Bernhard, prince von Bülow (born May 3, 1849, Klein-Flottbek, near Altona, Germany—died October 28, 1929, Rome, Italy) was a German imperial chancellor and Prussian prime minister from October 17, 1900, to July 14, 1909; in cooperation with Emperor William II (Kaiser Wilhelm II), he pursued a policy of German aggrandizement in the years preceding World War I.
The son of an imperial secretary of state for foreign affairs under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Bülow studied law at Lausanne (Switzerland), Berlin, and Leipzig and entered the German foreign service in 1874. He held a number of diplomatic posts, becoming German ambassador in Rome, Italy, in 1893. Bülow’s real rise to power occurred in June 1897, when William II appointed him state secretary for the Foreign Department. He quickly became a more potent force than the chancellor, Chlodwig Karl Viktor Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, and after three years he succeeded to the chancellorship. Bülow was expected to satisfy the widespread desire for an aggressive foreign policy while preventing the impetuous emperor from making a fool of himself.
In his foreign policy, both as state secretary and as chancellor, Bülow, considerably influenced by Friedrich von Holstein, employed what he understood as Bismarckian Realpolitik to advance William II’s policy of a “place in the sun” for the Reich among world powers. As state secretary, he scored some gains in the Pacific, acquiring Chiao-chou (Kiaochow) Bay, China; the Caroline Islands; and Samoa (1897–1900). He actively promoted building the Baghdad Railway to make Germany a power in the Middle East, and his success in compelling European acceptance of Austria-Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (1908) was welcomed by Germans fearful of the Reich’s encirclement.
Bülow was less successful in his attempts to prevent the formation of an English–French–Russian combination against Germany. In 1898 and 1901 he and Friedrich von Holstein tried to negotiate an alliance entailing British guarantees for Austria-Hungary, but the British, concerned over Germany’s threat to their naval supremacy, remained aloof. His conclusion of the Treaty of Björkö with Russia in 1905 did not prevent the Russians’ adherence to the Anglo-French Entente (1907). The confrontation with France and Britain over Morocco (1905–06) increased international tension.
In the domestic affairs of Prussia and the Reich, Bülow relied on the support of the Conservatives and Centrists and, at times, the National Liberals. Although he did not repress the Social Democratic Party, and even introduced some cautious social measures through his state secretary, Artur Posadowsky, Bülow made sure that they gained no real political power. He evaded several urgent problems: the repeal of the Prussian three-class suffrage laws, the resolution of the dualism between Prussia and the Reich, the radical reform of imperial finances, and the imposition of direct taxes. Seeing the necessity of cooperating with the Reichstag, Bülow from 1905 leaned toward liberal constitutionalism.
William II’s indiscreet remarks printed in The Daily Telegraph of London in 1908 led to Bülow’s resignation in the following year. Bülow admitted that he had not read the proof of the article that the newspaper had submitted to him before publication; William believed Bülow had approved the article so that the emperor would be humiliated.
Bülow’s posthumously published memoirs, Denkwürdigkeiten (ed. by Franz von Stockhammern, 4 vol., 1930–31; Eng. trans. Memoirs, 4 vol., 1931–32), represented an attempt by Bülow to exonerate himself from any blame for the war and for Germany’s collapse; in fact, they reflect his blindness to his own limitations as a statesman.