“People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.”
Otto von Bismarck (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a conservative Prussian statesman who dominated German and European affairs from the 1860s until 1890 and was the first Chancellor of the German Empire between 1871 and 1890.
He skillfully used balance of power diplomacy to maintain Germany's position in a Europe which, despite many disputes and war scares, remained at peace. Bismarck's diplomacy of realpolitik and powerful rule at home gained him the nickname the "Iron Chancellor". German unification and its rapid economic growth was the foundation to his foreign policy. He disliked colonialism but reluctantly built an overseas empire when it was demanded by both elite and mass opinion.
A master of complex politics at home, Bismarck created the first welfare state in the modern world, with the goal of gaining working class support that might otherwise go to his Socialist enemies. Bismarck distrusted democracy and ruled through a strong, well-trained bureaucracy with power in the hands of a traditional Junker elite that consisted of the landed nobility in eastern Prussia.
He was strong-willed, outspoken and overbearing, but he could also be polite, charming and witty. Occasionally he displayed a violent temper, and he kept his power by melodramatically threatening resignation time and again. He possessed not only a long-term national and international vision but also the short-term ability to juggle complex developments.
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“Οι άνθρωποι ποτέ δεν λένε τόσα ψέματα, όσα μετά το κυνήγι, στη διάρκεια του πολέμου και πριν τις εκλογές.”
Ο Όττο Έντουαρντ Λέοπολντ, πρίγκιπας του Μπίσμαρκ, Δούκας του Lauenburg (Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen, 1 Απριλίου 1815 - 30 Ιουλίου 1898), ήταν ένας από τους πιο σημαντικούς Γερμανούς πολιτικούς του 19ου αιώνα. Ως Υπουργός-Πρόεδρος της Πρωσίας από το 1862 ως το 1890, πραγματοποίησε την ενοποίηση της Γερμανίας. Από το 1867 ήταν ο Καγκελάριος της Βόρειας Γερμανικής Συνομοσπονδίας. Όταν ιδρύθηκε η Γερμανική Αυτοκρατορία το 1871, έγινε ο πρώτος της Καγκελάριος (Reichskanzler).
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