ABSTRACT
In the days of his discontent, depression and boredom in Pomerania, the thought that politics might provide an outlet for him was never far from Bismarck’s mind. His brother Bernhard was Landrat in the small town of Naugard, near the Bismarck estates in Pomerania, and Otto would have liked something similar for himself. The nearest he came to it was to become dyke warden at Schönhausen, responsible for preventing the Elbe from flooding the countryside, which it did in 1845, before Bismarck’s arrival, lapping the steps of the terrace of the Bismarck castle. The transfer to Schönhausen after his father’s death was at least partially motivated by the thought it would help him to find a public role. Various men of influence had kept an eye on him, as a potentially valuable recruit to Junker political activities. The most important was Ludwig von Gerlach, who in 1844 had become president of the Oberlandesgericht, the highest provincial court, in Magdeburg, not far from Schönhausen. Bismarck was in regular consultation with Gerlach, twenty years older than himself, and held him in high regard. It was this contact that helped him to get elected as representative of the Magdeburg estates to the united Prussian diet of 1847. The previous representative had had to retire for reasons of health, but Bismarck, although not on the list of alternatives and only recently returned to the province, was chosen. It gave him the opportunity for his political debut.
