His attachment to Emperor William I. was in every way creditable to him. After the death of the Emperor in MS, Bismarck remained in office during the brief reign of his successor, the Em peror Frederick.
William II. had learned his statecraft in the school of Bismarck, but it was inevitable that the autocratic young Emperor should come into collision with the strong-willed minister who had been so long accustomed to the personal direction of Prussian and German affairs. Numerous quar rels finally led to the resignation of Bismarck, which occurred on March 20, 1590. Ile retired to Friedri•hsruh. On leaving office the title of Duke of Lauenburg was bestowed upon him by the Emperor, together with one of the highest military ranks (Generaloberst of cavalry). The open estrangement the two continued anti) Bismarek's severe illness in 1893, when the Emperor made advances toward a reconciliation, which took place in form at least. Bismarek's eightieth birthday (April 1, 1805) was made the occasion of a great demonstration throughout Germany. He was visited by the Emperor and by thousands of military and po litical associates, and a Bismarck Museum was founded in Berlin.
So positive a force in the life of his day neces sarily aroused both intense admiration and bitter hostility. He was, beyond question, the greatest European statesman of the century, and one of the greatest statesmen of all time. His genius was of the rare constructive type, and he is justly included in the trio of creators of modern Ger many, together with the Great Elector Frederick William and Frederick the Great. He had set himself a great end, the realization of a united .3ermany and the fullest development of the Ger man nation ; Le pursued it relentlessly, and lie achieved it by methods at least as unimpugnable as those applied to any similar task in history.
Against his critics he could set up the worldly but weighty defense of success. He found Ger many a group of jealous kingdoms and princi palities, the shuttlecock of Austria and France. He left it a united nation, one of the world's great Powers, and the dominant force on the Continent of Europe. In his Gedanken and Erin nerungen, the work of his years of retirement, commonly though somewhat inaccurately called, in its English translation. "Bismarck's Auto biography," he has left a valuable epitome of his views on many points of European policy. In this and in his collected speeches. letters, and papers must be sought his Apologia. In private life Bismarck was a kind husband and father, a genial friend, and a considerate landlord. Phys ically and mentally. he was a man of surpass ing power and endurance. and his capacity for work, creative or absorptive, was tremendous. Though not a scholar in the strict sense of the word, lie was a man of wide information, always accessible to his ready memory. While not a finished orator, the pungency of his speech and the aptness of his quotations from history and literature always held his audience in the Reichs tag. He died .July 30, 1898. For his on epi taph he wrote simply, after his name and the dates of his birth and death, "a faithful German servant of the Emperor William I." Ile had three children--Countess :Marie, born August 28, 1848; Prince Herbert, born December 28, 1849: and C t Wilhelm. born August I. 1852, and died in 1901.