Otto von Bismarck

Bildquelle: http://www.lyceescheurerkestner.fr/dnl/?p=16

Otto von Bismarck was born in 1815 in a landed gentry family in Pomerania. He studied law, was Member of Parliament and ambassador in St. Petersburg and Paris, until William finally made him a prime minister.

To achieve a united German empire under Prussian leadership, he 
hasn't even shrunk back from war.
Prussia and France began to dispute in 1870 to the Spanish throne. France called for a waiver of Prussia, but Wilhelm I rejected this in a telegram to the former Ambassador in Paris, Otto von Bismarck. After Bismarck had reduced the telegram and let  newspapers publish it, France declared war on Prussia.
  
He led war against Denmark, Austria and France, to weld the northern and southern states together. 

In 1871 he became Chancellor, and decided on the inner and outer politics of the empire until 1890, when he was forced to resign by Emperor Wilhelm II.  Bismarck died in 1898 at his country seat.