One persistent myth about the German program is that it adopted age 65 as the standard retirement age because that was Bismarck's age. In fact, Germany initially set age 70 as the retirement age (and Bismarck himself was 74 at the time) and it was not until 27 years later (in 1916) that the age was lowered to 65. By that time, Bismarck had been dead for 18 years. Otto von Bismarck. The Origins of the Retirement Age in Social Security.