BULOW, BERNHARD, PRINCE VON, German statesman; born at Klein Flottbeck, Holstein, in 1849. He was ed ucated at Lausanne, Leipsic, and Berlin; studied law, and took part in the Franco-Prussian War, rising to the rank of lieutenant, after which he entered the diplomatic service. He was successively secretary of legation at Rome, St. Pe tersburg, and Vienna, and became charge d'affaires at Athens during the Russo-Turkish War, subsequently acting as secretary at the Berlin Conference in 1878. In 1888 he was appointed minis ter to Rumania, and ambassador to Italy in 1893; but was called back to Berlin in 1897 to hold the portfolio of foreign affairs. His skillful management of the Samoan difficulty increased his reputa tion as a statesman, and two years later he concluded a treaty with Spain, by which Germany secured the Caroline, Pellew, and Ladrone islands, upon which he was raised to the rank of count. In the complications with China he carried out the foreign policy of the Emperor. On the resignation of Prince Hohenlohe in 1900, he was nominated Chancellor of the German Empire and Prime Minister of Prussia. In 1905 his strenuous policy
in regard to Morocco caused the fall of M. Delcasse, the. French foreign minis ter, and nearly precipitated a European war. This was, however, avoided by the meeting of the conference at Algeciras. He married the stepdaughter of the Italian premier Signor Minghetti, Prin cess Camporeale. In 1905 he was raised by the Emperor to the rank of prince. In his home policies, he showed consid erable skill in combating the radical ele ments and keeping the reins of power in the hands of the conservatives, but in 1909 he was forced to resign because of the failure of his budget proposals. During the World War he played no conspicuous part, although it was under stood that he was engaged in secret intrigues to separate Italy from her Al lies, after having failed in a special mis sion to Rome in 1915, sent for the pur pose of keeping Italy from entering the war on the side of the Allies. He wrote "Imperial Germany" (1914).
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