Max Weber as a critic of Bismarck

This article examines Max Weber’s appraisal of Bismarck as a ‘Caesarist’ figure. An analysis of Weber’s opinion of Bismarck serves, I submit, not only as a contribution to the history of a concept (Caesarism) whose importance in German political discourse between 1850-1917 has been admirably documented by Groh (1972) and Gollwitzer (1987). It also helps to shed light on an area of Weber’s thought of which we know comparatively little: his idea of i/legitimacy. Moreover, insofar as Weber’s advocacy of constitutional reform in Germany was framed against the backdrop of a negative estimation of Bismarck’s legacy, it seems pertinent to subject that evaluation to close textual scrutiny.