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Otto von Bismarck Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman who dominated European affairs from the 1860s to his dismissal in 1890. In 1871, after a series of short victorious wars, he unified most of the German states into a powerful German Empire... | | | | |
About Otto von Bismarck
Professions
Statesman |
Children
Herbert von Bismarck | Wilhelm von Bismarck |
Studied at Humboldt University of Berlin |
Born in Schönhausen |
Nationality
Germany |
Otto von Bismarck a very great man(nick name) IRON CHANCELLOR. AND BORN INborn on April 1, 1815 at SchOnhausen, is considered the founder of the German Empire. For nearly three decades he shaped the fortunes of Germany, from 1862 to 1873 as prime minister of Prussia and from 1871 to 1890 as Germany's first Chancellor.
After reading law at the Universities of Gottingen and Berlin, Otto von Bismarck entered Prussian service and became a judicial administrator at Aachen. Bismarck gained prominence in 1851 when he was chosen to represent Prussia in the Federal diet.
In 1859 he was sent as ambassador to Russia, from where he was recalled in March 1862 to become ambassador to France. However, after six months in September 1862, Bismarck returned to Berlin as prime minister of Prussia whence he devoted himself to the task of uniting Germany. In the war of 1866 he succeeded in defeating Austria and excluding it altogether from German affairs. The Franco-German War (1870-71) similarly ended with Prussian success. Both were geared towards German unification. The imperial constitution was declared in April 1871. Bismarck was appointed imperial chancellor. The chancellor of the Reich was not responsible to parliament but to the Emperor. The Reichstag, the imperial parliament, was convened by universal, equal, direct and secret elections. Next to the Emperor, it was the second most important institution. However, its political influence was limited to the area of legislation. It exerted only a minor influence over the formation of governments and government policy.
Bismarck also became the first statesman in Europe to devise a comprehensive scheme of social security to counter the Social Democrats, offering workers insurance against accident, sickness and old age.
In foreign affairs, he, as a master of alliances and counter-alliances, presided over the Congress of Berlin (1872) and this seemed to symbolize his paramount position as mediator between the then great powers such as Russia, Austria, France, Great Britain. An alliance with Austria-Hungary (1879) marked a new period of conservatism in Bismarck's foreign policy.
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