3-082-483 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Prince Bismarck, who attains his eightieth birthday on April 1, 1895. Engraving from a photograph. 'Four hundred members of the Upper and Lower Houses of the Prussian Diet and the Reichstag went to Friedrichsruh...to pay their tribute of affection and esteem. The Prince delivered a brief patriotic speech in reply..."If I were in robust health," concluded Prince Bismarck, "I could say much more to you, but I am a feeble old man. I deplore that I am no longer able to work with you, but I am not strong enough to face the multifarious trials of an existence in Berlin...But my thoughts are with you, perhaps to a greater extent than is fitting for a man of my age. But I cannot suddenly abandon my former ideas because I am old and ill. They never leave me. I cannot give better expression to the sentiments which fill my heart than by requesting you to cling fast to the Imperial idea, even in the Prussian Diet, not to forget that you are citizens of an Empire, and to think of him who is your King and Emperor, and who has duties towards the Empire and his confederates. I beg you not to pursue a Brandenburg or a Royal Prussian policy, but an Imperial German policy."...Prince Bismarck, as will be seen by his latest portrait, has visibly aged'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.