Otto Bismarck

As prime minister of Prussia, Otto Von Bismarck (1815-1898) pursued an aggressively expansionist policy, waging wars against Denmark (1863–64), Austria (1866), and France (1870–71), which brought about the unification of Germany and the founding of the German empire. Having received a humanistic education in his younger days, Bismarck was a freethinker, however his devout Lutheran wife, Joanna helped him to discover the Christian faith.
Bismarck believed that the Roman Catholic Church held too much political power and in 1871 he began an anti-Catholic campaign known as the Kulturkampf (cultural struggle). It was an attempt to subordinate the Roman Catholic Church in Germany to the state and the laws arising from this prohibited all Catholic religious assemblies. Many members of Catholic religious orders were expelled, including the Jesuits, a thousand priests were imprisoned or exiled and a million Catholics were left without their sacraments.