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    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)",
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    "verified_text": "germany, for he was thenceforward entirely absorbed in the affairs of his country. the foreign policy he controlled absolutely. as chancellor he was responsible for the whole internal policy of the empire, and his influence is to be seen in every department of state, especially, however, in the great change of policy after 1878. during the earlier period the estrangement from the conservatives, which had begun in 1866, became very marked, and brought about a violent quarrel with many of his old friends, which culminated in the celebrated arnim trial. he incurred much criticism during the struggle with the roman catholic church, and in 1873 he was shot at and slightly wounded by a youth called rullmann, who professed to be an adherent of the clerical party. once before, in 1866, just before the outbreak of war, his life had been attempted by a young man called cohen, a native of wurttemberg, who wished to save germany from a fratricidal war. in 1872 he retired from the presidency of the prussian ministry, but returned after a few months. on several occasions he offered to retire, but the emperor always refused his consent, on the last time with the word \"never.\" in 1877 he took a long leave of absence for ten months. his health at this time was very bad. in 1878 he presided over the congress of berlin. the following years were chiefly occupied, besides foreign affairs, which were always his first care, with important commercial reforms, and he held at this time also the office of prussian minister of trade in addition to his other posts. during this period his relations with the reichstag were often very unsatisfactory, and at no time did he resort so freely to prosecutions in the law-courts in order to injure his opponents, so that the expression _bismarck-beleidigung_ was invented. he was engaged at this time in a great struggle with the social-democrats, whom he tried to crush by exceptional penal laws. the death of the emperor william in 1888 made a serious difference in his position. he had been bound to him by a long term of loyal service, which had been rewarded with equal loyalty. for his relations to the emperors frederick and william ii., and for the events connected with his dismissal from office in march 1890, we must refer to the articles under those names. after his retirement he resided at friedrichsruh, near hamburg, a house on his leuenburg estates. his criticisms of the government, given sometimes in conversation, sometimes in the columns of the _hamburger nachrichten_, caused an open breach between him and the emperor; and the new chancellor, count caprivi, in a circular despatch which was afterwards published, warned all german envoys that no real importance must be attached to what he said. when he visited vienna for his son's wedding the german ambassador, prince reuss, was forbidden to take any notice of him. a reconciliation was effected in 1893. in 1895 his eightieth birthday was celebrated with great enthusiasm: the reichstag alone, owing to the opposition of the clericals and the socialists, refused to vote an address. in 1891 he had been elected a member of the reichstag, but he never took his seat. he died at friedrichsruh on the 31st of july 1898. bismarck was made a count in 1865; in 1871 he received the rank of furst (prince). on his retirement the emperor created him duke of lauenburg, but he never used the title, which was not inherited by his son. in 1866 he received l60,000 as his share of the donation voted by the reichstag for the victorious generals. with this he purchased the estate of varzin in pomerania, which henceforth he used as a country residence in preference to schonhausen. in 1871 the emperor presented him with a large part of the domains of the duchy of lauenburg. on his seventieth birthday a large sum of money (l270,000) was raised by public subscription, of which half was devoted to repurchasing the estate of schonhausen for him, and the rest was used by him to establish a fund for the assistance of schoolmasters. as a young man he was an officer in the landwehr and militia, and in addition to his civil honours he was eventually raised to the rank of general. among the numerous orders he received we may mention that he was the first protestant on whom the pope bestowed the order of christ; this was done after the cessation of the kulturkampf and the reference of the dispute with spain concerning the caroline islands to the arbitration of the pope. bismarck's wife died in 1894. he left one daughter and two sons. herbert (1840-1904), the elder, was wounded at mars-le-tour, afterwards entered the foreign office, and acted as private secretary to his father (1871-1881). in 1882 he became councillor to the embassy at london, in 1884 was transferred to st petersburg, and in 1885 became under-secretary of state for foreign affairs. in 1884 he had been elected to the reichstag, but had to resign his seat when, in 1886, he was made secretary of state for foreign affairs and prussian minister. he conducted many of the negotiations with great britain on colonial affairs. he retired in 1890 at the same time as his father, and in 1893 was again elected to the reichstag. he married countess margarete hoyos in 1892, and died on the 18th of september 1904. he left two daughters and three sons, of whom the eldest, otto christian archibald (b. 1897), succeeded to the princely title. the second son, wilhelm, who was president of the province of prussia, died in 1901. by his wife, sybilla von arnim-krochlendorff, he left three daughters and a son, count nikolaus (b. 1896). authorities.--the literature on bismarck's life is very extensive, and it is only possible to enumerate a few of the most important books. the first place belongs to his own works. these include his own memoirs, published after his death, under the title _gedanken und erinnerungen_; there is an english translation, _bismarck: his reflections and reminiscences_ (london, 1898). they are incomplete, but contain very valuable discussions on particular points. the speeches are of the greatest importance both for his character and for political history; of the numerous editions that by horst kehl, in 12 vols. (stuttgart, 1892-1894), is the best; there is a cheap edition in reclam's _universalbibliothek._ bismarck was an admirable letter-writer, and numbers of his private letters have been published; a collected edition has been brought out by horst kohl. his letters to his wife were published by prince herbert bismarck (stuttgart, 1900). a translation of a small selection of the private letters was published in 1876 by f. maxse. of great value for the years 1851-1858 is the corrspondence with general l. v. gerlach, which has been edited by horst kohl (3rd ed., berlin, 1893). a selection of the political letters was also published under the title _politische briefe aus den jahren 1849-1899_ (2nd ed., berlin, 1890). of far greater importance are the collections of despatches and state papers edited by herr v. poschinger. these include four volumes entitled _preussen im bundestag, 1851-1859_ (4 vols., leipzig, 1882-1885), which contain his despatches during the time he was at frankfort. next in importance are two works, _bismarck als volkswirth_ and _aktenstucke zur wirthschaftspolitik des fursten bismarck_, which are part of the collection of state papers, _akenstucke zur geschichte der wirthschaftspolitik in preussen._ they contain full information on bismarck's commercial policy, including a number of important state papers. a useful general collection is that by ludwig hahn, _bismarck, sein politisches leben_, &c. (5 vols., berlin, 1878-1891), which includes a selection from letters, speeches and newspaper articles. these collections have only been possible owing to the extreme generosity which bismarck showed in permitting the publication of documents; he always professed to have no secrets. a full account of the diplomatic history from 1863 to 1866 is given by sybel in _die begrundung des deutschen reichs_ (munich, 1889-1894), written with the help of the prussian archives. the last two volumes, covering 1866-1870, are of less value, as he was not able to use the archives for this period. poschinger has also edited a series of works in which anecdotes, minutes of interviews and conversations are recorded; they are, however, of very unequal value. they are _bismarck und die parlamentarier, furst bismarck und der bundesrath, die ansprache des fursten bismarck, neue tischgesprache_, and _bismarck und die diplomaten_. selections from these have been published in english by charles lowe, _the tabletalk of prince bismarck_, and by sidney whitman, _conversations with bismarck_. by far the fullest guide to bismarck's life is horst kohl's _furst bismarck, regesten zu einer wissenschaftlichen biographie_ (leipzig, 1891-1892), which contains a record of bismarck's actions on each day, with references to and extracts from his letters and speeches. for the works of moritz busch, which contain graphic pictures of his daily life, see the article busch. further materials were published periodically in the _bismarck-jahrbuch_, edited by horst kohl (berlin, 1894-1896; stuttgart, 1897-1899). herr v. poschinger also brought out a _bismarck portfeuille_. of german biographies may be mentioned hans blum, _bismarck und seine zeit_ (6 vols., munich, 1894-1895), with a volume of appendices, &c. (1898); heyck, _bismarck_ (bielefeld, 1898); kreutzer, _otto von bismarck_ (2 vols., leipzig, 1900); klein-hattingen, _bismarck und seine welt, 1815-1871_, bd. i. (berlin, 1902); lenz, _geschichte bismarcks_ (leipzig, 1902); penzler, _furst bismarck nach seiner entlassung_ (7 vols., ib. 1897-1898); liman, one volume under the same title (ib. 1901). there are english biographies by charles lowe, _bismarck, a political biography_ (revised edition in 1 vol., 1895), by james headlam (1899), and by f. stearns (philadelphia, 1900). a useful bibliography of all works on bismarck up to 1895 is paul schulze and otto koller's _bismarck-literatur_ (leipzig, 1896). (j. w. he.) footnote: [1] it was not till many years later that our knowledge of these events (which is still incomplete) was established; in 1894 the publication of the memoirs of the king of rumania showed, what had hitherto been denied, that bismarck had taken a leading part in urging the election of the prince of hohenzollern. it was in 1892 that the language used by bismarck himself made it necessary for the german government to publish the original form of the ems telegram.",
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