This article is about Bismarck’s domestic politics. You will learn the connection between his foreign and domestic policy actions. You will also learn everything about the Kulturkampf and Bismarck’s conservative turn and his social legislation.
This article is part of the History subject and part of the German Empire topic.
- Bismarck was Chancellor from 1871-1890.
- Bismarck’s aim was to preserve the Prussian monarchy.
- Bismarck tried to keep a stable majority in parliament by assimilating and oppressing minorities and declaring enemies of the Reich.
- Kulturkampf: Bismarck’s actions against the Church
- Socialist Laws: Laws to suppress socialist associations in the fight against the socialists
- Social reform: Laws to improve the social conditions of workers during industrialization
Bismarck as Chancellor
In 1871 the German national state was founded. First, the Prussian King Wilhelm I was proclaimed Emperor on January 18, 1871. The German constitution was then passed on April 1871.
With the founding of the German Empire, Bismarck finally gained the trust of the Prussian King Wilhelm I. This elevated Bismarck to the hereditary rank of prince. In addition, the former Prussian Prime Minister became the Chancellor of the German Empire. From then on, Bismarck enjoyed a high position of power and played a major role in world politics.
Overall, Bismarck was Chancellor of the German Empire from 1871 to 1890. His policy was geared in particular to the preservation of the Prussian monarchy. Here he relied primarily on the civil service, the nobility and the military. His policies have generally been described as more conservative.
Bismarck’s goal
The German Empire was still very unstable after it was founded in 1871, which is why Bismarck made it his task to stabilize the empire from within. The monarchy should continue to strengthen in the empire, which meant that the constitutional monarchy was not very democratic.
Bismarck planned to stabilize the state by pursuing «negative integration». This meant that he systematically excluded political or social groups.
Minorities such as Jews were oppressed and persecuted under the motto «assimilation and repression». In addition, Bismarck acted against the Polish clergy and nobility, and the Polish minority in the German Empire was strictly monitored.
With the founding of the German Empire in 1871, a Polish minority was incorporated into the German Empire. However, Bismarck did not regard this minority as “German”. Instead, this minority was forced to assimilate. That is, the Polish minority adopted German culture. Here, the Polish population should give up their Polish language and culture and become increasingly Germanized. In the provinces of Posen and West Prussia, Polish was banned in schools in 1873 and German was made the sole language of instruction. As a result, the school children no longer understood the lessons.
Action against minorities was intended to unite the German majority against a common enemy. So Bismarck planned to unite the people behind Kaiser Wilhelm I. This measure should lead to greater national consciousness. In addition, monuments were erected and the emperor’s birthday was declared a public holiday.
Bismarck’s foreign policy
Bismarck proceeded in the same way in foreign policy and domestic policy. He tried to unite the German people by creating an enemy. In foreign policy, this was France, Germany’s hereditary enemy, since the French Revolution and Napoleonic times.
In terms of foreign policy, Bismarck essentially had these goals:
- Development of a sophisticated alliance system to protect the German Empire in the middle of Europe
- Isolation of France through exclusion from the alliance system
- Selling as an «honest broker» between the other nations
- no expansive aspirations
Bismarck domestic policy
In domestic politics, Bismarck also tried to unite the German people through a common enemy. There were several groups that were declared «enemies of the Reich». In order to get a majority behind him and his goals, Bismarck took targeted action against minorities.
The term «Reichsfeind» was coined by the Bismarck era. Groups that were in seditious opposition to the German Empire were called «enemies of the Reich». They represented a threat to the monarchy and were therefore persecuted by Bismarck and restricted in their political possibilities.
Bismarck’s enemies of the empire included the church around the then incumbent Pope Pius IX. and the socialists.
Bismarck’s Kulturkampf
The Kulturkampf was a battle between the state and the Catholic Church in the 19th century. Essentially, the conflict was fueled by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who now opposed the Catholic Church and the then Pope Pius IX. proceeded.
Prussia was mainly Protestant. However, after the founding of the German Empire, the German Empire annexed Catholic areas such as Alsace-Lorraine. In Prussia, too, there were Polish areas that were also predominantly Catholic.
The Catholic Pope Pope Pius IX. had declared itself infallible and spoke out clearly against states that thought they could survive without the Church. This statement clashed with Bismarck’s interest in turning the German Empire away from ecclesiastical influence. In his opinion, the population should obey the German Emperor and not the Pope. Hence he began his action against the Church.
Bismarck feared that the Catholic Church had too much influence over the German population and thus posed a threat to a united Germany. In addition, the Catholics also had a political party that found more and more followers.
Bismarck’s Kulturkampf was supported by the Liberals, who saw the Catholic Church as an anti-enlightenment movement. Together they strove to smash the opposition Center Party.
Fig.1: Caricature of the Kulturkampf between Bismarck and Pope Pius from the magazine «Kladderadatsch» from 1875Source: bpb.de
The disputes escalated from 1871, because Bismarck banned political statements from priests in their sermons through the pulpit paragraph. With the «Jesuit Law» of 1872, the activity of the Catholic Jesuit order was suppressed. A further step was the establishment of state school supervision, which ended the church supervision. State school supervision was implemented in Prussia in 1872. In addition, civil marriage replaced church marriage.
The «May Law» of 1873 made it difficult to hire pastors, which is why there were many vacancies in the church. Arrests of bishops and priests were also carried out in the German Empire.
1875 threatened Pope Pius IX. with the exclusion of all Germans from the churches that adhered to the laws of the Kulturkampf imposed by Bismarck. Bismarck responded with the «breadbasket law» which ended all Prussian payments to the church.
Despite Bismarck’s best efforts to curb clerical influence in Germany, his plan didn’t work out. On the contrary, the Catholics united more closely than before. Bismarck had not managed to unite the Protestants because they rejected measures such as civil marriage or state school supervision. The liberals, who had initially supported Bismarck, were also against Bismarck’s authoritarian measures because they saw their freedom restricted. In 1878 Kulturkampf ended.
Overall, Bismarck’s Kulturkampf was unsuccessful, because the Center Party, against which he had previously cracked down, became the strongest faction in the Reichstag from 1882.
If you want to learn more about the topic, also read our article on Kulturkampf.
Conservative turn under Bismarck
At first, Bismarck worked with the liberal politicians in the Reichstag. This period from 1871-1879 is also referred to as liberal era described. This cooperation resulted in standardization of the currency to the mark, the creation of a central bank, freedom of trade and freedom of movement, and the elaboration of a uniform penal code. In addition, the Imperial Court of Justice was founded in Leipzig in 1879.
However, this cooperation ended with the change to protective tariff policy. Before that, there was a free trade policy in the German Empire, which was advocated by the liberals.
Reason for Bismarck’s change of course were the cheap imports from abroad, with which Prussian agriculture could not keep up. Bismarck established protectionism to strengthen the Prussian economy. However, this led to the departure of the Liberals.
These split into two groups. On the one hand in the «Left Liberals» who strived for increasing democratization and the «National Liberals» who continue to support Bismarck in order to protect the German economy.
After Bismarck’s conservative turn and the failed Kulturkampf, Bismarck declared the Social Democrats to be enemies of the Reich because their movement was becoming more and more popular. He also blamed her for two assassination attempts on Kaiser Wilhelm I.
Public Enemy Social Democrats
The Social Democrats were a political group that based their demands on socialism and communism. They demanded socialism for the German Empire and thus wanted to meet the workers and the social question that had arisen through industrialization. In doing so, they addressed in particular the working class, which Bismarck had initially neglected through his policies, since he concentrated on the interests of the nobility and the civil service.
In order to curb the influence of the Social Democrats, Bismarck reacted with the Socialist Law. From 1878, the Socialist Law banned socialist associations, meetings, trade unions and newspapers. He also tightened police controls against the Social Democrats, which is why they had to identify themselves in certain places.
As a reason for the crackdown on the socialists, Bismarck stated that this group intended to overthrow the social order.
But just as the Kulturkampf failed, so did the fight against the Social Democrats. In the 1890 elections, the SPD found only more supporters. Overall, the Socialist Law was not particularly effective, as the proportion of social democrats continued to increase. As a party, the SPD received more votes than any other party in the 1890 election. This was the reason why the party continued its work in secret even during the anti-socialist laws.
Bismarck’s social legislation – «Carrot & Stick»
Fig. 2: Bismarck Source: wikipedia.de
Another step in the struggle against the Social Democrats was the social reforms. With this, Bismarck attempted to…