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Bismarck and the Kulturkampf
The year 1871 marked the beginning of the German Empire under the Prussian crown. An empire in name, Germany was actually administered by its chancellor Otto von Bismarck, a landed aristocrat from eastern Prussia. Though Germany maintained universal male suffrage, the German house of Parliament, the Reichstag, held only very restricted powers of legislation. Most power remained with Bismarck himself. Through the 1870s, Bismarck formed expedient alliances with the center-left parties that had held the majority in German politics since the inception of the empire. These alliances allowed Bismarck to establish the main elements of national administration: legal codes, railroads, banking systems, a judicial apparatus, and the civil service structure.
In addition, the liberals called on Bismarck’s assistance for their anti-Papal campaign, the Kulturkampf, or “struggle for civilization.” It aimed to eliminate Catholics who, Bismarck thought, could never maintain true loyalty to the German state because of their higher loyalty to Rome. The legislation of the Kulturkampf removed priests from state service, restricted religious education, elevated civil marriage, and arrested and expelled defiant priests and bishops. However, Bismarck’s attack on the Church was not altogether successful since it inspired the Catholic Center party to rally the Catholic vote and other supporters to oppose Bismarck’s policies. After his Catholic adversaries gained scores of seats in the Reichstag in 1878, Bismarck admitted defeat and reached out to the new Pope, Leo XIII, to negotiate a settlement between Germany and the Church. The Kulturkampf ended and Catholic toleration became law.
The Social Democratic Party
The powerful Social Democratic Party, Marxists who called for a gradual reform of the capitalist system into a state socialist system, emerged as Bismarck’s next key enemy. Among other things, the Social Democrats advocated working within the system to advance the needs of the workers through welfare legislation, trade union power, economic regulation, and nationalization or regulation of industry. Bismarck, recognizing the appeal to Germany’s growing working classes, used a strategy of simultaneous repression to quiet socialists and welfare legislation to acquire popular support. To repress, Bismarck passed the Anti- Socialist Law, expanding police powers and forbidding socialist meetings, fundraising, and the distribution of printed materials. To bring popular support to the state, he pushed extensive social welfare legislation through the Reichstag, including state-provided accident insurance, sickness benefits, old age pensions, and disability payments.
These moderate reforms did nothing to undermine the growing popularity of the Marxist movement under the Social Democrats. By 1890, the year Kaiser Wilhelm II fired Bismarck, the Social Democrats controlled over 20 percent of the electorate and 35 seats in the Reichstag. To keep the Social Democrats in the minority, Wilhelm II required mass conservative support—from the traditional aristocrats, the middle classes, and the agrarian poor. He built and maintained this support through the manipulation of nationalist and militaristic sentiments, espousing an aggressive foreign policy that involved colonial expansion, military development, and the idea of German superiority. Despite all this, by 1914, the Social Democrats were the largest single party in German politics.
Shifting Power in Europe
In 1871, Germany was a new nation, and by 1890, Germany was arguably the strongest power on the continent. Its military, though smaller than that of France or Russia, was the most modern, best equipped, and highly disciplined. Its economy was the most vibrant due to its great success at industrialization and technological development. Its national integrity was solid and unbreakable due to the importance Bismarck had always placed on loyalty and national improvement. In short, there was seemingly no reason for Germany to pursue such an aggressive foreign policy.
And yet, Germany did. It could have been Wilhelm II’s need to create his conservative coalition, but that alone did not justify the lengths that Germany would eventually go to—World War I. Perhaps Germany had grown arrogant in the 19th century, as every conflict it had been involved in ended in victory. Another possibility is that not even Germany itself knew that they were the strongest power in Europe. France and Russia were no longer rivals in this, but Great Britain certainly was, with its enormous colonial empire, its industrial economy was aging but still unrivaled, its political system was supreme and the country was at peace because of it. Germany may have felt it ruled the Continent, but it could not rival England. These three elements, domestic political concerns, a historical context that seemed to assure victory, and a perceived need to justify its power, combined to propel Germany into an aggressive and risky foreign policy, both within Europe and the colonial world.
