RCK'S COAT OF ARMS..................................2

SCHOeNHAUSEN CHURCH--INTERIOR.............................6

LUISE WILHELMINE VON BISMARCK...........................10
Bismarck's Mother.

KARL WILHELM FERD. VON BISMARCK.........................12
Bismarck's Father.

BISMARCK IN 1834........................................18

SCHOeNHAUSEN CASTLE......................................26

BISMARCK IN 1848........................................66

PRINCESS BISMARCK.......................................88

BISMARCK IN 1860.......................................130

GENERAL VON ROON.......................................140

EMPEROR WILLIAM I......................................162

EMPEROR FRANCIS JOSEPH.................................194

BISMARCK...............................................214
[From a painting by F. Von Lenbach.]

GENERAL VON MOLTKE.....................................248

THE CAPITULATION OF SEDAN..............................250
[From a painting by Anton Von Werner.]

BISMARCK AND HIS DOGS..................................288

NAPOLEON III. AND BISMARCK ON THE MORNING
AFTER THE BATTLE OF SEDAN..............................352
[From a painting by Wilhelm Camphausen.]

KING WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA PROCLAIMED EMPEROR
OF GERMANY, VERSAILLES, JANUARY 18, 1871...............370
[From a painting by Anton Von Werner.]

LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS...................................372

OFFICIAL RESIDENCE OF BISMARCK IN BERLIN...............388

THE CONGRESS OF BERLIN, 1878...........................406
[From a painting by Anton Von Werner.]

FRIEDRICHSRUHE.........................................430
[From a photograph by Strumper & Co., Hamburg.]

EMPEROR FREDERICK......................................446

SARCOPHAGUS OF EMPEROR WILLIAM I., CHARLOTTENBURG......454

SCHUECKENBERGE.........................................462
[Where Bismarck's Mausoleum will be erected.]

MAP OF GERMANY SHOWING CHANGES MADE IN 1860............464

BISMARCK.

CHAPTER I.

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.

Otto Eduard Leopold Von Bismarck was born at the manor-house of
Schoenhausen, in the Mark of Brandenburg, on April 1, 1815. Just a month
before, Napoleon had escaped from Elba; and, as the child lay in his
cradle, the peasants of the village, who but half a year ago had
returned from the great campaign in France, were once more called to
arms. A few months passed by; again the King of Prussia re