Kulturkampf
1871 CE to 1878 CE
The German term Kulturkampf (literally, "culture struggle") refers to German policies in relation to secularity and the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, enacted from 1871 to 1878 by the Prime Minister of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck.
The Kulturkampf does not extend to the other German states such as Bavaria.
In 1871, the Catholic Church comprises 37% of the population of the German Empire.
In this newly founded Empire, Bismarck seeks to appeal to liberals and Protestants (61% of the population) by reducing the political and social influence of the Catholic Church.Priests and bishops who resist the Kulturkampf are arrested or removed from their positions.
By the height of anti-Catholic legislation, half of the Prussian bishops are in prison or in exile, a quarter of the parishes have no priest, half the monks and nuns have left Prussia, a third of the monasteries and convents are closed, 1800 parish priests are imprisoned or exiled, and thousands of laypeople are imprisoned for helping the priests.
Bismarck's program backfires, as it energizes the Catholics to become a political force in the Center party.
The Kulturkampf ends about 1880 with a new pope willing to negotiate with Bismarck, and with the departure of the anti-Catholic Liberals from his coalition.
By retreating, Bismarck wins over the Center party support on most of his conservative policy positions, especially his attacks against Socialism.
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Poles suffer no religious persecution in predominantly Catholic Austria, and Vienna counts on the Polish nobility as an ally in the complex political calculus of its multinational realm.
In return for loyalty, Austrian Poland, or Galicia, receives considerable administrative and cultural autonomy.
century.
The international balance of forces does not favor the recovery of statehood when both Russia and Germany appear bent on the eventual eradication of Polish national identity.
The German Empire, established in 1871 as an expanded version of the Prussian state, aims at the assimilation of its eastern provinces inhabited by Poles.
At the same time, St. Petersburg attempts to Russify the former Congress Kingdom, joining Berlin in levying restrictions against use of the Polish language and cultural expression.
Poles under Russian and German rule also endure official campaigns against the Roman Catholic Church: the Cultural Struggle (Kulturkampf) of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to bring the
Roman Catholic Church under state control and the Russian campaign to extend Orthodoxy throughout the empire.
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).
The SPD advocates a mix-ture of revolution and quiet work within the parliamentary
system.
The clearest statement of this impossible combination will be the Erfurt Program of 1891.
The former method frightens nearly all Germans to the party's right, while the latter wil build the SPD into the largest party in the Reichstag after the elections of 1912.
A positive aspect of Bismarck's campaign to contain the SPD is a number of laws passed in the 1880s establishing national health insurance and old-age pensions.
Bismarck's hope is that if workers are protected by the government, they will come to support it and see no need for revolution.
Bismarck's antisocialist campaign, which will continue until his dismissal in 1890 by Wilhelm II, severely restricts the activities of the SPD.
Ironically, the laws may inadvertently benefit the SPD by forcing it to work within legal channels.
As a result of its sustained activity within the political system, the SPD becomes a cautious, pragmatic party, which, despite its fiery Marxist rhetoric, wins increasing numbers of seats in the Reichstag and achieves some improvements in working and living conditions for Germany's working class.