Bismarck and the foundation of the German empire . mbition and nothing toduty. It did not satisfy his critical intellect; theword people was to him a vague idea. The serv-ice of the People or of the King by the Grace ofGod, this was the struggle which was soon to befought out. Bismarcks connection with his neighbours wascemented by his marriage. At the beginning of1847, he was engaged to a Fraulein von Puttkammer,whom he had first met at the Blankenburgs house ;she belonged to a quiet and religious family, and it issaid that her mother was at first filled with dismaywhen she heard that Johanna
Bismarck and the foundation of the German empire . mbition and nothing toduty. It did not satisfy his critical intellect; theword people was to him a vague idea. The serv-ice of the People or of the King by the Grace ofGod, this was the struggle which was soon to befought out. Bismarcks connection with his neighbours wascemented by his marriage. At the beginning of1847, he was engaged to a Fraulein von Puttkammer,whom he had first met at the Blankenburgs house ;she belonged to a quiet and religious family, and it issaid that her mother was at first filled with dismaywhen she heard that Johanna proposed to marry themad Bismarck. He announced the engagement tohis sister in a letter containing the two words, Allright, written in English. Before the weddingcould take place, a new impulse in his life was to 1847] Early Life. 33 begin. As representative of the lower nobility he hadto attend the meeting of the Estates General whichhad been summoned in Berlin. From this time thestory of his life is interwoven with the history ofhis country. V. CHAPTER III. THE BISMARCK was a subject of the King of Prus-sia, but Prussia was after all only one part ofa larger unit; it was a part of Germany. Atthis time, however, Germany was little more than ageographical expression. The medieval emperorshad never succeeded in establishing permanentauthority over the whole nation ; what unity therehad been was completely broken down at the Re-formation, and at the Revolution the Empire itself,the symbol of a union which no longer existed, hadbeen swept away. At the restoration in 1815 thereorganisation of Germany was one of the chieftasks before the Congress of Vienna. It was a taskin which the statesmen failed. All proposals to re-store the Empire were rejected, chiefly becauseFrancis, who had taken the style of Emperor ofAustria, did not desire to resume his old title. Ger-many emerged from the Revolution divided intothirty-nine different States ; Austria was one of the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbismarckottofrstvon1
