Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
by Edgar Feuchtwanger
IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS BISMARCK. This is how a 24 to 32 he ran one of the family estates in Eastern Pomer-
leading German historian, Thomas Nipperdey, opens the second vol- ania, but the life of a country squire did not satisfy him ei-
ume of his history of Germany from 1806 to 1918. In the beginning ther. He was a man of exceptional intelligence, who read
there was Napoleon is the sentence opening the first volume. Few widely but unsystematically, and who, like many young
would dispute that Napoleon and Bismarck were the two most impor- men of the late Romantic period, modelled himself on the
tant personalities in the establishment of a modern German nation poet Lord Byron. He had a marvellous command of lan-
state, though it remains a matter of debate how much importance one guage and might have become a writer. Twice he fell in
can attach to single personalities in interpreting major historical events. love with rich and well-connected young Englishwomen
Ideologies as well as material circumstances have to be part of the in- travelling on the Continent, but he eventually married an-
terpretation; and both the rise of German nationalism and the coming other member of the Pomeranian aristocracy. Through her
of industrial society were clearly necessary factors in the unification of he got religion, having in his youth been a religious sceptic.
Germany. Nevertheless it is paradoxical that Napoleon was not a Ger- Bismarcks God was, like his wife, fashioned for his own
man, while Bismarck was above all a Prussian, whose relationship convenience, to provide comfort and security in his stormy
with the idea of Germany was far from straightforward. It is the pur- existence as a dominant political figure. He was a man of
pose of this article to explain why Bismarck, a member of the pre-indus- imperious and domineering temperament, with an un-
trial Prussian aristocracy, played so central a role in the creation of the quenchable thirst for power.
modern industrial German state. Bismarck sprang to prominence in the revolution of
1848 as a man of the extreme right. He and his associates
among the Prussian conservatives wanted to defeat the rev-
Bismarcks Prussian apprenticeship olution and restore the absolute monarchical regime that
Prussia was, like many European countries before the had existed in Prussia and most of Europe before 1848. In
French Revolution, a dynastic state held together by its rul- this they were largely successful, but the defeat of the liber-
ing family, the Hohenzollerns. In the late eighteenth cen- als was not complete or irrevocable. From 1849 onwards
tury its population consisted of almost as many Polish as Prussia had a semi-constitutional regime under which ex-
German speakers. On his fathers side, Bismarck came from ecutive power remained with the King and the ministers ap-
a long line of Junkers, the landowning aristocracy of the pointed by him, but with strictly limited legislative and
Prussian provinces east of the Elbe. The Hohenzollerns, a taxing powers vested in an elected parliament. The elec-
dynasty originally from South Germany, had from the sev- tions were held under a restricted three-tier franchise. The
enteenth century taken the Junkers into their service, voters were divided into three classes, each paying the
mainly in the army, and had by this and other means built same amount of tax and having the same amount of voting
their scattered territories into a major European power. power. Thus a very small number of men in the first class
Many of Bismarcks paternal forebears had, besides run- had as much voting power as the bulk of the population
ning their estates, served as generals in the Prussian army. voting in the third class. Essentially this system remained in
On his mothers side, Bismarck came from a family of lead- operation in Prussia until the overthrow of the monarchy at
ing officials who had filled important positions under Fred- the end of the First World War. When the unification of
erick the Great and subsequent Prussian kings. Germany under Prussia took place in the 1860s, the Prus-
Bismarck was therefore destined for a career in the Prus- sian system of having an executive minister responsible to
sian public service, but he was too self-willed and individ- the monarch and not dependent on the support of parlia-
ualistic to fit into a bureaucratic existence. From the age of ment was transferred to the newly created Reich. It was
1
Article 17. Bismarck, Prussia & German Nationalism
largely the work of Bismarck, when he had risen to the top become useful allies of the monarchy and the aristocracy. As
as Prussian Prime Minister, that so much power remained the events of 1848 had shown, they were as afraid of the
in the hands of the monarchy in an age when the middle masses as the aristocracy. Bismarcks strength was his brutal,
classes and even the masses were increasingly participating cynical realism that made short shrift of all illusions and was
in politics. It was a feature that before 1914 distinguished sceptical of all idealism; his weakness was that he thought
Germany sharply from fully parliamentary states like Britain everything and everybody could be manipulated for the pur-
and France. poses of Prussian, and ultimately his own, power.
2
ANNUAL EDITIONS
3
Article 17. Bismarck, Prussia & German Nationalism
such a chancellor, but the bond between him and his over-
timeLINE mighty subject was never broken. Within less than two years
of Williams death, his grandson, the brash young Kaiser
1815 (1 April) Otto von Bismarck born on family estate William II, dismissed the chancellor.
of Schonhausen
Prussia receives Rhine provinces at
Congress of Vienna Legacy
German Confederation founded Even in old age Bismarcks greed for power was such that
1840 Frederick William IV becomes King of he spent most of his remaining years seeking revenge. He
Prussia was his own best propagandist and in his reminiscences he
1847 Bismarck elected to the United Diet of paints a picture of how he single-handedly saved the House
Prussia of Hohenzollern from descending into the quagmire of
1848 (March) revolution breaks out in Berlin constitutional monarchy or even revolution. The disen-
(December) after crushing of revolution King chantment with his autocratic rule, made rigid by old age,
imposes a constitution that had enabled the Kaiser to dismiss him, was soon for-
1849 (April) Frederick William IV refuses imperial gotten. More than ever he acquired heroic stature and Bis-
German Crown offered by Frankfurt marck monuments were erected all over Germany.
Parliament Yet the Reich founded by him survived his death by only
1850 (December) Punctation of Olmutz ends Prussian 20 years. The semi-constitutional system of government
attempts to unify Germany that he perpetuated proved ill-adapted to the needs of a
1851 (May) Bismarck appointed Prussian Envoy to modern industrial urban society. On the eve of the First
the Diet of the re-established German World War Germany had the largest socialist party in Eu-
Confederation in Frankfurt rope, which was also the largest party in the Reichstag, yet
1854-6 Crimean War it was excluded from any share in power. It is just one indi-
1858 (October) Prince William of Prussia becomes cation of the extent to which the economic and social de-
Regent in place of his incapacitated velopment of Germany, which was by contemporary
brother standards very advanced, was out of phase with its political
1859 (January) Bismarck appointed Prussian development. Bismarcks sensational success in unifying
Ambassador to Russia the country blinded most of his countrymen to the political
(July) Peace of Villafranca ends Franco- retardation he had imposed upon them.
Austrian war in Italy
1862 (September) Bismarck becomes Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister of Prussia
Further Readings
Edward Crankshaw, Bismarck (Macmillan, 1981)
1864 Prussia and Austria at war with Lothar Gall, Bismarck: The White Revolutionary, 2 vols. (Allen &
Denmark over Schleswig-Holstein Unwin, 1986)
1866 War between Prussia and Austria Werner Richter, Bismarck (Macdonald, 1964)
1867 North German Confederation Bruce Waller, Bismarck (Blackwell, 1997)
inaugurated D.G. Williamson, Bismarck and Germany 18621890 (Longman
Seminar Studies, 1998)
1870 Franco-Prussian War
Otto Pflanze, Bismarck and the Development of Germany, 3 vols.
1871 (18 January) German Empire proclaimed at Versailles (Princeton University Press, 1990)
1879 Bismarck drops free trade and Wolfgang J. Mommsen, Imperial Germany 18671918: Politics, Cul-
introduces protective tariffs ture and Society in an Authoritarian State (Edward Arnold, 1995)
Hans-Ulrich Wehler, The German Empire 18711918 (Berg, 1984)
1888 (March) death of William I
William Carr, The Origins of the German Wars of Unification
(June) William II becomes Emperor (Longman, 1991)
1890 (March) Bismarck forced from office James J. Sheehan, German Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century
(Methuen, 1978)
1898 (30 July) death of Bismarck
This article first appeared in History Review, March 2001. Copyright 2001 by History Today, Ltd. Reprinted by permission.