History UsefulNotes / OttoVonBismarck

His downfall came with the rise to power of Kaiser UsefulNotes/WilhelmII. The latter favoured an expansionist foreign policy while expressing opposition to Bismarck's then anti-socialist policies (not out of any sympathy to socialism but [[SlaveToPR merely because he didn't want to appear as a tyrant so early in his career]]). The fact that Bismarck also made it no secret that he thought the Kaiser's much more overt and rampant anti-Semitism and courting of the country's religious right wing presented a threat to the stability of the realm, also contributed greatly to the falling out between the two. In his retirement, Bismarck spent his time writing his memoirs while giving interviews on how Germany would be ruined and be on the course of disaster without him. The outbreak of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, breaking out as Bismarck had predicted over "some damned foolish thing in the Balkans" appeared to have vindicated him. While his sacking had been contentious, slowly but surely and even starting during his lifetime, there was a cult of personality around Bismarck. While Wilhelm II tried to establish his grandfather Wilhelm I as OurFounder and attempted to give him nicknames like "The Great" (never stuck) or "Barbablanca" (in allusion to Friedrich I "Barbarossa") it soon became clear that Bismarck was by far the more popular figure and thus ''many'' German cities to this day have streets named after Bismarck, there are statues of him and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismarck_tower "Bismarck-towers"]] are popular hiking destinations and lookout points in the environs of many towns.

Born to a ''Junker'' (land-owning) UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}}n family -- his father was a nobleman, his mother came from a family of (commoner) scholars and public servants, Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) is most famous for the role he played in unifying UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} and forging it into an economic superpower, thereby creating the [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany German Empire]] and his Blood and Iron speech, earning himself the nickname of "[[RedBaron Iron Chancellor]]".

Born to a ''Junker'' (land-owning) UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}}n family -- his father was a nobleman, his mother came from a family of (commoner) scholars and public servants, -- in 1815, Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) is most famous for the role he played in unifying UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} and forging it into an economic superpower, thereby creating the [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany German Empire]] and his Blood and Iron speech, earning himself the nickname of "[[RedBaron Iron Chancellor]]".

Born to a ''Juncker'' (land-owning) UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}}n family -- his father was a nobleman, his mother came from a family of (commoner) scholars and public servants, -- in 1815, Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) is most famous for the role he played in unifying UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} and forging it into an economic superpower, thereby creating the [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany German Empire]] and his Blood and Iron speech, earning himself the nickname of "[[RedBaron Iron Chancellor]]".

Born to a land-owning UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}}n family -- his father was a nobleman, his mother came from a family of (commoner) scholars and public servants, -- in 1815, Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) is most famous for the role he played in unifying UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} and forging it into an economic superpower, thereby creating the [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany German Empire]] and his Blood and Iron speech, earning himself the nickname of "[[RedBaron Iron Chancellor]]".

The manner of France's defeat (punitive reparations and taking away of territory against the will of the French citizens living there[[note]]which amounts to modern-day Moselle and Alsace, although the latter were bloodily conquered by France less than three centuries before during the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar. People there were offered the option of keeping the French nationality, provided they left the area before October 1st 1872[[/note]]) in the Franco-Prussian War was of such a kind that it made long-term peace between the two nations impossible. Bismarck apparently did not want to take the territory but his general staff, namely Moltke the Elder, insisted out of Pangermanism (notably on the basis that people living there spoke various Germanic dialects). Bismarck later justified the harsh peace[[note]]The physical gold from the reparations France had to pay in 1871 was still not entirely used up and part of it stored in a tower in Berlin by the time the Versailles Treaty forced a similarly huge amount of reparations on Germany[[/note]] by arguing that if the peace was too harsh to allow for reconciliation, best to make it ''so'' harsh as to make revenge impossible. [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI It didn't work.]] [[note]]but then neither did the GoldenMeanFallacy based Treaty of Versailles, which left Germany humiliated enough to seek revenge and strong enough to do it.[[/note]] Bismarck then set about spending the remainder of his career in social and domestic policies while his foreign policies involved trying to form alliances with Britain, Austria and Russia, to better isolate France. On the domestic front, Bismarck spent much of his time enacting a series of policies to strengthen the state, first against the Catholics (Kulturkampf), [[EnemyMine then allying with the newly formed Catholic Center party]] against the socialists, while at the same time passing welfare laws to the surprise and consternation of his conservative allies, namely pension for elderly workers and access to affordable insurance laws (the first of their kind in Europe). Bismarck saw the latter as preferable to the socialist alternative of regulated workspace, safety inspections, and a shorter working-week. Laws proscribing and restricting socialist parties and left-wing parties were on the books, and Bismarck would lean on nativist conservative fears of the other (i.e. the French, the Poles, the Jews) to better strengthen the center and ruling right coalition. His downfall came with the rise to power of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The latter favoured an expansionist foreign policy while expressing opposition to Bismarck's then anti-socialist policies (not out of any sympathy to socialism but [[SlaveToPR merely because he didn't want to appear as a tyrant so early in his career]]). The fact that Bismarck also made it no secret that he thought the Kaiser's much more overt and rampant anti-Semitism and courting of the country's religious right wing presented a threat to the stability of the realm, also contributed greatly to the falling out between the two. In his retirement, Bismarck spent his time writing his memoirs while giving interviews on how Germany would be ruined and be on the course of disaster without him. The outbreak of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, breaking out as Bismarck had predicted over "some damned foolish thing in the Balkans" appeared to have vindicated him. While his sacking had been contentious, slowly but surely and even starting during his lifetime, there was a cult of personality around Bismarck. While Wilhelm II tried to establish his grandfather Wilhelm I as OurFounder and attempted to give him nicknames like "The Great" (never stuck) or "Barbablanca" (in allusion to Friedrich I "Barbarossa") it soon became clear that Bismarck was by far the more popular figure and thus ''many'' German cities to this day have streets named after Bismarck, there are statues of him and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismarck_tower "Bismarck-towers"]] are popular hiking destinations and lookout points in the environs of many towns.

Born to a land-owning UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}}n family -- his father was a nobleman, his mother came from a family of (commoner) scholars and public servants, -- in 1815, Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) is most famous for the role he played in unifying UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} and forging it into an economic superpower, thereby creating the [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany German Empire]] and his Blood and Iron speech, earning himself the nickname the "[[RedBaron Iron Chancellor]]".

[[quoteright:270:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Otto_von_Bismarck_5552.jpg]]
[-[[caption-width-right:270:[[WebAnimation/ExtraCredits Bismarck had a plan, Bismarck]] ''[[WebAnimation/ExtraCredits always]]'' [[WebAnimation/ExtraCredits had a plan.]]]]-]

Historians also note that Bismarck's achievements in a large sense were reversed since for a century after his dismissal in 1890, Germany would be partitioned and occupied by rival powers, with the modern Germany having reduced territory with much of its military reduced by neighboring powers thanks to the catastrophic world wars and violence his successors inflicted on the world. To say nothing of his beloved Prussia which suffered existence failure in 1946. Historians oppose any real continuity between Bismarck and Hitler (who ''did'' admire the Iron Chancellor) by noting that Bismarck at least supported the appearance of norms and did not openly lie and break treaties the way the latter did. Others note that Bismarck's time in office condoned and enabled the rise of anti-semitic, social darwinist and chauvinist forces,[[note]]albeit for selfish and pragmatic reasons which he always controlled before it went too far[[/note]] driven by AppealToForce and the use of military victory to patch over domestic problems. At the end of his career, Bismarck's Germany became the economic powerhouse of continental Europe with the largest population. A position, despite later turmoil, that it maintains to this day. While many would not credit Bismarck entirely for that, it would certainly not have been possible without the brief but strong unified German state that he created.

* In ''Anime/IsabelleOfParis'', Von Bismarck serves as the series' GreaterScopeVillain, for commanding the Prussian army into France. Several characters vow to fight off the Prussian army to their deaths to defend Paris.

Bismarck had a long career in politics, starting as a deputy in his local district (''Kreis''), then as a member of diets of the provinces of Pomerania and Saxony, where he became known as an arch-conservative and discovered his passion for politics. Bismarck was a Junker, a warrior-caste that eventually came to own most of the agricultural land of Prussia. Revolutions from 1789 to the UsefulNotes/RevolutionsOf1848 included the promise, threat and realization of agrarian reform, and this made Junkers in general, and Bismarck in particular, fiercely counter-revolutionary[[note]]The Chancellor who succeeded Bismarck, Leopold von Caprivi tried to provide some moderate reforms which could have eroded their interests, and he was fiercely opposed by the Junkers who got him kicked out[[/note]]. When the Revolutions broke out, Bismarck apparently tried to raise a militia to defend the King, and he was fiercely opposed to the goals of the Forty-Eighters, including [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness German Unification]]. He failed to be elected to the Prussian national assembly in 1848 but was elected to the second chamber of the legislature in 1849. In 1851 he was appointed Prussia's representative to the ''Bundestag'' (the legislative body of the German Federation), where he prevented a mobilization of the federal army to intervene in the UsefulNotes/CrimeanWar, from 1859 on he served as Prussian Ambassador to Russia and then France.

The manner of France's defeat (punitive reparations and taking away of territory against the will of the French citizens living there[[note]]which amounts to modern-day Moselle and Alsace, although the latter were bloodily conquered by France less than three centuries before during the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar. People there were offered the option of keeping the French nationality, provided they left the area before October 1st 1872[[/note]]) in the Franco-Prussian War was of such a kind that it made long-term peace between the two nations impossible. Bismarck apparently did not want to take the territory but his general staff, namely Moltke the Elder, insisted out of Pangermanism (notably on the basis that people living there spoke various Germanic dialects). Bismarck later justified the harsh peace[[note]]The physical gold from the reparations France had to pay in 1871 was still not entirely used up and part of it stored in a tower in Berlin by the time the Versailles Treaty forced a similarly huge amount of reparations on Germany[[/note]] by arguing that if the peace was too harsh to allow for reconciliation, best to make it ''so'' harsh as to make revenge impossible. [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI It didn't work.]] [[note]]but then neither did the GoldenMeanFallacy based Treaty of Versailles, which left Germany humiliated enough to seek revenge and strong enough to do it.[[/note]] Bismarck then set about spending the remainder of his career in social and domestic policies while his foreign policies involved trying to form alliances with Britain, Austria and Russia, to better isolate France. On the domestic front, Bismarck spent much of his time enacting a series of policies to strengthen the state, first against the Catholics (Kulturkampf), [[EnemyMine then allying with the newly formed Catholic Center party]] against the socialists, while at the same time passing welfare laws to the surprise and consternation of his conservative allies, namely pension for elderly workers and access to affordable insurance laws (the first of their kind in Europe). Bismarck saw the latter as preferable to the socialist alternative of regulated workspace, safety inspections, and a shorter working-week. Laws proscribing and restricting socialist parties and left-wing parties were on the books, and Bismarck would lean on nativist conservative fears of the other (i.e. the French, the Poles, the Jews) to better strengthen the center and ruling right coalition. His downfall came with the rise to power of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The latter favoured an expansionist foreign policy while expressing opposition to Bismarck's then anti-socialist policies (not out of any sympathy to socialism but [[SlaveToPR merely because he didn't want to appear as a tyrant so early in his career]]). The fact that Bismarck also made it no secret that he thought the Kaiser's much more overt and rampant anti-Semitism and courting of the country's religious right wing presented a threat to the stability of the realm, also contributed greatly to the falling out between the two. In his retirement, Bismarck spent his time writing his memoirs while giving interviews on how Germany would be ruined and be on the course of disaster without him. The outbreak of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, breaking out as Bismarck had predicted over "some damned foolish thing in the Balkans" appeared to have vindicated him. While his sacking had been contentious, slowly but surely and even starting during his lifetime, there was a cult of personality around Bismarck. While Wilhelm II tried to establish his grandfather Wilhelm I as OurFounder and attempted to give him nicknames like "The Great" (never stuck) or "Barbablanca" (in allusion to Friedrich I "Barbarossa") it soon became clear that Bismarck was by far the more popular figure and thus ''many'' German cities to this day have streets named after Bismarck, there are statues of him and "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismarck_tower Bismarck-towers]]" are popular hiking destinations and lookout points in the environs of many towns.

Historians also note that Bismarck's achievements in a large sense were reversed since for a century after his dismissal in 1890, Germany would be partitioned and occupied by rival powers, with the modern Germany having reduced territory with much of its military reduced by neighboring powers thanks to the catastrophic world wars and violence his successors inflicted on the world. To say nothing of his beloved Prussia which suffered existence failure in 1946. Historians oppose any real continuity between Bismarck and Hitler (who ''did'' admire the Iron Chancellor) by noting that Bismarck at least supported the appearance of norms and did not openly lie and break treaties the way the latter did. Others note that Bismarck's time in office condoned and enabled the rise of anti-semitic, social darwinist and chauvinist forces[[note]](albeit for selfish and pragmatic reasons which he always controlled before it went too far)[[/note]], driven by AppealToForce and the use of military victory to patch over domestic problems. At the end of his career, Bismarck's Germany became the economic powerhouse of continental Europe with the largest population. A position, despite later turmoil, that it maintains to this day. While many would not credit Bismarck entirely for that, it would certainly not have been possible without the brief but strong unified German state that he created.

The manner of France's defeat (punitive reparations and taking away of territory against the will of the French citizens living there[[note]]which amounts to modern-day Moselle and Alsace, although the latter was conquered in blood by France less than three centuries before. People there were offered the option of keeping the French nationality, provided they left the area before October 1st 1872[[/note]]) in the Franco-Prussian War was of such a kind that it made long-term peace between the two nations impossible. Bismarck apparently did not want to take the territory but his general staff, namely Moltke the Elder, insisted out of Pangermanism (notably on the basis that people living there spoke various Germanic dialects). Bismarck later justified the harsh peace[[note]]The physical gold from the reparations France had to pay in 1871 was still not entirely used up and part of it stored in a tower in Berlin by the time the Versailles Treaty forced a similarly huge amount of reparations on Germany[[/note]] by arguing that if the peace was too harsh to allow for reconciliation, best to make it ''so'' harsh as to make revenge impossible. [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI It didn't work.]] [[note]]but then neither did the GoldenMeanFallacy based Treaty of Versailles, which left Germany humiliated enough to seek revenge and strong enough to do it.[[/note]] Bismarck then set about spending the remainder of his career in social and domestic policies while his foreign policies involved trying to form alliances with Britain, Austria and Russia, to better isolate France. On the domestic front, Bismarck spent much of his time enacting a series of policies to strengthen the state, first against the Catholics (Kulturkampf), [[EnemyMine then allying with the newly formed Catholic Center party]] against the socialists, while at the same time passing welfare laws to the surprise and consternation of his conservative allies, namely pension for elderly workers and access to affordable insurance laws (the first of their kind in Europe). Bismarck saw the latter as preferable to the socialist alternative of regulated workspace, safety inspections, and a shorter working-week. Laws proscribing and restricting socialist parties and left-wing parties were on the books, and Bismarck would lean on nativist conservative fears of the other (i.e. the French, the Poles, the Jews) to better strengthen the center and ruling right coalition. His downfall came with the rise to power of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The latter favoured an expansionist foreign policy while expressing opposition to Bismarck's then anti-socialist policies (not out of any sympathy to socialism but [[SlaveToPR merely because he didn't want to appear as a tyrant so early in his career]]). The fact that Bismarck also made it no secret that he thought the Kaiser's much more overt and rampant anti-Semitism and courting of the country's religious right wing presented a threat to the stability of the realm, also contributed greatly to the falling out between the two. In his retirement, Bismarck spent his time writing his memoirs while giving interviews on how Germany would be ruined and be on the course of disaster without him. The outbreak of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, breaking out as Bismarck had predicted over "some damned foolish thing in the Balkans" appeared to have vindicated him. While his sacking had been contentious, slowly but surely and even starting during his lifetime, there was a cult of personality around Bismarck. While Wilhelm II tried to establish his grandfather Wilhelm I as OurFounder and attempted to give him nicknames like "The Great" (never stuck) or "Barbablanca" (in allusion to Friedrich I "Barbarossa") it soon became clear that Bismarck was by far the more popular figure and thus ''many'' German cities to this day have streets named after Bismarck, there are statues of him and "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismarck_tower Bismarck-towers]]" are popular hiking destinations and lookout points in the environs of many towns.

* NiceHat: Often seen on photos and paintings wearing a ''Pickelhaube'', but he usually wore a peaked cap. The floppy civilian hat he wore during his retirement also became iconic, at least in Germany.

The manner of France's defeat (punitive reparations and taking away of territory against the will of the French citizens living there[[note]]which amounts to modern-day Moselle and Alsace, although the latter was conquered in blood by France less than three centuries before. People there were offered the option of keeping the French nationality, provided they left the area before October 1st 1872[[/note]]) in the Franco-Prussian War was of such a kind that it made long-term peace between the two nations impossible. Bismarck apparently did not want to take the territory but his general staff, namely Moltke the Elder, insisted out of Pangermanism (notably on the basis that people living there spoke various Germanic dialects). Bismarck later justified the harsh peace[[note]]The physical gold from the reparations France had to pay in 1871 was still not entirely used up and part of it stored in a tower in Berlin by the time the Versailles Treaty forced a similarly huge amount of reparations on Germany[[/note]] by arguing that if the peace was too harsh to allow for reconciliation, best to make it ''so'' harsh as to make revenge impossible. [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI It didn't work.]] [[note]]but then neither did the GoldenMeanFallacy based Treaty of Versailles, which left Germany humiliated enough to seek revenge and strong enough to do it.[[/note]] Bismarck then set about spending the remainder of his career in social and domestic policies while his foreign policies involved trying to form alliances with England, Austria and Russia, to better isolate France. On the domestic front, Bismarck spent much of his time enacting a series of policies to strengthen the state, first against the Catholics (Kulturkampf), [[EnemyMine then allying with the newly formed Catholic Center party]] against the socialists, while at the same time passing welfare laws to the surprise and consternation of his conservative allies, namely pension for elderly workers and access to affordable insurance laws (the first of their kind in Europe). Bismarck saw the latter as preferable to the socialist alternative of regulated workspace, safety inspections, and a shorter working-week. Laws proscribing and restricting socialist parties and left-wing parties were on the books, and Bismarck would lean on nativist conservative fears of the other (i.e. the French, the Poles, the Jews) to better strengthen the center and ruling right coalition. His downfall came with the rise to power of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The latter favoured an expansionist foreign policy while expressing opposition to Bismarck's then anti-socialist policies (not out of any sympathy to socialism but [[SlaveToPR merely because he didn't want to appear as a tyrant so early in his career]]). The fact that Bismarck also made it no secret that he thought the Kaiser's much more overt and rampant anti-Semitism and courting of the country's religious right wing presented a threat to the stability of the realm, also contributed greatly to the falling out between the two. In his retirement, Bismarck spent his time writing his memoirs while giving interviews on how Germany would be ruined and be on the course of disaster without him. The outbreak of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, breaking out as Bismarck had predicted over "some damned foolish thing in the Balkans" appeared to have vindicated him. While his sacking had been contentious, slowly but surely and even starting during his lifetime, there was a cult of personality around Bismarck. While Wilhelm II tried to establish his grandfather Wilhelm I as OurFounder and attempted to give him nicknames like "The Great" (never stuck) or "Barbablanca" (in allusion to Friedrich I "Barbarossa") it soon became clear that Bismarck was by far the more popular figure and thus ''many'' German cities to this day have streets named after Bismarck, there are statues of him and "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismarck_tower Bismarck-towers]]" are popular hiking destinations and lookout points in the environs of many towns.