the Elbe River west of Berlin. Only two months had passed since the Battle of Waterloo and the Napoleonic Wars had finally ended. His father, Ferdinand, was a minor noble, tied to the land on one of the hundreds of Junker Estates. His mother, Wilhelmine, came from better quarters, but was a commoner by birth, her father having been a counselor to Frederick the Great. Unlike her husband she possessed a sharp intellect, a trait she was to eventually pass off to her son. The combination of a passionate and intelligent mother with a hard and direct father was to result, in the words of one biographer,
”he was the clever, sophisticated son of a clever, sophisticated mother masquerading all his life as his heavy, earthy father.” From the age of six onwards Bismarck spent most of his time away from home, engaging in the intellectual pursuits of youth. After tens years at a private school in Berlin, the young Bismarck took his next step, enrolling at the famous Göttingen University. There he would show his first rancor towards liberalism, shunning the middle-class students that made up the majority of the enrollment and instead joining an aristocratic club where he would drink heavily, put off his studies, and was eventually arrested for ten days due to his behavior. Bismarck instead of burying himself in university work, busied his mind with the finest writers of Germany and England – men like Shakespeare, Byron, and Goethe. After two years at Göttingen, Bismarck returned east, spending a year at the University of Berlin before taking the entrance exam for the Prussian Civil Service.
Bismarck quickly entered the ranks of the Prussian bureaucracy, himself aiming to become a diplomat. Instead to his regret he was initially sent to Aachen, a Catholic and quite liberal city. Having already determined that Catholics were not true Germans, Bismarck was undoubtedly dismayed at his initial posting, and took to the numerous vices which had already afflicted him at Göttingen – namely drinking and gambling. Meeting an Englishwoman named Isabella Lorraine-Smith, Bismarck quickly began to abandon his duties in Aachen, following Lorraine-Smith first to Wiesbaden and then to Switzerland. Gone for an inordinate amount of time he was suspended from his first bureaucratic position, but lamented little, stating,
”[he] by no means intended to give the government an account of his personal relations.” Thereafter his affair with Lorraine-Smith ended and Bismarck returned to Berlin to take up his required year of military service, serving with a regiment of Foot Guards. Soon after his service ended, and before he could return to government service, Wilhelmine died, and Bismarck was forced to return to his estate in Pomerania, where he would remain for another eight years. Once again he was to turn to drink, using it to escape from the dull boredom that encapsulated daily Junker life, and taking his ill-judgment to new heights. In 1844 would Bismarck reenter the Prussian Civil Service, but his return was short-lived, resigning only two week later, writing,
”I have never been able to put up with superiors.”
Only one force could compel Bismarck to reenter politics for good – his hatred of liberalism. The Year of Revolutions, 1848, would finally position Bismarck to return to his lifelong calling, but in reaction more than anything else. Unlike most other places in Europe the demands of Prussian liberals during that year were met initially not with gunpowder and steel, but with agreement by King Frederick William IV. Quickly a written constitution and elected parliament, the
Landtag, were put in place. Bismarck, at Schonhausen, was aghast and went to Berlin at once, only to find the situation resolved without his influence. Despite this, his pleas and firm support for the monarchy earned him a certain degree of support, allowing for him to finally enter the diplomatic core. Soon after, in 1851, Bismarck was given his first major assignment – Prussian Ambassador to the German Federal Diet in Frankfurt. Here, astride the Main River, Bismarck was to personally challenge the Austrian supremacy in the Diet, with the goal of letting the Hapsburg's know that Prussia was its equal in Germany – no better man could have been picked. The Austrians had sent their own representative already, Count von Thun und Hohenstein, a man who seemed to view all others as inferiors, including Otto von Bismarck. When Hohenstein was called on by Bismarck for the first time, the Austrian received him wearing only a casual shirt. Offended at the slight, Bismarck stripped off his own coat, declaring,
”Yes, it is a hot day.” This behavior took on more overt forms shortly thereafter at meetings between representatives, where as “first among equals”, Hohenstein was the only one who would smoke. Bismarck put an end to that practice as well, pulling out his own cigar and asking the Count for a match.
Bismarck would remain in Frankfurt am Main for eight years, where he remained dedicated to Prussia in the fullest, stating,
”When I have been asked whether I was pro-Russian or pro-Western, I have always answered: I am Prussian and my ideal in foreign policy is total freedom from prejudice, independence of decision reached without pressure or aversion from or attraction to foreign states and their rulers. I have had a certain sympathy for England and its inhabitants, and even now I am not altogether free of it; but they will not let us love them, and as far as I am concerned, as soon as it was proved to me that it was in the interests of a healthy and well-considered Prussian policy, I would see our troops fire on French, Russians, English, or Austrians with equal satisfaction.” Having shown his unswerving loyalty and diplomatic skills in Frankfurt, the Prussian Regiment, Prince William, placed Bismarck in St. Petersburg as Prussian ambassador. The appointment was a high honor, but Bismarck did not see it that way as one assistant to him stated,
”Bismarck receives no news from Berlin. That is to say that Wilhelmstrausse simply does not write to him. They don't like him there and they behave as though he does not exist. So he conducts his own political intrigues, does no entertaining . . . he gets up at 11 or 11:30 and sits around all day in a green dressing gown, not stirring except to drink.”
With the death of King Frederick William IV in 1861, his brother came to the throne as King William I. A soldier with a relatively one track mind, he was quickly put to the test by members of the
Landtag who wished to reduce the period of required military service imposed on every Prussian male. Along with his war minister, General Alfred von Roon, the new King quickly refused any such talk, and a crisis over the issue began which was to last more than two years. Thankfully for Bismarck, he had a friend in Alfred von Roon who suggested placing Bismarck within the
Landtag to resolve the situation. William, while earnestly wishing to end the political stalemate which continued to revolve around the service issue, nevertheless had no wish to see his ambassador withdrawn from St. Petersburg. While Bismarck had shunned any sort of social activities in the Russian capital, he had still gotten along remarkably with Tsar Alexander II, going so far as to accompany him on several bear hunts. Thus, not wanting to upset the cordial relations which Prussia had thus developed with the Tsar, William initially rejected the advice of Roon, but by 1860 with the crisis showing no sights of relenting, William finally offered Bismarck the Chancellorship. Bismarck, wary of becoming a mere figurehead for the King demanded that he be given full charge of Prussian foreign policy, a demand which was quickly rejected by William I. Soon after Bismarck was transferred to Paris in 1862, but in Berlin the situation remained ominous. Two elections of the
Landtag following the dissolution of the chamber had only resulted in more liberals clogging the system. The King, in despair offered to abdicate, if he could not control the military his position was meaningless, yet his son Frederick would not agree and William remained King. Roon, sensing that the critical moment had arrived beckoned Bismarck to return to the capital, wiring him with the following,
"Delay is dangerous! Hurry!"
On September 20th, 1862, Bismarck returned to Berlin. William, now truly in despair told Roon that only Bismarck could help,
"But, of course, he is not here." Roon of course knew that Bismarck had returned and countered, stating,
"He is here and is ready to serve Your Majesty." Meeting on the 22nd, Bismarck declared himself willing to carry out any matters about the military if only given control of domestic and foreign affairs. William, now having exhausted all his other efforts and wishing only to see the
Landtag keep its hands off his precious army, consented. Bismarck was now Acting Minister-President and Foreign Minister-Designate of Prussia. Just over a week later he entered the
Landtag and made his landmark speech, declaring that
"Germany does not look to Prussia's liberalism but to her strength . . . The great questions of the day will not be decided by speeches and the resolutions of majorities - that was the great mistake of 1848 - but by iron and blood."
The Era of Bismarck had arrived.