Everything about Bernhard Von B Low totally explained
Prince Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin von Bülow, born
Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin von Bülow (
May 3,
1849 –
October 28,
1929) was a
German statesman who served as
Chancellor of the
German Empire from
1900 to
1909.
Family
He was born at
Klein-Flottbeck,
Holstein, now part of
Altona, Hamburg. His great uncle,
Heinrich von Bülow, was Prussian ambassador to England from
1827 to
1840, and married a daughter of
Wilhelm von Humboldt. His father,
Bernhard Ernst von Bülow, was a
Danish and
German statesman. His brother, Major-General Karl Ulrich von Bulow, was a cavalry commander during World War I who took part in the attack on
Liege in August 1914
[ref.].
Diplomatic career
Bernhard von Bülow, after serving in the
Franco-Prussian War 1870/71, completed his
law degree at the
University of Greifswald in
1872. Afterwards, he entered first the
Prussian Civil Service, and then the diplomatic service. In
1876 he was appointed attaché to the German embassy in
Paris, attended the
Berlin Congress as a secretary,
(External Link
) and became second secretary to the embassy in
1880. In 1884 he became first secretary to the embassy at
St Petersburg, and acted as charge d'affaires; In 1887 he advocated
ethnic cleansing of Poles from Polish territories of German Empire in future armed conflict
(External Link). In
1888 he was appointed envoy at
Bucharest, and in
1893 to the post of German ambassador at
Rome. In
1897, on the retirement of
Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein, he was appointed state secretary for foreign affairs (the same office which his father had held) under
Prince Hohenlohe, with a seat in the Prussian ministry. As foreign secretary Bülow was chiefly responsible for carrying out the policy of colonial expansion (or
Weltpolitik) with which the emperor had identified himself, and in 1899, on bringing to a successful conclusion the negotiations by which the
Caroline Islands were acquired by Germany, he was raised to the rank of
Count. On the resignation of
Hohenlohe in
1900 he was chosen to succeed him as
chancellor of the empire and
Prime Minister of Prussia.
Chancellor
His first conspicuous act as chancellor was a masterly defence in the
Reichstag of German imperialism in
China. Bülow often spent his time defending German foreign policy before the parliament; to say nothing of covering for the many gaffes of
Wilhelm II. On
June 6 1905 Count Bülow was raised to the rank of prince (Fürst), on the occasion of the marriage of the crown prince. The coincidence of this date with the fall of
Theophile Delcassé, the French minister for foreign affairs, a triumph for Germany and a humiliation for France, was much commented on at the time; and the elevation of
Bismarck to the rank of prince in the Hall of Mirrors at
Versailles was recalled. Whatever element of truth there may have been in this, however, the significance of the incident was much exaggerated.
On
April 5,
1906, while attending a debate in the Reichstag, Prince Bülow was seized with illness, the result of overwork and an attack of influenza, and was carried unconscious from the hall. At first it was thought that the attack would be fatal, and Lord Fitzmaurice in the
House of Lords compared the incident with that of the death of Chatham, a compliment much appreciated in Germany. The illness, however, quickly took a favorable turn, and after a month's rest the chancellor was able to resume his duties. In
1907, during the
Harden-Moltke scandals,
Adolf Brand, the founder of the first homosexual periodical,
Der Eigene, printed a pamphlet which described how Bernhard Prince von Bülow had been blackmailed for his sexuality. Allegedly the Chancellor had kissed and embraced Scheefer at male gatherings hosted by Eulenburg, and thus, being gay, was morally obliged to publicly oppose
Paragraph 175, which outlawed homosexuality. In the ensuing libel suit, Bülow was victorious, and Brand received 18 months in prison.
The parliamentary skill of Prince Bülow in holding together the heterogeneous elements of which the government majority in the Reichstag was composed, no less than the diplomatic tact with which he from time to time interpreted the imperial indiscretions to the world, was put to a rude test by the famous interview with the German emperor, published in the London Daily Telegraph of
October 28,
1908, which aroused universal reprobation in Germany. Prince Bülow assumed the official responsibility, and tendered his resignation to the emperor, which wasn't accepted; but the chancellor's explanation in the Reichstag on
November 10 showed how keenly he felt his position. He declared his conviction that the disastrous results of the interview would induce the emperor in future to observe that strict reserve, even in private conversations, which is equally indispensable in the interest of a uniform policy and for the authority of the crown, adding that, in the contrary case, neither he nor any successor of his could assume the responsibility. It wasn't the imperial indiscretions, but the effect of his budget proposals in breaking up the Liberal-Conservative bloc, on whose support he depended in the Reichstag, that eventually drove Prince Bülow from office (see
German Empire). At the emperors request he remained to pilot the mutilated budget through the House; but on
July 14,
1909 the acceptance of his resignation was announced. He was succeeded by
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg.
He pursued a policy of aggrandizement in the years preceding World War One.
Further career
From
1914 to
1915 Bülow was ambassador to
Italy, but failed to bring her onto the side of Germany, or even to persuade her to maintain her neutrality. He regarded his task as impossible in any case, and on returning remarked: "Morale and attitude of the German people: A-1. Political leadership: Z-Minus." Although many of the leading figures in the Reichstag (including
Matthias Erzberger) hoped that Bülow would succeed Bethmann Hollweg upon the latter's dismissal in
1917, the former Chancellor was overlooked. Prince von Bülow died on
October 28 1929, a mere day before
Black Tuesday.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Bernhard Von B Low'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://bernhard_von_b__low.totallyexplained.com">Bernhard von Bülow Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
