Otto von Bismarck - man of God?

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Parmenas

Puritan Board Freshman
[I was not sure where to post this.]

My interest in Germany and its history led to an independent study of the German language (I am but an infant in German - I use Duolingo) and a return from backsliding from study has revived and fed my interest in German history. The eminent Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck has fascinated me recently. My first question about this man was on his spiritual condition. I have come to understand that he was a devout Pietist Lutheran, but I wanted to know more and see if he truly was a Christian.


I plan to read a biography of this man. I haven't been able to find any complete English translation of his Gedanken und Erinnerungen (Thoughts and Memories), but in my search for one, I came across a scan of a translation of Bismarck by Georges Lacour-Gayet. Providentially, I happened upon this passage on page 20 (in the link):

About his thirtieth year Bismarck experienced a religious crisis, and the vague Pantheism he had inherited from his mother gave place to a more precise belief. Becoming an orthodox Lutheran, he took to reading the Bible, and did not fail to receive the Sacrament on solemn occasions, as in the month of August 1870, when he left Berlin for the campaign in France. In this connection we may note the profession of his religious faith which he made one evening at Versailles to the guests at his tables:

"I do not understand how one can live in a well-regulated society and fulfil one's duties to oneself and to others, without the belief in a revealed religion, a God whose will is for good, a supreme judge, and a future life. If I were not a firmly convinced Christian, if I did not possess the admirable support of religion, I should never have been the Chancellor you know."

What do you all think of this? How did Bismarck succeed and how did he fail in his duties as a Christian magistrate?
 
I wonder what the contemporary Reformed theologians and the more orthodox among the pietists thought about von Bismarck? For instance, did Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrugge comment on him?
 
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