Was he always the smartest guy in the room?

no. He was able to propel the German superiority complex to new and encompassing heights. That's all

I hate krauts who disagree with me, but I hate other countries even more.

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>>2528345
He was playing 17 dimensional chess his whole life.

>>2528345
Yes, totally.
Except for all the times he met with Talleyrand, obviously.

Who is that?

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>>2528345
Not when he was in the same room with Moltke

Name one thing he achieved.

>>2529977
German unification and #winning?

>>2529977
Helped Hitler seize power.

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"Nah".

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>>2529977

>>2530127
I'd say yes in this particular case. While everybody was pushing for the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine he was the only German politician bright enough to realize it would lead to a permanent state of antagonism and that further monetary compensation should be pursued instead. If people had listened to Bismarck we might never have had WWI or at least the alliances and outcome would have been very different.

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>tfw smartest guy in the room

>>2530135
For this particular instance, I was more intent on japing the slightest bit than really trying to assert any of those men's dominance over the other. To hear what was then murmured about this, both men had a compelling conversation brimming with genius, and each discoursing on anecdotes about rule.

That was an entertaining post on your part though, but I would venture that why he was reneged in his ambition to cripple France more on a financial than a territorial basis wasn't particular surprising, considering that the reparations burdened on France would've almost had the country succumbing to communism, or civil unrest had they been the teeniest bit heavier. France was even only salvaged from that future by miraculously discovering new coal mines in Northern France, that compensated for those lost in Alsace-Moselle, but none could've predicted this. This was one of the only things that speedied up France's recovery, along with their now iron will to avenge themselves. So from any other German's point-of-view, to put more reparations on France would've almost doomed France for the coming decades, and Germans weren't too excited about an anarchic, or communist, or failed state bordering them. Which is Alsace-Moselle came to be seen as the more suited of the peace requirements.

Basically a long-winded post all to say that I can also see why another path was tread than the one Bismarck envisioned. Don't know if that was really needed "._.".