The Bismarck Mausoleum is the mausoleum of Prince Otto von Bismarck and his wife

Johanna von Puttkamer Johanna Friederike Charlotte Dorothea Eleonore, Princess of Bismarck, Duchess of Lauenburg (née von Puttkamer; 11 April 1824 – 27 November 1894) was a Prussian noblewoman and the wife of the 1st Chancellor of Germany, Otto von Bismarck. Earl ...

. It is on the Schneckenberg hill just outside

Friedrichsruh Friedrichsruh () is a district in the municipality of Aumühle, Herzogtum Lauenburg district, Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany. Friedrichsruh manor is known as a residence of the princely House of Bismarck, mainly of Chancellor Otto von Bi ...

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...

, in northern

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Bismarck was the first Chancellor of Germany (1871–1890). The

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

is now a protected monument.

Description

In the upper part of the chapel is the grave of Otto von Bismarck. The

epitaph An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...

is in his own words: "A faithful German servant of Emperor Wilhelm I." In the lower part, which is not accessible to the public, is the place of the family grave of the Bismarcks. His son,

Herbert von Bismarck Nikolaus Heinrich Ferdinand Herbert, Prince of Bismarck (born Nikolaus Heinrich Ferdinand Herbert Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen; 28 December 1849 – 18 September 1904) was a German politician, who served as Foreign Secretary from 1886 to 1890. H ...

, and grandson,

Otto Christian Archibald von Bismarck Otto Christian Archibald, Prince of Bismarck (25 September 1897 in Schönhausen, Brandenburg – 24 December 1975), was a German politician and diplomat, and the Prince of Bismarck from 1904 to his death (since 1919 only as a part of his n ...

, along with their wives, are laid to rest there. In the area around the chapel lies the grave of another grandson,

Gottfried Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen Count Gottfried von Bismarck-Schönhausen (9 March 1901 – 14 September 1949) was a German politician and German Resistance figure. Biography Born in Berlin, Bismarck was a grandson of the 19th century Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. He was a ...

. The chapel and the site are still owned by the Bismarck family, but can be visited and rented for private tours.

History

Under the

Gastein Convention The Gastein Convention (german: Gasteiner Konvention), also called the ''Convention of Badgastein'', was a treaty signed at Bad Gastein in Austria on 14 August 1865.Wolfgang Neugebauer (ed.): ''Handbuch der preußischen Geschichte''. Band 2: ''Da ...

negotiated by Bismarck in 1865,

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

obtained the Duchy of

Saxe-Lauenburg The Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg (german: Herzogtum Sachsen-Lauenburg, called ''Niedersachsen'' (Lower Saxony) between the 14th and 17th centuries), was a ''reichsfrei'' duchy that existed from 1296–1803 and again from 1814–1876 in the extreme sou ...

from the Austrian Empire. When Prussia established the German Empire in 1871, Bismarck was awarded the Saxony Forest as an endowment by

Emperor Wilhelm I William I or Wilhelm I (german: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the f ...

. Bismarck built his retirement home there, next to the

Berlin–Hamburg Railway The Berlin–Hamburg Railway (german: Berlin-Hamburger Bahn) is a roughly long railway line for passenger, long-distance and goods trains. It was the first high-speed line upgraded in Germany to be capable of handling train speeds of over ...

. He chose the site so that when he died he could be carried in state from his manor house down the railway to the mausoleum.Prussian newspaper of 20 March, 2004
(in German) Initially,

Wilhelm II , house = Hohenzollern , father = Frederick III, German Emperor , mother = Victoria, Princess Royal , religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United) , signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...

considered entombing Bismarck in the royal crypt of

Berlin Cathedral The Berlin Cathedral (german: link=yes, Berliner Dom), also known as the Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church, is a monumental German Evangelical church and dynastic tomb ( House of Hohenzollern) on the Museum Island in centra ...

. The poet

Theodor Fontane Theodor Fontane (; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist author. He published the first of his novels, for which he is best known toda ...

argued against this, with his poem "''Wo Bismarck liegen soll''" ("Where Bismarck should lie"), which appeared in the newspaper on 3 August 1898, four days after Bismarck's death. Half a year after his death, on 16 March 1899, the coffins of Otto von Bismarck and his wife, who had been buried at the Bismarck estate in Varzin, Pomerania (now Warcino, Poland), were ceremonially interred in two marble sarcophagi in the Friedrichsruh chapel. This date was chosen because it was the 11th anniversary of the funeral of

Kaiser Wilhelm I William I or Wilhelm I (german: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the f ...

. The funeral was attended by

, with his wife and a large entourage.

External links

Picture gallery at flickr.com

Picture gallery at flickr.com

References

* Hennig, Rolf: "The Saxon Forest," Neumünster (1991) {{coord, 53.5277, 10.3361, type:landmark_region:DE, display=title Otto von Bismarck Cemeteries in Germany Mausoleums in Germany Buildings and structures in Herzogtum Lauenburg