Germany’s "Iron Chancellor," architect of German unification
Minister-President of Prussia and first chancellor of the German Empire, entered history as the "Iron Chancellor." In the nineteenth century, with cold and shrewd realpolitik, through three carefully staged wars he unified the fragmented German states into a mighty German Empire. He had a famous line: "the great questions of the day are not settled by speeches and majority votes — but by iron and blood." He was also a forerunner of the modern welfare state, the first to establish social insurance, both to pacify workers and to strengthen the state. He is the most typical representative of the way of "forging order by force."
In 1862, facing the parliament’s obstruction over military funding, Bismarck gave his famous speech: "Germany looks not to Prussia’s liberalism but to its power… the great questions of the day are settled by iron and blood." With this undisguised realpolitik he completed German unification within a decade. He proved the efficiency of force, yet also planted in this new empire a hidden danger of faith in arms.
Whether Bismarck, who unified Germany by force and built social insurance, was a great talent or planted a hidden danger of faith in arms, is long disputed; this site states his achievements and the controversy.
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