Bismarck era

Otto von Bismarck.

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Bismarck's domestic policies played a great role in forging the authoritarian political culture of the Kaiserreich. Less preoccupied by continental power politics following unification in 1871, Germany's semi-parliamentary government carried out a relatively smooth economic and political revolution from above that pushed them along the way towards becoming the world's leading industrial power of the time.

Economy

Industrialization progressed dynamically in Germany and German manufacturers began to capture domestic markets from British imports, and also to compete with British industry abroad, particularly in the United States. The German textiles and metal industries had by the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War surpassed those of Britain in organization and technical efficiency and usurped British manufacturers in the domestic market. Germany became the dominant economic power on the continent and was the second largest exporting nation after the US. By the turn of the century, the German metals and engineering industries would be producing heavily for the free trade market of Britain. By the time of World War I (1914–1918) the German economy had switched to supplying its military with the proper equipment needed to fight the war. This included the production of rifles (Gewehr 98), pistols (Luger P08), machine guns (Maxim machine gun), mortars (Minenwerfer), and several other heavy and light artillery pieces. Additionally, Imperial Germany was leading in the sectors of physics and chemistry so that one third of all Nobel Prizes went to German inventors and researchers.

Ideology

After achieving formal unification in 1871, Bismarck devoted much of his attention to the cause of national unity under the ideology of Prussianism. Conservative Catholic activism and emancipation, conceptualized by the conservative turn of the Vatican under Pope Pius IX and its dogma of Papal Infallibility, and working class radicalism, represented by the emerging Social Democratic Party, in many ways both reacted to concerns of dislocation by very different segments of German society, brought by a rapid shift from an agrarian-based economy to modern industrial capitalism under nationalist tutelage. While out-and-out suppression failed to contain either socialists or Catholics, Bismarck's "carrot and stick" approach significantly mollified opposition from both groups.

One can summarize Bismarck's ideology under four objectives: Kulturkampf, social reform, national unification, and Kleindeutschland.

Kulturkampf

Following the incorporation of the Catholic German states in the south and some areas in the east, Catholicism, represented by the Catholic Centre Party, was seemingly the principal threat to unification process. Southern Catholics, hailing from a much more agrarian base and falling under the ranks of the peasantry, artisans, guildsmen, clergy, and princely aristocracies of the small states more often than their Protestant counterparts in the North, initially had trouble competing with industrial efficiency and the opening of outside trade by the Zollverein. Roman Catholic institutions were obstructed and Catholic influence on society was fought by the Bismarck government. After 1878 however, the struggle against socialism would unite Bismarck with the Catholic Centre Party, bringing an end to the Kulturkampf, which had led to far greater Catholic unrest than existed beforehand and had strengthened rather than weakened Catholicism in Germany.

Social reform

To contain the working class and to weaken the influence of socialist groups, Bismarck reluctantly implemented a remarkably advanced welfare state. The social security systems installed by Bismarck (health care in 1883, accident insurance in 1884, invalidity and old-age insurance in 1889) at the time were the largest in the world and, to a degree, still exist in Germany today.

National unification

Bismarck's efforts also initiated the levelling of the enormous differences between the German states, which had been independent in their evolution for centuries, especially with legislation.

Kleindeutschland

Two visions of what the German Empire should territorially comprise were debated during Bismarck's tenure. One vision was of a Großdeutschland (Greater or Large Germany), and the other, preferred by Bismarck, was a Kleindeutschland (Lesser or Small Germany). Großdeutschland then especially espoused by German liberals and Pan-German nationalists was that Germany should be an all-encompassing state for all Germans including Austrian territory (some wanting all of Austro-Hungarian territory, some only wanting German Austrian lands). Kleindeutschland was an idea espoused by Bismarck and Prussian conservatives. While the Kleindeutschland concept included millions of non-Germans (mainly Poles) its believers thought that incorporating all of Austria-Hungary into Germany would result in the destabilization of the German state due to the even greater number of ethnic minorities in Austria-Hungary. Also, the largely Prussian supporters of Kleindeutschland feared that even the incorporation of German Austria alone excluding non-German territory, would weaken Prussia's control over the direction of Germany and substantially increase the number of Roman Catholics in a state which already had tensions with the Protestant north establishment and Catholic south which the state wanted to assimilate. Kleindeutschland was an important element of the German Empire's political affairs and stands in stark contrast to Nazi Germany^{[citation needed]} which claimed itself to be a successor to the German Empire, even though Nazi Germany followed a Pan-German, Großdeutschland approach which dismantled Prussian hegemony in Germany in favour of a centralized and totalitarian state.

Germanization

One of the effects of the unification policies was the gradually increasing tendency to eliminate the use of non-German languages in public life, schools and academic settings with the intent of pressuring the non-German population to abandon their national identity or leave the country in what was called "Germanization". The strict Germanization policies had often the reverse effect of stimulating resistance, usually in the form of home schooling and tighter unity in the minority groups.

The Germanization policies were targeted particularly against the significant Polish minority of the empire, gained by Prussia in the Partitions of Poland. Laws were made that denied Poles the right to build homes in territories acquired in the Partitions of Poland^[3], restricted the right to speak Polish in public meetings, and in 1908 a law was made allowing for expulsion of Poles from their homes^[3]. This latter law was only executed in 4 cases and served more as a threat, but all these measures lead to an alienation of the Poles from the German authorities. A Settlement Commission was set up and funded by the government in 1885, with a mission to distribute Polish owned land among German colonists. However, the Poles founded an organization of their own to defend themselves against the German settlement commission. In the 1880s mass expulsion of some 24,000 Poles to Russian Poland who didn't have German citizenship were organized by German authorities. This act was heavily criticized by leftist German political parties and Bismarck himself was sceptical about it^{[citation needed]} but he was concerned about possible "revolutionary elements" among the Poles from Russian Poland. Polish associations tried to fight for their rights without success^{[citation needed]}, and although Polish deputies were elected to the Reichstag and proportionally represented the Polish minority, they were greatly outnumbered by German representatives by the majority hostile to their cause.^{[citation needed]} In summary the anti-Polish laws had no great effect especially in the province of Posen where the German-speaking population dropped from 42.8% in 1871 to 38.1% in 1905, despite all efforts.^[4]

Law

The completely different legal histories and judicial systems posed enormous complications, especially for national trade. While a common trade code had already been introduced by the Confederation in 1861 (which was adapted for the Empire and, with great modifications, is still in effect today), there was little similarity in laws otherwise.

In 1871, a common Criminal Code (Reichsstrafgesetzbuch) was introduced; in 1877, common court procedures were established in the court system (Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz), civil procedures (Zivilprozessordnung) and criminal procedures (Strafprozessordnung). In 1873 the constitution was amended to allow the Empire to replace the various and greatly differing Civil Codes of the states (if they existed at all; for example, parts of Germany formerly occupied by Napoleon's France had adopted the French Civil Code, while in Prussia the Allgemeines Preußisches Landrecht of 1794 was still in effect). In 1881, a first commission was established to produce a common Civil Code for all of the Empire, an enormous effort that would produce the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB), possibly one of the most impressive legal works of the world; it was eventually put into effect on 1 January 1900. It speaks volumes for the conceptual quality of these codifications that they all, albeit with many amendments, are still in effect today.