With my lofty peers and with the whole German people I stand in mourning at the bier of the first Chancellor of the German Empire, Prince Otto von Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg. We who were witnesses of his masterly work, who looked upon him as the master of statecraft, as the fearless champion in war as in peace, as the most devoted son of his Fatherland and most faithful servant of his Emperor, are deeply shaken by the demise of the man in whom the Lord God created the implement with which to carry into effect the deathless idea of Germany’s union and greatness.
At this moment it is not fitting to recount all the deeds which the great departed accomplished, all the cares which he bore for the Emperor and the empire, all the successes which he won. They are too powerful and manifold, and only history can and will engrave them upon her brass tablets.
But I feel constrained to make some expression before the world of the whole-hearted grief and grateful reverence which to-day fill the entire nation and, in the name of the nation, to make a vow that what he, the great Chancellor, built up under Emperor William the Great I shall maintain and develop and, if need be, defend with our possessions and our blood.
In this may the Lord God help us!
I commission you to bring to public attention this, my decree.
William, I. R.
To the Imperial Chancellor.
“OUR FUTURE LIES UPON THE WATER”
The Emperor on Shipboard in the Autumn of 1898