Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichröder and the Building of the German Empire

659 Pages·1979·18.588 MB·English

by  Fritz Stern

GOLD
AND IRON
Bismarck, Bleichröder,
and the Building
of the German Empire
FRITZ STERN
Vintage Books
A Division of Random House
New York
FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION,
September 1979
Copyright © 1977 by Fritz Stern
All rights reserved under International and Pan-
American Copyright Conventions. Published in the
United States by Random House, Inc., New York,
and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of
Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published by
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. in February 1977.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING
IN PUBLICATION DATA
Stem, Fritz Richard, 1926-
Gold and iron.
Reprint of the 1977 ed. published by Knopf,
New York.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
I. Bismarck, Otto, Fürst von, 1815-1898.
2. Bleichröder, Gerson von, 1822-1893.
3. Statesmen—Germany—Biography.
4. Bankers—Germany—Biography. I. Title.
[DD218.2.S85 1979] 2**904932.08
[B] 79-11462
ISBN 0-394-74034-3
987654
Cover Painting: Das Ballsouper by Adolph von Menzel
(Nationalgalerie, Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz)
To Peggy

Money is the god of our time, and Rothschild is his prophet.
—Heinrich Heine
The history of the House of Rothschild is of greater importance for world
history than the domestic history of the state of Saxony; and is it a matter
of indifference that that is the history of a German Jew?
—Theodor Mommsen
The great questions of the day will not be settled by speeches and majority
decisions—that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849—but by blood and
iron.
—Otto von Bismarck in 1862
The German Empire has been built more truly on coal and iron than on
blood and iron.
—John Maynard Keynes

CONTENTS
Guide to Abbreviations xiii
Introduction XV
Part One The Hazardous Rise, 1859-1871
i First Encounter: Junker and Jew 3
2 Bismarck’s Struggle for Survival 20
3 Between the Throne and the Gallows 48
4 A Banker’s Share in Bismarck’s Triumph 81
5 Bismarck’s Purse and Bleichröder’s Place 96
6 The Third War 121
7 Hubris in Versailles 145
Part Two Banker for an Empire
8 A New Baron in a New Berlin 159
9 Imperial Style in Politics and Economics 176
IO Greed and Intrigue 226
il The Fourth Estate 262
12 The Prince Enriched 280
13 The World of Banking and Diplomacy 304
U Rumania: The Triumph of Expediency 351
15 The Reluctant Colonialist 394
i6 The Fall of Bismarck 436
X I Contents
Part Three The Anguish of Assimilation
17 The Jew as Patriotic Parvenu 461
18 The Hostage of the New Anti-Semitism 494
19 The Embittered End 532
Epilogue: The Fall of a Family 542
Notes 551
Acknowledgments 597
Bibliography 601
Index 603
ILLUSTRATIONS
(following page 294)
Baron James de Rothschild (Collection Viollet)
Gerson von Bleichröder, from a painting by Emile Wanters
(Deutsche Staatsbibliothek)
Otto von Bismarck, 1864 (Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz)
William I, as German Emperor (Hulton Picture Library)
William I, King of Prussia, with Bismarck and Moltke, 1866 (bpk)
Punch cartoon, 1867 (bpk)
Ferrières, château of Baron James de Rothschild (Fritz Stem)
The Bleichröder bank, Berlin ( Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder)
Gerson von Bleichröder in the 1850s (Ullstein Bilderdienst)
Adolph von Hansemann (bpk)
Count Henckel von Donnersmarck (bpk)
The great hall of the Bleichröder bank (Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder)
Field Marshal von Moltke (bpk)
Bismarck and aides at Versailles, 1871 (bpk)
Bismarck with Jules Favre and Adolphe Thiers (bpk)
From a contemporary French cartoon : Bismarck and William I, and
the pillage of Alsace-Lorraine (Collection Viollet)
French caricature of Favre and Thiers, 1871 (Collection Viollet)
Cartoon ridiculing the anti-Jewish polemics of the Prussian Kreuzzeitung,
c. 1875 (Akademie der Künste, Berlin)
Drawing by E. Thiel of the Berlin stock exchange, 1889
(Illustrierte Zeitung)
xii I Illustrations
Johanna von Bismarck (bpk)
Herbert von Bismarck (bpk)
Bismarck and William II at Friedrichsruh, 1888 (bpk)
Bismarck with his family and friends at Friedrichsruh, 1893 (bpk)
Benjamin Disraeli (Mansell Collection)
Sir Moses Montefiore, from a painting by George Richmond
(Hulton Picture Library)
Congress of Berlin, 1878 (Hulton Picture Library)
Cartoon commenting on Bismarck’s anti-Socialist law, 1878 (bpk)
Punch cartoon of Bismarck and Disraeli, 1878 (Mansell Collection)
Heinrich von Lehndorff (bpk)
Paul von Hatzfeldt (bpk)
Friedrich von Holstein (bpk)
Josef Maria von Radowitz (bpk)
Gerson von Bleichröder on his deathbed, 1893
(Baker Library, Harvard University)
Paul von Schwabach (Ullstein Bilderdienst)
Georg von Bleichröder (Ullstein Bilderdienst)
Hans von Bleichröder, Jr., 1927 (Ullstein Bilderdienst)
One of Bismarck’s last letters to Bleichröder
(Baker Library, Harvard University)
Ministry of Interior memorandum to Adolf Eichmann on Edgar and Curt
von Bleichröder (Bundesarchiv)