biography in germany

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Otto von Bismarck

By: History.com Editors

Updated: June 7, 2019 | Original: December 16, 2009

Germany became a modern, unified nation under the leadership of the “Iron Chancellor” Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), who between 1862 and 1890 effectively ruled first Prussia and then all of Germany. A master strategist, Bismarck initiated decisive wars with Denmark, Austria and France to unite 39 independent German states under Prussian leadership. Although an arch-conservative, Bismarck introduced progressive reforms—including universal male suffrage and the establishment of the first welfare state—in order to achieve his goals. He manipulated European rivalries to make Germany a world power, but in doing so laid the groundwork for both World Wars.

Otto von Bismarck: Early Years

Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was born April 1, 1815, at his family’s estate in the Prussian heartland west of Berlin. His father was a fifth-generation Junker (a Prussian landowning noble), and his mother came from a family of successful academics and government ministers. Throughout his life Bismarck would emphasize his rural Junker roots, underplaying his considerable intellect and cosmopolitan outlook.

Did you know? Although German leader Otto von Bismarck wore a general's uniform in public for much of his later life (and successfully prosecuted three wars as chancellor), his only prior military service was a brief, unwilling stint in a reserve unit.

Bismarck was educated in Berlin and after university took a series of minor diplomatic posts before retiring, at age 24, to run his family’s estate at Kneiphof. In 1847 he married and was sent to Berlin as a delegate to the new Prussian parliament, where he emerged as a reactionary voice against the liberal, anti-autocratic Revolutions of 1848.

From 1851 to 1862 Bismarck served a series of ambassadorships—at the German Confederation in Frankfurt, in St. Petersburg and in Paris—that gave him valuable insight into the vulnerabilities of Europe’s great powers.

Otto von Bismarck: The Iron Chancellor

William I became Prussia’s king in 1861 and a year later appointed Bismarck as his chief minister. Though technically deferring to William, in reality Bismarck was in charge, manipulating the king with his intellect and the occasional tantrum while using royal decrees to circumvent the power of elected officials.

In 1864 Bismarck began the series of wars that would establish Prussian power in Europe. He attacked Denmark to gain the German-speaking territories of Schleswig-Holstein and two years later provoked Emperor Franz-Josef I into starting the Austro-Prussian War (1866), which ended in a swift defeat for the aging Austrian empire. At the time, Bismarck wisely declined to levy a war indemnity against the Austrians.

Bismarck was less circumspect in his conduct of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Seeing the opportunity to unify Germany’s loose confederations against an outside enemy, Bismarck stirred political tensions between France and Prussia, famously editing a telegram from William I to make both countries feel insulted by the other. The French declared war, but the Prussians and their German allies won handily. Prussia levied an indemnity, annexed the French border provinces of Alsace and Lorraine and crowned William emperor of a unified Germany (the Second Reich) in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles—a tremendous insult to the French.

Otto von Bismarck: Kulturkampf, Welfare State, Empire

With Germany unified, William I and Bismarck turned to entrenching their domestic power. For much of the 1870s Bismarck pursued a Kulturkampf (cultural struggle) against Catholics, who made up 36 percent of Germany’s population, by placing parochial schools under state control and expelling the Jesuits. In 1878 Bismarck relented, allying with the Catholics against the growing socialist threat.

In the 1880s Bismarck set aside his conservative impulses to counter the socialists by creating Europe’s first modern welfare state, establishing national healthcare (1883), accident insurance (1884) and old age pensions (1889). Bismarck also hosted the 1885 Berlin Conference that ended the “Scramble for Africa,” dividing the continent between the European powers and establishing German colonies in Cameroon, Togoland and East and Southwest Africa.

Otto von Bismarck: Final Years and Legacy

William I died in 1888 and was succeeded by his son Frederick III and then his grandson William II, both of whom Bismarck found difficult to control. In 1890 the new king forced Bismarck out. William II was left in control of a flourishing unified state but was ill-equipped to maintain Bismarck’s carefully manipulated balance of international rivalries. Respected and honored by the time of his death eight years later, Bismarck quickly became a quasi-mythic figure invoked by political leaders calling for strong German leadership—or for war.

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Germany's central and southern regions have forested hills and mountains cut through by the Danube, Main, and Rhine river valleys.

Germany's central and southern regions have forested hills and mountains cut through by the Danube, Main, and Rhine river valleys. In the north, the landscape flattens out to a wide plain that stretches to the North Sea. Between these extremes, Germany is a country of incredible variety.

Germany's location at the heart of Europe has shaped its history both for good and bad. It borders nine neighbors, more than any other European country.

Germany's largest wooded area, and its most famous, is in the southwest near the Swiss border. This is the Black Forest, a mountainous region full of pines and fir trees. This forest contains the source of the Danube, one of Europe's longest rivers.

Map created by National Geographic Maps

PEOPLE & CULTURE

Today almost one in every ten Germans comes from a foreign country. That is more than at any time in history. The largest minority are Turkish, who started coming in the 1950s to work. About two-thirds of Germans are Christians.

Germany has been called the "Land of Poets and Thinkers." Germans are famous in all forms of art, but particularly classical music. Germany's famous composers include Bach, Brahms, Schumann, Wagner, and Beethoven.

The German government works hard to protect the country's wildlife. There are 97 nature reserves in Germany, the biggest of which is the Black Forest. Despite these efforts, though, many species are at risk of extinction, including certain species of whales, beavers , and minks.

Germany's major unspoiled habitats are in two main regions. The flat northern coast is home to sea life and wading birds , while the forested hills and mountains in the south are the best place to find wildcats, boar, ibex, and other large mammals .

The lakes and wetlands along Germany's coastlines are important stopover points for many migrating birds. The government has set up reserves for the birds' protection.

GOVERNMENT & ECONOMY

After losing World War II, Germany was in ruins. West Germany recovered to become Europe's richest country, but East Germany, under communist control, fell far behind. After reunification in 1989, Germany spent billions of dollars to modernize the East.

Humans settled in northern Europe about 10,000 years ago, after the end of the last Ice Age. The first people to speak a language similar to modern German probably lived in the area about 5,000 years ago. It was still thousands of years, though, before Germany was created.

Early Germany was a patchwork of small states ruled by dukes and kings. But in 1871, the country was united, through force and alliances, by a politician named Otto von Bismarck.

In the late 19th century Germany began competing with other European countries to set up colonies in Africa and Asia. These tensions led to World War I in 1914, the worst conflict the world had ever seen. Germany and its allies lost the war to Britain , France , the Soviet Union (now called Russia ), and the United States .

Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party came to power in 1933 promising to make Germany great again. In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland , starting World War II. During the war, Hitler created camps in Germany where millions of Jewish people and others were murdered. The war ended in 1945 with the Germans' defeat and Hitler committing suicide.

After World War II, Germany was divided into West and East. The country became the center of a standoff between the Soviet Union and Western powers. This confrontation, which lasted 44 years, was called the Cold War. In 1989, East Germany opened its borders and the Cold War came to an end.

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Hermann Göring

(1893-1946)

Who Was Hermann Göring?

Hermann Göring was a leader of the Nazi Party. He played a prominent role in organizing the Nazi police state in Germany and established concentration camps for the "corrective treatment" of individuals. Indicted by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946, Göring was condemned to hang as a war criminal, but he took cyanide the night he was to be executed.

Early Life, Nazi Party and World War I

Hermann Göring was born in Rosenheim, Germany, on January 12, 1893. He was trained for a career in the military and received his commission in 1912, serving Germany as a pilot during World War I. After the war, Göring worked as a commercial pilot in Denmark and Sweden, where he met Swedish baroness Carin von Kantzow, who promptly divorced her husband and married Göring in February 1923.

During the putsch, Göring was severely wounded in the groin and, after his escape into Austria, was given morphine for the pain. As a result, Göring developed a severe drug addiction that would follow him for his entire life and twice lead him into a treatment center. After the putsch failed, Hitler was imprisoned (and released in 1924), and Göring remained in exile until he was granted amnesty in 1927. He then returned to Germany and was readmitted to the Nazi Party.

Göring's wife died in 1931, and the following year Göring rose to the presidency of the Reichstag (parliament) when the Nazi Party won the majority of seats in the July election. Hitler was named German chancellor on January 30, 1933, and before long a bill giving him dictatorial powers was passed. Hitler allowed Göring to create the Gestapo, or secret political police, and to establish concentration camps in which to imprison the Nazis' political opponents. He married his second wife Emma “Emmy” Sonnemann in 1935 with whom he had a daughter.

• World War II

In 1934, Göring's Gestapo and the Nazis' parliamentary regiments, also known as "Schutzstaffel" or the "SS," carried out what has become known as the "Night of the Long Knives," in which 85 members of the political opposition were assassinated, thus consolidating Nazi power and quieting any further dissent. Göring's association with Hitler helped him rise to power alongside the Führer and, in 1935, he took command of the German air force—a position he held until the end of World War II.

In 1939, Hitler declared Göring his successor. The following year, he bestowed upon Göring the special rank of marshal of the empire. By April 1945, however, with the Allies moving in, Göring attempted to assume Hitler's powers in accordance with the pronouncements of 1939, as he considered Hitler to be pinned down and virtually helpless in Berlin. Convinced that this was an act of treason, Hitler stripped Göring of his offices and titles, and placed him under house arrest. By April 1945, the situation for the Nazis had become dire, and on April 30, 1945, Hitler and wife Eva Braun committed suicide. Göring was freed from prison, and he immediately sought out American troops and surrendered.

Trial and Death

While awaiting trial as a war criminal, Göring finally was able to break his morphine addiction, and he defended himself before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremburg. Göring denied any involvement in the regime's more monstrous activities but was condemned to death nonetheless. He pleaded to be shot instead of hanged, but the tribunal refused his request.

On October 15, 1946, the night that his execution was ordered — and a year and a half after Hitler had committed suicide in his own bunker — Göring took a cyanide capsule and died in his cell.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Hermann Wilhelm Goring
• Birth Year: 1893
• Birth date: January 12, 1893
• Birth City: Rosenheim
• Birth Country: Germany
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Hermann Göring was a leader of the Nazi Party. He was condemned to hang as a war criminal in 1946 but took his own life instead.
• World War I
• Crime and Terrorism
• Politics and Government
• Astrological Sign: Capricorn
• Nacionalities
• Death Year: 1946
• Death date: October 15, 1946
• Death City: Nuremberg
• Death Country: Germany

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Hermann Göring Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/political-figures/hermann-goring
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: April 20, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

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