otto bismarck Quotes

The Pilot Drops Off

In March 1890, the young Kaiser Wilhelm II forced Bismarck to resign. The British magazine Punch published a cartoon titled 'Dropping the Pilot' showing Bismarck climbing down a ship's ladder while the Kaiser watched from above. It became one of the most famous political cartoons in history. Bismarck retired to Friedrichsruh near Hamburg. He spent eight years writing memoirs, giving bitter interviews, and watching his alliance system collapse. He warned that the next great war would start 'because of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans.' He died July 30, 1898, at eighty-three. Sixteen years later, his prediction came true at Sarajevo.