It will be argued that, "The nationalists movement in Germany were dependent on the charismatic qualities of its leader Otto Von Bismarck". It will be proven that German unification was a turning point in European history due to the fact that Germany was reliant on their leader Bismarck. .
Before unification Germany was divided into thirty-nine individual states, which was brought together in a process that began in 1849 and ended in 1871.The principal architect of unification was a German statesman, Otto Von Bismarck. Bismarck's main aim was to unite the German states into one powerful nation and gain power for Prussia. He used the methods political strategies and persuasion to bring the German states under Prussian control. Within the thirty-two years leading up to 1870, Germany went through a revolutionary change, which ended as a unified country.
Otto Von Bismarck was a great German statesman who lived in the 19th century. His main aim was to unify Germany and make Prussia in control and all powerful. He was hard and ruthless and earned the nickname of "the Iron Chancellor" (Pflanze, 1990, p90).
In 1847, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, summoned a United Diet to consider new taxes where Bismarck appeared as a staunch supporter. By 1814, he participated in the camarilla of reactionaries close to the King, and was appointed as Prussian envoy to the diet of the German confederation as a reward for his efforts. Bismarck served in Frankfurt until 1859 where he was posted as ambassador to St.Petersburg before being appointed as Prussian prime-minister on September 22, 1862. By 1871 he became Chancellor and was made Prince.
"Otto Von Bismarck was not a German nationalist, but a conservative aristocrat who wished to expand the power of his native Prussia" (Showalter, 2000, p1). These words have been interpreted to mean that Bismarck was confirmed anti-liberal and saw the unification of Germany as the means of increasing the power of Prussia.
