Blood and Iron
radle at Schoenhausen; wonders that gather '
th of six children, three dying in infancy. He was born April 1, 1815, but a few months
ering soldiers, the infant Otto sleeps peacefully in his oak-carved Gothic cradle. A century later,
e of those thick-walled mo
ways, and old forest, and not far away is the village church with the square stone tower; hard by, also, the kattenwinkel, or Katte's corner, at the confluence of the Havel and the Elbe; and on the house
eed-time and harvest strange
en as prizes in the long Napoleonic wars; and in turn, after incredible political adventures, running over years, the child before us, gro
hild in the big Gothic cradle, before which we now tip
. Mortgages falling due could not be paid; the king extended credit for four years; and in the interim Prussian
been tilled by feudal-laborers, practically sl
rcks were better off than their neighbors, still the ti
nherited Kneiphof, Kuelz and Jarchelin estates from his co
was a carp pond. Karl was fond of hunting in the old beech forest. Such we