Armin Linke

In 2025, Armin Linke captured Anton von Werner’s The Berlin Congress 1878 (1881) in the ballroom of the Berlin Senate Chancellery, which depicts a conference dominated by the Central Powers of that time. Otto von Bismarck, Russian diplomat Count Schuvalov, and Austro-Hungarian Count Andrássy draw the eye to the painting’s foreground, where the handshake between Bismarck and Schuvalov serves as a visual anchor. Through orchestrated lighting, positioning, and gestures, the artist portrays a two-tier diplomacy where major powers impose fateful decisions on the Balkan nations, whose representatives skulk on the sidelines.

Held at the Reich Chancellery from June 13 to July 13, 1878, the summit reorganized the Balkans. Germany hosted, with Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Britain participating, while the Ottoman Empire observed. Bismarck’s Germany—which had no territorial claims in the Balkans—acted as an “honest broker,” but not without self-interest. Berlin, Vienna, and London sought to curb Moscow’s influence which, despite its military strength, secured only minor gains in Bessarabia. Balkan national aspirations were ignored as territories were arbitrarily annexed by Austria-Hungary, sowing the seeds of World War I and other future conflicts. Six years later, Bismarck mediated the Berlin Conference (1884)—also known as the “Scramble for Africa”—where European powers carved up the continent without African participation.

A lasting legacy of the 1878 Congress was the formalization of the Ottoman Status Quo decree at the religious sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Today, it governs rights of worship and ownership at these sacred places.

Text: Somrak Sila