Did Bismarck say: “They never lie as much as during the war, after hunting and before the elections”?

In anticipation of various elections, Russian media often recall the actual aphorism attributed to the Iron Chancellor. We checked whether its author is really Otto von Bismarck.

The fact that it was the “collector of German lands” at one time that the saying consistent said, such famous people as a journalist report Leonid Radzikhovsky, political expert and expert Anatoly Wasserman, Ukrainian politician Evgeny Kushnarev (By the way, in the year of the release of the book with this quote, he He died on the hunt under strange circumstances), as well as news resources, among which "Radio Liberty" And "Moscow News". Back in 1936, a phrase with a reference to Bismarck entered the Soviet party edition "Restorers of capitalism and their defenders", and much later got into the book "100 great tyrants". This quote is popular and at West.

The modern German -speaking version of the famous phrase is “Es Wird Niemals so Vielogen Wie Vor Der Wahl, Während des Krieges und Nach der Jagd.” With an accuracy to the article, it can be found, for example, in stenigram The meetings of the Reichstag in 1918, and with the mention of Bismarck. However, not one of the options for this statement, published before 1898, that is, the year when the ex-Chancell died, does not contain a reference to German politics.

The statement first appeared in 1879 in the weekly "In the New Reich"where it is attributed to the unnamed deputy of the Reichstag from the liberal "Group of Wilhelm Leva"To which the conservative Reich Scancler Bismarck had nothing to do. Three years later, again without mentioning Bismarck, it appears in the humor of Emil Dominic "How my friend became a member of the Reichstag". After that, the phrase pops up several times in print as "aphorism" (1895), "The notorious answer" And "Old History". And only in 1904 in magazine For the first time, the famous policy for the first time is attributed to the fight against sexually transmitted diseases: “... if the bismarck had to repeat his famous words about situations when they lie the most (before the elections, during the war, after hunting), then he definitely had to put the inflammatory diseases of the pelvic organs in women.”

Thus, the famous quote about the war, hunting and elections, apparently, is historically in no way connected with the biography of Otto von Bismarck and was attributed to him after his death.

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?