Otto von Bismarck is a prominent German statesman. He was born in 1815 in Schönhausen. Otto von Bismarck received his law degree. He was the most reactionary deputy of the United Prussian Landtags (1847-1848) and advocated the tough suppression of any revolutionary actions.
In the period 1851-1859 Bismarck represented Prussia in the Bundestag (Frankfurt). From 1859 to 1862 he was sent to Russia as an ambassador, and in 1862 to France. In the same year, King William I, after a constitutional conflict between him and the Landtag, appointed Bismarck to the post of president-minister. In this post, he defended the rights of the royal power and resolved the conflict in its favor.
In the 60s, contrary to the Landtag’s constitution and budgetary rights, Otto von Bismarck reformed the army, which seriously increased Prussian military power. In 1863, he initiated an agreement with the Russian government on joint activities to suppress possible uprisings in Poland.
Relying on the Prussian war machine, he unites Germany as a result of the Danish (1864), Austro-Prussian (1866) and Franco-Prussian (1870-1871) wars. In 1871, Bismarck received the post of Reich Chancellor of the German Empire. In the same year he actively supported France in the suppression of the Paris Commune. Using his very broad rights, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck strengthened the position of the bourgeois-junker bloc in the state.
In the 70s, he opposed the Catholic Party and the claims of the clerical-particularist opposition, supported by Pope Pius IX (Kulturkampf). In 1878, Iron Chancellor Otto von Bismarck applied the Exceptional Law (against dangerous and harmful intentions) to the socialists and their program. This norm prohibited the activities of the Social Democratic parties outside the Landtags and the Reichstag.
Throughout his tenure as chancellor, Bismarck tried unsuccessfully to prevent the unwinding of the flywheel of the workers' revolutionary movement. His government also actively suppressed the national movement in the Polish territories that were part of Germany. One of the countermeasures was total Germanization of the population. The Chancellor’s government, in the interests of the big bourgeoisie and the Junkers, carried out a protectionist course.
Otto von Bismarck in foreign policy considered measures to prevent the revenge of France after its loss to the Franco-Prussian war as the main priority. Therefore, he was preparing for a new conflict with this country even before it could restore its military power. The French state in the previous war lost the very economically important areas of Lorraine and Alsace.
Bismarck was very afraid that an anti-German coalition would be created. Therefore, in 1873, he initiated the signing of the “Union of Three Emperors” (between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia). In 1979, Bismarck concluded the Austro-German Treaty, and in 1882 the Triple Alliance (Italy, Germany, Austria-Hungary), which was directed against France. However, the chancellor was afraid of a war on two fronts. In 1887, he concluded a “reinsurance contract” with Russia.
In the late 80s, the militarist circles of Germany wanted to start a preventive war against the Russian Empire, but Bismarck considered this conflict to be extremely dangerous for the country. However, Germany’s penetration of the Balkan Peninsula and lobbying there for Austro-Hungarian interests, as well as measures against Russian exports spoiled relations between the states, which led to the rapprochement of France and Russia.
The Chancellor tried to get closer to Britain, but did not take into account the depth of the existing contradictions with this country. The intersection of Anglo-German interests as a result of British colonial expansion led to a deterioration in relations between states. Recent failures in foreign policy and the ineffectiveness of opposing the revolutionary movement led to the dismissal of Bismarck in 1890. He died on his estate 8 years after that.