Otto von bismarck (1815-1898), born on april 1, 1815 at Schönhausen, 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 initial Chancellor.
After reading law at the universities of Göttingen and Berlin, Otto von bismarck entered Prussian service and became a judicial administrator at aachen. Bismarck gained prominence in 1851 once 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.
This victory instigated the kingdoms of bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and hesse to join the North German Alliance, an alliance of prussia and 17 northern German states created by Bismarck in 1866, which led to the declaration of the German Empire (Deutsches Reich) in 1870 and the proclamation of King william i britain} of prussia as German Emperor in Versailles in 1871.
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 had been the second most important institution. However, its political influence was restricted to the area of legislation. It exerted only a minor influence over the formation of governments and government policy.
It was Bismarck as Imperial Chancellor who decided upon policy outlines and who proposed the appointment and dismissal of state secretaries who were in turn responsible for the administration of the ministries of the Reich.
Bismarck’s greatest achievements, however, were the administrative reforms, developing a common currency, a financial organization, and a single code of commercial and civil law for germany.
Bismarck additionally became the first statesman in Europe to plot a comprehensive scheme of social security to counter the Social Democrats, offering employees insurance against accident, sickness and adulthood.
In foreign affairs, he, as a master of alliances and counter-alliances, presided over the Congress of Berlin (1872) and this seemed to symbolise his paramount position as mediator between the then great powers admire Russia, Austria, France, Great Britain. an alliance with Austria-Hungary(1879) marked a brand new period of conservatism in Bismarck’s policy.
But by 1890 his policies began to come under attack. On March 18, 1890 two years after Emperor William II’s accession, Bismarck was forced to resign. His last years were devoted to composing his memoirs.