Bismarck was born in 1815. His father was a feudal lord of Brandenburg. After receiving higher education, he entered the civil service of Prussia, but left it shortly. After that, he settled upon his ancestral estate.

He was a great scholar of Politics, History and Philosophy. He started his political life in 1845 when he was elected for the Provincial Diet of his province. In 1847, he was sent to represent the Imperial Diet of Prussia.

There he bitterly opposed the public demands for the establishment of Democracy, constitution and liberal reforms, and expressed his views in favour of absolutism, autocracy and despotism. In the words of Ault:

“He reappeared in public life as a member of the Prussian Parliament in 1847, when he promptly made himself known for his contempt of parliamentary methods.

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When his tirades against democracy were interrupted by hoots and hisses, the blond giant would pull a newspaper from his pocket and calmly read until the disorder subsided and then renew his attack.”

Bismarck wanted to strengthen the King of Prussia. He had no faith in the powerless position of the crown of England. He had ardent belief in the Prussian monarchy. Once he expressed his views as under:

“The Prussian Crown must not allow itself to be thrust into the powerless position of the English Crown, which seems more like a smartly decorative cupola on the state edifice, than its central pillar of support, as I consider ours.”

Since Bismarck had no faith in the democracy, constitutions and parliaments, he was not satisfied with the measures which had been adopted for the unification of Germany till 1848.

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In his opinion, the unification of Germany could not be achieved without recognizing the leadership of Prussia. It was, therefore, that Bismarck opposed the decisions of the Frankfort Parliament. He said:

“The Frankfort crown may be very brilliant, but the gold which would give truth to its brilliancy can only be gained by melting down the Prussian Crown. The scheme for a union annihilates the integrity of the Russian kingdom Prussians we are and Prussians we will remain.”

Being influenced by the ability of Bismarck, the King of Prussia sent him as a delegate to the newly established Federal Diet of Frankfort in 1851. He remained there for eight years. During this period, he learned much about diplomacy.

He also studied the system of administration of Austria and concluded that Prussia could not achieve a measure of significance and importance in the German confederation without driving Austria out of it.

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In his opinion, Austria was the bitter enemy of Prussia and the latter had to wage a war with the former. His attitude and ideas became more and more irritating to Austria.

According to him, Germany was ‘too narrow for Austria and Prussia.’ In 1856, he clearly expressed his views as follows:

“I only desire to express my conviction that ere long we shall have to fight Austria for our very existence is not in our power to avert that eventuality for the course of events in Germany can lead to no other result.”

In 1859, Bismarck was appointed the ambassador of Prussia in Russia. He proved himself as the best friend of the Czar of Russia. Later on, the maintenance of friendship with Russia became the fundamental principle of the foreign policy of Bismarck.

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After a period of three years, he was sent to France in 1862 on the same post, where he studied the strange aspects of the character of Napoleon III. Bismarck called him as “a great unrecognized incapacity”.

After a few months, the constitutional deadlock ensued in Prussia and the Prussian king immediately called him back and appointed him the Chancellor of Prussia. He always ignored the very existence and opposition of the parliament. He clearly expressed that:

“Not by speeches and majority votes are the great questions of the day decided-that was the great blunder of 1848 and 1849-but by blood and iron.”

He was of the opinion that the unity of Germany could only be achieved by war. For this purpose he adopted some important measures to increase the power and numerical strength of the Prussian army.

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He knew very well that Prussian army had to fight the wars to make Germany a nation. Since the efforts of the people had failed in this respect till 1848, they gladly accepted the policy of blood and iron adopted by Bismarck for the national unification of Germany.