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Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck (April 1, 1815 - July 30, 1898) was the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Prussia (1862 - 1890); he unified Germany with a series of wars and became the first Chancellor (1871 - 1890) of the German Empire. Initially a deeply conservative, aristocratic, and monarchist politician, Bismarck fought the growing social democracy movement in the 1880s by outlawing several organizations and pragmatically instituting mandatory old-age pensions, health- and accident insurances for workers.
He was born in Schönhausen and studied law at Göttingen. He married Johanna von Puttkamer in 1847 in a long and happy marriage that produced 3 children.
Delighted after the failure of the revolution of 1848, he was elected to the Prussian parliament in 1849. Appointed to represent Prussia in Frankfurt, Bismarck slowly became convinced that a Prussian-led unified German nation was an important goal (this was considered a liberal objective at the time). Subsequently, he worked as ambassador in Russia and Paris. In 1862, the Prussian king Wilhelm I appointed him Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Prussia, as part of a conflict between the increasingly liberal Prussian parliament and the king.
Bismarck then succeeded in unifying Germany by initiating several wars. First, in cooperation with Austria, Schleswig and Holstein was conquered from Denmark (peace treaty in Vienna, October 30, 1864). Although already in 1865 Austria was pressured to let Prussia take care of these northern lands. In 1866 he attacked Austria and won quickly, annexing Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Nassau, and Frankfurt to Prussia, forming the North German Confederation. After Bismarck provoked France, the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870 and the southern German states, viewing France as the aggressor, joined the North German Confederation. France suffered a humiliating defeat, and Wilhelm I was crowned German Emperor in Versailles in 1871.
Celebrated as a national hero, Bismarck became Imperial Chancellor of the new German Empire. In foreign policy, he now devoted himself to keeping peace among the European powers of France, Austria, Germany and Russia. Internally, he was concerned about the emergence of two new parties: the Catholic Centre Party and the Social Democratic Party. The 1873 campaign against Catholicism called Kulturkampf was largely a failure. He attacked the social democrats in two ways: the party and its organizations were outlawed, while the workering class was appeased with (very progressive) legislation guaranteeing accident and health insurance as well as old-age pensions.
In the elections of 1890, both the Catholic Centre and the Social Democrats made great gains, and Bismarck resigned at the insistence of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had risen to the throne in 1888. Bismarck spent his last years gathering his memoirs and died 1898 in Friedrichsruh.
Both the Kriegsmarine battleship Bismarck and Bismarck, North Dakota were named in his honor.
