BISMARCK, OTTO VON

born April 1, 1815, Schnhausen, Altmark, Prussia died July 30, 1898, Friedrichsruh, near Hamburg Otto von Bismarck in full Otto Eduard Leopold, Frst (prince) von Bismarck, Graf (count) von Bismarck-Schnhausen, Herzog (duke) von Lauenburg prime minister of Prussia (186273, 187390) and founder and first chancellor (187190) of the German Empire. Once the empire was established, he actively and skillfully pursued pacific policies in foreign affairs, succeeding in preserving the peace in Europe for about two decades. But in domestic policies his patrimony was less benign, for he failed to rise above the authoritarian proclivities of the landed squirearchy to which he was born. Additional reading Studies of Bismarck's life include Alan Palmer, Bismarck (1976); George O. Kent, Bismarck and His Times (1978); Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichrder, and the Building of the German Empire (1977, reissued 1987), a dual biography of Bismarck and his banker, based on archival sources; and Lothar Gall, Bismarck, the White Revolutionary, 2 vol. (1986; originally published in German, 1980), a somewhat revisionist analysis regarding the author's positive assessment of Bismarck's first two decades of power. Otto Von Bismarck, Reflections and Reminiscences, ed. by Theodore S. Hamerow (1968), is a compilation of translated excerpts from Bismarck's memoirs and is of interest as the highly literary work of a political genius, although its historical accuracy is suspect. Interpretive histories of 19th-century Germany that provide insights into Bismarck's role in the events of the period include James J. Sheehan, German Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century (1978, reissued 1982), dealing with two liberal parties and their evolution during the Bismarckian and Wilhelmian periods; Otto Pflanze, Bismarck and the Development of Germany: The Period of Unification, 1815-1871 (1963, reprinted 1971), a thorough study of Bismarckian policies leading to the creation of a united Germany in 1871; Margaret Lavinia Anderson, Windthorst: A Political Biography (1981), an examination of the life of the leader of the Catholic Centre Party and a major opponent of Bismarck; George F. Kennan, The Decline of Bismarck's European Order: Franco-Russian Relations, 1875-1890 (1979), a traditional diplomatic history stressing the stability created by Bismarck's diplomacy; Vernon L. Lidtke, The Outlawed Party: Social Democracy in Germany, 1878-1890 (1966), an exploration of the 12 years of the Bismarckian period when the Social Democratic Party was illegal; David Blackbourn and Geoff Eley, The Peculiarities of German History: Bourgeois Society and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Germany (1984), a neo-Marxist interpretation of late 19th-century Germany, stressing its similarity to other Western nations; and Hans-Ulrich Wehler, The German Empire, 1871-1918 (1985; originally published in German, 1973; 5th German ed., 1983), a critical study of the Bismarckian period stressing the shortcomings of his achievement. Kenneth Barkin