Members of Germany's Progressive Party, unlike the…
1876 CE to 1887 CE
This party is in the forefront of those opposed to the authoritarian rule of Bismarck and his successors.
The Center Party is Germany's Roman Catholic party and has strong support in southern Germany, the Rhineland, and in parts of Prussia with significant Polish populations.
It is conservative regarding monarchical authority but progressive in matters of social reform.
Bismarck's brutal campaign against the Roman Catholic Church in the 1870s—the Kulturkampf (cultural struggle), an attempt to reduce the church's power over education and its role in many other areas of German society—turn the Center Party against him.
By the late 1870s, Bismarck has to concede victory to the party, which has become stronger through its resistance to the government's persecution.
The party will remain important during the Weimar Republic and is the forerunner of the Federal
Republic's moderate conservative parties, the Christian Democratic Union (Christlich Demokratische Union—CDU) and the Christian Social Union (Christlich-Soziale Union—CSU).
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