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Who was Johanna von Puttkamer?

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Otto von Bismarck in military uniform and cap, with a mustache, facing slightly to the side in a black-and-white portrait taken around 1880. — Otto von Bismarck Otto von Bismarck.

Johanna von Puttkamer was the wife of Otto von Bismarck. She came from a conservative aristocratic family known for its devout pietism.1

Bismarck met and married her during the period he spent living as a country squire between 1839 and 1847. Their marriage was notably happy, and it was during their courtship that Bismarck experienced a religious conversion that provided him with significant inner strength. The bond between them remained profound throughout their lives; in fact, Bismarck’s final words before his death in 1898 expressed a desire to be reunited with Johanna, who had passed away years earlier.1