Topic: Otto Von Bismarck may well have taken huge gigantic shits
Sheila LaBoof started this discussion 10 years ago#51,190
The evidence: "Everything about Otto von Bismarck was off the scale: his rages, his disloyalty, his mendacity, his gargantuan appetite and his colossal chamber pots." --"Bismarck: A Life" by Jonathan Steinberg
He also didn't care for the Jews, at least in talk: "In parliament, Bismarck proved a wild reactionary and savage debater who did his bit to stoke the anti-Semitism so characteristic of his class and country: He would feel deeply dishonored, he once declared, 'to have before me, as a representative of the King’s Sacred Majesty, a Jew whom I would have to obey.'"
Though in practice: "The father of Realpolitik in foreign affairs, Bismarck was content to work with talented Jewish folk - notably his personal banker - when it suited him."
An interesting statement about how we see him now versus how his people saw him then: "It’s not just history that views him as a demonic figure; German contemporaries saw him that way, too."