Gold and Iron by Fritz Stern

Author:Fritz Stern [Stern, Fritz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-82986-3
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2012-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

On an earlier occasion, Holstein wrote Herbert, the most jealous of Bleichröder’s foes, that in a given crisis, Britain had suddenly become more conciliatory: “Also Malet [British ambassador in Berlin] has an adviser in Bleichröder whose cunning and knowledge of the Prince’s character are undeniable—whatever else one might think of him.”16

“Knowledge of the Prince’s character” was perhaps the most coveted intelligence in Europe’s chancelleries. Statesmen were always guessing about Bismarck, because his style of diplomacy relied on deliberate ambiguity—which Bleichröder could help to explicate. In an age of secret diplomacy, Bismarck was exceptionally secretive; he kept his own subordinates in the dark. He also preferred not to write about delicate subjects and once asked William II to burn a letter because it touched on “things and questions I do not usually entrust to paper but discuss orally as long as their actual development has not occurred.”17 Bismarck talked with many tongues, always “sincerely,” that is, always parceling out partial truths. Often ambiguity was punctuated by flashes of candor—and still his underlings or foreign partners could not divine his aim or policy, often, of course, because he himself had not set on a definite course but was pursuing many lines simultaneously. Ambiguity or a kind of intimidating inscrutability was a constant weapon; at other times, Bismarck could bully, threaten, woo, plead—and Bismarck’s style kept foreigners off balance. No wonder Europe often referred to him as the sphinx; people also noted that a pair of black stone sphinxes stood as sentries to the entrance stairs of the Wilhelmstrasse.18

Universally known as the confidant and private banker of that sphinx, Bleichröder became a much-sought-after person. At the time of the Congress of Berlin, when Bleichröder gave his sumptuous dinner for the statesmen of Europe, Disraeli wrote to Queen Victoria: “Mr. Bleichröder … is Prince Bismarck’s intimate, attends him every morning, and according to his own account, is the only individual who dares to speak the truth to His Highness.”19 Disraeli almost certainly embellished on Bleichröder’s embellishment, but he caught the essence of how Bleichröder wanted to appear to the world. And, by and large, the world saw him in those very terms—and thus helped to make him what he hungered after. As we will see, Thiers, Disraeli, Leopold II, and a succession of Russian finance ministers sought to use the same special conduit. The Berlin diplomatic corps regularly attended him and invariably cited him as one of their principal sources.a

But Bleichröder acted as special emissary to the German world as well—especially to Bismarck’s ambassadors and to the regular retinue at the Foreign Office. Bismarck kept them in the dark, too; many of them he distrusted, and some he still feared as rivals. They were told what they needed to know—no more; they, too, had to guess at Bismarck’s particular design at a given time. None of them had the kind of access to Bismarck over a long period that Bleichröder had, and as a consequence they all flocked to him: Hatzfeldt, Münster, Hohenlohe, Radowitz, and Holstein—and they all felt demeaned in doing so.

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