Bismarck-Museum Friedrichsruh

The Bismarck-Museum Friedrichsruh stands in Friedrichsruh, a village in the Herzogtum Lauenburg district of Schleswig-Holstein. It occupies a half-timbered house beside the L 208 road. The Otto-von-Bismarck-Stiftung runs both the museum and a public library in the former station building across the road. A permanent display in the station covers Bismarck’s life and times. The museum holds gifts, personal items and documents once belonging to Otto von Bismarck. Among them are maps of customs zones, the Emser Depesche, the two pistols used in assassination attempts, his uniform and boots, and many of his medals. His reconstructed study contains his Berlin desk, a sofa and two leather divans for his dogs. A large painting by Anton von Werner shows the proclamation of the German Empire on 18 January 1871. Visitors walk through ten rooms and the recreated office. The items include reproductions of key documents and a suit of ceremonial armour. Outside, the Otto-von-Bismarck-Stiftung also maintains the nearby Bismarck-Mausoleum. The village itself lies on the edge of the Sachsenwald, a large forest planted by Bismarck in the 19th century.