Bismarck and the foundation of the German empire . alof the army, and the sanctity of the Church wastransferred to the Crown ; to the nobles and peasants,criticism of, or opposition to, the King had in itsomething of sacrilege ; the words by the Grace ofGod added to the royal title were more than anempty phrase. Society was still organised on theold patriarchal basis : at the bottom was the peasant;above him was \.\\&gnddiger Herr ; above him, Unseraltergnddigste Herr, the King, who lived in Berlin;and above him, the Herr Gott in Heaven. To the inhabitants of South Germany, and themen of the t
Bismarck and the foundation of the German empire . alof the army, and the sanctity of the Church wastransferred to the Crown ; to the nobles and peasants,criticism of, or opposition to, the King had in itsomething of sacrilege ; the words by the Grace ofGod added to the royal title were more than anempty phrase. Society was still organised on theold patriarchal basis : at the bottom was the peasant;above him was \.\\&gnddiger Herr ; above him, Unseraltergnddigste Herr, the King, who lived in Berlin;and above him, the Herr Gott in Heaven. To the inhabitants of South Germany, and themen of the towns, these nobles of Further Pomerania,the Junker as they were called, with their feudallife, their medieval beliefs, their simple monarchism,were the incarnation of political folly; to them lib-eralism seemed another form of atheism, but in thissolitude and fresh air of the great plain was reared arace of men who would always be ready, as theirfathers had been, to draw their sword and go out toconquer new provinces for their King to CHAPTER II. EARLY OF the boys early life we know little. Hismother was ambitious for her sons ; Ottofrom his early years she designed for theDiplomatic Service ; she seems to have been one ofthose women who was willing to sacrifice the presenthappiness of her children for their future advance-ment. When only six years old the boy was sentaway from home to a school in Berlin. He was nathappy there; he pined for the free life of the coun-try, the fields and woods and animals; when he sawa plough he would burst into tears, for it remindedhim of his home. The discipline of the school washard, not with the healthy and natural hardships oflife in the open air, but with an artificial Spartanism,for it was the time when the Germans, who had sud-denly awoke to feelings of patriotism and a love ofwar to which they had long been strangers, underthe influence of a few writers, were throwing all theirenergies into the cultivation of ph
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbismarckottofrstvon1
