Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) said: "The great questions of the moment will not be settled by speeches or decisions of the majority…but by iron and blood." Prince Bismarck unified the States Germans under Prussian domination. hegemony through a series of carefully orchestrated wars, which excluded Austria from the new Confederation and added Schleswig-Holstein and Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. But Bismarck avoided unnecessary confrontations and was above all a master of balance-of-power diplomacy. His skills, both at home and abroad, earned him the loyal support of Kaiser Wilhelm I. Paternalistic and socially conservative, Bismarck created the first ever government health, accident and old-age insurance for workers. This concise, if piquant, little biography was written in 1918 by the French historian Georges Lacour-Gayet, who often let Bismarck tell his story in his own inimitable words.
Otto von BISMARCK:
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), known as Otto von Bismarck (German: [ˈɔtoː fɔn ˈbɪsmark]), was a conservative Prussian statesman who dominated German and European affairs from the 1860s until 1890.
In the 1860s, he organized a series of wars that unified the German states, deliberately excluding Austria, into a powerful German empire under Prussian leadership. Once this goal was accomplished in 1871, he skillfully used balance-of-power diplomacy to maintain Germany's position in a Europe that, despite many disputes and fears of war, remained at peace. For historian Eric Hobsbawm, it was Bismarck who "remained undisputed world champion at the game of multilateral diplomatic chess for almost twenty years after 1871, [and] devoted himself exclusively and successfully to maintaining peace between the powers/". However, its annexation of Alsace-Lorraine gave new impetus to French nationalism and fostered Germanophobia in France. This helped set the stage for the First World War.
In 1862, King William I appointed Bismarck as Minister-President of Prussia, a position he held until 1890 (except for a short break in 1873). He provoked three short but decisive wars against Denmark, Austria and France, lining up the small German states behind Prussia in its defeat by France. In 1871, he formed the German Empire with himself as chancellor, while retaining control of Prussia. His realpolitik diplomacy and his powerful power in his country earned him the nickname "Iron Chancellor". German unification and its rapid economic growth formed the basis of its foreign policy. He disliked colonialism but reluctantly built an empire overseas when elite and mass opinion demanded it. Juggling a highly complex series of conferences, negotiations and alliances, he used his diplomatic skills to maintain Germany's position and used the balance of power to keep Europe at peace in the 1870s and 1880.
Credit for Otto von Bismarck biography summary (full audiobook): Pamela Nagami and Otto von Bismarck, Wikipedia.
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