n the society and at the house of his friend and neighbor, Moritz von Blanckenburg, Bismarck had often seen a friend of his noble hostess, who greatly interested him. But he first became more intimately acquainted with Fr?ulein Johanna von Putkammer on a trip which both of them made in company with the Blanckenburgs. Bismarck soon became aware of the affection he felt for the young lady, but he naturally found many obstacles in learning—as may be readily understood—whether his affection was returned by her. This would easily explain the inquietude of his behavior, for even when assured of his attachment being returned, there were still many difficulties to be surmounted.
We have already mentioned the reputation which “Mad Bismarck” had won for himself among the elder ladies and gentlemen in Pomerania. The consternation and horror may easily be imagined, in which the quiet Christian house of Herr von Putkammer was plunged, on the receipt of a letter in which Bismarck[149] directly and frankly asked for the hand of his daughter. But how much greater must have been his horror when the gentle daughter of the house, in a modest but firm manner, acknowledged her affection! “It seemed as if I had been felled with an axe!” old Herr von Putkammer said, in describing his feelings at that time, in a drastic tone. Even the story of the wolf, which always devours the meekest lambs, did not console him. However, he was far removed from playing the tyrant father, and he gave his consent, although with a heavy heart—a consent he has never had reason to regret. Her mother, of a more spirited nature, protested until Bismarck appeared in person at Reinfeld, and before her eyes clasped his bride to his heart. With a flood of passionate tears, she then consented to their union, and from that moment became the warmest and most zealous friend of the man to whom she gave her beloved daughter after so severe a struggle. Under the motto “All right,”[33] Bismarck announces the fact to his sister, his “Arnimen.”
Between this betrothal and his marriage falls Bismarck’s first appearance at the first United Diet.
On the 28th of July, 1847, Otto von Bismarck-Sch?nhausen married Johanna Frederica Charlotte Dorothea Eleonore von Putkammer, born on the 11th of April, 1824, the only daughter of Herr Henry Ernst Jacob von Putkammer, of Kartlum, and the Lady Luitgarde, born Von Glasenapp of Reinfeld.
On the journey which Bismarck took after the wedding with his young wife through Switzerland and Italy, he accidentally met his King Frederick William IV., at Venice. He was at once commanded to attend at the royal dinner-table, and his royal master conversed with him for a long time in a gracious manner, particularly concerning German politics, a conversation not, perhaps, without its influence on the subsequent and very sudden appointment of Bismarck to the post of Ambassador to the Federation; but it unquestionably laid the foundation for the favor with which King Frederick William IV. always regarded Bismarck. For the rest, he was so unprepared to meet his king and master at Venice, that he had not even had time to take with him a court suit, and was obliged to appear before his[150] sovereign in borrowed clothes, which, considering his stature, must have fitted him very badly.
Bismarck now set up his domestic hearth at the old stone mansion of Sch?nhausen. There, where his cradle once stood, in the following year stood that of his eldest child, his daughter Marie; and though his actual residence in Sch?nhausen only lasted a few years, he took with him his domestic happiness thence to Berlin, Frankfurt, and St. Petersburg. Nominally Sch?nhausen continued to be his residence until he became Minister-President; and though he now prefers to live on his Pomeranian estates to those in the Alt Mark, during his days of retirement, this does not occur from any want of affection for his old home, but from a feeling of delicacy towards his father-in-law, now a venerable man almost eighty years of age, but still fresh and hale, who lives in the vicinity of Varzin, and also because he finds in Pomerania three things for which he would seek in vain at Sch?nhausen. The forest is not at Sch?nhausen close round the house, as at Varzin, for at Sch?nhausen he has an hour’s ride to reach the wood, and the forest he loves as an old friend. The game about Sch?nhausen is also almost entirely destroyed, and the heavy wheat soil there is either flat and hard, or cloddy, and therefore little fitted for riding. Bismarck, as he ever was, remains a great horseman and a zealous sportsman.
The marriage of Bismarck has been blessed with three children—Mary Elizabeth Johanna, born the 21st August, 1848,[151] at Sch?nhausen; Nicolas Ferdinand Herbert, born the 28th December, 1849, at Berlin; William Otto Albert, born the 1st August, 1852, at Frankfurt-on-the-Maine.
Amidst the severe battles of a time so rife in immeasurable contradictions, Bismarck commenced his family life in a simple but substantial manner, as befitting a nobleman of the Alt Mark or Pomerania; and so he has been able to maintain himself even at the elevation at which God the Almighty has placed him for the good of his native country. That he may ever maintain it is the aspiration of every patriot, for in him the fountain ever freshly runs, whence he draws continual renovation for the service of his King and country.