ABSTRACT
Otto von Bismarck was appointed prime minister of Prussia in September 1862. He was born on All Fools’ Day in 1815, the son of a Prussian Junker (member of the lesser nobility) and a mother from a successful family of civil servants. His background, combining liberal intellectualism on his mother’s side and traditional Prussian noble values from his father, is said to have gifted the young Bismarck a breadth of vision and an ability to understand diverse attitudes and ambitions. He was well educated in Berlin, a city he was said to hate, and after university in Göttingen he embarked upon a career as a civil servant. When he was still only 24 years old he resigned his post and returned home to the family estate in Pomerania, but boredom soon found him engaging in Prussian politics. From 1851, in his position as Prussian representative to the Federal Diet of the Confederation in Frankfurt, he fought to maintain Prussian supremacy in the face of the Austrian challenge. In 1859 he was moved to a new diplomatic posting in St Petersburg but he continued to champion the cause of Prussia within the Confederation. Until 1860, as a diplomat, Bismarck had been at the margins of power, but a constitutional crisis in Prussia, which saw open conflict between the sovereign and the parliament over the issue of the reorganization of the army, resulted in the recall of Bismarck from his then posting in Paris to head a new cabinet. Between 1862 and 1866 Bismarck ruled Prussia unconstitutionally, ignoring the parliament, illegally raising the necessary finance by
taxation and pushing through the army reforms. In his new position as prime minister of Prussia, Bismarck sought to enhance the position of Prussia at every available opportunity. Just nine years later he had achieved his aim of securing Prussia’s position within Germany and setting her on the path of economic success and political dominance.
