Otto Christian Archibald, Prince of Bismarck (25 September 1897 in

Schönhausen Schönhausen ( Low Saxon: ''Schöönhusen'') is a municipality in the district of Stendal in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. It is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Elbe-Havel-Land. Geography The village is situated on ...

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 squ ...

– 24 December 1975), was a German politician and diplomat, and the Prince of Bismarck from 1904 to his death (since 1919 only as a part of his name).

Life

He was the eldest of the three sons of

Herbert von Bismarck Nikolaus Heinrich Ferdinand Herbert, Prince of Bismarck (born Nikolaus Heinrich Ferdinand Herbert Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen; 28 December 1849 – 18 September 1904) was a German politician, who served as Foreign Secretary from 1886 to 1890. H ...

, as well as the grandson of the German chancellor

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of ...

and elder brother of German Resistance figure

Gottfried Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen Count Gottfried von Bismarck-Schönhausen (9 March 1901 – 14 September 1949) was a German politician and German Resistance figure. Biography Born in Berlin, Bismarck was a grandson of the 19th century Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. He was a ...

. Bismarck was six when his father died and he inherited his family estate in

. A lawyer, he joined the

diplomatic service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

in 1927, serving in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

(1927–28),

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

(1928–1937), with the

Foreign Ministry In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

in Berlin (1937–1940), as

Envoy Envoy or Envoys may refer to: Diplomacy * Diplomacy, in general * Envoy (title) * Special envoy, a type of diplomatic rank Brands *Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft *Envoy (automobile), an automobile brand used to sell Br ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

(Kingdom of Italy) (1940–1943), and finally as head of the Italian section of the Foreign Ministry (1943–44). Bismarck was a member of the

DNVP The German National People's Party (german: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) was a national-conservative party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major conservative and nationalist party in Wei ...

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

national-conservative National conservatism is a nationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national and cultural identity. National conservatives usually combine nationalism with conservative stances promoting traditional cultural values, ...

party) in the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...

, and served as a Member of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

from 1924 to 1928. In 1933, when the Nazis came to power, he joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

, which he represented in the Reichstag until the very end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

in 1945. The Reichstag wielded no real influence but was an important part of the propaganda apparatus of the Third Reich and in joining he allowed the regime to use the most prestigious name in Germany to increase its credibility. In 1935 he became a member of the

Anglo-German Fellowship The Anglo-German Fellowship was a membership organisation that existed from 1935 to 1939, and aimed to build up friendship between the United Kingdom and Germany. It was widely perceived as being allied to Nazism. Previous groups in Britain wi ...

World War II

Whilst stationed in

during the Second World War, Bismarck would pass on German intelligence to the Italian Foreign Office and privately speak ill of the Nazi regime, in particular

Ribbentrop Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945. Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's not ...

, Goering, and Hitler. "The Prince used to tell Italian Foreign Office officials much of what he knew, but, as Ciano discovered, 'he was hellishly afraid of being found out, and implored me in Heaven's name not to pass his confidential information to anyone.' He was convinced of the inevitability of Germany's defeat but did not, unfortunately, mount the big political guns which had so often enabled his grandfather to avert disaster." Of Bismarck and the Nazi alliance with Italy,

King Umberto II en, Albert Nicholas Thomas John Maria of Savoy , house = Savoy , father = Victor Emmanuel III of Italy , mother = Princess Elena of Montenegro , birth_date = , birth_place = Racconigi, Piedmont, Kingdom of Italy , de ...

said, "The military element is strong in Germany, and even Bismarck who was truly exceptionally intelligent, had to submit to it." In 1942, Bismarck played a role in the disclosure of

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

intelligence that allowed Balkan Jews to be saved. Jews, mostly from

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...

, had fled to the parts of

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

which the Italian army occupied during 1941 and had since that time lived in peace under the protection of the Royal Italian Army. They had run from the unsystematic butchery of the Croatian fascists, the Ustaši, but by the middle of 1942 they were threatened with the systematic extermination planned for them under the Nazi "new order" in Europe. In August of 1942 the German government formally asked the Italian government to hand them over.

Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until Fall of the Fascist re ...

agreed; a handful of Italian diplomats and generals said no. By refusing the German request and disobeying an explicit order of the Duce, the conspirators set a perilous course which in the end crossed not merely the murderous ambition of Mussolini but that of

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

and the SS. At the start they had no conclusive evidence of what is now known as "the

final solution The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...

", but the

Italian Foreign Ministry The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation ( it, Ministero degli affari esteri e della cooperazione internazionale or ''MAECI'') is the foreign ministry of the government of the Italian Republic. It is also known as the Farnesin ...

had received a broad hint. On 18 August 1942, Prince Bismarck, called on the Marchese Lanza d'Ajeta at the Italian Foreign Ministry. Bismarck had orders to demand that the Italian government instruct its military authorities "to actuate those measures devised by the Germans and the Croatians for a transfer in mass of the Jews of Croatia to territories in the East". Prince Bismarck let slip the fact that the measures would lead to the "dispersion and elimination" of such Jews. Indeed, in the original text d'Ajeta had recorded the word 'liquidation'.Jonathan Steinberg (2002), ''All or Nothing: The Axis and the Holocaust 1941–43'', p. 1 Italy now faced the holocaust squarely. Bismarck himself had whispered the truth to the cabinet chief of

Count Ciano Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari ( , ; 18 March 1903 – 11 January 1944) was an Italian diplomat and politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law, Benito Mussolini, from 1936 until 19 ...

: the Jews were not being transferred to the east to work but to die. Mussolini was perfectly prepared to grant his Nazi ally the bodies of a few thousand

Croatian Jews The history of the Jews in Croatia dates back to at least the 3rd century, although little is known of the community until the 10th and 15th centuries. According to the 1931 census, the community numbered 21,505 members, and it is estimated ...

. In his large hand he wrote (no objection) across the memorandum. Mussolini apparently did not care what happened to the Jews of Croatia or refused to believe Bismarck's hint. It was that 'order' of Mussolini's that the conspirators decided to disobey. He worked as an envoy at the German Embassy at the Quirinal in Rome until August 1943. From November 1943 to November 1944, Bismarck was head of the Italy Committee in the Foreign Office in Berlin. He was then released because of his contacts with members of the

resistance group A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objectives ...

, however lack of evidence and the legend of the name Bismarck saved him from personal persecution. He then continued to manage the family property

Friedrichsruh Friedrichsruh () is a district in the municipality of Aumühle, Herzogtum Lauenburg district, Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany. Friedrichsruh manor is known as a residence of the princely House of Bismarck, mainly of Chancellor Otto von Bi ...

near Hamburg. At the end of the war Bismarck's home of Friedrichsruh became one of the headquarters of the "

White Buses White Buses was a Swedish humanitarian operation with the objective of freeing Scandinavians in German concentration camps in Nazi Germany during the final stages of World War II. Although the White Buses operation was envisioned to rescue Scan ...

" operation undertaken by the

Swedish Red Cross The Swedish Red Cross ( Swedish: ''Svenska Röda Korset'') is a Swedish humanitarian organisation and a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian m ...

and the

Danish government The Cabinet of Denmark ( da, regering) has been the chief executive body and the government of the Kingdom of Denmark since 1848. The Cabinet is led by the Prime Minister. There are around 25 members of the Cabinet, known as "ministers", all of wh ...

in the spring of 1945 to rescue

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

inmates in areas under Nazi control and transport them to Sweden, a neutral country. Although the operation was initially targeted at saving citizens of Scandinavian countries, it rapidly expanded to include citizens of other countries.

Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was a Swedish nobleman and diplomat. In World War II he negotiated the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps, including 450 Danish Jews ...

, a Swedish nobleman and diplomat who was then vice-president of the Swedish Red Cross, negotiated the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps. Bismarck's wife Princess Ann-Marie had been a lifelong friend of Bernadotte having been classmates at school in Stockholm. In spite of its clearly visible Red Cross markings on the roof, the Friedrichsruh manor house was destroyed during a RAF raid in the last days of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, due to the (false) rumor that

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

was hiding there. After the war, the premises were rebuilt at the behest of prince Otto von Bismarck.

Post-war career

In the 1950s Bismarck considered becoming a member of the FDP (the liberal party), which offered him a nomination for Parliament, but eventually joined the Christian-conservative CDU instead. He served as a Member of

for the constituency of (Duchy of Lauenburg; his grandfather held the title Duke of Lauenburg) from 1953 to 1965, and as a member of the foreign affairs committee. He was also a member of the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up ...

, and served as its Vice President from 1959 to 1960 and from 1961 to 1966. He was also chairman of the Deutsche Parlamentarische Gesellschaft from 1957 to 1961. He received the

Great Cross of Merit The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellec ...

in 1965. he died in West Germany.

Personal life

Bismarck married Ann-Mari Tengbom (1907–1999), a native of Sweden, daughter of

Ivar Tengbom Ivar Justus Tengbom (April 7, 1878 – August 6, 1968) was a Swedish architect and one of the best-known representatives of the Swedish neo-classical architecture of the 1910s and 1920s. Tengbom was born in Vireda in Jönköping County, s ...

, on 18 April 1928, and they had six children: *

Mari Ann Mari may refer to: Places *Mari, Paraíba, Brazil, a city * Mari, Cyprus, a village *Mari, Greece, a village, site of ancient town of Marius * Mari, Iran (disambiguation), places in Iran * Mari, Punjab, a village and a union council in Pakistan ...

(1929–1981). * Ferdinand von Bismarck (1930–2019), late head of the princely

House of Bismarck The House of Bismarck is a German noble family that rose to prominence in the 19th century, largely through the achievements of the statesman Otto von Bismarck. He was granted a hereditary comital title in 1865, the hereditary title of Prince o ...

. *Carl Alexander (1935–1992). *

Maximilian Viktor Maximilian, Maximillian or Maximiliaan (Maximilien in French) is a male given name. The name "Max" is considered a shortening of "Maximilian" as well as of several other names. List of people Monarchs * Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1459� ...

(born 1947). * Gunilla Margaretha (born 1949), philanthropist. *

Eduard Leopold Eduard Model Accessories is a Czech manufacturer of plastic models and finescale model accessories. Formed in 1989 in the city of Most, Eduard began in a rented cellar as a manufacturer of photoetched brass model components. Following the succ ...

(born 1951). His grandson Carl-Eduard von Bismarck served as a Member of Parliament, representing the CDU for the constituency ''Herzogtum Lauenburg'', from 2005 to 2007.

References

External links