Bismarck: The White Revolutionary, Volume I: 1815-1871

Bismarck: The White Revolutionary #1

by Lothar Gall

The name Bismarck sums up the political, social, economic, and intellectual development of central Europe in the second half of the 19th century and the internal and external shape that Germany then assumed. How much of all this was Bismarck's personal achievement? Was he, as many of his contemporaries believed, the key figure who made everything different? Was he the man who put the nation on the disastrously wrong course that reached its fateful culmination in 1933? Or did Bismarck in fact represent the prevailing forces of his time to a far greater degree than has often been thought? Was he successful precisely because he implemented policies for which the time was ripe - and did so in ways that were in harmony with the historical evolution of central Europe? These questions take Lothar Gall's biography beyond a "description of a life". It is designed as reading not only for students of Bismarck's life, but for all those interested in the fundamental problems of German and European history.

Genres: Biography, History

424 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1990

About the author

Lothar Gall was a German historian who was professor of history at Goethe University Frankfurt from 1975 until his retirement in 2005.

Reviews

[Will Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book for all those seeking to understand Bismarck's political career leading up to and during the Unification of Germany. The author's thesis is that Bismarck was merely an actor in the winds that guide history and that he had little control over the consequences of developments. It was not Bismarck that used the forces of history but them that used him. The author also makes the case that Bismarck did not have a dogmatic political philosophy that guided him but merely a pragmatic approach to politics. In regard to the question of a German Revolution he often worried about being the hammer and not the anvil, in other words, that it should be undertaken and not let it overtake them.

Gall largely relies on primary sources and all his points are well-argued and insightful. This book is meant for an academic audience and I would be hesitant to recommend it to those who are unfamiliar with Bismarck or the period due to the depth some parts of the book go into. However, for those with an academic interest or who are familiar with the period I would struggle to find a better recommendation for a biography of Bismarck. Gall's work stands with Pflanze's as the standard for biographical works on Bismarck.