Explain the role of Otto Von Bismark in the Unification of Germany.

(i) Prussia took on the leadership of the movement for national unification. Its chief minister, Otto Van Bismarck, was the architect of this process, carried out with the help of Prussian army and bureaucracy.

(ii) Three wars over Seven years – With Austria, Denmark and France – ended in Prussian victory and completed the process of unification.

(iii) In January $\displaystyle 1871$, the Prussian King, William – I, was proclaimed German Emperor in a ceremony held in Versailles.

(iv) In $\displaystyle 1871$ an assembly comprising the princes of the German States, representatives of the army, important Prussian minister including the Chief Minister Otto Van Bismarck gathered in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles to proclaim the new German Empire headed by Kaiser William – I of Prussia.