European politics at the beginning of the 19th century can be defined as a confrontation between absolutism and liberalism that emerged from the French Revolution. Against this predominance of ideological factors, of both kinds, arises Realpolitik (political realism), a term coined in 1853. Its inventor, the diplomat Ludwig von Rochau, was convinced that the German Revolution of 1848 had failed due to excessive idealism. . More attention to practical matters was needed, in his opinion.
Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) would become the greatest exponent of this way of doing politics, dominated by pragmatism. Politics, thus conceived, is the art of the possible. Its purpose was to increase the power of the State and leave aside any type of consideration that did not serve this purpose. Some authors, however, have questioned the Iron Chancellor’s supposed infallibility as a political strategist.
In January 1871, after various military victories, Bismarck achieved the unification of Germany, turning the new state into a great power, which would be discussed by the rest of Europe. In fact, European alliances against Germany were only a matter of time.
At this time the politician was at the height of his career. He now had to consolidate his position in Berlin, where he would have to maneuver with the intrigues of the monarchy and the political class. Under Wilhelm I he was Prime Minister of Prussia and Chancellor of the German Empire. He worked very closely with the monarch, who had appointed him without enthusiasm, but who agreed with him on the project of unifying Germany. Bismarck did not have a political faction behind him and he was widely discussed by most political leaders.
He obtained more success in the international field. From the unification, he oriented his foreign policy to the maintenance of the status quo. In the heat of German economic development, Bismarck played the role of European arbiter for almost twenty years. The focus of his policy was to keep France isolated, aware of its desire for revenge after its defeat in the war in 1871.
In order to contain France, the foreign minister designed several agreements, known as Bismarckian systems. The German demonstrated his skill at the Congress of Berlin, seven years later, where he checked Russian claims in the Balkans, as well as at the Berlin Conference, in 1884-85, at which he presided over the division of the zones. of European influence in Africa.
The “Iron Chancellor” was a deep connoisseur of the men he dealt with. The king ended up placing all his trust in him. They argued frequently, but Bismarck knew that the sovereign could not do without him. A threat of resignation frightened William I, who did not know how to manage a united Germany without whom he made it possible.
His influence over the Emperor was hampered by the sophisticated Empress Augusta, who held him in contempt as a brusque man. An added difficulty was the liberal personality of Crown Prince Frederick and his young wife Victoria, who considered that the chancellor had hoarded too much power.
On big issues like the wars against Denmark, Austria, and France, or national unity, Bismarck almost always got the monarch’s complicity, though not without much difficulty. As he himself said: “The things of which the King is so proud I wrested from him with painful labor.” The monarchy to which he had gifted an empire as a result of his military victories and his diplomatic skill would end up dispensing with him due to personal incompatibilities and generational misgivings.
The rupture was presented as inevitable when the succession of William I – who had suffered two assassination attempts and finally died a natural death in 1888 – brought to the imperial throne his sickly son, Crown Prince Frederick William, married to a daughter of Queen Victoria of England. It lasted only ninety days. His son Guillermo, aged 29, succeeded him under the name of Guillermo II.
The new emperor was very young, politically liberal, like his father, and believed himself capable of running the Empire without the help and advice of Bismarck and Parliament. The chancellor, at the age of 73, tried to soften relations with the sovereign and warn him of the dangers that threatened the new Germany, which only he could control. But both thought highly of themselves and shared an innate tendency to confrontation. They collided head-on without the old chancellor being able to counter the arrogance of the young monarch.
Bismarck had difficulties with the royal family, but also with the political class, which he never took into account. He had also clashed with the Catholic Church, at a time when a radical response was given from Rome to the progressive ideas circulating in European politics and intellectuality. It was the Church of the first Vatican Council, which condemned liberalism and refused to accept the changes that had taken place in the world.
Encouraged by liberals, who viewed the pope’s statements and condemnations as an attack on the fledgling democratic movement, and personally persuaded that the pope’s policy was to strengthen defeated Catholic Austria against the new empire, Bismarck He declared the Kulturkampf, the war for culture, which led him to a confrontation with the German Catholics, the majority in the south of the country.
The supporters of the doctrine of Rome were treated as Germans of foreign origin, considering them disloyal to the new German state and dependent on a foreign power faced with Germany whose headquarters were in Rome.
Added to this modern war of religion was Bismarck’s opposition to the conservative and liberal parties, at odds with each other, but which the chancellor equally described as subversive. He understood that they were more faithful to his political ideology than to the constitution of the new Germany.
All these dangers that he himself had fueled with his personalist policy turned against him shortly after he was crowned Emperor Wilhelm II. Bismarck suffered a resounding defeat at the polls, and did not control Parliament or have the support of the monarchy. The emperor placed on the agenda a bill for the protection of labor, to which Bismarck opposed an antagonistic text, contrary to the ambitions of the Social Democrats. He found himself cornered and considered that his time had come.
He gracefully resigned, but not before warning the sovereign that the newly unified nation was in grave danger. He retired to his lands in Pomerania, where he devoted the end of his life to writing libels against Wilhelm II and against the new rulers and to writing his memoirs, which appeared after his death.
His premonition would take several years to arrive. But he arrived, at the hands of the emperor himself, in circumstances other than those imagined by Bismarck. Guillermo II allowed himself to be carried away by the German Army, which would end up promoting the Great War of 1914. The German defeat culminated in another humiliation in the Treaty of Versailles, a pretext, in turn, for Hitler’s Third Reich to initiate a policy of rearmament and lead Europe into a new and more devastating war.
The subject of constant review in German and European historiography, Bismarck was an extraordinary man who based his power on both war and diplomacy. However, he did not know how to count on the German middle classes or the liberal parliamentary system that he himself had put in place.
His lack of sociological vision has been pointed out as one of his greatest weaknesses. He relentlessly pursued his political objectives, but lacked the social sensitivity to exploit the possibilities of the State in favor of the people. His greatest success in this field, the pension system, was more of a ploy to thwart the influence of the socialists.
Even so, he was a revolutionary conservative who launched a certain welfare state and promoted education. And, above all, Bismarck was the man who put Germany on the map of the great European powers.
This text is part of an article published in number 447 of the Historia y Vida magazine. Do you have something to contribute? Write to us at redaccionhyv@historiayvida.com.