To really
unite Germany Bismarck faced several difficulties. The Catholic sates didn’t
want to be dominated by the Protestantic Prussia. Liberalists and socialists
disliked the conservative Bismarck. The Junkers were afraid of loosing their
power.
The new
constitution said thet Germay was an federation of 25 states, each governed by
a prince, archduke or duke. . Each ruler appointed a representative to the
upper house of the parliament (Bundesrat). To the lower house, the Reichtag,
citizens over 25 elected the representatives. The Bundesrat had the power to
veto any decision mede by the Reichtag. Also, the emperor and his ministers
controlled enough votes in the Bundesrat to have power over the decisions. In
practice, the Emperor and the chancellor had the political power. William I was
appointed emperor an Bismarck chancellor. Many Junkers got high positions.
The Junkers
were satisfied with the fact that the system with compulsory military was
extended to the hole country.
A uniform
legal system was set up.
An imperial
bank controlled the coining of money.
The
railroad system and the telegraph were coordinated.
Bismarck
was called the “IRON CHANCELLOR”.
Religion:
The Catholic states didn’t like the protestantic domination. Bismarcks politic,
“kulturkampf”, affected the catholics. Bismarck’s politics did not, however,
weaken the catholic church. In 1880 he repealed many of the anti catholic laws
because he needed the support from this group when the socialist opposition
grew.
Many
liberalists who initially didn’t like Bismarck’s conservative politics (the
wanted a more democratic constitution) had started to support his politics.
They saw the economic prosperity and the unification as a result of the
chancellor’s politics. The middle class, many of them liberalists, gained from
the strength in the economy.
The working
class opposition grew however. This group supported the socialist party that
promoted the ideas of Mr. Marx. Though,
many socialists wanted reforms rather than revolution. Bismarck mde sure that
the parliament made laws to restrict the socialists (e.g. right to break their meetings). This, of
course, strengthen the opposition. Bismarck chose instead to make reformsto win
the support of the working class. A basic security program was built up but the
socialist party continued to grow.
In 1888
William II inherited the throne. He didn’t like the domination over the
politics that Bismarck had. He wanted to decided to be his own chief minister
and forced Bismarc to resign.
William,
beliving in his divine right to rule,
tried to win support from all groups but the socialist party still grew.
William
also wanted Germany to win “A PLACE IN THE SUN” (commercial, colonial and
military). Therefore he doubled the size of the army (1892-1913), he built a
large navy and the steal industry increased.
German
prosperity made the country’s pride rise during the late 1800s.
Germany
1890-1900 (Traynor)
The emperor
of Germany was an autocratic ruler. He was the “surpreme war lord”, “the all
highest person”, he exerted absolut controleover the government, the arm forces
and the civil service. Historian John Röhl states that William gradually created
an government for his own choosing. Gradually he saw to that resistance against
him was replaced by more loyal persons. The most important post was the
chancellor. He had the right to dissolve the Reichtag. The constitution also
gave a lot of power to the Federal Council of Bundesrat. Untli 1890 it was the
chancellor who really ruled Germany. Some historians states that Germany had
economic prosperity but was one of the wors governed countries in Europe.
There have
been discussions among historians about weather William had some kind of disturbance on the brain. This could
have had impact on the dicision making (Röhl). Though there are other
historians that describes William as a “shadow” emperor. Instead there was a
powerful elit (industrialists, agrarians, pressure groups) that dominated the
political decicions made in Germany during the period. This group had an
intrest in preventing the industrialisation to be followed by genuine
democracy. Sammlungspolitik
and Weltpolitik.
Weltpolitik
Manifaestation
if the Weltpolitik: imperialism, growth and birth of the German navy.