Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen, from 1865 Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, from 1871 Prince of Bismarck, from 1890 also Duke zu Lauenburg[1] (* April 1, 1815 in Schönhausen (Elbe); † July 30, 1898 in Friedrichsruh near Aumühle), was a German politician and statesman. From 1862 to 1890 - with a brief interruption in 1873 - he was Prime Minister of Prussia, and from 1867 to 1871 he was also Chancellor of the North German Confederation. From 1871 to 1890 he was the first Reich Chancellor of the German Reich, whose founding he was instrumental in driving forward. Bismarck is regarded as the accomplisher of German unification and the founder of the modern welfare state.
As a politician, Bismarck first made a name for himself in Prussia as a member of the First United State Parliament with predominantly conservative positions. 1851-1862 he was a diplomat for the Bundestag of the German Confederation as well as in Russia and France. In the Prussian constitutional conflict, King Wilhelm I appointed him Prime Minister in 1862. In the fight against the liberals, Bismarck ignored parliament and was able to solve the German question in the German-Danish War and in the German War between 1864 and 1866 under the dominance of Prussia. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, he was the driving force behind the founding of the German Empire.
As chancellor and prime minister of Prussia, he had a decisive influence on the politics of the newly created empire until his dismissal in 1890. In terms of foreign policy, he focused on balancing the European powers (→ alliance policy of Otto von Bismarck) and for a long time opposed German colonial policy. ...