(April 1, 1815–July 30, 1898), was a Prussian statesman. Serving under Emperor William I, he was largely responsible for uniting the German people. Known as the Iron Chancellor, he served as the Prussian foreign minister, 1862–71, and the first Chancellor of the new German Empire, 1871–90. Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck declared:
Would to God that, apart from what is known in the world, I had no other sins upon my soul, for which I only hope to be forgiven by trusting in the blood of Christ. I know not whence I should derive my sense of duty if not from God. Orders and titles have no charm for me; I firmly believe in a life after death …
To my steadfast faith alone do I owe the power of resisting all manner of absurdities which I have seen displayed throughout the past ten years. Deprive me of my faith, and you rob me of my Fatherland. Were I not a staunch Christian, did I not stand upon the miraculous basis of religion, you would never have possessed a Federal Chancellor in my person.2483
In a speech to the Reichstag, February 6, 1888, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck stated:
We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world.2484
In describing the Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of the newly united German Empire, President James A. Garfield stated:
I am struck with the fact that Bismarck, the great statesman of Germany, probably the foremost man in Europe today, stated as an unquestioned principle, that the support, the defense, and propagation of the Christian Gospel is the central object of the German government.2485