¶ It was this tremendous earnestness—this sincerity—that made Bismarck feared, hated and despised.
Against your will, you are forced to believe what this giant says, no matter how mocking, how insolent, how absurd his charges!
Some tell us that Bismarck’s ancestry stems from Bohemia, others trace the Bismarcks to Russia, still others assert Jewish origin.
This much is a fact: from a geographical point, the family name comes from the little river Biese, near Stendal.
¶ Bismarck’s passion and prejudice against Jews was proverbial. It did indeed often turn him, for the time being, into a mad dog!
Near the close of life, in retirement at Friedrichsruh, some candid friend desecrated the great man’s retirement by sending him a copy of a book by an anonymous writer, “Bismarck, the Jew.”
Ordinarily, Bismarck paid no attention to social lampoons, but on this day as he read the book aloud to guests, his anger became black and terrifying!
¶ “I am determined to have the law on the audacious writer!” Bismarck’s guests saw the old man in one of his moods of frightful rage.
But next day something intervened—and Bismarck never brought suit for damages.