Bismarck: A Life

by Jonathan Steinberg

  Calls Bismarck ‘sick to death’ (1859) because of rage 147, 238, 468

  Bismarck writes to say ‘highest personalities’ (1848) calmed down 92

  Attends Junker parliament 94

  Dines with Bismarck in Berlin (1859) 147

  Recipient (1861) of the famous ‘sovereignty swindle letter’ 169

  Breaks with Bismarck in 1870s 280

  Benedek (Benedec), Ludwig von (1804–81), Austrian General commanding at Battle of Königgrätz/Sadowa 1866 249, 251, 252

  Benedetti, Vincent, Count (1817–1900), French Ambassador to Prussia

  Asks Bismarck about rumours of Hohenzollern candidacy 281

  Asks King again about candidacy 286

  His ‘demands’ at Bad Ems and King’s refusal 288

  Berlepsch, Hans Hermann Freiherr von (1843–1926), Prussian Minister

  Superior President of the Rhine Province during miners’ strike, seeks conciliation with strikers 441

  Bismarck rejects conciliation by 442

  Bethmann Hollweg, Moritz August von (1795–1877), banker and conservative politician, 473

  Co-founds (with Bismarck) conservative group in 1848 101

  As ally of von der Goltz, Bismarck consider as enemy 119

  Joins ‘New Era’ cabinet in 1858 138

  Member of ‘clique’ against Bismarck 212

  Bismarck, Bernhard Friedrich Alexander Ferdinand Roman von (1810–93), Bismarck’s older brother 368

  Mother writes (1830) that disappointed in 33

  Bismarck urges brother to lie to parents 34

  Letters from teenager Otto to 37–8

  Takes over Kniephof in 1845 on father’s death 63

  Bismarck writes to (1847), of future mother-in-law’s ‘melancholy’ 84

  Otto’s shrewdness about revolution in Paris in 1848 88

  Describes how he, Otto, and Hans Kleist financed foundation of Kreuzzeitung 92

  Otto describes new life (1851) as ambassador in Frankfurt to 118

  Otto complains (1859) to about expensive move to Russian embassy 149

  Votes against Otto on Prussian local government bill (1872) 337

  Bismarck, Nikolaus Heinrich Ferdinand Herbert Prince von (1849–1904), Bismarck’s elder son 413, 416, 425, 427, 429, 431, 435–6

  Description of his birth and career 406

  Love affair with Elizabeth Princess Carolath, broken up by father 406–8

  Hildegard Spitzemberg reflects on the coarseness of 408–9

  ‘Ruined’ in society and made worse by obtuse bad manners 409–10

  Explains to Holstein (1887) diplomatic complexity makes father indispensable 424

  Holstein warns Phili Eulenburg against 429

  Holstein records Herbert’s disillusion with Prince William 438

  Asks for an audience of the Kaiser on 23 January, and urges father to come at once 442

  Kaiser does not ask for his resignation along with father’s 450

  After resignation, father plays ‘pseudo-politics’ 452

  Engaged to and marries Marguerite Hoyos in Vienna 455

  January 1894 invited to annual Ordensfest (party for the Orders), Kaiser ‘cuts’ him 457

  Complains that father has muddled 1884 and 1887 treaties 461–2

  Bismarck dies holding Herbert’s hand 463

  Bismarck’s wrath destroys his son 469

  Bismarck, Johanna Friederike Charlotte Dorothea Eleonore (née von Puttkamer) (1824–1894), Bismarck’s wife, 51, 58, 117, 147, 148, 148, 151, 161, 198

  Letter to describes Otto’s troubled relationship to parents 29

  Marie von Thadden tells of Bismarck reading Romeo to her Juliet 62

  Why Bismarck suddenly chose her and why she accepted him on the rebound 64

  21 December 1846, the famous Werbebrief about Bismarck’s faith 65

  12 January 1847, engagement to 66

  Letters to during engagement 66ff

  Holstein on her as ‘a peculiar person … attached no importance to dress’ 67

  Hildegard on meeting her for the first time 67–8

  Hildegard no longer welcome in Bismarck house after Johanna’s death (1894) 70

  Letters to during Bismarck’s debut in politics during 1847 72, 75, 77, 78–9, 79, 83

  Honeymoon (1847) 83–4

  Letters to on critical moments for the government in September and October 1848 95–6, 97, 99

  Letters to on living with the super-pious Hans von Kleist 102–3

  On the crisis at Erfurt between Radowitz and Manteuffel (1850) 106

  Bismarck writes to say that he will go to Frankfurt 110

  3 May 1851, Bismarcks lies to ‘I repeat I have not with a syllable wished

  or sought this appointment’ 113

  Hedwig von Blanckenburg begs her to adapt and change 114

  Bismarck begs her to improve her French and adapt to society 114–15

  Bismarck doubts that Johanna will adapt to diplomatic life 118

  17 May 1862, Bismarck again lies, to ‘I do nothing for and nothing against’ a ministerial post 172

  Perthes on her Lutheranism but relationship to evangelicals 173

  Reports on his infatuation with Princess Orloff 175–7

  Bismarck to Sister, affair‘without doing any harm to Johanna’ 176

  Holstein writes that she looked like a cook but could not cook 188

  Crown Prince blames for spreading story that Crown Princess blocked bombardment in 1871 300

  Goes with Bismarck in 1890 to see Empress Frederick 443

  At farewell dinner, 23 March 1890, ‘loudly and without reserve’ expresses views 451

  Died at Varzin, 27 November 1894 459

  Vindictiveness of

  Stosch an enemy 279

  card file of the Deklaranten 344

  stirred Bismark’s hatreds 415, 469

  Bismarck, Otto Eduard Leopold von (1815–98)

  Absences from Berlin

  Pflanze calculates totals of 267

  Ailments

  Complaints that nerves shattered 156, 238, 248, 284, 367, 386

  Roon worries about Bismarck’s health and mental stability (March 1866) 238–9

  Keudell describes a clash between Moltke and Bismarck and the swollen foot that follows 297

  Unable to sleep and vomiting 402

  Because of rage, 106, 156, 272, 278, 326

  Gluttony: ‘Here we eat until the walls burst’ 404

  Dinner menu (1878) 345–6

  ‘Half a turkey’ 11

  Disraeli on 371

  Second helpings from every course 10

  Blood and iron speech (30 September 1862) 7,465

  Early version of ‘to heal … infirmity of Prussia with ferro et igni’ 154.

  Causes a furore and threatens his job 180–1

  Crown Prince Frederick (1871) condemns for its damage to image of Germany 302

  Mühler condemns as sign of Bismarck’s lack of morals 320

  Boards new Emperor’s train in 1888 as after speech in 1862 432

  Charm

  Of his prose style 4

  His letters from St Petersburg have 150

  As part of the contradictions in Bismarck’s character 183

  Roon (1870) on Bismarck’s error to imagine that with ‘charm he can overcome all the difficulties’ 280

  Disraeli on his conversation 466

  Bamberger on the charm of his smile 466

  Perthes sees behind 466

  Mary Motley and Lucius von Ballhausen overwhelmed by 224, 471

  Character sketches of Bismarck

  Bamberger watches Bismarck at dinner in 1878 365, 466

  Perthes’ portrait of and doubts about 172–3

  Roon writes crushing judgement on Bismarck’s character (January 1870) 280

  Hohenlohe, Prince Alexander goes to Friedrichsruh 460

  Stosch on way Bismarck humiliated him 5–6

  Waldersee on his ‘bad character’ 445

  Christian faith />
  His conversion the necessary step to gaining aristocratic patrons 57

  Converted to defence of the Christian State, but Gall doubts it 82

  Pflanze on his religion as reinforcement 82

  Marie von Thadden tries to convert him 62ff

  Describes his Christian vocation to Herr von Puttkammer (the Werbebrief) 64ff

  Mühler denies that has any religion; only ‘Blood and Iron’ materialism 320

  Von Below thinks prayer only solution to ‘the amazing visions and thoughts [Vorstellungen] that threaten to draw him to death’ 155

  Treitschke shocked that he has ‘not the slightest notion’ of morality 247

  No sign of Christian repentence and will to amend life 468

  Colonies 418

  ‘Conspiracies’ against

  Tells Busch that stenographers (1878) garble his speeches intentionally 3–4, 169, 434, 468

  Sees Victoria’s three ladies-in-waiting (1888) as plotting against him 434

  Queen Augusta at centre of 239

  Contempt for the political class and court

  Prussian civil servants bad, produce ‘legal shit’ 106

  German parliamentarians ‘dumb in the mass’ 194

  ‘If I have to eat with members of parliament, I must drink myself the courage’ 350

  Rejects right of speaker of the house to call him to order 382

  Contradicting Bismarck

  Diest (1871): ‘He no longer tolerated contradiction’ 326

  King Albert of Saxony (1880): ‘cannot listen to a contrary opinion’ 405

  Conversation and indiscretion

  Fontane, even when Bismarck sneezes or says prosit more interesting than anybody 5

  Disraeli on his conversation 369

  ‘a monologue, a rambling amusing, egotistical autobiography’ 370

  ‘Rabelaisian monologues: endless revelations of things he ought not to mention’ 371

  His views on all subjects are original, but there is no strain, no effort at paradox. He talks as Montaigne writes’ 373

  Stosch on the ‘enchantment’ of Bismarck’s talk 5

  Lucius on how Bismarck held the cabinet ‘absolutely enthralled’ 387

  Spitzemberg ‘bewitched’ by Bismarck’s ‘magic’ 466

  Lucius on Bismarck’s easy conversation with groups 325–6

  Demonic power of 79, 184, 185, 336, 343, 465, 470, 480

  Kölnische Zeitung: ‘Mephistopheles climbed up in the pulpit’ 241

  Odo Russell: ‘The demonic is stronger in him, than in any man I know’ 5, 335

  Lasker: too much of ‘a demon’ to give up power 336

  Windthorst: ‘Il est le diable’ 413, 465

  Kaiser William II: ‘lust for power had taken a demonic hold on’ 450

  Heinrich Otto Meissner: ‘the characteristics of a demonic genius’ 455

  Bamberger: ‘the Great Devil who towers over his nation’ 452

  Russell and Morier call Zornesbock 465

  Despotism of, 467

  Hohenlohe: ‘individual was oppressed and restricted by the dominant influence of’ 3

  Motley to Lady William Russel: ‘you as a despot ought to sympathize with’ 194

  Stosch to Freytag (1867): ‘The more Bismarck grows in stature the more uncomfortable for him are people who think and act for themselves’ 267

  Bronsart von Schellendorf (25 January 1871): Bismarck, ‘a modern major domus, has insured that all respectable existence in his environment has been crushed’ 309

  Von Neumann (1877): people are ‘degrading themselves to mere tools of the All-Powerful One’ 362

  Disraeli: Bismarck ‘is a complete despot here’ 372

  Fontane: ‘Bismarck is a despot, but he has a right to be one, and he must be one’ 398

  Crown Prince to Stosch: ‘under the present regime … every capable person is subordinated’ 429

  Contemporaries consider him ‘dictator’ or ‘despot’ but he knew better 480

  Diplomacy

  Morier on Bismarck

  ‘quickest eye for the right combination at the right moment’ 128

  As chess with all squares open 131

  Cannot play if 16 out of 64 squares blocked in advance 133

  To remain ‘one of three’ in a Europe of five great powers 328

  Kissinger Dictation (1877) 355–6

  Failure of his policies by 1890 356

  Revelation of the Reinsurance Treaty in 1896 460–2

  Diplomatic difficulties never provoke rage 130, 131, 472

  Outplayed over ‘war in sight’ crisis 352

  Disloyalty to superiors and colleagues

  sends his bi-monthly reports to Manteuffel secretly to Leopold von Gerlach 118–19

  Roggenbach describes Bismarck’s rule as ‘a specialization in dishonourable humiliation’ 336

  Stosch (1877): ‘thinks he can trample all over me and then still dispose of me freely’ 362

  Betrays Fritz Eulenburg (1872) 338–40

  Shouts at Tiedeman for daring to quit his service 404

  Says nothing about Roon’s vital role in his memoirs 379

  Reveals secret help for Boetticher 453

  Divided nature of Bismarck

  Sir Robert Morier on 128

  Schlözer sees 183

  Hildegard von Spitzemberg on contrasts in Bismarck’s character 465–6, 471

  Duels

  as student in duelling fraternity 40–1

  with Vincke 1852 120

  Enemies

  Of the Reich in his view (Catholics, Socialists, Liberals) 8, 424, 444

  Makes enemies in 1847 by provocative speeches 79–80

  Rage in cemetary at ‘murderers’ who fought Prussian state in 1848 103

  Robert von der Goltz and the New Era cabinet as enemies 119, 138

  Von Below thinks concentration on enemies has deranged him 155, 468

  Freiherr von Roggenbach as enemy 165–6

  Stosch on how Bismarck makes enemies in the aristocracy 235

  At court, Queen, Crown Prince, and Crown Princess really enemies 238

  Lippe and Hans von Kleist now enemies 260

  Complains

  to Roon that numbers of enemies grow and friends diminish (1872) 342

  To Tiedemann (1875) 346

  Johanna keeps card file of ‘Deklaranten’ as enemies not to be invited 344

  Anti-semitism used to undermine Liberal enemies 396

  Mimi Countess von Schleinitz, Elisabeth Princess von Carolath, and Franziska Freifrau von Loë, a clique of enemies 407

  Queen Augusta, see Augusta

  Hatred of ‘enemies’ destroys eldest son 409

  Guido von Usedom persecuted after death in Bismarck’s memoirs 453

  Windthorst, see Windthorst

  Moritz Busch punished Kaiser William II by publishing full text of Bismarck’s resignation after his death 463

  Jews as and allows anti-semitic fury to crush Liberal leadership and Lasker 475–6

  Estates

  Friedrichsruh 70, 358, 359, 361, 376, 377, 403, 405, 436, 446, 447

  Tiedemann brings news (1878) of attempt on Kaiser’s life to Bismarck in the fields 367

  too near to Berlin to prevent business and vistors arriving 404

  Kniephof, 28, 34, 37, 38, 52, 55, 63, 64, 65,

  (1869) offers to sell to brother but only at market price 264

  Schönhausen 13, 14, 18, 51, 84, 88, 89, 106, 337, 357

  Bismarck prefers forests of Kniephof to flood plain of 36

  Bismarck romanticizes ‘old castle’ 45

  Ferdinand von Bismarck ill and dies 22 November 1845 at 62–3

  Bismarck to Bernhard on the terrible crisis of farming at 75

  Bismarck rouses peasants of, in 1848 86

  Fund raised (1885) to clear debt of and purchase as tribute to Bismarck 418

  Herbert moves to and starts to farm at, in 1890 452

  Bismarck to Bill on the barking dog at 460

  V
arzin 267, 278, 284, 285, 286, 326, 333, 337, 339, 340, 346, 349, 354, 357, 361, 362, 363, 388, 404, 405, 406, 407,

  Tiedeman describes typical long working day at 11

  King William gives ‘dotation’ (1867) to purchase 264

  Motley visits (1869) and describes 264–5

  The ‘Reich Dog’ dies and Bismarck inconsolable 346

  Agricultural depression affects revenues from 359

  Christmas 1877, visitor from tells Stosch that Chancellor ‘already crazy or soon would be’ 362

  Princess Bismarck dies at, on 27 November 1894 459

  German culture

  Bismarck completely untouched by the great nineteenth-century developments in German culture 418

  Only reads German lyric poetry (Heine, Chamisso, Uhland, and Rückert) 45

  Home

  Dines unfashionably early 2

  Goes home to Schönhausen to reduce debts 51

  Feels at home for first time with Marie and Moritz at Cardemin 65

  Johanna makes Hildegard (1863) feel at home 68

  At home ‘in another atmosphere’ 69

  Johanna unwilling to leave family home 113

  Urgent need for home and security 156, 166

  Bismarcks live in 76 Wilhelmstrasse without any luxury 188

  Eulenburg comments on ‘absence of good taste in’ 418

  Hypochondria 5, 184, 379, 405

  Stenographers make him ill (1878) 4

  Pflanze uses Oedipal theory to explain 34

  Wilhelmine Mencken Bismarck also suffers from 34

  Serious condition, not a cunning device 36

  Worries about drafts in corridors at Royal Palace (1858) 138

  Explains his symptoms of to Bernhard (1859) 139

  Bismarck uses it of himself, ‘my growing hypochondria’ 156

  Acute attack of (1869) with vomiting and sleeplessness 279

  Moltke refuses to bombard Paris and Bismarck gets pains in foot as a result 297

  Waldersee (1870) sees Bismarck: ‘His eyes grew bigger. Sweat formed on his brow. He looked seriously disturbed’ 302

  As a ‘patient from hell’ 403

  Rejection by King and Bismarck puts himself to bed 412

  Wears thick wig at coronation of William I because of fear of colds 170

  Convinced he had stroke (1880) 402

  King accuses Bismarck of (1869) 277–8, 470

  Bucher explain how ‘annoyed by affairs … he has physical complaints’ 340

  Irritability 238

  Lucius calls ‘morbid’ 11

  Roon on ‘neurotic impatience’ of 222

  Tiedeman sees ‘extreme irritability tied to insomnia’ 347