Mention of the former German Chancellor Bismarck, can be said to be known to everyone, his famous saying: "The major events of today's era can not be solved by speech and discussion, but must be solved by iron blood", which has been repeatedly quoted by countless hardliners and hawks, and the iron blood policy is widely known. Over time, people formed the impression that the cunning and tough Bismarck was a typical war maniac, as if war was his favorite thing, but the real Bismarck in history was just the opposite.
During Bismarck's tenure, he led Germany to three wars that brought Germany to the pinnacle of Europe and crowned Bismarck as an iron-blooded prime minister. The three wars were the defeat of Denmark by uniting with Austria, the defeat of Austria after isolating its opponents through a series of diplomatic maneuvers, and the final defeat of France. It is worth noting that these three wars were all that Bismarck had to wage, and that these three wars were inevitable for the unification of Germany, while in the first two wars Germany was good, did not threaten the defeated side too much, and in the next battle was supported by the opponent defeated the last time. This fully proves that Germany did not kill them all after defeating its opponents, but tried its best to win them over, which is a typical carrot and stick.
What really shows Bismarck's superb diplomatic skills is his handling of the relations between the major European powers. In his time, there were five great powers in Europe, namely Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, and Germany was very unfortunately surrounded by many countries. Bismarck was never blindly tough, and he understood very well that Germany would better side with the majority, that is, of the 5 great powers, Germany must unite two of them. Because France and Germany had a feud and could not unite, and Britain's policy of glorious isolation and continental balance of power could not be co-opted, the only thing left was Austria-Hungary and Russia.
Throughout Bismarck's tenure, he tried to avoid a situation of German hegemony, in order to prevent Britain from taking the absolute opposite side of Germany, while he tried to maintain relations with Austria-Hungary and Russia. The latter two were originally enemies, but they were able to reconcile with German mediation. Bismarck took advantage of Anglo-French concerns that Russia was too strong to isolate Russia and force Russia to ally itself with Germany. His skillful diplomatic skills in mediating relations between the great powers are difficult to sum up in two words, but throughout his tenure Germany never faced more than two anti-German alliances, not even a slightly larger war.
Therefore, Bismarck was a pure diplomat, not a war maniac. He has always put war after all options, never used military means until the last resort, even if it is a last resort, always ended in diplomatic measures, as far as possible not to create new enemies, to strive for a favorable environment for the ultimate peace, which is why he did not humiliate Denmark and Austria excessively after his victory over Denmark and Austria.
Of course, after Bismarck left office, the belligerent spirit in the bones of the Germans broke out again, and the result was that everyone also understood very well that Germany was caught in two world wars in a very short period of time. Bismarck's successors lacked not only his flexible diplomatic skills, but also an understanding of peace. Both Wilhelm II and Hitler were true militants and soon paid the price for their arrogance, compared to Bismarck, who was supposed to be a pacifist. But Bismarck's tenure also made it difficult to change prussian barbaric traditions, such as having the Prussian king crowned as emperor at versailles to humiliate the defeated France, a mistake that led to the outbreak of the First World War, which should not have happened.