BISMARCK-SCHONHAUSEN (biz mark-shen'-houz-en), OTTO EDUARD LEOPOLD, PRINCE VON, a German statesman, born at Schonhausen, Prussian Saxony, April 1, 1815. He received his university education at Gottingen, Ber lin, and Greifswald. Before 1847 he was little heard of, but began to attract at tention in the new Prussian Parliament as an ultra royalist. He opposed the scheme of a German Empire as proposed by the Frankfort Parliament of 1849. His diplomatic career began in 1851, when he was appointed Prussian mem ber of the resuscitated German Diet of Frankfort. In the Diet, he gave open expression to the long-felt discontent with the predominance of Austria, and demanded equal rights for Prussia. He remained at Frankfort till 1859, when he beheld in the approach of the Italian War an opportunity of freeing Prussia and Germany from the dominance of Austria. In the spring of 1862 King William, on the urgent advice of the Prince of Hohenzollern, transferred Bis marck as ambassador to Paris, in order to give him an insight into the politics of the Tuileries. During his short stay at Paris Bismarck visited London, and had interviews with the leading politi cians of the time, including Lord Pal merston and Mr. Disraeli. In the au tumn Bismarck was recalled, to take the portfolio of the Ministry of Foreign Af fairs, and the presidency of the Cabinet. Not being able to pass the reorganiza tion bill and the budget, he closed the Chambers (October, 1862), announcing to the Deputies that the King's Govern ment would be obliged to do without their sanction. The death of the King of Denmark reopened the Schleswig-Hol stein question, and excited a fever of national German feeling, which Bis marck was adroit enough to work so as to aggrandize Prussia by the acquisition of the Elbe Duchies.
The action of France in regard to the candidature of Prince Leopold of Hohen zollern for the throne of Spain gave Bis marck the opportunity of carrying into action the intensified feeling of unity among Germans. During the War of 1870-1871, Bismarck was the spokesman of Germany; he it was that in February, 1871, dictated the terms of peace to France. Having been made a Count in 1866, he was now created a prince and Chancellor of the German Empire. Fol lowing the Peace of Frankfort (May 10, 1871), the sole aim of Bismarck's policy, domestic and foreign, was to consolidate the young empire of his own creating. Thus, conceiving the unity of the nation and the authority of its government to be endangered by the Church of Rome, and its doctrines of Papal infallibility, he embarked on that long and bitter struggle with the Vatican, called the Kul turkampf, in the course of which the Im perial and Prussian Parliaments passed a series of most stringent measures (Falk or May laws) against the Cath olic hierarchy. But Bismarck had un derrated the resisting power of the Ro man Church, and motives of political expediency gradually led him to modify or repeal the most oppressive of the anti-papal edicts. Otherwise his domes.
tic policy was marked, among other things, by a reformed coinage, a codifi cation of law, a nationalization of the Prussian railways (as a preliminary step to Imperial state lines), fiscal reform in the direction of making the Empire self supporting (i. e . - independent of matric ular contributions from its component states), repeated increase of the army and the regular voting of its estimates for seven years at a time (military sep tennate), the introduction of a protec tive tariff (1879), and the attempt to combat social democracy.
In 1884 Bismarck inaugurated the career of Germany as a colonizing power, a new departure which brought him into sharp but temporary conflict with the England of Gladstone. For the rest, his foreign policy mainly aimed at isolating France and rendering her incapable of forming anti-German alliances. On the other hand, he gradually combined the central powers of Europe into a peace league, aiming at counteracting the aggressiveness of Russia and France, separately or combines, on the Danube or the Rhine. The nucleus of this peace league was formed in 1879 by the Aus tro-German Treaty of Alliance (pub lished in February, 1888), which Italy formally joined in 1886, and which en titles Bismarck to be called the "peace maker" and the "peacekeeper" of Eu rope, a character he first publicly acquired when, as "honest broker" between Austria and Russia, he presided over the Berlin Congress in 1878. The phrase, "man of blood and iron," is based on the Iron Chancellor's own use of the words in a speech in 1862.
Bismarck's life was often threatened, and twice actually attempted—once at Berlin in 1866, just before the Bohemian campaign, by Ferdinand Cohen (or Blind), a crazy youth who aimed at making himself the instrument of pop ular dissatisfaction with Bismarck, as the champion of absolutism, and again in 1874 at Kissingen, by a Catholic tin smith named Kullmann.
Emperor William died on March 9, 1888. The short reign of Emperor Fred erick followed and then his son William II. ascended the throne. On March 18, 1890, Bismarck fell. The main causes for his fall were undoubtedly: that the ambitious young ruler wanted a free hand, and was not in sympathy with many of Bismarck's plans, while the lat ter would not tolerate the Emperor's di rect consultation with other Ministers. After the war with Denmark, King Wil liam had made Bismarck a Count. After the conquest of France Emperor William had named him Prince. Emperor William II. gave him the title of Duke of Lauen burg. When Bismarck's 81st birthday was celebrated in 1896, there was talk of a reconciliation between the Prince and his sovereign. The Emperor sent his photograph to Bismarck, the latter returned thanks, and little by little the way was paved for a meeting between the two men, and eventually for the state visit which the Emperor paid to Bis marck at Friedrichsruhe, where the statesman died July 30, 1898.