How curious that such an outsize man, in physique as well as personality, should be remembered today mainly for giving his name to a small fish. For the 19th century, Bismarck was no herring but a leviathan. Between 1862 and 1890 he created Germany, seeing off first the Austrian empire and then France. He dominated Prussian and then German politics and played a central role in the international relations of Europe. He also created the German problem which has been with us in one form or another ever since: his new country which sat at the heart of Europe was already a great military power and in the years after unification grew into a great economic one as well.
He came from an unlikely background for such an extraordinary statesman. The Bismarcks were Junkers, landed gentry, eking out a modest living on their estates in east Prussia. Although some of their values and prejudices remained with Bismarck, he was bored to desperation by country life.
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