Bernhard von Bülow
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| Prince Bernhard von Bülow | |
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| In office October 16, 1900 – July 13, 1909 |
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| Monarch | William II |
| Preceded by | Prince Hohenlohe |
| Succeeded by | Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg |
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| In office 1900 – 1909 |
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| Preceded by | Prince Hohenlohe |
| Succeeded by | Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg |
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| In office 1897 – 1900 |
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| Preceded by | Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein |
| Succeeded by | Oswald Freiherr von Richthofen |
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| In office 1897 – 1909 |
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| Preceded by | Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein |
| Succeeded by | Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg |
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| Born | May 3, 1849 Klein-Flottbeck, Holstein |
| Died | October 28, 1929 (aged 80) Rome |
| Alma mater | University of Lausanne University of Berlin University of Leipzig University of Greifswald |
| Signature |  |
Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin von Bülow (May 3, 1849 – October 28, 1929), named in 1905 Prince (Fürst) von Bülow, was a German statesman who served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for three years and then as Chancellor of the German Empire from 1900 to 1909.
Bülow was described as possessing every quality except greatness. He had a round face with smiling blue eyes and a carefully trimmed moustache. He spoke several languages, was a charming conversationalist and was comfortably at home in high society with a capacity to entertain and impress even his opponents. Although highly ambitious, he was also vain and once he obtained power and position in the German government had no overaching ambition what to do with it, allowing others to guide policy. His character made him a good choice to work well with Emperor Wilhelm II, who required agreement and flattery from his senior ministers even if sometimes they then ignored his instructions. Bülow was a fine judge of mood and an expert flatterer, but could equally be cutting and contemptuous of both friends and enemies to others. He wrote four volumes of autobiography to be published after his death, which markedly altered public perception of his character as they included his candid and malicious descriptions of others. He was a fine debater in the Reichstag, although generally lazy in carrying out his duties. He was described by Friedrich von Holstein, who for 30 years was first councilor in the foreign department and a major influence on policy throughout that time, as having "read more Machiavelli than he could digest". His mother-in-law claimed, "Bernhard makes a secret out of everything."[1]
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[edit] Family and early life
He was born at Klein-Flottbeck, Holstein, now part of Altona, a part of Hamburg. His father, Bernhard Ernst von Bülow, was a Danish and German statesman. His brother, Major-General Karl Ulrich von Bülow, was a cavalry commander during World War I who took part in the attack on Liège in August 1914.
In 1856 his father was sent to the Federal Diet in Frankfurt to represent Holstein and Lauenburg, when Bismarck was also there to represent Prussia. He became a great friend of Bismarck's son Herbert when they played together. In Rumpenheim castle he also played with Princess Alexandra, later Queen of England. At age thirteen the family moved to Neustrelitz when his father became Chief Minister to the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg. There he attended the local gymnasium, before attending universities in Lausanne, Leipzig and Berlin. [2]
He volunteered for military service during the Franco-Prussian War and became a lance-corporal in the King's Hussar Regiment. In December 1870 the squadron was in action near Amiens, and he later described charging and killing French riflemen with his sabre. He was promoted to lieutenant and invited to remain in the army after the war, but declined.[3] He completed his law degree at the University of Greifswald in 1872. Afterwards, he entered first the Prussian Civil Service and then the diplomatic service.
[edit] Diplomatic career
In 1873 his father became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the German government, serving under Chancellor Bismarck, and Bülow junior entered the diplomatic corps. His first short assignments were to Rome, St. Petersburg, Vienna and then Athens.[4] In 1876 he was appointed attaché to the German embassy in Paris, attended the Berlin Congress as a secretary[5] and became second secretary to the embassy in 1880.
In 1884 he hoped to be posted to London but instead became first secretary at the embassy in St. Petersburg. On the way to his new assignment he stayed for a couple of days at Varzin with the Bismarck family. Bismarck explained that he considered relations with Russia much more important than Britain, and this was why he had posted Bülow there. Bismarck reported himself impressed by Bülow's calmness and demeanour during this interview.[6] In Russia he acted as chargé d'affaires, in 1887 advocating ethnic cleansing of Poles from Polish territories of the German Empire in future armed conflict.[7] Bülow wrote regularly to the Foreign Office, complaining about his superior, Ambassador Schweinitz. Schweinitz, however, was well liked, and Bülow only earned for himself a reputation as a schemer. In 1885 Holstein noted with admiration that Bülow was attempting to have Prince Hohenlohe removed as ambassador to France so that he might replace him, all the while exchanging friendly letter with Hohenlohe.[8]
On the 9th of January 1886, while still at St. Petersburg, he married Maria Anna Zoe Rosalia Beccadelli di Bologna, Principessa di Camporeale, Marchesa di Altavilla, whose first marriage with Count Karl von Dönhoff had been dissolved and declared null by the Holy See in 1884. The princess, an accomplished pianist and pupil of Franz Liszt, was a stepdaughter of the Italian statesman Minghetti and daughter of Donna Laura Minghetti who was highly respected in Roman society. Maria had been married for sixteen years and had three children. Bülow previously had numerous love affairs, but the marriage was intended to further his career. In 1888 he was offered the choice of appointments to Washington or Bucharest, and chose Bucharest as Maria objected to the prospect of traveling to America and leaving her family behind. He spent the next five years scheming to be appointed to Rome, where his wife was well connected. King Humbert was persuaded to write to the kaiser saying that he would be pleased if Bülow became ambassador there, and in 1893 he duly did.[9]
On 21 June 1897 Bülow received a telegram instructing him to go to Kiel to speak to Kaiser Wilhelm. On the way he stopped at Frankfurt while changing trains and spoke to Philip zu Eulenburg. Eulenburg explained that the kaiser wanted a new State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and urged Bülow to take the post, which was the same one his father had once held. Eulenburg also passed on tips about how best to manage Wilhelm, who lived on praise and could not stand to be contradicted. In Berlin, Bülow first spoke to Holstein who advised him that although he would have preferred the present Secretary, Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein, to stay in the job, the kaiser was determined to replace him, and that he would prefer the successor to be Bülow. Marschall himself said that although he did not want to go, it was inevitable and he would rather see Bülow as his successor. Perhaps Bülow might be able to find him an ambassador's post in due course? Chancellor Hohenlohe, desperate to retire because of old age, urged Bülow to take the job, with an eye to succeeding him as chancellor. Bülow urged Hohenlohe to continue in office for as long as he could.[10]
On 26 June Bülow arrived in Kiel and met Wilhelm. The kaiser advised that it would be one of the new secretary's main tasks to set about building a world class fleet capable of taking on the British, without in the process precipitating a war. Bülow asked for time to consider the offer, and on 3 August accepted. The two men formed a good working relationship. Rather than oppose the kaiser, as some of his predecessors had done, Bülow agreed with him on all matters, though sometimes privately relying on Wilhelm's bad memory and frequent changes of mind to take the action he thought best rather than what the kaiser had instructed. The post of Foreign Secretary was subordinate to that of the Chancellor, and in the time of Bismarck's chancellorship had been only a functionary. Under Bülow this was largely reversed, Hohenlohe being content to let Bülow manage foreign affairs with his principal adviser, Holstein. Wilhelm would call on Bülow every morning to discuss state affairs but see the chancellor only rarely.[11]
Bülow also held a seat in the Prussian government: Although Wilhelm was emperor of all Germany, he was also king of Prussia. As Foreign Secretary, Bülow was chiefly responsible for carrying out the policy of colonial expansion (or Weltpolitik) with which the emperor had identified himself. He was welcomed by the Foreign Office because he was the first professional diplomat to be placed in charge since the forced resignation of Bismarck in 1890. Bülow had been wary of accepting the post if Holstein remained as First Councillor, as Holstein had in practice held great authority in recent years. However, Holstein (nicknamed the 'monster of the labyrinth') was regarded as indispensable because of his long experience in office, rank cunning and phenomenal memory of affairs of state throughout his time. Eulenburg advised Bülow to stake out a firm working relationship immediately on his arrival, and the two succeeded in working together.[12] In 1899, on bringing to a successful conclusion the negotiations by which the Caroline Islands were acquired by Germany, he was raised to the rank of Count.
In October 1900 Bülow was summoned to the kaiser's hunting retreat at Hubertsstock. There Wilhelm asked Bülow to become Chancellor of the German Empire and Prime Minister of Prussia. Bülow queried whether he was really the best man for the job: The kaiser admitted that he would have preferred Eulenburg on a personal level, but was not sure he was sufficiently able. On 16 October Bülow was summoned again, this time to Homburg, where his train was met personally by Wilhelm. Wilhelm explained that Hohenlohe had announced he could continue as chancellor no longer, and this time Bülow accepted the job he had been seeking for many years. A replacement State Secretary was necessary, and the job was first offered to Holstein, who as expected turned it down, preferring not to take a job which required appearing before the Reichstag. The post was given to Baron von Richthofen who had already been serving as under secretary to Bülow. It was made clear that the State Secretary's post would now revert to the subordinate role it had played in Bismarck's time, with Holstein remaining the more important adviser on foreign affairs.[13]
[edit] Chancellor
Bülow's good relationship with the kaiser continued as chancellor. His mornings were reserved for Wilhelm, who would visit the chancellery every morning when in Berlin. His determination to remain on Wilhelm's good side was remarkable, even amongst those accustomed to the kaiser's manner. Wilhelm's household controller noted, "Whenever, by oversight, he expresses an opinion in disagreement with the emperor, he remains silent for a few moments and then says the exact contrary, with the preface, 'as Your Majesty so wisely remarked'". He gave up tobacco, beer, coffee and liqueurs and took 35 minutes of exercise every morning and would ride in good weather through the Tiergarten. Sundays he would take long walks in the woods. In 1905, aged 56, he led his old Hussars regiment at the gallop in a parade for the kaiser, and was rewarded by an appointment to the rank of major general. Wilhelm remarked to Eulenburg in 1901, 'Since I have Bülow I can sleep peacefully'.[14]
His first conspicuous act as chancellor was a masterly defence in the Reichstag of German imperialism in China. Bülow often spent his time defending German foreign policy before the parliament; to say nothing of covering for the many gaffes of Wilhelm II. On June 6, 1905, Count Bülow was raised to the rank of prince (Fürst), on the occasion of the marriage of the crown prince. The coincidence of this date with the fall of Theophile Delcassé, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, a triumph for Germany and a humiliation for France, was much commented on at the time; and the elevation of Bismarck to the rank of prince in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles was recalled. Whatever element of truth there may have been in this, however, the significance of the incident was much exaggerated.
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On April 5, 1906, while attending a debate in the Reichstag, Prince Bülow was seized with illness, the result of overwork and an attack of influenza, and was carried unconscious from the hall. At first it was thought that the attack would be fatal, and Lord Fitzmaurice in the House of Lords compared the incident with that of the death of Chatham, a compliment much appreciated in Germany. The illness, however, quickly took a favorable turn, and after a month's rest the chancellor was able to resume his duties.
In 1907, during the Harden-Moltke scandals, Adolf Brand, the founding editor of the homosexual periodical Der Eigene, printed a pamphlet alleging that Bülow had been blackmailed for engaging in homosexual practices and was morally obligated to oppose Paragraph 175 of the German penal code, which outlawed homosexuality. Sued for slander and brought to trial on 7 November 1907, Brand asserted that the Chancellor had embraced and kissed his private secretary, Privy Councilor Max Scheefer, at all-male gatherings hosted by Philipp zu Eulenburg. Testifying in self-defense, Bülow denied any such act but remarked that he had heard unsavory rumors about Eulenburg. Taking the stand, Eulenburg defended himself against Brand's charge by denying that he had ever held such events, and against Bülow's insinuation by claiming that he had never engaged in same-sex acts, which subsequently led to a perjury trial. Despite concluding testimony by the chief of the Berlin police that Bülow may indeed have been the victim of a homosexual blackmailer, he easily prevailed in court, and Brand was sentenced to prison.
The parliamentary skill of Prince Bülow in holding together the heterogeneous elements of which the government majority in the Reichstag was composed, no less than the diplomatic tact with which he from time to time interpreted the imperial indiscretions to the world, was put to a rude test by the famous interview with the German emperor, published in the London Daily Telegraph of October 28, 1908, which aroused universal reprobation in Germany. Prince Bülow assumed the official responsibility, and tendered his resignation to the emperor, which was not accepted; but the chancellor's explanation in the Reichstag on November 10 showed how keenly he felt his position. He declared his conviction that the disastrous effects of the interview would induce the emperor in future to observe that strict reserve, even in private conversations, which is equally indispensable in the interest of a uniform policy and for the authority of the crown, adding that, in the contrary case, neither he nor any successor of his could assume the responsibility. It was not the imperial indiscretions, but the effect of his budget proposals in breaking up the Liberal-Conservative bloc, on whose support he depended in the Reichstag, that eventually drove Prince Bülow from office (see German Empire). At the emperor's request he remained to pilot the mutilated budget through the House; but on July 14, 1909 the acceptance of his resignation was announced. He was succeeded by Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg.
He pursued a policy of aggrandizement in the years preceding World War One.
[edit] Further career
From 1914 to 1915 Bülow was ambassador to Italy, but failed to bring her onto the side of Germany, or even to persuade her to maintain her neutrality. He regarded his task as impossible in any case, and on returning remarked: "Morale and attitude of the German people: A-1. Political leadership: Z-Minus." Although many of the leading figures in the Reichstag (including Matthias Erzberger) hoped that Bülow would succeed Bethmann Hollweg upon the latter's dismissal in 1917, the former Chancellor was overlooked. Prince von Bülow died on October 28, 1929, a scant day before Black Tuesday.
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst |
Chancellor of Germany Prime Minister of Prussia 1900–1909 |
Succeeded by Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg |
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[edit] References
- Robert K. Massie. Dreadnought. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-03260-7.
- ^ Massie p.138-139
- ^ Massie p.140
- ^ Massie p. 140
- ^ Massie p.140-141
- ^ New International Encyclopedia
- ^ Massie p.141
- ^ Hostages of Modernization, ed. Strauss, 1993 (unverified)
- ^ Massie p.142
- ^ Massie p.142-143
- ^ Massie p.143-144
- ^ Massie p.144-146
- ^ Massie p.146
- ^ Massie p.147-148
- ^ massie p. 148-149
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
[edit] External links
- Chancellor Von Bulows Memoirs, Vol.I. In English at archive.org
- Chancellor Von Bulows Memoirs, Vol.II. In English at archive.org
- Chancellor Von Bulows Memoirs, Vol.IV. In English at archive.org
- Bernhard Bülow, Marie A. Lewenz (1914). Imperial Germany. Dodd, Mead. http://books.google.com/books?id=CuUAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP9&dq=Bernhard+von+B%C3%BClow&as_brr=1.
- Bernhard Bülow (1907). Fürst Bülows reden nebst urkundlichen Beiträgen zu seiner Politik. Reimer. http://books.google.com/books?id=CPoAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=Bernhard+von+B%C3%BClow&as_brr=1#PPR1,M1.
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