Iron Chancellor at HSE in St. Petersburg
A symposium on ‘Prussian-German-Russian Relations in Otto von Bismarck’s Period’ dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the first chancellor of the German Empire took place at HSE in St. Petersburg.
The symposium was organized jointly by the Otto von Bismarck Foundation, the German History Institute in Moscow, and HSE campus in St. Petersburg.
Welcome addresses were given by Dr. Heike Peitsch, German General Chancellor in St. Petersbug, Professor Dr. Nikolaus Katzer, Director of the German History Institute in Moscow, Professor Dr. Ulrich Lappenküper, Otto von Bismarck Foundation, and Sergey Kadochnikov, Director of the HSE campus in St. Petersburg.
At the end of the symposium, an exhibition ‘Otto von Bismarck: Person, Power, Myth’ organized by the Otto von Bismarck Foundation opened at HSE. This exhibition is a gift for the HSE campus, which will give anyone interested the chance to get to know more about various periods in the life of the great German chancellor, a man of extraordinary talents, a gifted diplomat, strategist and commander, who undoubtedly made a considerable contribution in the course of the European history.
Otto von Bismarck spent several years in St. Petersburg as Prussian ambassador to Russia. Participants of this event were invited to an excursion to Otto von Bismarck’s house on Angliiskaya Embankment, where there is a memorial plaque with the following text in Russian and German: ‘Otto von Bismarck, Prussian ambassador, future first German chancellor, lived and worked here from 1859 – 1862’.