Bismarck: A LifeOxford University Press, 2 aug 2012 - 577 pagina's This is the life story of one of the most interesting human beings who ever lived. A political genius who remade Europe and united Germany between 1862 and 1890 by the sheer power of his great personality. It takes the reader into close proximity with a human being of almost superhuman abilities. We see him through the eyes of his secretaries, his old friends, his neighbours, his enemies and the press. Otto von Bismarck 'made' Germany but never 'ruled' it. For twenty eight years he acted as a prime minister without a party. He made speeches, brilliant in content but hesitant in delivery, and rarely addressed a public meeting. He planned three wars and after a certain stage in his career always wore military uniform to which he had no claim. The 'Iron Chancellor', the image of Prussian militarism, suffered from hypochondria and hysteria. Contemporaries called him a 'dictator' and several observers credited him with 'demonic' powers'. They were not wrong. The sheer power of his remarkable 'sovereign sel' awed even his enemies. William I observed that it was hard to be emperor under a man like Bismarck. He towered physically and intellectually over his contemporaries. His spoken and written prose sparkled with wit, insight, grand visions and petty malice. He united Germany and transformed Europe like Napoleon before and Hitler after him but with neither their control of the state nor command of great armies. He was and remained a royal servant. This new biography explores the greatness and limits of a huge and ultimately destructive self. It uses the diaries and letters of his contemporaries to explore the most remarkable figure of the nineteenth century, a man who never said a dull thing or wrote a slack sentence. A political genius who combined creative and destructive traits, generosity and pettiness, tolerance and ferocious enmity, courtesy and rudeness - in short, not only the most important nineteenth-century statesman but by far the most entertaining. |
Inhoudsopgave
Introduction Bismarcks Sovereign Self | 1 |
Bismarck Born Prussian and What That Meant | 13 |
Bismarck The Mad Junker | 28 |
Bismarck Represents Himself 18471851 | 71 |
Bismarck as Diplomat 18511862 | 111 |
Power | 146 |
I have beaten them all All | 184 |
The Unifi cation of Germany 18661870 | 258 |
The Guest House of the Dead Jew | 363 |
Three Kaisers and Bismarcks Fall from Power | 425 |
Bismarcks Legacy Blood and Irony | 465 |
Notes | 481 |
528 | |
Photographic Acknowledgements | 538 |
539 | |
The Decline Begins Liberals and Catholics | 312 |
Overige edities - Alles bekijken
Veelvoorkomende woorden en zinsdelen
Albrecht von Roon ambassador army asked August Austrian became become Berlin Bismarck Briefe Bismarck to Johanna Bismarck wrote Bleichröder brother Bund cabinet called camarilla career Catholic Centre Chancellor conservative constitution Count crisis Crown Prince Crown Princess deputies diary diplomatic Disraeli elected Emperor Engelberg Eulenburg father Federal foreign France Frankfurt Frederick William Frederick William IV Freiherr French Friedrich Friedrichsruh German GW xiv Herbert Holstein House Ibid January Jews July June Junker Kaiser Karl King King’s Kingdom Kleist Kreuzzeitung Kulturkampf Landtag Lasker Lassalle Leopold von Gerlach letter liberal Lord Lucius Ludwig von Gerlach Manteuffel March military minister Minister-President Ministry Moltke Moritz von Blanckenburg Napoleon Napoleon III National Neue deutsche Biographie never Otto von Bismarck parliament party Pflanze political Prussian Queen Queen Augusta Reich Reichstag revolution Roggenbach Roon royal Schönhausen September speech Spitzemberg Stosch Tiedemann tion took Varzin vote Waldersee wanted Windthorst