he always spoke with much
affection, was a quiet, unassuming man, who retired from the army in
early life with the rank of captain of cavalry (_Rittmeister_). His
mother, a daughter of Mencken, cabinet secretary to the king, was a
woman of strong character and ability, who had been brought up at Berlin
under the "Aufklarung." Her ambition was centred in her sons, but
Bismarck in his recollections of his childhood missed the influences of
maternal tenderness. There were several children of the marriage, which
took place in 1806, but all died in childhood except Bernhard
(1810-1893), Otto, and one sister, Malvina (b. 1827), who married in
1845 Oscar von Arnim. Young Bismarck was educated in Berlin, first at a
private school, then at the gymnasium of the Graue Kloster (Grey
Friars). At the age of seventeen he went to the university of Gottingen,
where he spent a little over a year; he joined the corps of the
Hannoverana and took a leading part in the social life of the students.
He completed his studies at Berlin, and in 1835 passed the examinations
which admitted him to the public service. He was intended for the
diplomatic service, but spent some months at Aix-la-Chapelle in
administrative work, and then was transferred to Potsdam and the
judicial side. He soon retired from the public service; he conceived a
great distaste for it, and had shown himself defective in discipline and
regularity. In 1839, after his mother's death, he undertook, with his
brother, the management of the family estates in Pomerania; at this time
most of the estate attached to Schonhausen had to be sold. In 1844,
after the marriage of his sister, he went to live with his father at
Schonhausen. He and his brother took an active part in local affairs,
and in 1846 he was appointed _Deichhauptmann_, an office in which he was
responsible for the care of the dykes by which the country, in the
neighbourhood of the Elbe, was preserved from inundation. During these
years he travelled in England, France and Switzerland. The influence of
his mother, and his own wide reading and critical character, made him at
one time inclined to hold liberal opinions on government and religion,
but he was strongly affected by the religious revival of the early years
of the reign of Frederick William IV.; his opinions underwent a great
change, and under the influence of the neighbouring country gentlemen he
acquired those strong principles in favour of monarchical government a