Biography
| Styles of The Prince of Bismarck |
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|---|---|
| Reference style | His Serene Highness |
| Spoken style | Your Serene Highness |
| Alternative style | Sir |
Herbert von Bismarck born in Berlin, the oldest son of Otto von Bismarck and his wife Johanna, née von Puttkamer. He had an older sister, Marie (b. 1847), and a younger brother, Wilhelm (b. 1852). He fought in the Franco-Prussian War, sustaining a bullet wound through the left leg during a cavalry charge at the Battle of Mars-La-Tour. He joined the diplomatic service in 1874, on his father's wishes. He became Under-Secretary and acting head of the Foreign Office in 1885, and the following year he was appointed the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He additionally was appointed Minister of State of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1888. He once said that 'My father is the only person who can handle this business.' He wanted to marry Princess Elisabeth von Carolath-Beuthen in 1881, but his father would not allow it, as she was a Catholic divorcee and she was ten years older than Herbert. The Chancellor pressured his son with tears, blackmail and threats to disinherit him by getting Kaiser Wilhelm I to change the primogeniture statutes. This experience left Herbert a very bitter and alcoholic man. He once shot five bullets through a Foreign Office window to be told he may have hit someone. He replied 'Officials have to be kept in a permanent state of irritation and alarm; the moment that ceases they stop working.' On 21 June 1892 in Vienna he married Countess Marguerite Hoyos, a member of the originally Spanish magnate family of Hoyos from Hungary, and the granddaughter of Robert Whitehead, the inventor of the torpedo. They had five children:
- Countess Hannah Leopoldine Alice von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1893–1971),
- Countess Maria Goedela von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1896–1981),
- HSH Otto Christian Archibald, Prince von Bismarck (1897–1975),
- Count Gottfried Alexander Georg Herbert von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1901–1949),
- Count Albrecht Edzard Heinrich Karl von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1903–1970) married Mona Travis Strader (1897–1983).
He entered the civil service in 1874 and was promoted during the chancellorship of his father to the position of undersecretary in the foreign office. He became State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in 1886.
In 1890, when Kaiser Wilhelm II called for the resignation of Otto von Bismarck as Chancellor, Herbert von Bismarck also resigned as State Secretary.
He was at his father's bedside when the latter died on 30 July 1898 at 10:57 pm.
He died in Friedrichsruh.
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