"Blood and Iron...!" or:
How Bismarck came to power


On September 30, 1862, the budget commission (today we would say "budget committee") of the Prussian House of Representatives met on a proposal from the Prime Minister...



... who brought a bill, wished by King Wilhelm I...



... brought in a very expensive army law and now wants to enforce it...:



His Majesty wishes that instead of the previous 40,000 men, 65,000 recruits will be drafted annually, which corresponds to about a third of the conscripts.





The number of active regiments is also to be increased by 39 infantry and 10 cavalry regiments.

The peace army would have been increased to 200,000 men instead of the previous 145,000.

The length of active service, which is three years under the law and which had previously been tacitly limited to two years, is also to be increased to the old level, which means a further increase in the size of the army by about a third.

The whole thing would cost an additional 9 million thalers in the first year and 5 million thalers in the second year (126 million euros according to today's purchasing power!).

The previous Prime Minister Adolf zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen...



...and Prussia's War Minister Albrecht von Roon...



...had a hard nut to crack on this issue at the House of Representatives, which has to approve the funds!

Even new elections, which the king had therefore called for the year before (in the hope of getting a more compliant chamber), had brought nothing!

The situation was so messed up that King Wilhelm was now thinking of abdicating, because he absolutely does not want to give up his army!

In this situation, War Minister von Roon recommends to the king that the Prussian ambassador in Paris, Otto von Bismarck, who is known for being politically ruthless...



... to appoint the new prime minister.

Bismarck, for his part, promises the king that he will get the army bill through if he gets the high office.



The king is ready to make a pact with anyone who makes him such a promise, so on September 22, 1862 Bismarck is appointed Prime Minister of Prussia.

Bismarck solves the situation with a trick - he devises the so-called "gap theory"...:

Since the Prussian constitution does not provide an answer to a stalemate between monarch and parliament, Bismarck interprets this as a "loophole in the constitution".

In this case he concludes that in constitutionally unresolved cases, in case of doubt, the one who can assert himself with the help of the military holds the power, in this case the king.

Pure Rabulistik - but Bismarck actually gets away with it!

At the decisive meeting on September 30, Bismarck, who had been appointed just a week earlier, formulated his threat in the following words:




("The large questions of the time are not decided by speeches or majority decisions, but by iron and blood.")
The members of parliament, who were so directly threatened, cower in fear - one can still well remember 1848, when the Prussian army had brutally suppressed liberal and democratic aspirations. The then Crown Prince Wilhelm, today's King, who at that time earned the name "Prince Grapeshot" was in command...:




Bismarck wins the showdown with Parliament with his threat to trigger a civil war for army enlargement!

After this test of strength, his power increases more and more!
He will become so powerful that Wilhelm I will say: "It is difficult to be king under a Herr Bismarck..."