Blood and Iron (speech)
Blood and Iron (German: Blut und Eisen) is the name given to a speech made by Otto von Bismarck given on 30 September 1862, at the time when he was Minister President of Prussia, about the unification of the German territories. It is also a transposed phrase that Bismarck uttered near the end of the speech that has become one of his most widely known quotations.[1][2][3][4]
In September 1862, when the Prussian House of Representatives were refusing to approve an increase in military spending desired by King Wilhelm I, the monarch appointed Bismarck Minister President and Foreign Minister. A few days later, Bismarck appeared before the House's Budget Committee and stressed the need for military preparedness to solve the German Question. He concluded his speech with the following statement:[5]
The position of Prussia in Germany will not be determined by its liberalism but by its power [...] Prussia must concentrate its strength and hold it for the favourable moment, which has already come and gone several times. Since the treaties of Vienna, our frontiers have been ill-designed for a healthy body politic. Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided—that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849—but by iron and blood (Eisen und Blut).
This phrase, relying on a patriotic poem written by Max von Schenkendorf during the Napoleonic Wars, was popularized as the more euphonious Blut und Eisen ("Blood and Iron"), and became symbolic of Bismarckian Machtpolitik ("Power politics").
Although Bismarck was an outstanding diplomat, the phrase "blood and iron" has become a popular description of his foreign policy partly because he did on occasion resort to war to further the unification of Germany and the expansion of its continental power. Therefore, he became known as "the iron chancellor."
There is a recent spate of books, that are variously titled with the words "blood" and "iron" in their title, albeit sometimes reversed,[6]—reflecting a common long standing and evolving linguistic meme.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Li, Sam Xinghao (November 30, 2018). "A Tale of Iron and Blood: How "Iron and Blood" Evolved into "Blood and Iron"" (PDF). Marcuse University. Retrieved May 5, 2025.
[Bismarck's] statement conveyed the most essential and powerful idea from Bismarck, and thus named this speech after the phrase "Blood and Iron." While the records of this speech suggest that Bismarck spoke of his idea as "Iron and Blood," the world today seems to primarily refer to this speech as "Blood and Iron". In any event, they share the origin in von Bismarck's famous "Blood and Iron speech.
- ^ Dawson, William Harbutt (1919). The German Empire, 1867-1914, and the Unity Movement. Vol. 1. George Allen & Unwin. p. 139.
- ^ Steinberg, Jonathan (2011). Bismarck: A Life.
- ^ Von Bismarck, Otto (2005) [1889]. Bismarck: The Man and the Statesman. Vol. 1. Harper & Bros., Cosimo, Inc. p. 313.
- ^ German History in Documents and Images: Excerpt from Bismarck's "Blood and Iron" Speech (1862)
- ^ Lak, Martijn (September 2024). "Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871–1918; Deutschland: von der geteilten Nation zur gespaltenen Gesellschaft. 1945 bis heute". German History. 42 (3): 449–452.
External links
[edit]- Von Bismarck, Otto (2005) [1889]. Bismarck: The Man and the Statesman. Vol. 1. Harper & Bros., Cosimo, Inc. p. 313.downloadable book at Internet archive
