Bülow, Bernhard von

Born May 3, 1849, in Klein-Flottbeck; died Oct. 28, 1929, in Rome. Prince, German statesman. Lawyer by education. Minister to Rumania in 1888-93, ambassador to Italy in 1893-97, imperial secretary of state for foreign affairs in 1897-1900, and Reich chancellor and Prussian minister-president in 1900-09.

In the fight against the rising labor movement, Bülow resorted to methods such as proclaiming martial law (as he did in Crimmitschau, Saxony, in 1903) and sending troops to areas of strikes. He demanded “a place in the sun” for Germany and strove toward an all-out increase in German military might, especially the construction of a strong navy, with the view to preparing a war for a repartition of the world. He pursued a policy of colonial expansion—for instance, the construction of the Baghdad Railroad and annexations in China and in the Pacific Ocean. The policy of the Bülow government contributed to an exacerbation of contradictions between Germany on the one hand and Great Britain, Russia, and France on the other. In 1907, Bülow created a Junker-bourgeois bloc, the so-called Hottentot bloc, for the elections to the Reichstag. He was ambassador extraordinary in Rome in 1914-15.