BISMARCK, OTTO EDUARD LEOFOLD, von. — German statesman, known as the Iron Chancellor, born at Schönhausen on 1 April 1815, died at Friedrichsruhe on 30 July 1898. He soon demonstrated particular aptitude for political life; indeed, at a very young age he became a member of the Diet convened by Federico Guglielmo IV; he was subsequently ambassador in Paris and St Petersburg. Appointed president of the Council in 1862, his policy was directed above all toward asserting Prussian hegemony over the smaller German states, in opposition to Austria, which, for its part, seeking to counter Prussia, had convened at Frankfurt on 17 August 1863 a Diet of German princes to which it intended to submit a federal reform. But the abstention, at the B.’s suggestion, of Guglielmo I of Prussia, who in the meantime had succeeded his brother Federico Guglielmo IV, frustrated the designs of the Habsburgs.
This was the B.’s first political success, since Austria’s position was becoming increasingly delicate: it found itself isolated from England and France and opposed by Russia. Further disagreements arose between Austria and Prussia following the victorious conclusion of the war against Denmark, conducted jointly over the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg; disagreements which, moreover, the B. increasingly endeavoured to intensify, in order to reach
B.’s aggressive policy and the establishment of the German Empire gravely disrupted the politics of the moderates, who in the years 1870–71 saw the Europeanist-liberal dream collapse, precisely because B.’s policy was the implementation of a pure spirit of conquest (cf. F. Chabod, Il pensiero europeo della Destra di fronte alla guerra franco-prussiana, in La Comunità internazionale, 1 [1946], pp. 221 ff.). Even at the height of his successes, B. was forced to overcome extremely serious difficulties, above all in his attempt to subject the Church and the German Catholics to his designs. It was precisely in this way that the struggle began to which Virchow gave the tendentious name Kulturkampf (struggle for civilization), and which B. conducted under the pretext of defending the rights of the State and combating the political ultramontanism of the clergy, but which in fact, by every means, sought to detach German Catholicism from Rome, subject it to the government, make it easy prey to Lutheran penetration, and, if possible, destroy the flourishing social and political organizations of German Catholics. Beginning in 1871 with the government’s refusal to recognize the dogma of papal infallibility and occurring in conjunction with other factors, this struggle continued until 1887, reaching its climax with the so-called “May Laws” of 1873–74–75, which were decidedly oppressive and led to the imprisonment of not a few bishops. But in the face of the resolute attitude maintained by the Catholics, led by Windthorst and other energetic leaders, the dispute gradually ended in a clear Catholic victory, until a reconciliation was reached. The May Laws were reexamined, diplomatic relations with the Vatican were resumed, and B. himself, having had occasion to recognize the grave political error into which he had fallen, requested from Leone XIII arbitration in the Caroline Islands question (1887).
B.’s star then inevitably began to decline; indeed, the accession of Guglielmo II to the throne marked the end of his prestige and despotic authority, and so on 18 March 1890 he abandoned power and withdrew to Friedrichsruhe, where he died.