Bernhard von Bülow (1849-1929) |
Prince Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin von Bülow (3. May 1849 – 28. October 1929) was a German statesman who served as
Chancellor of Germany from 1900 to 1909.
Family
He was born at Klein-Flottbeck, in Holstein. 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.
Diplomatic Career
Bernhard von Bülow, after serving in the Franco-Prussian War,
entered first the Prussian Civil Service, and then the diplomatic service. In 1876 he was appointed attaché to the
German embassy in Paris, 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 1888 he was appointed envoy at Bucharest, and in 1893 to
the post of German ambassador at Rome.
In 1897, on the retirement of Baron Marshall 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 with which the Emperor Wilhelm II 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 German 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 6. June 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.
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 5. April 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 months rest the chancellor
was able to resume his duties. In 1907 Prince Bülow was accused of being homosexual by the journalist Adolph Brand, which
accusation received much attention because it coincided with the Harden-Moltke
scandals. In the ensuing libel suit, Prince Bülow's character was completely vindicated, 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 28. October 1908, which aroused universal reprobation in Germany. Prince Bülow assumed the
official responsibility, and tendered his resignation to the emperor, which was not accepted. But the chancellors
explanation in the Reichstag on 10. November 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 was not 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. 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.
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 during World War 1. He regarded his task as
impossible in any case. Although many of the leading figures in the Reichstag
hoped that Bülow would succeed Bethmann upon the latter's dismissal in 1917, the former
Chancellor was overlooked. Prince von Bülow died on 28. October 1929, a mere day before
Black Tuesday.
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