Introduction
The history of Germany is rife with divisions, unifications, and territorial squabbles. What it means to be German has also changed greatly from decade to decade. Between foreign wars, royal houses, and independent duchies, Germany frequently gets torn apart and culturally separated; it takes powerful and charismatic leaders to unify the German people into a cohesive nation. In German history, two leaders stand out as being emblematic of the unity and strength of the German people: Angela Merkel and Otto von Bismarck.
Otto von Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck was born in Prussia to a wealthy military officer and a highly educated mother. He was exceptionally bright from a young age and excelled in all things to which he put his mind. After a tumultuous university life and being expelled from his first diplomatic position for becoming a tad too friendly with the daughters of English noblemen, Bismarck joined the military and eventually resigned himself to managing his family’s wealthy Prussian estates.
However, the quiet life never appealed to Bismarck, and he was soon called to be a part of the new Prussian legislature the “Landtag.” Despite the dominant political leaning in Prussia at the time being a liberal one which pushed for a full-fledged parliament, Bismarck was a devout royalist and stressed the divine right to rule of the monarchy. He quickly made a reputation for himself as a powerful speaker. Eventually, a revolution broke out with the intent of establishing a more liberal government in Prussia. Bismarck had many ludicrous plans to aid the monarchy, including raising a peasant revolt to storm Berlin and protect the king or raising a new boy king to the throne. His wild plans did not ingratiate him to the monarchy and soon after he was sent to Russia as a diplomat. This was an efficient way of making any German statesman supremely irrelevant. However, the new liberal government swiftly ran into difficulties. They couldn’t pay the army. Prussia was famously militaristic, pushing some European politicians to claim, “Prussia’s state didn’t have an army, Prussia’s army had a state.” Thus, no politician would take the position of head of government for fear of an impending military coup. Well, no politician, except for Bismarck. Otto von Bismarck was called back from Russia in 1862 for the supposed suicide mission of leading the new liberal government.
Bismarck acted quickly. Since the king and the new parliament couldn’t agree on a budget. He took advantage of a loophole and continued collecting taxes on the last budget, which included the military’s pay. This meant that the Prussian military was no longer a threat to the government. From this new position of power, Bismarck set his sights on his ultimate goal: unifying the German people. At the time, Prussia existed in a confederation of German states including Austria, Bavaria, and other German states. Austria was far and away the most powerful of the states, so Bismarck set in motion a plan to improve the diplomatic power of Prussia. He cleverly orchestrated a war between the German confederation and Denmark, snatching up some German speaking provinces in Denmark. He then mocked Austria’s incompetence in ruling one of these newly incorporated German provinces. He then worked to sour relations between the Prussian king and the Austrian king. He was very successful, however, he had to get Austria to declare war on him. Declaring war on another major European power in the 1800’s was highly inadvisable. Anytime a declaration of war was made, all the European powers turned on the aggressor. Through clever manipulation of the political fabric of the German confederation, Bismarck got his defensive war.
Despite Austria being the stronger nation, Bismarck had an ace in the hole: Helmuth von Moltke the Elder. Moltke was arguably the most capable military commander in the world at the time. He had studied the American Civil War and his tactical genius overwhelmed the Austrian army quickly. The German Confederation was then separated, with Prussia and the lower German states being a new entity. Despite being the leader of this new confederation, Bismarck longed for a united nation. Thus, he knew he had to unify the people against a foreign oppressor. What better enemy than France? France at the time was controlled by Napoleon III, who considered himself the equal of his ancestor Napoleon Bonaparte, which he wasn’t. Again, Bismarck played the European political chessboard like a fiddle, and manipulated France into attacking the new German confederation. Moltke steamrolled the French military, captured Napoleon III, and besieged Paris. Bismarck even managed to pick up some territory in the ensuing peace treaty. High Germans and Prussians fought alongside each other against a foreign enemy, which engendered companionship and a sense of national unity.
In 1871, Bismarck got his nation-state. Otto von Bismarck became the first ever Chancellor of Germany. He soon became known as “The Iron Chancellor.” The national identity he created was so strong that it went on to survive, with few changes to its borders, two world wars and a communist partition. Bismarck, “the undisputed world champion at the game of multilateral diplomatic chess,” developed the modern idea of what it was to be German. However, this identity would come into question, and it would take other capable leaders to maintain the German identity.
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Kasner was born in 1954 in Hamburg. Her father was a Lutheran pastor, and her mother was an English and Latin teacher. Despite being born in West Germany, she was raised in East Germany under soviet rule. She was an excellent student in Russian and mathematics. She graduated from university in physics and went on to get a doctorate in quantum chemistry. She briefly married a fellow physics student, where she picked up the surname Merkel. After the fall of the Berlin wall she quickly moved into politics. She became a prominent member of the new Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in East Germany. The party soon merged with its West German Branch and Merkel was elected to the Bundestag, the German parliament. She soon became a favourite of Chancellor Helmut Kohl and held the roles of Minister for Women and Youth and then Minister for the Environment and Nuclear Safety. After the end of the Kohl chancellorship Merkel was placed as Secretary General of her own party. Then, after a funding scandal within her own party that implicated many of her peers, Merkel was catapulted to the top of the party. She was quick to criticise members of her own party who had mismanaged funds and thus gained a reputation as a strong politician with good integrity. Merkel clearly held aspirations of becoming chancellor, however from 2000 to 2005 she was outmanoeuvred by a rival political party. In 2005 Merkel ran for chancellor. She was an enigma as a candidate, a female East German Scientist at the head of a conservative religious party. Her party was popular in southern Germany, but Merkel also represented the unification of the German state and went on to win the chancellorship.
Merkel was the first East German chancellor, the first female chancellor, the first chancellor with a background in the sciences, and the first chancellor born after World War II. Merkel is an embodiment of the new unified Germany. She has governed relatively conservative, expressing dismay at the amount of European spending on social programs. She formed the Jamaican coalition, a union of political parties with very disparate views. This coalition has ensured her re-election over her 13 year reign as chancellor. She has been a leading figure in the European migrant crisis, accepting large amounts of refugees, but later initiating reforms to better integrate migrants into German culture. She has kept up strong relations with the United States and upheld the crucial albeit tense trade relationship between Russia and Germany. She has come to be the face of the European Union and described by many as “The Leader of the Free World” following the decline in US diplomatic power under Donald Trump. Throughout her 13 year reign she has garnered the nickname previously bestowed to Bismarck of “Iron Chancellor.”
Conclusion
Merkel and Bismarck both had a key role in developing the German Identity. Bismarck created the first German state as we know it today. However, he did so through Machiavellian manipulation of the European political fabric. He used wars as a tool and let nothing stand between him and a united German state. Merkel has been equally shrewd as a politician, but she uses her identity and political savvy to bring together a quilt of supporters from all sides. She is attractive to southern German Christian conservatives and ex-communist scientists. Her role in reforming the German identity after the second world war and the communist partition cannot be underestimated.
Both Merkel and Bismarck are conservative leaders with strong personalities and viewpoints. They have been compared many times before, even ending up with the same moniker: The Iron Chancellor. Future German leaders should look to the Iron Chancellors as exemplary in their composure and uncanny ability to inspire and unify their people.
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