Bismarck was indeed no aggressive warmonger.
He was, though, extremely anti-socialistic, and highly antidemocratic. A law-and-order fanatic.
He just was smart enough to not open the fire on the demonstrants as long as there were cheaper means available: The social security system...
The pension fonds were hardly supposed to pay much - almost none of the working class reched the required age. The Health Care directly helped productivity.
As a matter of fact, Prussia was a military dictatorship in the hands of Bismarck, who hold absolute powers. He did not achive the same in all of Germany after the reunification, ok. But Wilhelm I was a puppet of Otto.
Ironically, the ill-famed Wilhelm II instead recognized the situation. While he is mocked about for giving the 'pilot' the boot order until today, his reasons to do so were highly honorable (!):
Bismarck was sick of the Socialists who still didn't love him despite his social laws, and was aiming for an open confrontation.
Quote Willi2, on Bismarcks demise:
"I don't want to spoil my first years of reign with the blood of my people."
That doesn't take away from Otto being a formidable foreign affairs politician. But, even his contemporaries saw already where his policies will lead.
Dr. Johann Jacoby, the leading politician of the opposition in Prussia, in a 1867 Prussian parlament speech:
(I'm not going to translate this prophecy en detail, since I expect only the German members to really care.)
In short, he called the upcoming Prussian military dictatorship in the hands of Bismarck a permanent thread for all neighbors, the start of an era of war, and already uses the term
Völkerkrieg.
Why on Earth Bismarck is still glorified in Germany, while Jacoby is completely forgotten today, I don't know.
Commander Bello said:
Arminius. 'Hermann' is the 19th century nonsense.
)
