The House of Bismarck is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

noble family that rose to prominence in the 19th century, largely through the achievements of the statesman

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 ...

. He was granted a hereditary comital title in 1865, the hereditary title of Prince of Bismarck in 1871, and the non-hereditary title of

Duke of Lauenburg The title of Duke of Lauenburg derives from the Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, which, since its foundation in 1269, was ruled in succession by 29 dukes from six dynastic houses and lines, and by an additional four dukes from a temporary dynastic branch ...

in 1890. Several of Otto von Bismarck's descendants, notably his elder son Herbert, Prince of Bismarck, were also politicians.

History

The family has its roots in the Altmark region, descending from Herebord von Bismarck (d. 1280), the first verifiable holder of the name, mentioned about 1270 as an official (''

Schultheiß In medieval Germany, the ''Schultheiß'' () was the head of a municipality (akin to today's office of mayor), a ''Vogt'' or an executive official of the ruler. As official (''villicus'') it was his duty to order his assigned village or county (' ...

'') at the city of Stendal in the

Margraviate of Brandenburg The Margraviate of Brandenburg (german: link=no, Markgrafschaft Brandenburg) was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe. Brandenburg developed out ...

. His descent from the nearby small town of Bismark is conceivable though not ascertained. Herebord was head of the Dressmakers' Guild. During the following two generations, the family seems to have gained

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

ly status. Herebord's great-grandson, Nicolaus (Klaus) von Bismarck, mentioned in 1328 and 1377, was a councillor and a loyal supporter of the

Wittelsbach The House of Wittelsbach () is a German dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including Bavaria, the Palatinate, Holland and Zeeland, Sweden (with Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary (with Romania), Bohemia, the Electorate ...

margrave Louis I, over which he fell out with the revolting Stendal citizens and was compensated with the manor and estate of

Burgstall A ''burgstall'' is a German term referring to a castle of which so little is left that its appearance cannot effectively be reconstructed.

in 1345. Also parts of this estate were the villages Briest and Döbbelin which later became the seats of two family branches. By a 1562 agreement with the

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...

margraves, the Bismarcks swapped Burgstall with

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 ...

and Fischbeck, located east of the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Re ...

river and formerly part of the

Archbishopric of Magdeburg The Archbishopric of Magdeburg was a Roman Catholic archdiocese (969–1552) and Prince-Archbishopric (1180–1680) of the Holy Roman Empire centered on the city of Magdeburg on the Elbe River. Planned since 955 and established in 968, the R ...

, which also had been under Hohenzollern rule since 1513, as well as the secularized former abbey of Krevese. Thus two lines emerged: The Bismarcks of ''Schönhausen'' and those of ''Crevese''. Both lines split into two branches in the early 18th century, with two new manor houses built at Schönhausen. The Crevese branch was further divided into Crevese-Briest and Döbbelin. The manor of Briest had been newly built in 1624, that of Döbbelin in 1736. The estate of Krevese was sold in 1819, the estate of Schönhausen II in 1830. Notable members of the Crevese-Briest branch of the family were Levin Friedrich von Bismarck (1703-1774) and his son August Wilhelm von Bismarck (1750–1783), both Prussian ministers (of Justice and Finances) under

Frederick the Great Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...

; Georg von Bismarck, a German general during

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 ...

, also belonged to that branch. Napoleon III Otto von Bismarck (Detail)

In 1815, the

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

'' Junker'' family's most notable member,

, was born in the manor Schönhausen I. Prime Minister of Prussia since 1862, he gained the comital title (''

Graf (feminine: ) is a historical title of the German nobility, usually translated as " count". Considered to be intermediate among noble ranks, the title is often treated as equivalent to the British title of "earl" (whose female version is " ...

'') of Bismarck-Schönhausen in 1865 and the hereditary princely status of a '' Fürst von Bismarck'' after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, followed by the

Proclamation of the German Empire The proclamation of the German Empire, also known as the ''Deutsche Reichsgründung'', took place in January 1871 after the joint victory of the German states in the Franco-Prussian War. As a result of the November Treaties of 1870, the southe ...

on 18 January 1871. He served as Germany's first

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

until 1890. In 1871, he was granted the Sachsenwald forest near Hamburg for his achievements, namely for the

Unification of Germany The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with adoption of t ...

. He took up his residence at Friedrichsruh Castle in the Sachsenwald. Today the forest area amounts to about 6,000 hectares, of which about a half is still owned by the House of Bismarck. The manor house at Friedrichsruh was destroyed in an RAF raid in 1945 and rebuilt after

. Prince Otto's other estates, his birth manor

I, the manor of Schönhausen II, which he had received as a grant from the German nation in 1885, as well as the estate of Varzin (today Warcino, Poland) in Farther Pomerania, were expropriated in 1945 as a result of the communists' seizure of power in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

and the expulsion of the Germans from Prussian provinces annexed by Poland. A number of other branches of the family also lost their ancestral possessions in this way, among them the branches of Briest and Döbbelin as well as the Counts von Bismarck-Bohlen at Karlsburg, who had been raised to the rank of counts in 1818. The estates of Briest and Döbbelin have both been bought back by two respective family branches after the

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

of 1990. Otto's elder son Herbert, Prince von Bismarck, served his father as Secretary for Foreign Affairs between 1886 and 1890 and the younger son, Count Wilhelm von Bismarck-Schönhausen, as a member of the Reichstag and president of the Regency of the

Province of Hanover The Province of Hanover (german: Provinz Hannover) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946. During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position ...

. Both resigned their posts after their father was dismissed as

Chancellor of Germany The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ge ...

in 1890. Wilhelm subsequently accepted an appointment as Governor of

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label= Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

in 1894. Herbert's elder son Otto Christian Archibald, Prince von Bismarck (1897–1975), became a diplomat and later a member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Comm ...

, while the younger son,

Gottfried Gottfried is a masculine German given name. It is derived from the Old High German name , recorded since the 7th century. The name is composed of the elements (conflated from the etyma for 'God' and 'good', and possibly further conflated with ) a ...

(1901–1949), was a member of the Reichstag. The present prince, Carl-Eduard von Bismarck (b. 1961), is also a former member of the Bundestag. Two ships of the German Imperial Navy ('' Kaiserliche Marine''), as well as a

battleship A battleship is a large armour, armored warship with a main artillery battery, battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1 ...

from the World War II era, were named after Otto von Bismarck. Also named in his honour were the Bismarck Sea and

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km. History The first inhabitants o ...

(both near the former German colony of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

), as well as several places in the United States, among them

Bismarck, North Dakota Bismarck () is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Burleigh County. It is the state's second-most populous city, after Fargo. The city's population was 73,622 in the 2020 census, while its metropolitan popul ...

, the state's capital.

Schönhausen line

* Jkr. Karl Alexander von Bismarck (1727–1797) – married in 1762 Christiane Charlotte Gottliebe von Schönfeldt at Werben ** Jkr. Ernst Friedrich Alexander von Bismarck (1763–1820) *** Jkr. Theodor von Bismarck (1790–1873), married in 1817 Karoline Countess von Bohlen, progenitor of the comital ''Bismarck-Bohlen'' branch **** ..** Jkr. Friedrich Adolf Ludwig von Bismarck (1766–1830), Prussian General Lieutenant ** Jkr. Karl Wilhelm ''Ferdinand'' von Bismarck (1771–1845), landowner at Schönhausen, married in 1806 Luise Wilhelmine Mencken *** Jkr. Bernhard von Bismarck (1810–1893), Prussian chamberlain (''Kammerherr''), member of the Prussian Landtag, married in 1841 Adelheid Fanninger (died 1844), secondly in 1848 Malwine von Lettow-Vorbeck **** Jkr. Philipp von Bismarck (1844–1894) ***** Jkr. Gottfried von Bismarck (1881–1928) ****** Jkr. Klaus von Bismarck (1912–1997), Director General of the

Westdeutscher Rundfunk Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (''West German Broadcasting Cologne''; WDR, ) is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the conso ...

(West German Broadcasting) ****** Jkr. Philipp von Bismarck (1913–2006), former member of the

***** Jkr. Herbert Rudolf von Bismarck (1884–1955), Member of the Prussian House of Representatives and the Reichstag *** HSH Otto, Prince von Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg (1815–1898), First

, Fürst von Bismarck from 1871; heir of

I, acquired Varzin and the Sachsenwald forest with Friedrichsruh; m. Johanna von Puttkamer **** Countess Marie von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1847–1926), m. Cuno, Count zu Rantzau **** HSH Herbert, Prince von Bismarck (1849–1904), Secretary for Foreign Affairs; m. Marguerite, Countess of Hoyos ***** Countess Hannah Leopoldine Alice (1893–1971), m. Leopold von Bredow ***** Countess Maria Goedela (1896–1981), m. Count Hermann Keyserling (1880–1946) ****** Count Manfred Keyserling (1920–2008) ****** Count Arnold Keyserling (1922–2005), renowned philosopher ***** HSH Otto Christian Archibald, Prince von Bismarck (1897–1975), diplomat, member of the

; m. Ann-Mari Tengbom ****** HSH Ferdinand, Prince von Bismarck (1930-2019), m. Elisabeth, countess Lippens ******* HSH Carl-Eduard, Prince von Bismarck (born 1961), former member of the

******** Count Alexei von Bismarck-Schönhausen ******** Countess Grace ******* Count Gottfried von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1962–2007) ******* Count Gregor von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born 1964), heir of the Sachsenwald forest with Friedrichsruh ********Countess Marina (born 1986) ********Count Léon (born 2002) ********Count Otis (born 2007) ********Countess Wilhelmina (born 2009) ******* Countess Vanessa (born 1971) ******Count Alexander von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1935–1992) *******Countess Claudia Anna Katharine Mona (born 1964) ****** Count Maximilian von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born 1947) ******* Count Konstantin von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born 1987) ******* Count Alexander von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born 1989) ****** Countess Gunilla (born 1949) ****** Count Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born 1951) ******* Count Nikolai von Bismarck (born 1986) ***** Count Gottfried von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1901–1949), member of the Reichstag; m. Melanie, Countess von Hoyos ****** Countess Vendeline ****** Countess Barbara (1939-1986) ****** Count Andreas von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1941-2013) ******* Countess Stephanie von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born 1976) ∞ Baron Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (born 1971), former Federal Minister for Economics and Defence ***** Count Albrecht von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1903–1970) ∞ Mona Strader (1897–1983) **** Count Wilhelm von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1852–1901), member of the Reichstag and president of the Regency of the

, Governor of

***** Countess Herta (b. 1886) ***** Countess Irene (1888-1982), m. 1) Herbert Count von Einsiedel; 2) Horst von Petersdorff ***** Countess Dorothee (1892-1975), m. 1) Reinhold Count von Rehbinder; 2) Wilhelm Friedrich von Löwenfeld ***** Count Nikolaus von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1896-1940), m. 1) Brigitte von Eickstedt-Peterswaldt; 2) Elisabeth Countess von Faber-Castell ****** Count Rule von Bismarck-Schönhausen (b. 1920), m. Olga Huneeus Cox ****** Countess Beatrix (1921-2006), m. Christian Heinrich Prince of

Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein was a county and later principality between Hesse-Darmstadt and Westphalia. History The county with imperial immediacy was formed by the 1657 partition of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Wittgenstein and raised from a county to ...

*** Jkvr. Malwine von Bismarck (1827–1908) Schloss Schönhausen Sammlung Duncker.jpg,

I, Altmark, birth place and parental home of Otto von Bismarck Schönhausen Elbe Herrenhaus II.JPG, Schönhausen II Schloss Friedrichsruh um 1915.jpg, Friedrichsruh, The Old Castle (destroyed in 1945), death place of Otto von Bismarck 57.Zespół pałacowo-parkowy.Warcino1.JPG, Varzin, Farther Pomerania, estate of Otto von Bismarck Gutshaus Döbbelin.JPG, Döbbelin, Altmark (owned by the family since 1344) GutshausBriestGartenseite.jpg, Briest, Altmark (owned by the family since 1345)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bismarck Family German noble families Political families of Germany