This did not, however, prevent him carrying out his public duties as a landed proprietor.  In 1846 we find him taking much interest in proposals for improving the management of the manorial courts; he wished to see them altered so as to give something of the advantages of the English system; he regrets the “want of corporate spirit and public feeling in our corn-growing aristocracy”; “it is unfortunately difficult among most of the gentlemen to awake any other idea under the words ’patrimonial power’ but the calculation whether the fee will cover the expenses.”  We can easily understand that the man who wrote this would be called a liberal by many of his neighbours; what he wanted, however, was a reform which would give life, permanency, and independence to an institution which like everything else was gradually falling before the inroads of the dominant bureaucracy.  The same year he was appointed to the position of Inspector of Dykes for Jerichow.  The duties of this office were of considerable importance for Schoenhausen and the neighbouring estate; as he writes, “it depends on the managers of this office whether from time to time we come under water or not.”  He often refers to the great damages caused by the floods; he had lost many of his fruit-trees, and many of the finest elms in the park had been destroyed by the overflowing of the Elbe.

As Bismarck grew in age and experience he associated more with the neighbouring families.  Pomerania was at this time the centre of a curious religious movement; the leader was Herr von Thadden, who lived at Triglaff, not many miles from Kniephof.  He was associated with Herr von Semft and three brothers of the family of Below.  They were all profoundly dissatisfied with the rationalistic religion preached by the clergy at that time, and aimed at greater inwardness and depth of religious feeling.  Herr von Thadden started religious exercises in his own house, which were attended not only by the peasants from the village but by many of the country gentry; they desired the strictest enforcement of Lutheran doctrine, and wished the State directly to support the Church.  This tendency of thought acquired greater importance when, in 1840, Frederick William IV succeeded to the throne; he was also a man of deep religious feeling, and under his reign the extreme Lutheran party became influential at Court.  Among the ablest of these were the three brothers von Gerlach.  One of them, Otto, was a theologian; another, Ludwig, was Over-President of the Saxon province, and with him Bismarck had much official correspondence; the third, Leopold, who had adopted a military career, was attached to the person of the King and was in later years to have more influence upon him than anyone except perhaps Bunsen.  The real intellectual leader of the party was Stahl, a theologian.