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Otto von Bismarck, the greatest statesman of a generation, distinguished himself from an early age... as a giant pain in the butt.

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Otto von Bismarck - I: The Wildman Bismarck - Extra History

Otto von Bismarck became the greatest statesman of a generation, but he began as an intransigent and irresponsible youth. He coasted through college, got himself thrown out of an early political appointment, and caused havoc with his divisive opinions during a meeting of parliament. Support us on Patreon! http://bit.ly/EHPatreon (--More below) Grab your Extra Credits gear at the store! http://bit.ly/ExtraStore Subscribe for new episodes every Saturday! http://bit.ly/SubToEC Play games with us on Extra Play! http://bit.ly/WatchEXP Talk to us on Twitter (@ExtraCreditz): http://bit.ly/ECTweet Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/ECFBPage Get our list of recommended games on Steam: http://bit.ly/ECCurator ____________ ♪ Get the intro music here! http://bit.ly/1EQA5N7 *Music by Demetori: http://bit.ly/1AaJG4H ♫ Get the background music here! The Land of Vana'diel (Album): http://bit.ly/1t2OT9L *Music by Tweex ♪ Get the outro music here! http://bit.ly/23isQfx *Music by Sean and Dean Kiner: http://bit.ly/1WdBhnm

Comments

Anonymous

Ja! Es ist viel zu lange her seit der letzten deutschen Extra History Serie! Translation: Yes! It has been far too long since the last German Extra History Series!

Anonymous

YES! This is gonna be awesome!

Michael Waisfeld

ugh i had one of these cram hirers loaded kids in high school. hated that guy.

Paul Grodt

Wow! Soil chemistry would've still been BLEEDING-edge stuff at that point.

Anonymous

I guess this means Motley is our new best friend.

Aaron Neumann

So, would you guys cover WHY Bismarck got fired (rumored attempt on engineering a socialist revolution that would be crushed by the military (and that NEVER goes well) and his apparent mental decline)? I mean it's usually done without context in history books anymore and having the actual events that lead to Bismark getting sacked by the equally eccentric Wilhelm the Second (once you get past the British, French, and Republic propaganda, you'll find someone that is rather flawed that wanted Germany to thrive).

Anonymous

Extra Bismarck: Breakfast with Otto at last!

Anonymous

Not going to lie, I always picture Bismarck as an old guy so it feels weird to see him as a young prettyboy :D Like seeing photos of grandparents as preteens. With all the things Bismarck ended up being right about I can only assume he was literally magic

Anonymous

My funny bone was tickled to see the Necronomicon grimoire among the books he read while at university. Are you implying a magical influence for some of his later achievements? On a different note, wasn't Johanna's cousin, Marie von Thadden, responsible for Otto becoming a Pietist Lutheran?

Anonymous

Unless the video is supposed to be up early for everyone, we have a slight problem. The video is not unlisted. Just got the notification and there are already comments.

ExtraCredits

Early Bismarck was a bit of a jerk. Come to think of it, older Bismarck was still a jerk but one who also got stuff done. :P

ExtraCredits

He was definitely smart, just, you know... brash, arrogant, and irresponsible!

ExtraCredits

We're not really gonna get that far in this series. This baby's gonna cover the first part of Bismarck's life, and if you folks are enjoying it, we'll put the second part of his life up for a separate vote later on.

ExtraCredits

! Maybe a time traveling wizard from the future came and took over young Bismarck's body, and that's why he suddenly went from being an irresponsible youth to a canny old man!

ExtraCredits

WAIT how did the Necronomicon get there? I'm sure we didn't put it there! Oh dear...

ExtraCredits

Error on YouTube. It's fixed now. Thanks for the heads up; I wouldn't have caught it right away if you hadn't said anything!

Anonymous

Outstanding video on one of my favorite historical figures! Super excited for the rest of the series!

Anonymous

YES YES YES. Bismark is one of my favorite historic figure and one of the few German leaders I can be proud off. The way he played Europe in a way astonishes me :D.

Anonymous

I am not sure I agree with the prologue where Bismarck is contrasted against Kaiser Wilhelm II. I hope the video takes a more critical view of Bismarck, the man who Max Weber branded as the man who throttled German democracy and left people without any political education. Bismarck may have warned about the Balkan crisis but he was also someone deeply responsible for how World War I broke out because of his system of governance and the imperialist expansionist nature of its founding. He kept trying to ally with Russia and isolating France, but he also slow-dragged loans to help Russia because he knew that if Russia started industrialism it would outpace Germany, and that was the real reason why World War I broke out as Fritz Fischer, Hans Ulrich-Wehler and other eminent German historians have shown clearly. Bismarck was also a first-class liar, and as Jonathan Steinberg in his recent biography shows, he is the source for all interactions between him and Kaiser Wilhelm II. The reason why Bismarck was fired by Kaiser Wilhelm II was that the former wanted to stage a provocation against socialists while the Kaiser wanted to avoid bloodshed and controversy in his early reign (for PR reasons). It wasn't that they were invisible to the great Bismarck's ideas. Bismarck was also an anti-semite and reactionary, and that should be mentioned. He wasn't Hitler yes, but to say that there's no similarities or connections or that Hitler was somehow mistaken for admiring Bismarck is utterly untrue.

Paul Grodt

Huskarr, coming from a place of ignorance, I'm fascinated and very curious about what you learned about Bismarck, where you learned about him, and how old you were when you learned about him. In my US public-school education, we learned almost nothing about him, and what little we did learn about him only starts his story on the lead-up to WWI, basically entirely skipping over a massive chunk of his life and his rise to power. I'd very much love to hear about your experiences learning about the guy and how he came to be one of your favorite historical figures.

Anonymous

I learnt about him in school (Germany). I was fifteen or sixteen, maybe early seventeen at the time. We didn't focus much on his person (we hardly do that in history classes) and more on his actions. And to summarize we learnt about how Germany was unified mainly through him and generally the German politics from about 1860 to world war one. His politics and how he essentially outshone Willhelm the first just fascinated me. So I did some research of my own and my fascination of how he managed germany with "Zuckerbrot und Peitsche" (Sugarbread and whip) are astonishing to me. Also look at the guys mustache. I mean how can he not impress you?

ExtraCredits

Hmmm... We've been trying to present him as an arrogant wastrel and a womanizer, but I think it's a pretty big stretch to say Bismarck was like Hitler. He was an anti-polish racist and you can 100% say he didn't do enough to check German antisemitism but I mean he did literally say: "I decidedly disapprove of this agitation against the Jews, be it on religious or on racial grounds." "I shall never consent to any attempt at curtailing the constitutional rights of the Jews." As far as being the author of the two world wars, I have to disagree. I think that what you really have to ask is why World War 1 didn't happen sooner. The creation of Germany almost ensured it (after all you placed a power that was potentially economically and militarily more powerful in the middle of all the great powers. Efforts to contain that power were assured.) If you take the creation of Germany as inevitable rather than say it was an act entirely of Bismarck's doing (which I do) then you have to see Bismarck's great project as creating a diplomatic situation in which Germany wouldn't be attacked before it was too strong for anyone to think of attacking it... and he almost succeeded. If he hadn't been booted and his diplomatic efforts not just ignored but reversed you might not have had a WW1. You can argue that if Bismarck hadn't come along Germany might have been unified under some other German faction and not Prussia, leading to a less militaristic society, which might also have radically altered the course of history. This I think is more valid and I think there's lots to explore there. As far as him being a reactionary, 100% yes. But weirdly I think he's closer to what a conservative should be than a lot of the modern examples. I may disagree with his policies but he realized that the best way to keep the status quo and to keep those in power in power was to make the average person's life bearable. He passed a form of universal health care and created a welfare system. He probably didn't do this for altruistic reasons but because he realized that he needed the average person to be comfortable and to attribute that comfort to the king and his government, rather than joining the socialists and demanding reform. Whether or not we agree on this, I hope that at least helps shed some light on the perspective I wrote this from. JP P.S. I just realized one thing! If you happened to have stumbled upon any of those "quotes" where Bismarck says things about "jewish bankers" my understanding is that all of those were made up by the internet relatively recently.