Section 7 German Unification

Question 1

What was liberal about Germany post 1871?

Answer 1

Liberals got what they wanted:

• New national currency
• New Reichsbank created and businesses freed
• New national weights and measures
• Constitution federal and individual state had ther rights to determine their own affairs
• Liberals and Bismarck tight
• New Reichstag –> Men over 25 could vote

Question 2

Elements of Conservatism: Political structure?

Answer 2

• No Government party
• 1874 - new law imprisoned newspaper writers who wrote senstive articles

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Question 3

How did the Centre Party pose a threat to Bismarck?

Answer 3

• Catholic party expanding into north, south, poland and Austria
• Papal Infalibility labling it as a “source of errors”
• Second strongest party in the Reichstag by 1871 (91 seats) –> party favoured for greater self rule –> Bismarck did not want them to interfere with education.
• Windthorst (the leader of the party) resented annexation of his home state by Prussia in 1866
• Joined with Poland, Germany and Alsace-Lorraine

Question 4

What laws were passed in 1871 (Kulturkamp)?

Answer 4

1871 Pulpit Law - A clerck can be punished with up to two years of imprisonment if he involves himself in states matters

Lay inspectors weere appointed for all church schools

Prussian school supervision act - Religious leaders no longer play a part in how schools run.

Section 15 - administers affairs differently

Section 18 - State could administer a minimum entry requirement for a clerk, the appointment and the dismissal of clerks

Question 5

2 May laws?

Answer 5

1874 - Priests lost land assets

• A civil marriage was made compulsory for all couples wishing to marry

Question 6

Effects of Kulturkampf that were positive for Bismarck?

Answer 6

1875 - 200 Bishops were fined
1876 - Only 2 Bishops not in exile or house arrest

Over 1000 parishes left without Bishops

Question 7

Negative Effects of the Kulturkampf for Bismarck?

Answer 7

Despite these problems  Only 30 priests agreed to submit to these laws

Conservatives horrified by the religious attacks on Catholics.

• Attempt to kill off the Catholic Centre party by labelling its members as enemies of the Reich failed  Party increased in size from 61 to 95 by 1874.

Question 8

Who argues that Bismarck did the to gain support from the liberals
Kulturkampf?

Answer 8

Hans Ulrich Wehler - The German Empire

• To side with the liberals –> If he sided with liberals then it would appear that he seemed liberal by supporting anti-Catholic legislation
• They were the largest party in the Reichstag

Question 9

Why might people suggest that Bismarck feared the Catholics?

Answer 9

Bismarck had geniune fear that German unity was threatened by the Pope

Catholics of south Germany voiced anti-Prussian views before the war

Opposition to Prussian control from Ludwig Windthorst

Poland was divided between Russia, Austria and Prussi at the end of the 18th century

Bismarck worried that the Catholics might swoop in –> evidenced by 1871 reichstag

Question 10

How did Bismarck treat ‘Old Catholics’

Answer 10

5000 ‘old catholics’

arguing that he was defending religious toleration

1872 - newspaper articles to spread his cause against Catholcis

Question 11

3 motives for the Kulturkampf?

Answer 11

• Bismarck wanted to win popular protest support
• Catholic Chruch threatened the state
• Centre party had to be destroyed

Question 12

What dispute did the liberals and Bismarck have over the army budget?

Answer 12

1867 - Agreed that military budgetr should remain at a fixed control out of Reichstag control

BUT

1874 - Bismarck presented a law that laid down an army of over 400,000 men would be automically fianced by federal expenditure

80% of all federal expenditure –> army

This threatened Reichstag’s monetary powers.

Bismarck believed that they were undermining homeland security –> called new elections

National Liberals, as aresult, threatend to call new elections

Fixed after 7 years

Question 13

What did the SPD stand for?

Answer 13

‘Gotha programme’:

• “universal, direct, equal suffrage”
• freedom of press, associaton and assembly
• abolition of child and female labour
• free, universal primary education

Pledged to overthrow the Government but through legal means

Question 14

Anti-Socialist Legislation

Answer 14

Passed 1878

• Renewed every four yeard until 1890
• Did not ban the SPD from the Reichstag, but did ban surounding publications and organisations
• 900 workers expelled, 1500 imprisoned and 332 organisations banned
• Election sucess slowed: 1877 - 1878 (decreased by 3)

Question 15

What does AJP Taylor declare about the nature of the German state post 1871?

Answer 15

“dictatorship imposed on conflicting forces”

“They parties did not agree, they were manipulated by Bismarck - pushed down when they threatened to become stronger”

Question 16

What does AJP taylor believe about the political system of Germany post 1871?

Answer 16

Compared it to the Northern German Confederation (except for the name)

The laws said that the Reichstag was ‘responsible’ but not to whom

A majority in the Reichstag could not do anything to the Chancellor - even if they voted for him he would not leave, but rather dissolve the Reichstag

The federal council composed representatives of the states, was supposed to act both as the German government and as the upper house of the legislature”.

But Prussia section 17 and 14 were enough to ban any constitutional change

Question 17

Limitations to Bismarck’s power in 1871 (politically)

Answer 17

There were, however, limitations which forced him to make tactical alliances with political parties within the Reichstag in order to force through many of his policies:

-The German Reich was a FEDERAL state, meaning that its 25 constituent state governments maintained their own constitutions, parliaments and administrative systems and, therefore, over some aspects of their own state policy. Non-Prussians came to hold many important positions in the government both of the Reich and of Prussia itself.

-The Reichstag was elected on the remarkably democratic (for the time) basis of full manhood suffrage, meaning that Bismarck was subject to a fairly weighty tide of public opinio

Question 18

William Carr (Did Prussia truly have total power)

Answer 18

“The Reich was, however, rather than more a simple extension of Prussian power over the southern states”

“Its consent was necessary for all legislation, it could veto constitutional changes”

Prussia 17/58 states

“Theoretically Prussia could be outvoted”