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After Otto von Bismarck provoked France, which at this time was ruled by Napoleon III, the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870 and the southern German states, viewing France as the aggressor, joined the North German Confederation. France suffered a humiliating defeat, and Wilhelm I was crowned German Emperor in the Galerie des Glaces (Spiegelsaal) in Versailles, which served as the headquarter of the Prussian army, on January 18, 1871. Bismarck thus largely created the Prussian led 1871 German Empire, at the exclusion of Austria.
The Chancellor - Otto von Bismarck Biography
Celebrated as a national hero, Otto von Bismarck became the first Reichskanzler (Chancellor) of the new Empire. In foreign policy, he now devoted himself to keeping peace among the European powers of France, Austria, Germany and Russia. Bismarck's belief was that Germany's central location in Europe would cause it to be devastated in case of any war.
Internally, he was concerned about the emergence of two new parties: the Catholic Centre Party and the Social Democratic Party. The campaign against Catholicism that started in 1872, called Kulturkampf, was largely a failure. He attacked the Social Democrats in two ways: the party and its organizations were outlawed, while the working class was appeased with (very progressive) legislation guaranteeing accident and health insurance as well as old-age pensions.
In the elections of 1890, both the Catholic Centre and the Social Democrats made great gains, and Otto von Bismarck resigned at the insistence of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had risen to the throne in 1888. Otto von Bismarck spent his last years gathering his memoirs (Gedanken und Erinnerungen; "Thoughts and Memories"), and died at 83 years of age in 1898, in Friedrichsruh. He is buried in the Bismarck-Mausoleum there.
Both the WWII-era Kriegsmarine battleship Bismarck as well as two ships of the Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine), and Bismarck, North Dakota, were named in his honor, as was the Bismarck Archipelago and Bismarck Sea outside the former German colony of New Guinea, and several streets and schools in Germany.
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