What was otto von bismarck

What is he known for? And how did he unify Germany? Through a series of wars, he unified 39 individual states into one German nation in His policies as chancellor were aimed at holding the newly-formed state together in the face of religious, political and social divisions — all while trying to maintain the fragile peace in Europe. When Bismarck was born in April , Napoleon was about to be defeated for good by a coalition that included a collective German force with many enthusiastic volunteers.

His father Karl was a junker Prussian aristocrat with staunchly conservative views. By contrast, his mother Wilhelmine was the daughter of a cabinet secretary and was keenly intelligent and witty. Their son Otto would be a combination of the two: an arch-conservative junker with the Machiavellian mind of a politician. But in his life changed forever. In Bismarck relented, allying with the Catholics against the growing socialist threat.

In the new king forced Bismarck out. Respected and honored by the time of his death eight years later, Bismarck quickly became a quasi-mythic figure invoked by political leaders calling for strong German leadership—or for war. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.

Frederick II ruled Prussia from until his death, leading his nation through multiple wars with Austria and its allies. His daring military tactics expanded and consolidated Prussian lands, while his domestic policies transformed his kingdom into a modern state As a university student, Karl Marx joined a movement known as the Young Hegelians, who strongly criticized the political and cultural establishments of the day.

He became a journalist, and the radical nature of his writings would eventually get him expelled by the From November 8 to November 9, , Adolf Hitler and his followers staged the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, a failed takeover of the government in Bavaria, a state in southern Germany. Since , Hitler had led the Nazi Party, a fledgling political group that Revolutions of Franco-Prussian War.

Austro-Prussian War. Roon, Albrecht, Graf von — See all related overviews in Oxford Reference ». German statesman. As Minister-President and Foreign Minister of Prussia under Wilhelm I from , Bismarck was the driving force behind the unification of Germany, orchestrating wars with Denmark , Austria , and France —71 in order to achieve this end.

He disliked colonialism but reluctantly built an overseas empire when it was demanded by both elite and mass opinion. A master of complex politics at home, Bismarck created the first welfare state in the modern world, with the goal of gaining working-class support that might otherwise have gone to his Socialist enemies. He lost that battle as the Catholics responded by forming a powerful Centre party and using universal male suffrage to gain a bloc of seats.

Bismarck then reversed himself, ended the Kulturkampf , broke with the Liberals, imposed protective tariffs, and formed a political alliance with the Centre Party to fight the Socialists. Bismarck—a Junker himself—was strong-willed, outspoken, and sometimes judged overbearing, but he could also be polite, charming, and witty. Occasionally he displayed a violent temper, and he kept his power by melodramatically threatening resignation time and again, which cowed Wilhelm I.

He possessed not only a long-term national and international vision but also the short-term ability to juggle complex developments. Many historians praise him as a visionary who was instrumental in uniting Germany and, once that had been accomplished, kept the peace in Europe through adroit diplomacy.

The Emperor of France, Napoleon III, tried to gain territory for France in Belgium and on the left bank of the Rhine as compensation for not joining the war against Prussia and was disappointed by the surprisingly quick outcome of the war. The conflict was caused by Prussian ambitions to extend German unification and French fears of the shift in the European balance of power that would result if the Prussians succeeded.

A suitable pretext for war arose in when the German Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was offered the Spanish throne, vacant since a revolution in France pressured Leopold into withdrawing his candidacy. Not content with this, Paris demanded that Wilhelm, as head of the House of Hohenzollern, assure that no Hohenzollern would ever seek the Spanish crown again. To provoke France into declaring war with Prussia, Bismarck published the Ems Dispatch, a carefully edited version of a conversation between King Wilhelm and the French ambassador to Prussia, Count Benedetti.