Political dreams figure less frequently than religious dreams, due perhaps to cause that it would be premature to define. Homo politicus seems to be more extravert by nature than the religious type, who is always waiting for some revelation from the other world and is temperamentally inclined to the most scabrous inner experiences.
Bismarck is an exception. He was not ashamed to tell his sovereign about the dream in which he believed he saw his victorious campaign against Austria foreshadowed. In the tumultuous landscape of 19th-century Europe, one figure stands out for his cunning diplomacy and bold strategies: Otto von Bismarck. Born into a noble Prussian family in 1815, Bismarck’s political career would shape the destiny of Germany and influence the balance of power across the continent.
Table of Contents
Bismarck’s Dream
Many effective implications could be found in the other great political dreams. The dream that drove Hannibal to the conquest of Italy would certainly be included, and so would Bismarck’s dream, in which Freud chose to see an allusion to masturbation and erotic conquest. The German Chancellor had this dream in 1863, when Prussia was floundering in inextricable difficulties and he was secretly preparing for the war with Austria that ended in the victory of Shadow.
He communicated it to William I in a letter dated December 18, 1881, and recorded how much the dream had confirmed him in his plans. He had seen himself riding along a narrow path in the Alps and, when he had entered an impasse and his horse had refused to go any further, he had struck the wall of rock with his whip. The whip had grown to an endless length and the wall had opened on Prussian troops marching in Bohemia.
Bismarck’s Dream about the Austrian War
(In a letter addressed to the Emperor William I on December 18, 1881, Bismarck wrote as follows)
Your Majesty’s communication encourages me to relate a dream which I had in the spring of 1863, in the worst days of the struggle, from which no human eye could see any possible escape.
I dreamt (as I related the first thing next morning to my wife and other witnesses) that I was riding on a narrow Alpine path, precipice on the right, rocks on the left. The path grew narrower, so that the horse refused to proceed, and it was impossible to turn round or dismount, owing to lack of space.
Then, with my whip in my left hand, I struck the smooth rock and called on God. The whip grew to an endless length, the rocky wall dropped like a piece of stage scenery and opened out a broad path, with a view over hills and forests, like a landscape in Bohemia; there were Prussian troops with banners, and even in my dream the thought came to me at once that I must report it to your Majesty. This dream was fulfilled, and I woke up rejoiced and strengthened.
‘(Bismarck, Gedanken und Erinnerungen, Volksaus- gabe, II, p. 222)
Erotic interpretation of Bismarck’s dream
We shall return to the erotic interpretation of this dream by Dr Hans Sachs and personally endorsed by Freud.” For the moment it is enough to point out that the affective or sexual implications of dreams are without historical importance in so far as the dreamer is ignorant of them or does not take them into account, as was the case with Bismarck, or again deliberately gives them another interpretation, as did Caesar.
Henceforth we may admit that the ‘reduction’ of a dream to its sexual ’causes’ or ‘implications’ (a debate that we do not have to open for the moment) has only a theoretical and secondary interest.
The violation of Rome is, historically, more important than the violation of Caesar’s mother, and the war waged on Austria by Bismarck more productive historically than the Chancellor’s masturbation. For these dreams may lead us to suspect that the process of symbolization is related to the movement of history and civilization, a movement transposing instinctive energies from the sphere of primitive animal satisfaction to that of great projects and great achievements.
Re-examine Bismarck’s dream
In the field of images and symbols, Jung’s great contribution is to have extricated the meaning of many archetypes from an immense amount of comparative material, which he took from religions, myths and the literature of all ages and civilizations; Bache- lard’s contribution is to have assembled a large amount of material connected with the great archetypal images that have been the object of human reverie.
If we re-examine Bismarck’s dream, for example, his whip can be interpreted in the sense of a masturbation fantasy; however, it is possible as well to see the motor phantasm that Bismarck himself recognized in it, and which encouraged him in his military plans. Again, both Jung and Bachelard would have asked themselves what the whip was, not only to the Iron Chancellor, but also in itself, what it was made of and what use it was put to. So that, by this analysis, Bismarck would, undoubtedly, have penetrated more deeply into the nature of the military or political actions that the whip symbolized.
Conclusion
Otto von Bismarck’s strategic genius and determination during the Austrian War of 1866 reshaped the map of Europe and laid the groundwork for modern Germany. The Austrian War marked a turning point in European history. It not only solidified Prussian dominance within Germany but also set the stage for further territorial and political realignments in Europe. Bismarck’s success enhanced Prussia’s prestige and paved the way for the eventual formation of the German Empire in 1871, with Wilhelm I crowned as Emperor.
