At head of title: Bernhard, Fürst von Bülow
v. 1. Vom Staatssekretariat bis zur Marokko-krise.--v. 2. Von der Marokko-krise bis zum abschied.--v. 3. Weltkrieg und Zusammenbruch.--v. 4. Jugend- und Diplomatenjahre
Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin von Bülow (1849 – 1929), named in 1905 Prince (Fürst) von Bülow, was a German statesman who served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for three years and then as Chancellor of the German Empire from 1900 to 1909.
The son of an imperial secretary of state for foreign affairs under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Bülow studied law at Lausanne (Switzerland), Berlin, and Leipzig and entered the German foreign service in 1874. He held a number of diplomatic posts, becoming German ambassador in Rome, Italy, in 1893. Bülow’s real rise to power occurred in June 1897, when William II appointed him state secretary for the Foreign Department. He quickly became a more potent force than the chancellor, Chlodwig Karl Viktor Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, and after three years he succeeded to the chancellorship. Bülow was expected to satisfy the widespread desire for an aggressive foreign policy while preventing the impetuous emperor from making a fool of himself.
Bülow’s posthumously published memoirs, Denkwürdigkeiten (ed. by Franz von Stockhammern, 4 vol., 1930–31; Eng. trans. Memoirs, 4 vol., 1931–32), represented an attempt by Bülow to exonerate himself from any blame for the war and for Germany’s collapse; in fact, they reflect his blindness to his own limitations as a statesman.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_von_B%C3%BClow
