German unification occupies a significant place in the history of this great European power. Otto Von Bismarck, once the prime minister of Prussia, is responsible for single-handedly engineering this unification through clever strategies and creative tactics. The paper sheds light on the role of this German Chancellor in the unification of Germany. ROLE OF BISMARCK IN GERMAN UNIFICATION Germany has seen and experienced more than its fair share of troubles, wars and

Italian Unification Process Compared to German Unification Throughout the course of history, Italy and Germany were often considered to be pawns of the major European powers. This is because both regions were effectively divided into a series of city states. Each one had spheres of influence that impacted who were the most dominant. At the same time, countries such as: Britain, France, Spain and Austria Hungary were aggressively controlling territory inside

Gold and Iron Columbia historian Fritz Stern gathered thousands of previously unpublished documents, letters, and correspondences between the two foremost shapers of German unification, Otto von Bismarck and Gerson von Bleichrder. Most readers will be familiar with the former figure: Bismarck, new Germany's first leader and molder of political realities in nineteenth-century Europe. However, fewer will recognize the name of the latter. Gerson von Bleichrder, Jewish banker and unofficial confidant of

After unification, Germany's trade surplus shrank for several years, yet West Germany had shown a dramatically high trade surplus during the late 1980's and into the early 1990's, reaching almost $80 billion U.S. dollars in 1988; by 1991, a united Germany showed a much lower surplus. As of 1999, exports reached $610 billion, made up of machinery, vehicles, chemicals, metals, foodstuffs and textiles. Germany's main exporting partners, as of

" This German form of mercantilism has been labeled as called "predatory" by other European economists and officials. Thus Germany bears some of the burden for the decimation of Greece's economy, and that of other European states, to begin with. During its bailout of Greece, Germans banks do not have to incur any costs. In fact, German banks are buying high-interest bonds that are effectively guaranteed by the euro-zone governments. The

Beer is as synonymous with German culture as watches are to Switzerland. The centrality of beer to German culture is owing to centuries of tradition, long before the unification of Germany in 1871. Although beer consumption in Germany has declined over the last several decades, beer continues to be a defining feature of modern German economic, social, and even political life. Background and Pre-Modern German Beer According to the German Beer Institute,