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Otto Von Bismarck. 1815-1898. Natassia. The Iron Chancellor. Transformed a collection of small German States into a Great Empire Served as the first Chancellor from 1871-1890 Initiated social and welfare reform. Young Life. Born on 1 April 1815 at Schönhausen in Brandenburg, Prussia.
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Otto Von Bismarck 1815-1898 Natassia
The Iron Chancellor • Transformed a collection of small German States into a Great Empire • Served as the first Chancellor from 1871-1890 • Initiated social and welfare reform
Young Life • Born on 1 April 1815 at Schönhausen in Brandenburg, Prussia. • His father was an aristocrat and his mother was from an upper-middle class family of academicians and civil servants.
HisEducation • Went to Gymnasium in Berlin • Studied Law at Göttingen and in Berlin. He received his degree in 1837. • Received a civil service appointment as an apprentice official but resigned in 1838.
Young Adult Life • From 1838-1847 Otto was a “Wild Man.” He drank heavily and gambled recklessly. • Life changes in 1847 when he married Johanna Von Putkammer, converted his religion and began his political career. • These gave him stability and self discipline.
Prussian Legislature • Extremely conservative and wholeheartedly supported the monarchy • Strongly opposed any challenges to the position of the land owning aristocracy • Befriended by Prussia’s King Frederick William IV. • Appointed Ambassador to the German Confederation. • Appointed Ambassador to Russia in St. Petersburg.
Prussia • 1858 Prince Regent William became Wilhelm I • 1860 King and Parliament in deadlock about funding military reform • Appointed Bismarck Premier in 1862 • Found a loophole by using the 1861 budget without parliament approval • “The great questions of today will not be settled by speeches and majority decisions…but by blood and iron.” Wilhelm I
Wars • 1864 Took provinces of Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark with an alliance with Austria • 1866 7-weeks-war with Austria over the provinces • 1866 Parliament retroactively sanctioned the wars • 1870 Bismarck edited and important document to France to sound insulting. He provoked a war to unite Southern Germany with Northern Germany against a common threat.
Wilhelm Crowned Emperor • Crowned in the hall of mirrors in Versailles outside Paris, on January 18, 1871
Chancellor of the Empire • Uniform legal codes, nationalized railways, compulsory military service • Kulturkampf- (culture struggle) attack fueled by propaganda against the Center Party (Catholic). • Became a conflict with The Roman Catholic Church. Bismarck was force to Negotiate. • Used a similar attack on the Liberal groups successfully • At the same time instituted health, accident, and old age insurance
Foreign Policy • 1873 negotiated the Three Emperor’s League with Austria-Hungary and Russia to isolate France • 1879 Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary in case of Russian Attack • 1877 Two Mediterranean Agreements to preserve Status quo • Complex system
Retirement • After many conflict with young Emperor Wilhelm II, Bismarck was dismissed in 1890 • He retired to his estate and died on July 30, 1898
Quotes • “Never believe anything until it has been officially denied.” • “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable…the art of the next best.” • “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.” • “Better pointed bullets than pointed words.”
Contemporaries Karl Marx 1818-1883 sociologist Charles Darwin 1809-1882 naturalist Pope Pius IX 1797-1878 William Wordsworth 1770-1850 Poet Alphred Lord Tennyson 1809-1892 Poet
More Contemporaries Gregor Mandel 1822-1884 Austrian Monk/Teacher Studied Plant Genetics Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862 Writer Walt Whitman 1819-1892 Writer Queen Victoria 1837-1901 Sam Clemens 1835-1910 Mark Twain
Notable Sources www.kbismarck.com www.fordham.edu www.ssa.gov www.germanembassy-india.org Encarta.msn.com www.creative quotations.com www.cmtc.7atc.army.mil www.newgenevacenter.org
Special Thanks To Travis “Günther” Roberts Author and Historian