Otto Von Bismarck.ppt 2-Axel (2).ppefeft

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1. Otto Von Bismarck
by
Eric Richardson (Axel)
“The King reigns but does not govern.”
1815-1898

2. Early Years
•Otto von Bismarck was born in a small Prussian
province, north west of Berlin in 1815.
•His father was an ex-Prussian military officer who was
of the Junker class, which makes up the landowners in
Prussia.
•His mother was a daughter of a wealthy commoner and
had a high intellect, which is said to be where Bismarck
gained his intelligence.
•The family had an unusual combination, one of an
aristocratic landowner, and the other acknowledgeable
scholars, and high state officials. The two would help
Bismarck in gaining a high position, but would work at
his position well.
•After he gained his basic education, at 17 he went to
college at Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin

3. Early Years
•He received a doctorate in law, but had early
interests in becoming a diplomat. He was
only able to gain minor positions for the
councils in Potsdam, and Aachen. His work
was dull and boring, he had a better time
talking to members of high society.
•Once his mother died, Bismarck moved back
to his family's estates in Pomerania. After
tending to the family properties, he went
back to his family’s main estate and became
more active in local politics.
•While being home he met, and married a
noblewoman named Johanna von
Puttkamer.
•Together they would have two sons, and a
daughter, also they brought up a young
orphan whom Bismarck would call “my
Sunday’s Child”

4. Beginning in Politics
•Otto von Bismarck was able to fill in for a former
political representative of a royalist, in the newly
built Land tag, which was the first Prussian
Legislature.
•Bismarck became known as a strong royalist, and
an action filled politician. He would defend the
action of divine right towards the monarchy.
•During 1848 Bismarck held firm against the
liberal rise in parliament, and once the liberal
parties became weak and the parliament became
more conservative.
•Bismarck was noticed and was appointed numerous
diplomatic, and political positions, where he was an
ambassador of Prussia to Russia, and then France.
•Before the diplomatic roles, he was appointed head
of the Diet that would decide to gain German land,
and take it away from Austrian power.

5. Bismarck's gain in Authority
•During 1862, Parliament was having
difficulty over government reforms, so the king
dissolved parliament after parliament, and
was considering resigning, and leaving the
throne to his son, Fredrick.
•
Bismarck was then appointed Prime
Minister of Prussia, to help the situation.
Bismarck was able to keep the king on the
throne. Bismarck would go to all lengths to
get his way, he even threatened his resignation
if his action wasn’t put through.
•Bismarck would then concentrate his
authority on consolidating Prussia and
expanding its borders.

6. The Austrian Affair
•Prussia became allies with Austria in seizing
the provinces of Schleswig and Holstein from
Denmark, although Bismarck had further
plans.
•With having a booming industry of coal, and
the rail way system had been built up to
stretch across the Prussian borders, the Army
was able to be assembled in record timing.
Bismarck used this strength to wage a war, in
1866, with Austria, over a dispute about the
newly concord territory.
•The war was quick and only lasted 7 weeks,
where the Prussian army prevailed. Bismarck
didn’t hurt Austria by taking money or even
much of the country, he was mainly concerned
in unifying the Germanic States. Which he
then gained diplomatic alliance with Austria
once the war was over

7. The French Affair
•After the war with Austria, Prussia still
didn’t have the southern Germanic states,
mainly still because the southern German
provinces were mostly Catholic, where the
Prussian country was predominantly
protestant (Otto himself was a Pietist
Lutheran).
•So Prussia still needed another small war to
gain the reputation as a strong country,
which would win over the southern
Provinces of Germany to unify and join
with Prussia.
•Quickly after Prussia had beat Austria,
France sent an ambassador to talk to King
Wilhelm of Prussia over the controversy of
the Hohenzollern Family not being allowed
to become Spain's Autocracy.
•
Bismarck then took the letter which was to
be sent to Napoleon the 3 in France. The
letter, which was named the Ems telegram,
was supposed to have good word from
Prussia, instead it was refurbished to
provoke Napoleon into waging a war
against Prussia.
•Bismarck was then able to rally support
from the southern Germanic Provinces in
banding together and uniting against the
French aggression.
•The war took one heavy month of major
battles, but after that, the French were
ultimately defeated. The French were forced
to pay a sum of immense proportion,
crippling their governments vaults.

8. Unifying an Empire
•France was also forced to give up a large
section known as the Alsace and part of
Lorraine. Bismarck was against this action,
for he felt it would be provoking another war,
but the Prussian Generals assured Bismarck
that it was in the best interest to the Empire.
•Bismarck then quickly went to the Germanic
states and negotiated a unification to the
Prussian country which would create
Germany. His negotiations were successful.
Bismarck had his unified German Empire.
•King Wilhelm 1 was then crowned German
Emperor in the Hall of mirrors in Versailles,
France.

9. Chancellor of Germany
•Bismarck was not too interested in
colonizing imperially in Africa, but
politically there was a push to gain land in a
few regions of Africa including Togo,
Ghana, and Cameroon.
•Russia had just won victory over the
Ottoman Turks, where Bismarck became
concerned with Russian influence in Eastern
Europe. He then openly expressed his views
that Russia should not gain a large portion
of land from the victory. This declaration
weakened the bond between Germany and
Russia.
•To secure Germany Bismarck wrote up
another alliance between Austria and
Germany, which Italy would then join as
well, for protection from France.
•In Foreign policy, Bismarck tried the
remainder of his day to not provoke war,
but to keep the peace and balance of power
in Europe. He knew that a war could
happen. “"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.“.
•This quote reminds people of the unknowing
which could happen in the Balkans, which
later is known as the powder keg of world
war one.
•He also initiated the creation of health,
accident, and old age insurance.

10. Later Years
•Due to the Death of Wilhelm 1 in 1888, and
the short lived sons heir to the throne,
Wilhelm the 11 appeared on the Throne.
This would disrupt Bismarck's old way of
getting his way. The Problem with
Wilhelm, was that he was strong minded,
unlike Wilhelm the first. Bismarck had no
luck in winning Wilhelm’s ideas for
Germany, as he was able to with Wilhelm
the firsts. Bismarck was asked for his
resignation, he was given the title as Duke of
Lauenberg as a gift for his accomplishments.
•
Bismarck died in 1898 at the age of 83.
•
On his tomb reads “A true German Servant
of the Emperor Wilhelm 1.”

11. Quotes
•“The King Reigns but does not govern.”
•
“When you want to fool the world, tell the
truth.”
•“The great questions of the day will not be
settled by means of speeches and majority
decision, but by Iron and Blood.”
•“People never lie so much as after a hunt,
during a war or before an election.”
•
“The main thing is to make history, not to
write it.”
•“A government must not waiver once it has
chosen it’s course. It must not look to the left
or right but go forward.”

12. Reference
•Bismarck, By Edward Crankshaw
The Viking Press New York, Copy Right 1981 by
Crankshaw
•www. age-of-the
sage.org/historical/biography/otto_von_bismarck.html
•www. Germannotes.com/hist_bismarck.shtml
•www. britannica.com/eb/article-9616/Otto-von-Bismarck
•www. quotes.zaadz.com/Otto_von_Bismarck
•www.
worldofquotes.com/author/Otto-von-Bismarck/1/index.htm
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