Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 26 - AUS-CHI.pdf/295

This page needs to be proofread.

B I S M A R C K 263 number of visitors every winter reaches an average of substitute for the representative of the lower nobility of his 20,000. The local population in 1880 was 6955; in 1891, district in the Estates-General, which were in that 7165; in 1900, 8417. year summoned to Berlin. He took his seat with Parliamentar Bismarck, capital of Burleigh county, North the Extreme Right, and distinguished himself by careen y the vigour and originality with which he defended Dakota, U.S.A., and capital of the state. It is situated a little south of the centre of the state, on the east bank the rights of the king and the Christian monarchy against of the Missouri river, at an altitude of 1670 feet, and is the Liberals. When the revolution broke out in the on the main line of the Northern Pacific railway. The following year he offered to bring the peasants of Schonriver is navigable at high water for 1200 miles above this hausen to Berlin in order to defend the king against the point, and much freight is shipped from here by this revolutionary party, and in the last meeting of the Estates route. The state Capitol, which cost $500,000, is a fine voted. in a minority of two against the address thanking the king for granting a constitution. He did not sit in building. Population (1880), 1758; (1900), 3319. any of the assemblies summoned during the revolutionary Bismarck, Otto Eduard Leopold von, year, but took a very active part in the formation of a Prince, Duke of Lauenburg (1815-1898), the great union of the Conservative party, and was one of the German statesman, was born on 1st April 1815, at the founders of the New Prussian Gazette, better known as Manor House of Schonhausen, his father’s seat in the the Kreuzzeitung, which has since then been the organ of Mark of Brandenburg. The family has, since the 14th the Monarchical party in Prussia. In the new parliament century, belonged to the landed gentry, and many mem- which was elected at the beginning of 1849, he sat for bers had held high office in the kingdom of Prussia. His Brandenburg, and was one of the most frequent and most father (d. 1845), of whom he always spoke with much incisive speakers of what was called the Junker party. affection, was a quiet, unassuming man, who retired from He took a prominent part in the discussions on the new the army in early life with the rank of Bittmeister. His Prussian constitution, always defending the power of the mother, a daughter of Mencken, cabinet secretary to the king. His speeches of this period show great debating king, was a woman of strong character and ability, who skill, combined with strong originality and imagination. had been brought up at Berlin under the “ Aufklarung.” His constant theme was, that the party disputes were a Her ambition was centred in her sons, but Bismarck in his struggle for power between the forces of revolution, which recollections of his childhood missed the influences of derived their strength from the fighters on the barricades, maternal tenderness. There were several children of the and the Christian monarchy, and that between these opposed marriage, which took place in 1806, but all died in principles no compromise was possible. He took also a conchildhood except Bernhard (b. 1810, d. 1893), Otto, and siderable part in the debates on the foreign policy of the one sister, Malvina (b. 1827), who married in 1845 Prussian Government; he defended the Government for Osca,r von Arnim. Young Bismarck was educated in not accepting the Frankfort constitution, and opposed the Berlin, first at a private school, then at the gymnasium of policy of Radowitz, on the ground that the Prussian king the Graue Kloster (Grey Friars). At the age of seventeen would be subjected to the control of a non-Prussian parliahe went to the University of Gottingen, where he spent a ment. The only thing, he said, that had come out of the little over a year; he joined the corps of the Hannoverana revolutionary year unharmed, and had saved Prussia from and took a leading part in the social life of the students. dissolution and Germany from anarchy, was the Prussian He completed his studies at Berlin, and in 1835 passed army and the Prussian civil service; and in the debates on the examinations which admitted him to the public service. foreign policy he opposed the numerous plans for bringing He was intended for the diplomatic service, but spent about the union of Germany, by subjecting the Crown and some months at Aix-la-Chapelle in administrative work, Prussia to a common German parliament. He had a seat and then was transferred to Potsdam and the judicial in the parliament of Erfurt, but only went there in order side. He soon retired from the public service; he con- to oppose the constitution which the Parliament had ceived a great distaste for it, and had shown himself framed. He foresaw that the policy of the Government defective in discipline and regularity. In 1839, after would lead it into a position when it would have to fight his mother’s death, he undertook, with his brother, the against Austria on behalf of a constitution by which management of the family estates in Pomerania; at this Prussia itself would be dissolved, and he was, therefore, time most of the estate attached to Schonhausen had one of the few prominent politicians who defended the to be sold. In 1844, after the marriage of his sister, he complete change of front which followed the surrender of went to live with his father at Schonhausen. He and his Olmutz. brother took an active part in local affairs, and in 1846 It was probably his speeches on German policy which he was appointed Deichhauptmann, an office in which he induced the king to appoint him Prussian representative was responsible for the care of the dykes by which the at the restored Diet of Frankfort in 1851. The country, in the neighbourhood of the Elbe, was preserved appointment was a bold one, as he was entirely DiPlomatic from inundation. During these years he travelled in without diplomatic experience, but he justified career’ England, France, and Switzerland. The influence of his the confidence placed in him. During the eight years he mother, and his own wide reading and critical character, spent at I rankfort he acquired an unrivalled knowledge of made him at one time inclined to hold liberal opinions on German politics. He was often used for important missions, government and religion, but he was strongly affected by as in 1852, when he was sent to Vienna. He was entrusted the religious revival of the early years of the reign of with the negotiations by which the duke of Augustenburg Irederick William IV.; his opinions underwent a great was persuaded to assent to the arrangements by which he change, and under the influence of the neighbouring resigned his claims to Schleswig and Holstein. The period country gentlemen he acquired those strong principles in he spent at Frankfort, however, was of most importance favour of monarchical government as the expression of the because of the change it brought about in his own political Christian state of which he was to become the most cele- opinions. When he went to Frankfort he was still under brated exponent. His religious convictions were strength- the influence of the extreme Prussian Conservatives, men ened by his marriage to Johanna von Puttkamer, which like the Gerlachs, who regarded the maintenance of the took place in 1847. principle of the Christian monarchy against the revolution In the same year he entered public life, being chosen as as the chief duty of the Prussian Government. He was