Lothar Bucher

Lothar Bucher (born October 25, 1817, Neustettin, Pomerania [now Szczecinek, Poland]—died October 10, 1892, Glion, Switzerland) was a German publicist and one of the most trusted aides of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck. He collaborated in writing Bismarck’s memoirs, Gedanken und Erinnerungen (1898; Reflections and Reminiscences).

Bucher was a member of the Prussian National Assembly (1848) and of the Prussian second chamber (1849), in which he sat with the extreme left. In 1850 he was sentenced to a 15-month prison term for organizing a movement against the payment of taxes, but he fled to London and wrote for the National Zeitung (1850–61). Returning to Berlin, he continued to write for that paper and collaborated with the socialist Ferdinand Lassalle.

In 1864 Bucher entered the Prussian Foreign Office and soon won Bismarck’s complete confidence. He drew up the text of the constitution of the North German Confederation (1867), went on confidential missions to Spain in connection with the Hohenzollern candidacy for the Spanish crown (1870), assisted Bismarck in the final negotiations for the Treaty of Frankfurt ending the Franco-German War (1871), and was archivist secretary to the Congress of Berlin (1878). Bucher, also responsible for Bismarck’s press and public relations, aroused the animosity of some influential Prussian aristocrats, and he finally had to resign in 1886.

In addition to collaborating on Bismarck’s memoirs, Bucher published other works, including Bilder aus der Fremde, 2 vol. (1862; “Pictures from Foreign Countries”).