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Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (German: Otto, Fürst von Bismarck, Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen, Herzog zu Lauenburg, pronounced [ˈɔtoː fɔn ˈbɪsmaʁk] ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898; born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck) was a Prussian and later German statesman and diplomat. Bismarck's Realpolitik and powerful rule at home led to him being called the Iron Chancellor.
From his origins in the upper class of Junker landowners, Bismarck rose rapidly in Prussian politics under King Wilhelm I of Prussia. He served as the Prussian ambassador to Russia and France and in both houses of the Prussian parliament. From 1862 to 1890, he was the minister president and foreign minister of Prussia. He dominated European affairs after he masterminded the unification of Germany in 1871 and served as the first chancellor of the German Empire until 1890. The king granted Bismarck the titles of Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen in 1865 and Prince of Bismarck in 1871. Bismarck provoked three short, decisive wars against Denmark, Austria, and France. After the defeat of Austria, he replaced the German Confederation with the North German Confederation and served as its chancellor. This aligned the smaller North German states with Prussia, but excluded Austria. After the defeat of France with support from the independent South German states, he formed the German Empire and united Germany, but still without Austria. With Prussian dominance accomplished by 1871, Bismarck used balance of power diplomacy to maintain Germany's position in a peaceful Europe. However, the annexation of Alsace–Lorraine caused French revanchism and Germanophobia. Juggling a complex interlocking series of conferences, negotiations, and alliances, he used his diplomatic skills to maintain Germany's position. Bismarck was averse to maritime colonialism, as he thought it was a waste of German resources, but acquiesced to elite and mass opinion and built an overseas empire.
In his domestic political maneuvering, Bismarck created the first welfare state in the modern world, with the goal of undermining his socialist opponents. In the 1870s, he allied himself with the anti-tariff, anti-Catholic Liberals and fought the Catholic Church in the Kulturkampf ("culture struggle"), which also aimed to disenfranchise the Polish minority. This failed, as the Catholics responded by forming the powerful German Centre Party and using universal male suffrage to gain a bloc of seats. Bismarck responded by ending the Kulturkampf, breaking with the Liberals, enacting the Prussian deportations and forming a political alliance with the Centre Party to fight the Socialists.
Bismarck was loyal to his ruler, German Emperor Wilhelm I, who argued with Bismarck but supported him against the advice of Wilhelm's wife and son. While the Imperial Reichstag was elected by universal male suffrage, it did not have control of government policy. Bismarck distrusted democracy and ruled through a strong, well-trained bureaucracy with power in the hands of the traditional Junker elite. In 1888, which came to be known as the Year of the Three Emperors, the German throne passed from Wilhelm I to Friedrich III to Wilhelm II. The new emperor dismissed Bismarck from office two years later, and Bismarck retired to write his memoirs.
Bismarck is best remembered for his role in German unification. As head of Prussia and later Germany, Bismarck possessed not only a long-term national and international vision, but also the short-term ability to juggle complex developments. As a result, he became a hero to German nationalists, who built many monuments honouring him. He has been praised as a visionary who united Germany and kept the peace in Europe through adroit diplomacy, but he has also been criticized for the persecution of Poles and Catholics and the centralization of executive power, which some describe as Caesarist. Furthermore, he has been criticized by opponents of German nationalism, as nationalism became engrained in German culture, galvanizing the country to aggressively pursue nationalistic policies in both World Wars.