As Bismarck moved from radical to pragmatic,
he was at last offered a posistion in which he would shine;
the position of envoy, diplomat, and dealmaker.
Bismarck's tutelage in the diplomatic craft was swift,
as he wrote to his wife,
"I am making rapid progress in the art of using many words, to say nothing at all."
He wrote this from Frankfurt.
He had been assigned as the Prussian envoy to the diet of the German Confederation,
(That, being the body that was supposed to figure out how the whole mess of 39 German states were to work together).
But working with the Austrians was the furthest thing from Bismarck's mind.
He was there to assert that Prussia was Austria's equal.
And he did this with aplomb,
by lighting a cigar.
(See, smoking in the assembly was a privilege granted only to Austrians.)
But when the Austrian representative sitting next to him took out a cigar, and began to smoke,
Bismarck, cracked out one of his own, and saying nothing, lit up.
The press loved it.
His enemies loved it, too.
When he returned to Berlin,
one of them claimed publicly, that the only thing Bismarck actually accomplished in Frankfurt,
was burning a cigar.
And, of course, because old habits die hard,
one thing led to another,
and the ever diplomatic Bismarck found himself, once again,
on the field of honor, trading shots with a fellow Prussian, over a cigar burnt to snub the Habsburgs.
But his time in Frankfurt taught him one thing:
if the Prussians were ever to carry the same weight amongst the German states as their much larger rival,
they would need allies.
So he began to court, what he saw, as the 2 most valuable possible confederates for Prussia;
Russia and France.
But then, in October of 1857, the king of Prussia suffered a stroke.
The king's brother, named Wilhelm (Because, of course he was.
Why should a family have to come up with more than one name?)
took over the leadership.
This Wilhelm, though, considered Bismarck as nothing more than a "petulant school boy." (His words.)
Bismarck had a plan, though.
Bismarck ALWAYS has a plan.
He would counter this opinion in a most un-Bismarckian, and therefore, most Bismarckian way.
He delivered to the prince a 92 page treatise,
detailing exactly how Prussia could abide by the letter of the agreement they had signed,
that founded the German Confederation,
while, simultaneously, aligning the other German states against Austria.
Unfortunately, Wilhelm thought that was stupid.
Bismarck was promptly assigned as the Prussian envoy to the Tsar,
Because, you know, I guess if you want get rid of somebody in 18th century Europe,
you just put 'em in St. Petersburg, or better yet, Moscow!
And there he would sit (on ice), until 1862.
These were some of the bleakest years of his life.
He was cut out of state affairs, he fell ill, he nearly lost the use of his leg,
and even withdrew himself from Russian society,
as his ability to serve as a diplomat was hindered by the fact that everybody knew he was there,
because his sovereign didn't want him in Prussia.
But, at last, a strange letter came, one saying that he should return to Berlin with haste.
When he got there, against all odds,
he was asked to serve as the head of government.
You might reasonably ask,
"...Why?"
"Why would the king, who had so long snubbed him, ask him to run the state?"
"How could he go from remote diplomatic posting to the head of domestic affairs?"
Well, because no one else wanted the job.
At least, nobody else the king thought WOULDN'T plunge the country into civil war.
You see, for a year, the Liberal Party had refused to grant funds for the army.
And if you know anything about Prussia, you know Voltaire's old adage.
"Where some states have an army,
the Prussian Army has a STATE."
Meaning, that not funding the army, had brought them to the brink of constitutional crisis.
And the king's closest advisors' best suggestion,
was to have the army overthrow the democratic assembly, and then...
...err, figure it out from there.
(Which, was basically a 100% guarantee to start a civil war.)
So, the king figured,
*Der Sigh*
"Call in Bismarck, I guess...
If he succeeds, fabulous.
If he fails, then we'll just throw him under the anachronistic bus."
As the announcement went out, no one in the wider world of Europe really thought he had a chance.
Neither did many in Prussia.
For 2 weeks, Bismarck had to scramble to pull together a cabinet.
Because NOBODY thought his government would last.
Simultaneously, he also had to bolster the spirit of the king, who, in his dejection,
was continuously on the brink of giving in.
And in the midst of all of this,
almost as an off-hand remark to those who were debating funding the army,
he said the words that would define him, and define the age.
"...it is not by speeches and majority resolutions that the great questions of the time are decided –
that was the big mistake of 1848 and 1849 –
but by iron and blood."
But in the midst of all the chaos, Bismarck had a plan.
Bismarck.
Bismarck. ALWAYS.
Bismarck. ALWAYS. Has.
Bismarck. ALWAYS. Has. A plan.
If he couldn't get to the Landtag to do what he wanted,
well, than he would just have to do what he wanted anyway.
You see, the king and the parliament were supposed to agree on any new budget,
before the government could collect taxes ON that budget,
and do with them whatever they wanted.
Everyone else took this to mean that,
the goverment could not collect taxes, without parliament's approval.
But Bismarck had other ideas.
See, the constitution didn't really spell out EXACTLY what the government was supposed to do,
if the king and the parliament couldn't agree on a budget.
So, Bismarck just said,
"Well, we don't have a new budget,
guess we just have to keep collecting taxes based on last year's budget."
And so sent out the king's tax collectors to do what they did best.
For nearly half a decade, the government would continue to collect the 1861 budget,
and the king would have a stream of revenue without asking parliament for a thing.
With that settled, Otto now had the prestige and the freedom to turn to what he saw, as his larger project;
positioning Prussia to be the preeminent power in Germany when the German states finally unified.
He moved RAPIDLY.
First, he checked in with France, to see if they would stay neutral,
or perhaps, even join Prussia if an armed conflict broke out between them and Austria.
Then, he wooed the smaller German states to begin voting with Prussia,
even as he was baffling the Austrians with an alternating volley of threats,
and lofty promises about how much they could accomplish together.
But even as he was holding his own in German affairs,
his zeal abroad nearly cost him his ministry.
A rebellion had broken out in Poland,
and the Russians were eager to quell it, already sending in troops.
Bismarck immediately dispatched Prussian divisions to the Polish border,
and sent a note to Russia, basically saying,
"Hey guys, we can totally help you with that!"
Soon, protests over this action broke out from the other major European powers,
with France, Great Britain, and Austria all condemning Berlin.
Many thought that Bismarck would have to resign over this.
But the king, the very same one who had exiled him to Russia before,
refused his resignation.
Soon, Europe's ire turned from Berlin, to St. Petersburg.
And while the matter would blow over in time, to the Russians,
this unification of the European powers against them,
brought to mind the recent, and disastrous Crimean War (Check out the EH Mary Seacole episodes for more info).
And, in doing so, reminded them just why having an ally in Prussia might be valuable.
But just as this affair was being put behind him,
his great project, was, again, in jeopardy.
The Emperor of Austria had invited the Prussian king to a congress of princes,
to discuss the matter of German unification.
Bismarck, at once, saw that the Austrians had stacked the deck,
and any vote at such a conference would be in their favor.
But, he also knew that he wouldn't be able to convince the king that an invitation from other princes was a trap.
So, he took a different approach.
The king was never the most secure of people.
So Bismarck convinced him that the invitation was an insult,
and that it should have been sent to him with much more formality.
So, the king declined to go.
But then, days later, the King of Saxony rode up, bearing another invitation, imploring the prince to come.
Now, he had been formally asked to attend by 30 princes, with a king as the message bearer.
There would be no convincing Good 'Ol Wilhelm that this was a slight.
Instead, in a meeting full of shouting, imploring, and not a little sobbing on both sides,
Bismarck convinced the king that he would be giving up the independence of the Prussian Army,
if he agreed to ANYTHING at this conference.
And so, with Bismarck ripping off the door handle on the way out,
once again, the king declined to attend.
With that, the course was set.
The initial threats were in check.
Now, at last, Bismarck could truly begin his project,
of iron and blood...