Domestic Policies:
B The Reich’s Constitution
The influence of Prussia
* German Empire created in 1871..
* Empire was a federal state which consisted of the 4 kingdoms (Prussia, Bavaria, Wurtemberg and Saxony).
The Reichstag (Imperial Assembly)
* Bismarck was voted chancellor
* Had theoretical control over any changes to the military budget
* He sacrificed this weapon by agreeing in 1874 because he did not want any constitutional conflict.
* Bismarck left it and did not want anything to do with it anymore.
The Bundesrat and the Emperor
* Bundesrat had the power to initiate legislation, with the approval of the Emperor it had the authority to declare war and to settle disputes between states.
* The balance of forces in the German constitution showed very clearly that it was designed to block and prevent any major changes or development in the future.
C Parties, Philosophies and pressure groups
The Conservatives
* Remained a dominate force in the Landtag, which it dominated through local influence.
* The Reichspartei enjoyed a broader geographical basis of support , among landowners and industrialists alike,
* Consistently supported the Imperial Chancellor due to his great achievements in the foundation of the Reich..
The Centre Party
* Dedicated to the interests of the Catholic Church
* Strong in Bavaria and in the Rhineland, the party was led in the Reichstag by a Catholic Hanoverian, Ludwig Windthorst.
The liberals and the left
* In the 1870s Bismarck had his most enthusiastic supporters in the National Liberals, all together on the idea for a centralised state. Also for progressive social and constitutional legislation.
* To the left was the Progress Party who shared the National Liberal’s enthusiasm for free trade and the rule of law but they were opposed to the centralism and militarism of the Bismarckian state.
The ‘Great Depression’ and its political impact
* The economic history of the Reich opened with a short period of financial emotions, fuelled by over-generous credit policies on the part of German bankers, and by the large amounts of capital pumped into the economy by French war reparations.
* This set off a wave that struck a blow to business confidence which still can be felt 20 years later.
* The production levels of 1872-73 had been reached again by 1800, especially in Berlin and in the Ruhr; the development of cartels allowed major industrial enterprises to maintain their stability.
* The main political impact was to mobilise and to polarise conservatives economic thinking, and to create an extremely powerful lobby in favour of economic protection.
* Due to the impact of the depression it undermined the political basis that Bismarck had founded his power in the early 1870s and forced him to adapt to the circumstances within Germany.
D The Reich’s consolidation
Bismarck and the National Liberals
* Bismarck was in no stretch a liberal, he found it convenient to during this period (1871-78) to cooperate in the Reichstag with the National Liberal party.
* The reasons were that they were a dominant party in an assembly where the Chancellor had no party of his own.
* Their immediate aims agreed with Bismarck’s in areas like consolidation of that the national unity and the centralisation of the administration of the Reich.
* Conservative Critics thought the alliance with the National Liberals was carrying Bismarck too far to the left.
* The economic and administrative legislation of his ‘liberal era’ was of the greatest importance in forming the German state, and shows that the complex relationship between Bismarck and the German liberals.
Administrative and financial consolidation
* The state created by Bismarck lacked religious unity and unity of economic interests and had national minorities with little or no desire to be part of the German Empire.
* The first session of the Reichstag saw the movement over a 100 acts to this end.
* Currincies of the states were unified into a national currency
* Tariffs were put to an end, and a uniform body of commercial law was introduced.
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Unification was not only the by-product of Bismarck's real agenda, which was to defend and reinforce traditional Prussian interests. The three major conflicts, the war with Denmark over Schleswig-Holstein, the war with Austria in 1866 and the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 were not pre-arranged in a plan to unite Germany, but instead they were separate and self-contained. However this being the case, ...
* Prussian state Bank became the Reichsbank, and Germany adopted the gold standard.
* National Court was established by 1879.
The problem of the national minorities
* In Alsace-Lorraine the decision to allow French or pro-French elements to leave the territories resulted in migration of 400,000 people between 1871 and 1914.
* German language was imposed in schools and in local administration.
* The use of the Polish language was outlawed in education and in the law courts.
* State funds were used to finance the purchase of lands in Polish hands for the purpose of settlement by Germans/Poles were more successful raising funds in the reverse purpose.
E The Kulturkampf: motives
German liberalism and the Catholic church
* German liberals, the Catholic church was an old enemy.
* Kulturkampf-‘struggle for civilization’
* Pius had declared moral warfare. For the liberals the battle was truly one for the future of human thought.
Bismarck and the Catholic Church
* For Bismarck it was the defence of the state.
* His motive was to combat those who he felt genuinely be enemies of the empire( Reichsfeinde).
* The Catholics were the were the first of many minority groups to play this role in ‘united’ Germany.
F The Kulturkampf: results
The May Laws
* The education of clergy, clerical appointments and the inspection of Church schools were all brought under state control.
* Appointments to German ecclesiastical positions were limited to those educated in Germany
* Priests were forbidden to use the threat of excommunication as a means to force opponents.
* Civil marriage, strenuously opposed by Bismarck in 1849, became a law in the Reich.
* Most religious orders in Germany were destroyed.
The results of the Kulturkampf
* 8 of the 12 Catholic Bishops in Prussia were deprived of their offices and more than 1000 were suspended from their posts.
* The price demanded by the liberals in terms of free trade and ministerial responsibility for their further support, seemed to be becoming unreasonably high.
* Only the laws on civil marriage, state supervision of schools and those against Jesuits remained.
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Otto von Bismarck was a very important and influential person in the history of Germany, as well as the rest of Europe. He used his position and influences to change the course of German history. Bismarck greatly changed Germany, unified his country, and strengthened it. Bismarck wanted to see Germany united, under Prussian rule. Germany was, at that time, divided into many small states, making it ...
* “Bismarck deliberately sacrificed victory in the Kultukampf to victory in other issues, more important in his judgement.
G The move to conservatism
The significance of the reforms of 1878-79
* Bismarck’s alliance with German liberalism failed to meet the interests of many highly influential groups within the Reich.
* Economic and political conservatism became more important to Bismarck end of the decade.
The introduction of protectionism
* Demands for higher protective tariffs increased from other quarter. These demands were coming from the iron and steel industries from the mid 1870’s.
* Protection would aid the growth of national self-sufficiency in the case of a future crisis.
* The taxes provided the government with a valuable source of income independent both of the Reichstag and of the member states. 5-10% on foodstuffs and 10 to 15% impoted indusrial goods
H Bismarck and socialism
Bismarck’s fear of socialism
* Bismarck just like many other statesman =, he was genuinely shaken by the Paris Commune
* His second motive was his desire to combat what he saw as the menace to socialism within Germany.
The anti-socialist law
* The law did not directly ban the Social Democratic Party, but savaged their organisation by banning any group or meeting aimed at the spread of socialist doctrine, outlawing trade unions, and closing a total of 45 newspapers.
‘State Socialism’
* 1883-sick pay and medical insurance were introduced.
* 1889-old age pensions were introduced
O Economic development
Banking and Finance
* Apart from the Reichsbank there were six other banks which dominated commcerce and industry with a combined capital of 2,500 million marks.
Industrial cartels
* These were groupings or agreements between different companies in the same industry to avoid the dangers of competition by such measures like price fixing, agreements on the level of production and the sharing of the markets.
* 4 cartels in 1865 and 8 a decade later.
Summary
Bismarck was idolised by millions of Germans who were overjoyed in his successful policy of unifying Germany. He was a real force to reckon with and would not hold back from doing things his way. No other German exerted so profound an influence on German history in the 19th century. When he came to power Germany was a collection of states; when he left office Germany was a united nation feared and respected by the Great Powers. He no question about it committed many mistakes especially in his handling of the Church and the working class and his defence of the interests of the lower class. Yet on the other hand he helped to promote the modernisation of Germany and was responsible for a social welfare system which gave working people some limited stake in the survival of the Empire.
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National Socialism National Socialism, commonly called Nazism, was a German political movement initiated in 1920 with the organization of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei). The movement culminated in the establishment of the Third Reich, the totalitarian German State led by Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1945. The roots of National Socialism ...
