ABSTRACT
Under the influence of Otto von Bismarck’s subsequent success, however, it is easily overlooked that, for all the bold and imaginative initiatives of Bismarckian policy, only a fraction of the prerequisites actually obtained when in the summer of 1866 the clash came. In the process, of course, Bismarck’s actual objectives and success, in particular his expectation of success, have all too easily been overlooked. The underlinings in the two devotional books that Bismarck had for many years carried with him everywhere he went provide additional evidence of how powerfully the whole episode confirmed his deep conviction that success and failure in the lives of individuals as of communities are subject to the will of a higher power. Bismarck’s real and quite extraordinary achievement in this respect lay in the fact that he managed within the limits of what was humanly possible to protect Prussia’s relationship with France and in particular with Napoleon III and to keep it in being.
