. The life of Bismarck, private and political;. n.—RiedelsErroneous Theory.—The Bismarcks of Stendal.—Members of City Guilds.—Clausvon Bismarck of Stendal.—Rise of the Family into the Highest Rank in the Four-teenth Century. N the Alt Mark, be-longing to the circleof Stendal, lies thesmall town of Bis-marck on the is an old and fa-mous place, for southof the town stands anancient tower, knownas the BismarckLouse. Tradition states that the towerreceived its namefrom a gigantic lousewhich inhabited it,and that the peasantsof the district had every day to provide huge quantities of meatf
. The life of Bismarck, private and political;. n.—RiedelsErroneous Theory.—The Bismarcks of Stendal.—Members of City Guilds.—Clausvon Bismarck of Stendal.—Rise of the Family into the Highest Rank in the Four-teenth Century. N the Alt Mark, be-longing to the circleof Stendal, lies thesmall town of Bis-marck on the is an old and fa-mous place, for southof the town stands anancient tower, knownas the BismarckLouse. Tradition states that the towerreceived its namefrom a gigantic lousewhich inhabited it,and that the peasantsof the district had every day to provide huge quantities of meatfor the monsters food. In this legend we can trace the popularspirit of the sober Alt Mark—it laughs at the pilgrimages whichwere made in the thirteenth century to Bismarck in honor of aholy cross, said to have fallen from heaven. These pilgrimages,at first greatly encouraged by the lords of the soil, as they foundin them a rich source of income, soon came to a sanguinary end,from the severe strife occasioned by these very 32 BISMARCK ON THE BIESE. Bismarck does not, as some assert, derive its name from theBiese, because in the year 1203, when it is first mentioned in therecords, it is called Biscopesmarck, or Bishopsmark, afterwardscorrupted into Bismarck. It belonged to the Bishops of Havel-berg, who erected a fort here as a defense of their Mark, on thefrontiers of the Sprengels of Halberstadt. From the little townthe noble family of Bismarck has its name. It is a tradition of later times, by no means historically con-firmed, that the Bismarcks were a noble family of Bohemia, set-tled by Charlemagne in the Alt Mark, and the founders of thetown of Bismarck, which received its name from them. It isfurther erroneously asserted, that the Bismarcks, after the deceaseof the very powerful Count von Osterburg, had shared the coun-ty with the family of Alvensleben; and thus the town of Bis-marck passed into the possession of the Alvenslebens.* Thislast is only s
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