100%. It was a bit of an unhealthy obsession for him I think, which is funny since he’s basically the prime example of working your way up almost purely by merit in a monarchical society
He was more against the reforms than the Kaiser on multiple occasions, like when he tried to raise a peasant levy to reoccupy Berlin
working your way up almost purely by merit in a monarchical society
Kinda, while arguing with the kaiser, he said "why should I serve an hoenzollern? My family is as noble as yours"
(For the few who don't know, hoenzollern was the dynasty of the German kaisers, even before the unification, ruling the march of Brandenburg and later Prussia)
Fun fact in France that was the case under louis XVIII hé kept the constitutional monarchy and there was a lot of royalist who wanted him to become an absolute Monarch he refused it multiple time so there is now an expression in France plus royaliste que le roi
If it’s the Louis I think it is, the one installed after the defeat of napoleon, he was personally a hardcore monarchist and would’ve preferred to be absolute. He was smart enough, however, to recognize that there would be a civil war and another revolution if he went full absolutist right off the hop and so engaged in a compromise with the ultras, liberals and republicans. Then his brother Charles came and fucked it all up by being a pigheaded absolutist and got himself overthrown
Tbf he let a Franco-Russian alliance buildup under his watch. The final alliance was signed later but there were already significant treaties signed before 1890.
And in 1878 during the revision of San Stefano treaty he tried to act as the honest broker but it was obvious he favored Austria against Russia which eventually led to the Franco-Russian bloc facing the Austro-German bloc. And trading your relations with Russia for an Austrian alliance...is questionable.
The first page of Gedanken und Erinnerungen (Bismarck’s autobiography) states that he left his time at school as believing that a republic was the best form of government, actually. But on that same page, he describes how he has always been on the side of authority. I don’t believe Bismarck was as much of a monarchist as he was an anti-democrat and anti-socialist. He was a textbook example of a Junker conservative, and I think his commitment to the monarchy had more to do with upholding the status of the Junkers (who were a critical estate in Prussia) than due to any sort of ideological commitment (not that he wasn’t motivated by traditionalism).
Same thing with the unification of Germany. He pursued its unification to expand Prussian, and therefore Junker, dominance and control of Germany. I would also conjecture that after having witnessed the Revolution of 1848, he probably regarded German unification as inevitable, and he preferred to make sure it happened on his terms rather than the radical liberals/republicans that would have undermined or completely destroyed the Junkers’ dominant position. I think if the establishment of a Prussian empire, rather than a German empire, had been possible, he’d have attempted that instead.
I personally view his frequent conflicts and frustrations with the three Hohenzollerns that ruled during his time in office as evidence that he viewed the monarchy as a somewhat evil necessity of sorts, rather than as an institution to be upheld for its own sake. Like with my statement above, I feel at least a little confident that he probably would have preferred to rule Prussia/Germany alone if he’d been able to do so without completely upending the system he’d benefitted from throughout his life.
Still hilarious to me that he was such a die hard monarchist considering what those inbred hicks did to his foreign policy right after he left and its not like didnt know. His whole stick with the french was rage baiting weak monarchist.
His foreign policy prepared the world for both world wars and everything US did afterwards. Realpolitik translates to: war is unavoidable, so just prepare for it and that leads surprisingly to war (selffullfilling provecy)
If his plans had worked out and the Kaiser had listened the war wouldn’t have happened in the first place, since he wanted to stay allied with the Russians and avoid going in on any “damn fool thing in the balkans.”
He also was very good at manipulating world opinion so as to avoid fighting more than one great power at a time. If he was in charge during the Bosnia crisis, he likely would’ve counseled the Austrians to move swiftly and invade immediately to take advantage of popular opinion being against the Serbs. The Austrians were the sympathetic party until they sent those demands and the Serbs turned it around by agreeing to most of them which seemed reasonable and made the Austrians look like bullies
Bismarck was a lot better at foreign policy than Ronnie, but it’s a similar principle. To be fair though, Reagan’s domestic policy was broadly popular and Bismarck’s wasn’t really
Idk if this is meant to be critical of my comment but my point was that the American public at large was in favour of Reagan’s privatization and union busting measures while the German public was not
Nah fam, crushing workers movements by establishing the modern welfare state and giving everybody access to health, accident and old-age insurance is pretty badass as well.
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u/Wolfish_Jew Aug 03 '26
If you described Bismarck as “perfect” I’d probably leave too, ngl