.
(We know that in 1870 he will fight-and win-another war. Thus, will the German Empire be created.) .
Surely, we're being too harsh. He must have had some domestic policy ideas. In a Europe rich with competing ideologies such as liberalism, conservatism, and socialism, he must have had a guiding political philosophy from which concrete policy would flow. Umm, no. .
"Bismarck had no settled views on domestic policy when he became prime minister. His only concern was to have a free hand in foreign policy. Every politician had a platform, literally and metaphorically. Bismarck had none. He never identified himself with a party or laid down a precise programme. What mattered to him was to make the instrument he controlled- first Prussia and then Germany--as strong as possible and therewith (with that) to increase his own power. Lutheranism was his deepest principle. Lutheranism especially-unlike Catholicism within the last century and a half-never claimed to lay down moral principles for public policy. (In other words, Lutherans were never big on social justice issues). It taught that service to the state and to the appointed ruler was a high religious duty. Bismarck felt this himself.".
Lutherans tend to hold a conservative worldview. Biz shared this with his co-religionists: "He was not the sort of conservative who admires existing institutions for their own sake and defends them for their intrinsic value. He was a despairing conservative, staving off a dreaded, though inevitable, future, clinging to the present for fear of something worse. Real conservatism is rooted in pride of class. Biz had no feeling for the Junkers from whom he sprung." Implicit in Taylor's analysis here is the notion that Biz sought to preserve his own power throughout his career.
So, Biz's first aim in domestic policy-and here we're really attacking both Biz and the question itself-was power. Not only was power Biz's first aim, it was also his permanent aim: to do whatever it took to keep and increase his power.