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Bismarck was born in 1815 at Schönhausen, a noble family estate west of Berlin in the Prussian province of Saxony. 
The year before his death, Bismarck predicted:
"One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans."
"One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans."
Bismarck spent his final years composing his memoirs (Gedanken und Erinnerungen, or Thoughts and Memories), a work lauded by historians.
His health began to fail in 1896. He was diagnosed with gangrene in his foot, but refused to accept treatment for it; as a result he had difficulty walking and was often confined to a wheelchair.
By July 1898 he was permanently wheelchair-bound, had trouble breathing, and was almost constantly feverish and in pain.
His health rallied momentarily on the 28th, but then sharply deteriorated over the next two days. He died just after midnight on 30 July 1898, at the age of eighty-three in Friedrichsruh, where he is entombed in the Bismarck Mausoleum.
Photo: Bismarck on his deathbed, 30 July.
Photo: Bismarck on his deathbed, 30 July.
"Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war."
