.::Bismarck was born at Schönhausen, northwest of Berlin. His father was an East Elbian landowner who could trace his noble ancestry back five centuries. His mother was from the middle class, a descendent of academicians and civil servants. Marriages like theirs were increasingly common in the 19th century as the educated middle classes and the old aristocracy began fusing into a new elite.
Bismarck was educated at
a gymnasium, or high school, in Berlin, but was little affected by
the experience. Neither music nor literature, science nor
mathematics, influenced the formation of his mind. He entered the
University of Göttingen in 1832 with the goal of passing the law
examinations required for a civil service appointment with as little
effort as possible. He spent a minimal amount of time in formal
study at both Göttingen and Berlin, where he transferred in 1834.
Nevertheless he passed his examinations and received an appointment
as an apprentice official. He found, however, the routines of
Prussia’s bureaucracy boring enough that he resigned in 1838. He
declared in a letter to his sister that he wanted to conduct the
orchestra, not play in it::.