Otto von Bismarck

In 1847, he married Johanna von Puttkamer, with whom he fathered three children. Their marriage was believed to be happy and fulfilling one.

In 1877, the Bismarck Monument was built in Bad Kissingena. It is the first monument that was created in his honour, during his lifetime.

He died on July 30, 1898 at the age of 83 in Friedrichsruh. He was laid to rest in the Bismarck-Mausoleum.

Otto von Bismarck was born on April 1, 1815 in Schönhausen, Prussia, in a well-to-do family in the Province of Saxony. His father Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Bismarck was a former military officer. His mother was Wilhelmine Luise Mencken.

He would be dressed in military outfits, which created an image of a typical Prussian Junker. He went to the Johann Ernst Plamann's elementary school and later Friedrich-Wilhelm and GrauesKloster secondary schools.

In 1832, he began to study law at the University of Göttingen, Germany, where he remained for a year. The next year, he enrolled at the University of Berlin.

He served in the army for a brief period and eventually became an officer in Landwehr, after which, in his mid-twenties, he came back to his family home to run the family estates after his mother’s death.

In 1847, he served as a delegate in the new Prussian parliament, the Vereinigter Landtag. Here he earned a name for himself as a royalist, who spoke against the liberal, anti-autocratic Revolutions.

In 1849, he became an elected member of the Landtag, which was the lower house of the new Prussian parliament. During this time, he was against the unification of Germany as he believed that Prussia would lose its independence.

In 1851, he was appointed as a Prussian envoy at the Diet of the German Confederation in Frankfurt. He was later appointed into the Prussian House of Lords, for which he gave up his seat at the Landtag.

From 1851 onwards, he was appointed to serve as ambassador at St. Petersburg and Paris. These experiences helped him become acquainted with Europe’s political position.

In 1861, after William I became the King of Prussia, he was chosen to serve as Minister-President and Foreign Minister the following year. He exhibited great diplomatic skills in the position.

Although this German leader and politician only served in the military for a brief period in the reserve unit, he would wear a general’s uniform in public during his later life.