I saw this picture in a different thread and it made me wonder how the Iron Chancellor was viewed in the U.S./U.K./France in the early 20th century. In my personal experience, he seems to be remembered now as a hero of German unification at best or an amoral opportunist at worst. Was there a time when he was remembered as a villain of history by the mainstream?
The publication of Bismarck's memoirs Gedanken und Erinnerungen (published in English as Bismarck: The Man and the Statesman in 1898) where he cynically admitted to manipulating the Ems Telegram in order to provoke a war with France led to him being denounced as a militarist by those who regarded Germany as an inherently warmongering nation.
