How an €83 million inheritance feud with Germany’s playboy prince could tear apart Otto von Bismarck’s dynasty
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A bitter inheritance feud is plunging the Bismarck dynasty into scandal, exposing decades of grudges and tarnishing a once-revered legacy. The heirs of Otto von Bismarck, Germany’s legendary “Iron Chancellor,” are embroiled in a bitter courtroom battle over a fortune as grand as their family name.
![[Carl-Eduard’s younger brother Gregor (pictured) inherited the family seat and adjoining forestry estate.]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/17/13/EJED93.jpg)
Carl-Eduard von Bismarck, the so-called “black sheep” of the family, is suing his younger siblings, Gregor and Vanessa, for an €83 million share of their inheritance. This decades-long battle over wealth and legacy has brought the family’s scandals and dysfunctions into stark public view, tarnishing the name of a man once synonymous with German unification and diplomacy.
![[Vanessa Weiner Von Bismarck]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/17/11/GettyImages-1492724055.jpg)
The courtroom clash in Lübeck, Germany, is the latest chapter in a saga of personal grudges, police interventions, and public disgrace that threatens to overshadow the Bismarcks’ historic contributions. The siblings are the great-great-grandchildren of Otto von Bismarck, Germany’s “Iron Chancellor,” who masterminded the unification of Germany in the 19th century.
![[Carl-Eduard von Bismarck with his aunt Gunilla von Bismarck and former wife Natalie]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/17/11/GettyImages-72061451.jpg)
Carl-Eduard, 63, has earned a reputation as the black sheep of the family and a playboy princeling, disinherited by his father, Prince Ferdinand von Bismarck, in 2002 due to his flamboyant lifestyle. Once dubbed “Germany’s laziest MP” for his absenteeism during his brief political career, Carl-Eduard’s reputation stands in stark contrast to his ancestor’s legacy of diplomacy and statecraft.
![[The siblings are descendants of Otto von Bismarck, who cemented the family’s legacy as a Prussian statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany.]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/17/11/newFile-2.jpg)
