Bismarck's Pension

Bismarck was trying to counterbalance Marxist utopian talk from the German left by the German right. He introduced the pension in the late 19th century and basically all European or Northwest European welfare states are based on Bismarck's thinking. The reason he was doing it was because the left were becoming incredibly powerful amongst the workers. And the right realized we've got to give them something to basically disembowel the left, so the pension was one of the great things.