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Bismarck by Jonathan Steinberg6/9/2023 It expertly depicts those turbulent post-Napoleonic decades, and makes a convincing case for the continuing importance of Bismarck. Jonathan Steinberg's astute biography brings the reader closer to both. Otto von Bismarck, his first minister, convinced him to defy the revolution in the air and on the streets so that together they could build the Germany both aspired to: steering a traditionalist course, increasing Prussian might, with the King at the helm and "his humble servant" (humility never did enter the heady cocktail that was the Iron Chancellor's character) as his enforcer. Wilhelm, King of Prussia and first Emperor of the new German Reich of 1871, was serene, gentle, wise, a sovereign who loved his nation more than his power, offering his abdication to move for the greater good. Emperor Wilhelm I was once heard to remark that "It is not easy being Kaiser under Bismarck." The remarkable symbiosis of these two men is at the heart of what shaped central Europe through the 19th century, and prepared the way for the ill-fated 20th.
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