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THE LIFE OF BISMARCK, PRIVATE AND POLITICAL.
THE LIFE OF BISMARCK, PRIVATE AND POLITICAL.
“Mit Gott für König und Vaterland.” COUNT OTTO VON BISMARCK. THE LIFE OF BISMARCK, PRIVATE AND POLITICAL; WITH DESCRIPTIVE NOTICES OF HIS ANCESTRY. BY JOHN GEORGE LOUIS HESEKIEL, AUTHOR OF “FAUST AND DON JUAN,” ETC. TRANSLATED AND EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, EXPLANATORY NOTES, AND APPENDICES, BY KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE, F.S.A., F.A.S.L. WITH UPWARD OF ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS BY DIEZ, GRIMM, PIETSCH, AND OTHERS. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1870....
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EDITOR’S PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
EDITOR’S PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
The life of Count Bismarck has been so much misinterpreted, by interested and disinterested persons, that it is thought the present publication, which tells “a plain unvarnished tale,” will not be unwelcome. In these days of universal criticism, no person is exempt from the carping mood of the envious, or the facile unreasoning of the ready-made theorist. Should we feel disposed to credit vulgar report, noble motives and heroic lives are no longer extant in our present state of society. The eyes
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CHAPTER I NAME AND ORIGIN.
CHAPTER I NAME AND ORIGIN.
Bismarck on the Biese.—The Bismarck Louse.—Derivation of the Name Bismarck.—Wendic Origin Untenable.—The Bismarcks in Priegnitz and Ruppin.—Riedel’s Erroneous Theory.—The Bismarcks of Stendal.—Members of City Guilds.—Claus von Bismarck of Stendal.—Rise of the Family into the Highest Rank in the Fourteenth Century. In the Alt Mark, belonging to the circle of Stendal, lies the small town of Bismarck on the Biese. It is an old and famous place, for south of the town stands an ancient tower, known a
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CHAPTER II. CASTELLANS AT BURGSTALL CASTLE. [1270-1550.]
CHAPTER II. CASTELLANS AT BURGSTALL CASTLE. [1270-1550.]
Rulo von Bismarck, 1309-1338.—Excommunicated.—Claus von Bismarck.—His Policy.—Created Castellan of Burgstall, 1345.—Castellans.—Reconciliation with Stendal, 1350.—Councillor to the Margrave, 1353.—Dietrich Kogelwiet, 1361.—His White Hood.—Claus in his Service, while Archbishop of Magdeburg.—The Emperor Charles IV.—The Independence of Brandenburg threatened.—Chamberlain to the Margrave, 1368.—Subjection of the Marks to Bohemia, 1373.—Claus retires into Private Life.—Death about 1377.—Claus II., 1
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CHAPTER III. THE PERMUTATION. [1550-1563.]
CHAPTER III. THE PERMUTATION. [1550-1563.]
Changes.—The Electoral Prince John George and Burgstall.—Forest-rights.—The Exchange of Burgstall for Crevese.—Schönhausen and Fischbeck.—The Permutation completed, 1563. Doomed to a sorrowful termination was the peaceful life of the family of the Bismarcks at Burgstall. All the Bismarcks were eager sportsmen, and there was no spot in the whole of the Brandenburg country better adapted for sport than their castle, situated in the midst of the great preserve of Gardelegen, the woods of the Tanger
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CHAPTER IV. THE BISMARCKS OF SCHÖNHAUSEN. [1563-1800.]
CHAPTER IV. THE BISMARCKS OF SCHÖNHAUSEN. [1563-1800.]
Further Genealogy of the Bismarcks.—Captain Ludolf von Bismarck.—Ludolf August von Bismarck.—His remarkable Career.—Dies in the Russian Service 1750.—Frederick William von Bismarck.—Created Count by the King of Würtemberg.—Charles Alexander von Bismarck, 1727.—His Memorial to his Wife.—His Descendants.—Charles William Ferdinand, Father of Count Otto von Bismarck. Of the four families of the race of Bismarck, who quitted Burgstall at the Easter of 1563, three had perished in the male line in the
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CHAPTER V. ARMORIAL BEARINGS.
CHAPTER V. ARMORIAL BEARINGS.
The shield of the Bismarcks exhibits a device, which, although it has not materially changed in the course of centuries, has at different times been variously blazoned. It displays a double trefoil, or, more exactly speaking, a round-leafed trefoil, flanked in its corners by three long leaves. The centre device has altered in the seals of various times, sometimes resembling a rose leaf, sometimes a clover leaf; finally it has remained a clover leaf. The other trefoil has been treated in the same
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CHAPTER VI. THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF BISMARCK’S BIRTHPLACE.
CHAPTER VI. THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF BISMARCK’S BIRTHPLACE.
Genthin.—The Plotho Family.—Jerichow.—Fischbeck.—The Kaiserburg.—The Emperor Charles IV.—The Elector Joachim Nestor.—Frederick I.—General Fransecky “to the Front.”—Tangermünde.—Town-hall.—Count Bismarck.—His Uniform, and the South German Deputy.—Departure for Schönhausen. [The translator has abridged the following chapters and transferred them to a place apparently better fitted for them than that they occupy in the German edition, but nothing of importance is omitted.] Genthin is an ancient pla
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CHAPTER VII. SCHÖNHAUSEN.
CHAPTER VII. SCHÖNHAUSEN.
The Kattenwinkel.—Wust.—Lieutenant Von Katte.—Schönhausen.—Its History.—The Church.—Bishop Siegobodo.—Bismarck’s Mansion.—Interior.—Bismarck’s Mother.—Bismarck’s Birth-Chamber.—The Library.—Bismarck’s Youthful Studies.—Bismarck’s Maternal Grandmother.—The Countess with the Dowry.—Ghost Stories.—Anecdote of a Ghost.—The Cellar Door.—The French at Schönhausen.—The Templars.—The Park.—The Wounded Hercules.—The Pavilion.—Two Graves.—The Orangery.—The Knight’s Demesne.—Departure from Schönhausen. On
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CHAPTER I. SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS.
CHAPTER I. SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS.
Bismarck’s Parents.—Brothers and Sisters.—Bismarck Born.—Kniephof, Jarchelin, and Külz.—The Plamann Institute.—The Frederick William Institute.—Residence in Berlin.—Bismarck’s Father and Mother.—Letter of Count Bismarck to his Sister.—Confirmation.—Dr. Bonnell.—Severity of the Plamanns.—Holiday Time.—Colonel August Frederick von Bismarck and the Wooden Donkey at Ihna Bridge.—School-life with Dr. Bonnell.—The Cholera of 1831.—The Youthful Character and Appearance of Bismarck.—Early Friends.—Prove
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CHAPTER II. UNIVERSITY AND MILITARY LIFE. [1832-1844.]
CHAPTER II. UNIVERSITY AND MILITARY LIFE. [1832-1844.]
Göttingen.—The Danish Dog and the Professor.—Duels.—Berlin.—Appointed Examiner.—Anecdotes of his Legal Life.—Bismarck and his Boots.—Meeting with Prince, now King, William.—Helene von Kessel.—Aix la Chapelle.—Greifswald.—Undertaking the Pomeranian Estates.—Kniephof.—“Mad Bismarck.”—His Studies.—Marriage of his Sister.—Letters to her.—Norderney.—Saves his Servant Hildebrand’s Life—“The Golden Dog.”—A Dinner Party at the Blanckenburgs.—Von Blanckenburg.—Major, now General, Von Roon.—Dr. Beutner. O
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CHAPTER III. BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE. [1847.]
CHAPTER III. BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE. [1847.]
Falls in Love.—Johanna von Putkammer.—Marriage.—Meets King Frederick William IV.—Birth of his First Child.—Schönhausen and Kniephof with a New Mistress. In the society and at the house of his friend and neighbor, Moritz von Blanckenburg, Bismarck had often seen a friend of his noble hostess, who greatly interested him. But he first became more intimately acquainted with Fräulein Johanna von Putkammer on a trip which both of them made in company with the Blanckenburgs. Bismarck soon became aware
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CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. “UT SCIAT REGNARE.”
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. “UT SCIAT REGNARE.”
Bismarck’s Policy.—Its Gradual Growth and Political Character.—Contrast with Lucchesini.—Bismarck’s Open Honesty.—Vassal and Liege.—Liberalism a Danger.—Democracy a Danger.—The Relative Positions of Prussia and Austria in the Federation.—Gerlach’s Ideal Conservatism. Bismarck has now to be politically tested, and amidst all the strange eventualities in the remarkable history of Prussia, we perceive, first as a counsellor, then as an actor, and finally as a guide, that the one man emerges, a man
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CHAPTER II. THE ASSEMBLY OF THE THREE ESTATES. [1847.]
CHAPTER II. THE ASSEMBLY OF THE THREE ESTATES. [1847.]
The February Constitution.—Merseberg.—First Appearance of Bismarck in the White Saloon.—Von Saucken.—Bismarck’s First Speech.—Conservatives and Liberals.—The First of June.—Jewish Emancipation.—Illusions Destroyed. When King Frederick William IV. issued the February manifesto, in 1847, [35] and summoned the United Diet with the Chambers, he thought in his royal great-heartedness to have accorded to his people a free gift of his affection and his confidence, and to have anticipated many wishes; b
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CHAPTER III. THE DAYS OF MARCH. [1848.]
CHAPTER III. THE DAYS OF MARCH. [1848.]
Rest at Home.—Contemplation.—The Revolution in Paris, February, 1848.—Progress of the Revolutionary Spirit.—The March Days of Berlin.—The Citizen Guard.—Opening of the Second Session of the United Diet, 2d April, 1848.—Prince Solms-Hohen-Solms-Lich.—Fr. Foerster.—“Eagle’s Wings and Bodelswings.”—Prince Felix Lichnowsky.—The Debate on the Address.—Speech of Bismarck.—Revolution at the Portal of the White Saloon.— Vaticinium Lehninense. —The Kreuzzeitung Letter of Bismarck on Organization of Labor
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CHAPTER IV. CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP. [1849-1851.]
CHAPTER IV. CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP. [1849-1851.]
The Second Chamber.—The Sword and the Throne.—Acceptance of the Frankfurt Project.—The New Electoral Law.—Bismarck’s Speeches.—The King and the Stag.—Birth of Herbert von Bismarck.—“What does this Broken Glass Cost?”—The Kreuzzeitung Letters.—The Prussian Nobility.—“I am Proud to be a Prussian Junker!”—Close of the Session. Immediately after the publication of the December constitution of 1848, Bismarck was, in the same month, elected in Brandenburg the representative of West-Havelland, as a mem
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CHAPTER I. ON THE VOYAGE OF LIFE. [1851-1859.]
CHAPTER I. ON THE VOYAGE OF LIFE. [1851-1859.]
A BALL AT BISMARCK’S. TO A PRUSSIAN DIPLOMATIST. Petersburg, 1st July, 1859. I thank you for your letter, and hope you will not allow the first to be the last. Among the matters which interest me, the Frankfurt negotiations, next to immediate necessities, occupy the first place with me, and I am very much obliged for any news from thence. I regard our policy, up till now, as correct; but I look mournfully into the future. We have armed ourselves too soon and too strongly, and the heavy load whic
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CHAPTER II. BISMARCK ON THE NEVA. [1859-1862.]
CHAPTER II. BISMARCK ON THE NEVA. [1859-1862.]
THE SAME TO THE SAME. Petersburg, 9th Dec., 1860. I take it for granted that you are already in Berlin, as I do not know what you could do in the long evenings at Kröchlendorf, although they are not so long as here, where lights are now brought punctually at three o’clock, to see to read and write. On some of our foggy days it is hardly possible, despite of the double windows and distance from the cold, to enter upon such pursuits after noon. But I can not say that my evenings or nights are too
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CHAPTER III. BISMARCK ON THE SEINE. [1862.]
CHAPTER III. BISMARCK ON THE SEINE. [1862.]
The Premiership ahead.—Ambassador to Paris.—Unveiling of the Brandenburg Statue.—Uncertainty.—Delivers his Credentials to Napoleon III.—Description of the Embassy House at Paris, and of Prussia House, London.—Journey to the South of France.—Trouville.—Bordeaux.—Bayonne.—San Sebastian.—Biarritz.—Luchon.—Toulouse.—End of his Journeyman Days. BISMARCK AS CHANCELLOR. We have arrived at the last section in Bismarck’s political apprenticeship and journeymanship—to his embassy in Paris. This only compr
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CHAPTER I. THE CRISIS.
CHAPTER I. THE CRISIS.
The Crisis of 1862.—Bismarck Premier.—The Party of Progress.—The Liberals.—The Conservatives.—Bismarck’s Determination.—“ Voilà mon Médecin! ”—Anecdotes.—Attitude of the Government.—Refusal of the Budget.—Prudence of the Minister-President.—Official Presentation of Letters of Recall at Saint Cloud. Twin-born with the active, restless life and labor so typical of our modern days, with the rapid course of political events, we note the natural sisterhood of swift forgetfulness. Most of us would hav
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CHAPTER II. THE MAN AT THE HELM.
CHAPTER II. THE MAN AT THE HELM.
Gastein, 28th July, 1863. As this day sixteen years ago brought sunshine into my wild bachelor life, so to-day it has rejoiced this valley, and I have seen it on a morning walk for the first time in all its beauty. Moritz would call it a giant dish full of cabbage, narrow and deep, the edges set round with white eggs. Steep sides, some thousand feet high, covered with furze and meadow-green, and huts of thatch, strewed here and there up to the snow-line, the whole surrounded by a wreath of white
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CHAPTER III. THE GREAT YEAR 1866.
CHAPTER III. THE GREAT YEAR 1866.
On the 20th of September, 1866, Bismarck, after a short rest, was able to assume the place of honor which was his due in the memorable triumphant entry of the troops to Berlin, as Major-General and Chief of the Seventh Heavy Landwehr Regiment of Horse, to which his grateful Sovereign had appointed him. Immediately before the King there rode, in one rank, Count Bismarck, the War Minister General von Roon, General von Moltke, the Chief of the General Staff, General von Voigts-Rheetz as Chief of th
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CHAPTER IV. MAJOR-GENERAL AND CHANCELLOR OF THE FEDERATION.
CHAPTER IV. MAJOR-GENERAL AND CHANCELLOR OF THE FEDERATION.
Conversation with M. de Vilbort.—Appearance as Chancellor.—M. Bamberger’s Views.—Bismarck as an Orator.—The Luxemburg Question.—Fall from his Horse.—Citizenship of Bülow.—Visit to Holstein.—Speech to a Torchlight Procession. From the Paris journal, Le Siècle , we extract the following report of a conversation which Count Bismarck had with a Parisian journalist on the 10th of June, 1866: “On my arrival at Berlin, I was informed that M. de Bismarck was quite inaccessible. I was told, ‘Do not attem
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CHAPTER V. A BALL AT BISMARCK’S.
CHAPTER V. A BALL AT BISMARCK’S.
Interior of Bismarck’s House at Berlin.—Arrival of Guests.—The King.—The Queen.—The Royal Princes.—The Generals.—Committee of Story-tellers in the Refreshment Room.—Supper.—The Ball.—Home. We have entitled this chapter, “A Ball at Bismarck’s,” for reasons of brevity and alliteration, for in truth, at these great evening assemblies, with supper after midnight, the ball is a secondary object for the majority of the guests. This arrangement, entirely imported from England, pleases us as little as t
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CHAPTER VI. BISMARCK’S HOUSE AT BERLIN.
CHAPTER VI. BISMARCK’S HOUSE AT BERLIN.
Bismarck’s House in ordinary Costume.—Its History.—“Sultan Uilem and Grand Vizier Bi-Smarck.”—“Bismarck, grand homme , Bakschisch!”—The Cuckoo Clock.—Daily Habits.—Sunday at Bismarck’s. In that portion of the Wilhelms-Strasse at Berlin, which has remained comparatively quiet, although it is bounded on one side by the animated and famous street Unter den Linden, and on the other by the noisy and busy Leipziger-Strasse, one of the arteries of Berlin circulation, not far from the Wilhelms-Platz, st
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CHAPTER VII. VARZIN.
CHAPTER VII. VARZIN.
Purchase of Varzin.—The Verandah.—The Park.—The name of Bismarck famous.—House Inscriptions.—Popularity of Bismarck.—In an Ambush of School-girls.—Conclusion. In the April of 1867 Count Bismarck went to see the Estates of Varzin (consisting of Varzin, Wussow, Puddiger, Misdow, and Chomitz), near Schlawe, in Farther Pomerania, and soon afterwards purchased them. In the autumn of that year, as we have said, he spent some weeks at Varzin, but in the following year he remained there, unfortunately i
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APPENDIX A.
APPENDIX A.
It has been thought desirable to give the originals of the two poems translated respectively at pages 70-72 , and pages 124, 125 , by the present Editor, for the benefit of those who may like to see them. From Dr. G. Schwetschke’s “Bismarckias.” See pages 123, 124. ( Page 166. ) The great interest and importance of the following documents, from their forming the absolute point of departure of Bismarck’s political activity, has induced their republication in this volume, together with some few ot
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ORDINANCE OF THE THIRD OF FEBRUARY, 1847, FOR THE FORMATION OF THE UNITED DIET.
ORDINANCE OF THE THIRD OF FEBRUARY, 1847, FOR THE FORMATION OF THE UNITED DIET.
We, Frederick William, by the grace of God, King of Prussia, etc., having taken the opinion of our Ministers of State, make the following Ordinance, in pursuance of our letters patent of this day, in the matter of the affairs of the Diets, respecting the formation of an United Diet:— Section 1.—We shall unite the eight Provincial Diets of our monarchy in one Diet, as often as is necessary, according to the tenor of our letters patent of this day, or on any other occasion when we think it needful
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ORDINANCE OF THE THIRD OF FEBRUARY, 1847, RESPECTING THE PERIODICAL ASSEMBLING OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE UNITED DIET AND ITS PRIVILEGES.
ORDINANCE OF THE THIRD OF FEBRUARY, 1847, RESPECTING THE PERIODICAL ASSEMBLING OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE UNITED DIET AND ITS PRIVILEGES.
We, Frederick William, by the grace of God, King of Prussia, etc., after having taken the opinion of our Ministers of State, make the following Ordinance, in pursuance of our letters patent of this day, in the matters of the affairs of the Diet, respecting the periodical assembling of the Committee of the United Diet and its functions:— Section 1.—The Committees of the Provincial Diets are to be convened to form the Committee of the United Diet, according to the regulation laid down by the Ordin
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ORDINANCE FOR THE FORMATION OF A DEPUTATION OF THE DIET FOR THE AFFAIRS OF THE STATE DEBTS.
ORDINANCE FOR THE FORMATION OF A DEPUTATION OF THE DIET FOR THE AFFAIRS OF THE STATE DEBTS.
We, Frederick William, etc., ordain as follows:— 1. In the execution of the co-operation proposed in the 6th Section of the Ordinance of this day, relative to the formation of the United Diet, in the contraction of State loans in times of war, and for the current co-operation of the Diet in the reduction and extinction of the State debt. A deputation of the Diet shall be formed for the affairs of the State debt. 2. This deputation to consist of eight members, of whom one is to be chosen in each
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OPENING OF THE PRUSSIAN DIET. THE KING’S SPEECH. APRIL, 1847.
OPENING OF THE PRUSSIAN DIET. THE KING’S SPEECH. APRIL, 1847.
[King Frederick William IV., on opening the Diet, made the following speech, of sufficient importance to be added here, when the circumstances of the grant of the Constitution are considered.] Illustrious noble Princes, Counts, and Lords, my dear and trusty Orders of Nobles, Burghers, and Commons, I bid you from the depth of my heart welcome on the day of the fulfillment of a great work of my father, resting in God, never to be forgotten, King William III., of glorious memory. The noble edifice
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