Otto von Bismarck was born in April 1, 1815 in Schonhausen, Altmark, Prussia.  His father was Ferdinand von Bismarck, a Junker, member of the Prussian landowning elite, and former Prussian military officer.  Ferdinand did not have very good farming skills and the family was not very wealthy in his younger years.  Otto's mother was Wilhelmine Meneken.  She married Ferdinand when she was 16, was well educated, and the daughter of a high ranking government official.    

          Otto attended school in Berlin at the Plamann Institute before attending the University of Göttingen where he studied law before attending the  University of Berlin for two years.  He served in the military reserves  while studying agriculture at the University of Greifswald.  As a youth, Otto preferred the not-so-complicated country life to the more restricted life in the city of Berlin.  He married Johanna von Puttmaker who provided him with strength, stability, and three children.  In addition to speaking his native German, Bismarck was fluent in French, English, Italian, Russian and Polish.