Hans-Joachim K Ruff-Stahl
Bismarck’s Leadership: Beyond Good and Evil
This paper assesses Bismarck’s strategic successes, personality, and leadership skills. It argues that Bismarck was an effective strategic leader in spite of a lack of - in today’s view - essential leadership traits. Bismarck’s Realpolitik was only little influenced by moral constraints in exchange for strategic effectiveness. Bismarck’s leadership style may be described by a “morality of the master“, disregarding widely accepted moral standards, which Nietzsche has dismissed before as nothing more than the morality of the ruled. Bismarck’s leadership is a lesson in tactical means justifying the strategic ends.
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