Exposé In today’s blog we will inform you about the life of an important historical figure who lived during the 19th century. His influence on German Unification plays a significant role in today’s topic. Authors Lea Friedemann and Lisa-Marlén Hanke
Introduction – who exactly was Otto von Bismarck?
Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen was born on April 1st, 1815 in Schönhausen Castle near the Elbe in the province of Saxony as the second son of Rittmeister Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Bismarck (1771-1845) and his wife Luise Wilhelmine (1789-1839). His father came from a noble family of the Altmark, while the family of his mother’s side was of middle-class origin. Her family supported high officials in the past and produced scholars for them. Otto von Bismarck had one brother, Bernhard von Bismarck, who was a district administrator and became a secret government councilor later. Because his parents came from different backgrounds, Bismarck had many advantages in his future life. His mother gave him a sense of rational action and linguistic sensitivity, while his father taught him to be proud of his heritage. Bismarck enjoyed a great and strict education in which he gained important knowledge. At the age of six, the young Bismarck started attending a boarding school in Berlin, the „Plamannschen Erziehungsanstalt“, where his education was characterized by discipline and compulsion. From 1827 to 1830 he visited the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium and completed his Abitur in 1832 at the humanistic Berlinische Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster, where he proved his talents in language and his high intelligence.
In general, the career of the german conservative politician and diplomat started when he was a representative of the Conservatives and began to be a diplomat during the reaction era from 1851 to 1862. King Wilhelm the First appointed Bismarck as the prime minister in the Prussian Constitutional Conflict in the year 1862. The "Iron Chancellor" served as Prussian Prime Minister until the year 1890, when he had various disagreements with his superior Kaiser-Wilhelm the Second, which ended with Bismarck's removal from office. During this time, the Franco-Prussian War occurred from
1870 to 1871, when he was the driving force of the foundation of Germany and the German Empire. Because Bismarck determined the politics of the new empire, he received the nickname "Iron Chancellor".
Domestically, Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck's reign after the year 1866 can be separated into two phases:
In the first phase, numerous domestic political reforms took place, such as the legalization of civil marriage, which many Catholics fought against, leading to the "Kulturkampf" (1871-1887) later on. In addition, there was an alliance with the moderate liberals during this time, which he ignored after 1870.
This was the beginning of the second phase, where the repressive socialist law of 1880 as well as the creation of the security system (concerning social interaction) were included.
In terms of foreign policy, Bismarck put a large amount of focus on balancing European powers, known as the Alliance Policy of Otto von Bismarck.
The Iron Chancellor still played an extremely positive political role in the German historiography. But after the Second World War in the 20th century, voices of critics claimed that Bismarck was responsible for the failure of democracy in Germany.
Bismarcks time as the prime minister of Prussia and his policy Otto von Bismarck was appointed prime minister during the Prussian constitutional conflicts of 1862. He was appointed by King Wilhelm I. Bismarck is still known today as the driving force behind the foundation of the German Empire in the German-France War of 1870-1871.
During his reign he focused his foreign policy on a balance of power between the European nations. The Alliance Policy of Otto von Bismarck, the title of Bismarck’s foreign policy since 1871, led to the founding of the German empire after the war with France. With the German empire's successful nation-state formation, its foreign policy changed fundamentally. With the German empire, another great power in Europe also emerged. Bismarck also spoke from Germany that the empire should refrain from further territorial collisions. This was also passed with a draft address in the Reichstag in March 1871. Bismarck thus achieved peace and prevented further warfare.
There were two phases in his domestic policy, from 1866 he entered into an alliance with the liberals. He worked out domestic political reforms such as civil marriage, but also experienced resistance from the Catholic side. Bismarck took drastic measures to counteract this and thus triggered a culture war. Bismarck and the Catholic Church under Pope Pius IX fought in this cultural struggle. This fight finally escalated from 1871 and was ended in 1871 and settled diplomatically. Politically, the main issue in Germany was the separation of the state from the Catholic Church in its legal and political discussions and the influence of the organized Catholic minority. In eastern territories, Prussia encountered the learning of Polish nationalism towards Catholicism. The protestant churches were also affected by the culture fight but were not at the centre of the debate.
From the late 1870s he turned away from the liberals, also adopting measures on protective tariff policy and state interventionist matters. Otto von Bismarck also created the social security system during his time as prime minister of Prussia.
During the 1880s he adopted repressive socialist laws. In 1890 he was dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm I because of differences of opinion.
The Austro-Prussian dualism
Topic 1.1: What was the Austro-Prussian War?
The Austro-Prussian War lasted from June 1866 to August 23rd, 1866, which is why it’s also called the 7-Weeks-War. The participants of the 7-Weeks-War were:
The issue of the war was Prussia’s act of challenging Austria for the leadership of the German Confederation in 1850. It all started when Bismarck began a dispute over the administration of Schleswig and Holstein, after which Denmark stopped and Austria and Prussia started ruling Schleswig and Holstein in the year 1864. Since the German Confederation in 1850, Prussia prepared for this challenge with Otto von Bismarck as the statesman, Count Helmuth von Moltke as strategist, and Count Albrecht von Roon as army organizer. By starting an alliance with Italy, Bismarck tried to divert parts of the Austrian forces to the South of Prussia, and together with their army discipline, their advantages led to victory.
The formal conclusion of the war: "Schleswig and Holstein were assigned to Prussia", as it says in the Treaty of Prague, a contract from August 23rd 1866. Prussia’s victory led to an organization of the North German Confederation and was also the solution for the Schleswig-Holstein question, which had threatened the balance of power in Northern Europe for more than a decade.
Topic 1.2: Week plan of the Austro-Prussian War
This week plan shows the beginning of the Austro-Prussian War from June 26th to July 3rd, 1866 and the battles that occurred during this time. It exhibits Prussia's success in contrast to Austria, whose army is characterized by fear and losses throughout the war.
June 26th, 1866
At Austrian HQ: Austrian armies attacked Prussian crown prince and western Prussian armies. In Podol: night-battle (combat of Podol), the Austrians ran into Prussians, the Austrians ended in retreat
June 27th, 1866
Western front: quiet, eastern front: Battle of Nachod with 7,510 Prussian casualties, the Austrian armies were forced to retreat to Skalitz
Battle of Trautenau on the other flank, things went better for the Austrians
June 28th, 1866
West: Battle of Münchengratz was a disappointment for the Prussian army, Austrians lost 2,000 men, Prussians only 341
East: Battle of Skalitz, Austrians were defeated once again and lost over 5,500 men
North: Battle of Soor, Austrians suffered a second setback
June 29th, 1866
Three clashes: one clash in the west, two in the east; all three were Prussian victories again
June 30th, 1866
Austrian plan changed because of their defeats in the past days, while the Prussian army rested
July 1st, 1866
Austrians: meeting of Benedek and Colonel Beck, result: Benedek wants to seek a battle
Prussians: unaware of Austria's change of plan, only make limited movements
July 2nd, 1866
Austrian and Prussian armies rested
July 3rd, 1866
Battle of Saolowa: Austrias losses: 44,200 officers, many soldiers escaped because they assumed a Prussian victory
Prussia: 9,100 dead soldiers, won the battle again
Topic 2.1: North German Confederation
The map shows the North German Confederation in red.
The orange part shows the states that joined the Confederation in 1870.
The constitution of the North German Confederation went into effect on April 16th, 1867. It united all northern states of the mainline under Prussian leadership.
Under the leadership of Prussia, it united all northern states of the mainline. The constitution corresponded largely to the constitution of the empire in 1871.
Topic 2.2: The content:
- The people elect a Reichstag which is opposed by a federal council which is made up of the governments of the individual member states ( mostly duchies)
- In order to enforce a law, both had to agree – Reichstag and federal council
- The minister responsible was the federal chancellor
- The head was the Prussian King (owner of the federal presidium)
The constitution was only to be in force for a few years. Therefore Otto von Bismarck was the first and only conservative Prussian prime minister. However, he enacted modern laws which were very important in areas such as economy, trade, infrastructure and laws and which are still known as the forerunner of today’s criminal code (Strafgesetzbuch). Also, with his new modern laws, he prepared for German unity.
The northern federal government hoped that the south German states Bayern, Baden, Württemberg and Hessen-Darmstadt would join the confederation, but these states didn't join due to their liberal economic and social policies and resisted. However, there was still a little progress in the choice of the 1868 customs. Therefore, southern and northern Germany worked together and formed an economic union. In 1866, the states Baden, Bayern and Württemberg finally passed a defence alliance.
In July of 1870, France started a war against Germany, but Germany could quickly move the war to France because of the defence alliance. The intention by France was to prevent the Prussians from getting stronger and to prevent a unity with Otto von Bismarck as the head and leader of the union. Also in 1870, the southern German states joined the Northern Confederation (November constitutions).
Otto von Bismarck managed to establish an empire and a federation in the German empire beforehand. With the new constitution on January 1st, 1871, the constitution from the Northern Confederation ended.
German Confederation: What role did Bismarck play?
After many attempts to unify the German states in the past failed, the German Empire was created by the work of Otto von Bismarck, who believed that only on the field of battle - by "Blood and Iron" - could solutions be found. As the Prussian Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck's goal was to further strengthen Prussia's position in Europe by uniting the southern and northern German states under Prussian control.
He had several primary aims during his reign:
A unification of the German states under Prussian control
The removal of Austria from the German Federation and weakening Prussia's main rival with this act
To change the location of German affairs from Vienna (Austria) to Berlin (Germany), because Austria is determined as their enemy
Advancement of a plan which entailed that the southern states recognize Wilhelm I as German Emperor
Strengthening of King Wilhelm I, the King of Prussia's position and countering the demands for reform from the Liberals in the Prussian Reichstag
Key question: Did Otto von Bismarck achieve his goals? If yes, how and what exactly influenced the German Confederation?
Even though the Prussian Parliament did not allow it, Bismarck raised taxes and collected money for military reforms. These army reforms included new weapons and negotiated joint military training with modern battle strategies, which were advantageous in the upcoming conflicts.
Furthermore, Bismarck successfully isolated other countries, for example Austria, by weakening them. Bismarck achieved this through the removal of his main rival, Austria, from the German Federation by insisting on a referendum to the Diet.
By following his belief that only "on the field of battle" (speech of 1862) can solutions be found, Bismarck waged three wars to unite the German states and to achieve the German Confederation:
The first war of unification was the Danish War in the year 1862 where the conflict over the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein as well as the national affiliation were the issues. Prussia's victory with Bismarck as the leader was the first step of the German Confederation.
The second war of German unification was the Austro-Prussian War in 1866. In this brief war, Prussia and its allies fought against Austria and other German states in order to gain the leadership of the German Confederation. Prussia won and directly annexed several German states which belonged to Austria, such as Hannover and Nassau. In 1867, Bismarck created the Northern German Confederation, a union of the states under the rule of Prussia. Several other states joined, and the German Confederation served as a model for the future of the German Empire.
The third and final act of German Unification was the Franco-Prussian War from 1870 to 1871. The conflict was caused by Prussia's aim of German Unification and France's fear of a shift of the European reign by losing the war.
Due to his clever and manipulating strategies which later led to Prussia's victory in the three wars of unification, Bismarck played an important role in the achievement of the German Confederation.
The constitution and the Political Parties in time of Otto von Bismarck
The Bismark´s constitution, also the constitution of the German Empire, was drawn up on April 16, 1871. It originally originated from the constitution of the German Confederation of January 1, 1871. This was a revised version in 1876 of the North German federal constitution. the final constitution, however, was valid for 50 years without a single change.
For example, the constitution contains the differences between exclusive and competing legislation:
Exclusive legislation means that the countries may only pass the laws if they have been authorized to do so by federal law.
Competing legislation means that the federal states may pass laws as long as the federal government does not have its legislative competence through laws.
After the founding of the empire in 1871, new parties set themselves up with different fractions. The most important included the national liberal, left-wing liberal, conservative, center party and the Social Democrats.
The national liberal party emerged from the German Progressive Party in 1866 and 1867. They supported Otto von Bismarck in his foreign policy and the establishment of the German nation-state. However, they lost their influence the day after they turned away from Bismarck's protective tariff policy.
The left-wing liberals were also part of the German Progressive Party, but were rather critical of Bismarck's politics. They hoped for a stronger parliament and stronger social policy. After a number of party mergers after the unification war, the Progressive People's Party was founded in 1910.
The Conservatives were the party of the nobles, large landowners and high-ranking supporters of the government. Above all, they supported Otto von Bismarck in his protective customs policy. They also campaigned against liberal reforms and supported the economic interests of the East Prussian junkers.
The center party belonged to the Catholic Church and was founded in 1870. They tried to defend and expand Catholicism in the empire. Bismarck called the party's members "imperial enemies" because they led to the cultural struggle between 1871 and 1878.
The Social Democrats represented the working class. They hoped for fairer wages for the workers who lived on a subsistence level. In 1890 the party changed its name to The SPD. Otto von Bismarck was rather suspicious of them and therefore tried to suppress them with the 1870 Socialist Act. In the long term, this party developed into the strongest.
The Alliance System
The German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck created an Alliance Systemr for foreign policy after winning the third and last war of unification, the Franco-Prussian War. After the three victories, Prussia stayed on good terms with Denmark and Austria, but not with France, which was the reason for its isolation. In order to overcome the fear of other European states and to maintain the new German Empire as a peaceful and friendly authority, Bismarck decided not to expand the German Empire any further. To achieve his aims and to secure the German Empire by preventing war in the future, Bismarck used several strategic alliances.
The first way Bismarck obtained his goal was the Dreikaiserbund (the League of the Three Emperors), which was arranged at the three-emperor meeting in Berlin in 1873. Present were Wilhelm I and the German Chancellor, who met Tsar Alexander II and Chancellor Gortschakow as representatives of Russia and the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I with his Foreign Minister Andrassy as accompaniment. The aim of this meeting was the agreement of a closer cooperation between the three conservative monarchies Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia and to keep France isolated to prevent it from forming closer ties with any other powerful state.
Later in 1873, Wilhelm I and Bismarck signed a contract with Tsar Alexander II called the Military Convention which represented the help of both countries in case one of them became a victim of an attack. Bismarck prevented Austria-Hungary from forming an alliance with the western powers by using a clever strategy besides the contract which included the joining of the Danube monarchy.
Thereupon, the Tsarist Empire and the Danube Monarchy committed themselves to peaceful settlement of conflicts at European disputes by signing the Schönbrunner Convention at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna.
In order to defend European peace and Germanys aim to prevent a war on to fronts, the League of the Three Emperors was concluded at the end of 1873 and actually
contributed to the peace and stability across Europe for the next years.
"Ist der Krieg in Sicht?" - that was the headline of an influential German newspaper (Post). In 1875, the War in Sight Crisis spread fear in Germany that after France has fully recovered from the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and rearmed, it would revanche with a preventive war in the future.
Because of this crisis, Russia and Great Britain decided to support France, and Bismarck realized that a cooperation during military conflicts is not sufficient. This resulted in a change of the policy focus to diplomacy and was formulated in the Kissinger Diktat.
To create peace between the fighting parties of the Russian-Turkish War (Balkan people, Russia, Turkey, Britain and Austria-Hungary) that had emerged from the Balkan Crisis of 1878, Bismarck offered to act as an "honest broker" by hosting a congress which was called the Congress of Berlin. The German Empire had no interest in the Balkans, which is why Bismarck could stay neutral during the Congress. The Congress resulted in the Berlin Treaty where the participants negotiated the Peace of San Stefano amongst other important issues. The German Empire did not take profit from the negotiation, but the relations between the German Empire and Russia deteriorated after the Berlin Treaty, and Russia could not be a part of Bismarcks balance policy.
To improve the relations with Russia and to secure Germany's southern frontier, Bismarck entered a secret alliance with Austria in 1879 called the Dual Alliance. This Alliance was enlarged into the Triple Alliance when Italy joined in 1882. Although Bismarck did not benefit from Italy's military or political power, the Triple Alliance prevented a potential confederation between Italy and France.
Because Bismarck wanted to reduce tensions between Austria and Russia and the Russian representatives were worried about their diplomatic isolation, the Renewal of the League of the Three Emperors in 1880 described an agreement that both countries (Austria and Russia) receive a half of the Balkans each.
To conclude the Bismarckian Alliance System a neutrality agreement between Russia and Germany was signed called the Reinsurance Treaty. The contract describes the neutrality of both sides due an attack by Austria-Hungary on Russia or France on the German Reich and recognized the interests of Russia on the Turkish Straits and Bulgaria, which means the treaty was actually contrary to the Orient Triple Alliance that happened earlier this year.
This was Bismarcks final diplomatic masterpiece. Until his policies were in ruins only a few months later.
Bismarck and his complicated relationship with William II and his loss of power
William I died in 1888 and was succeeded by William II at the age of 29 years. With the increasing age of Otto von Bismarck and the new emperor, William II, the relationship between the two became strained. Because of this difficult relationship between both, Bismarck refused to cooperate. This situation and behaviour resulted in the dismissal of Bismarck. The difficult relationship of these two arose from disagreements and mistrust which made cooperation impossible in the future. In the time of Bismarck, his policy resembled that of a chancellor’s dictatorship. His release was after 28 years on March 20, 1890. At the time of his release he was 75 years old and had not been in Berlin for 8 months. Otto von Bismarck’s realistic policy seemed long over. For this reason the release of him was logical and reasonable. Most Germans were supportive of Bismarck's dismissal. William II had always admired most of Otto von Bismarck's political work. There were exceptions, such as the culture fight, but nevertheless William II continued Bismarck's foreign policy after his removal.