The caption to this cartoon by F. Graetz reads: “Reviewing Officer Prince Bismarck: My heavens – How did that civilian get in here?!” The civilian in question is Prussian Minister of Justice Hermann von Schelling (1824–1908), who held office in Bismarck’s cabinet from 1879 to 1889. The cartoonist meant to suggest not only that Bismarck demanded military-style obedience from his fellow cabinet members but that non-military pedigrees and opinions among ministers of state were conspicuous mainly by their absence.
Source: Title page, colored, by F. Graetz. Ronde officer Prince
Bismarck: “By golly, – how did the civilian get in there?,”
Lustige Blätter, March 28,
1889.
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