bismarck on the biese.—the bismarck louse.—derivation of the name bismarck.—wendic origin untenable.—the bismarcks in priegnitz and ruppin.—riedel’s erroneous theory.—the bismarcks of stendal.—members of city guilds.—claus von bismarck of stendal.—rise of the family into the highest rank in the fourteenth century.

n the alt mark, belonging to the circle of stendal, lies the small town of bismarck on the biese. it is an old and famous place, for south of the town stands an ancient tower, known as the bismarck louse. tradition states that the tower received its name from a gigantic louse which inhabited it, and that the peasants of the district had every day to provide huge quantities of meat for the monster’s food. in this legend we can trace the popular spirit of the sober alt mark—it laughs at the pilgrimages which were made in the thirteenth century to bismarck in honor of a holy cross, said to have fallen from heaven. these pilgrimages, at first greatly encouraged by the lords of the soil, as they found in them a rich source of income, soon came to a sanguinary end, from the severe strife occasioned by these very revenues.

bismarck does not, as some assert, derive its name from the biese, because in the year 1203, when it is first mentioned in the records, it is called biscopesmarck, or bishopsmark, afterwards corrupted into bismarck. it belonged to the bishops of havelberg, who erected a fort here as a defense of their mark, on the frontiers of the sprengels of halberstadt. from the little town the noble family of bismarck has its name.

it is a tradition of later times, by no means historically confirmed, that the bismarcks were a noble family of bohemia, settled by charlemagne in the alt mark, and the founders of the town of bismarck, which received its name from them. it is further erroneously asserted, that the bismarcks, after the decease of the very powerful count von osterburg, had shared the county with the family of alvensleben; and thus the town of bismarck passed into the possession of the alvenslebens.[2] this last is only stated to account for the circumstance of the holding of bismarck in the fourteenth century as a fief by the alvenslebens; it being forgotten that in those days the title went with the office, and that a county could not therefore be in the possession of two families.

as groundless is the tradition of the wendic descent of the[33] bismarcks. according to this, the actual name of this noble family should be bij-smarku, in wendic, “beware of the christ-thorn.” not very happily has the double trefoil in the arms of the bismarcks been identified with the christ-thorn—as a proof of their wendic descent.

the bismarcks are rather, as are all the families of knightly rank in the alt mark, the descendants of german warriors who, under the guelph, the ascanian, or other princes, had conquered the slavic lands on both banks of the elbe for christianity and german civilization, and had then settled themselves on those lands as fief-holders. the bismarcks belonged to the warrior family of biscopesmarck-bishopsmark-bismarck, and when surnames came into use, called themselves after their dwelling-place—von bismarck. of course, they retained the name after the loss or cession of their original seat.

like many other knightly families of the alt mark, the bismarcks gradually spread towards the east, conquering greater space for german christian culture, subduing the wends or driving them back towards the oder. thus the bismarcks also appear, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, as warrior knights in priegnitz and the region of ruppin.

we can not understand how a historian of such general intelligence as riedel, can object to this course of development, presenting so many analogies in the series of other races of nobility in the alt mark. according to this writer, it appears “credible and plausible” that the chivalric race of bismarck, found at the beginning of the fourteenth century in the region of priegnitz and ruppin, should have descended from the castellans at bismarck, who were provided with some territorial fiefs on the downfall of the episcopal castle. “on the other hand,” says riedel, “those citizen families to be found in the cities of the mark and in stendal, bearing the name of bismarck, whence that branch arose, the energy of which not only equalized the von bismarcks with the highest nobility of the mark, but has surpassed all of them, by the principles of unprejudiced historical inquiry are proved to be self-distinguished, and the descendants of plain citizens of the little town bismarck, which had flourished so well under episcopal protection.”

this is, however, an assertion supported by nothing, except,[34] perhaps, by an accidental negative—the circumstance that up to the present time no seal has been found of the undoubtedly chivalric bismarcks in priegnitz and ruppin; for the identity of armorial bearings would necessarily establish the common origin of the knightly bismarcks, and those of stendal, beyond all question. but we do not understand riedel’s objection, as he does not deny that the bismarcks entered the first rank of the aristocracy of the alt mark in the same fourteenth century. it would be almost puerile, by means of fantastic explanations respecting the races bearing the name of bismarck, to deprive the minister of the rank of junker,[3] and thus claim him as a plebeian.

for if the bismarcks of stendal appear in the character of citizens since the thirteenth century, it proves nothing as to their chivalric descent, but may almost be used as an argument in favor of it. it is well known and unquestioned that a whole series of knightly families have settled themselves in towns, and taken part in municipal government, in all places at first more or less patrician in character. thus it fared with the bismarcks in stendal, and not with them only, but with the schadewachts and other alt mark knightly races, members of which took their places in the municipal government of stendal. the bismarcks were then attached to the most distinguished, honorable, and influential guild of tailors (cloth-merchants), because every inhabitant of a town was obliged to belong to some guild. but to infer from this that the bismarcks were of citizen birth, would be as absurd as to deny the nobility of the iron duke, the victor of waterloo, because the worshipful company of merchant tailors in london, as recognizing his fame, made him free of their guild. it is in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in fact, and especially in the towns of the marks, that we find the noblest families—even the margrave himself—associated with citizen guilds. at the same time it mattered not at all whether such members occupied themselves with the trade; for we are not, in this place, speaking of position, but descent. and if the practice of handicrafts and commerce were not then, as later, held to be incompatible with noble birth—although, in general, the practice was uncommon—the descendants[35] of noble houses, on leaving the towns, naturally re-entered their own rank of territorial lords.

it is, therefore, explicable that claus von bismarck, freeman of the guild of tailors in stendal, could step from that position into the first rank of the alt mark nobility.

riedel is also the only historian who, in contradiction to earlier and later authorities, asserts the descent of the bismarcks from a citizen family in stendal, instead of from the castellans of the episcopal castle of that name. even, however, had he been able to determine this beyond a doubt, it would not have proved the plebeian descent of the minister-president, but only that the nobility of his family reaches no higher than the fourteenth century—in itself a sufficiently long pedigree.