Bismarck's Germany 1871-1890

Under Bismarck's Germany, the new alignment included:

• A growing demand of landowners and industrialists for protection of the home markets, lead to the introduction of a tariff in 1879.
• The alliance with the liberals was broken.
• This led to several implications.

Bismarck's alliance with the liberals had broken, leading to a new alliance with the Conservarives:

• Also known as the Junkers.
• His new allies had little commitment towards the constitution and a strong emphasis on discipline and social hierarchy.
• Imperialism and protectionism were somewhat linked.
• Although Bismarck was opposed to imperialism, he gave way to it in 1884, when Germany acquired its first colonies in Africa.
• It could be argued that, between 1873 and 1896, imperialism was a response to Germany's economic problems, which was partly intended to distract German workers from social problems.

What was Imperialism:

• Imperialism was seen as an antidote to potential social revolution.
• However, despite Bismarck's colonial initiatives, they seemed to be short term rather than a long term policy.
• Therefore, Bismarck's fall of power, in 1890, was partly because of his lack of enthusiasm for colonial commitment.

Bismarck's policies against socialism included:

• 1). REPRESSION:
  • Newspapers were suppressed.
  • The Exceptional Law of 1878 banned a range of supporting organisations.
  • Between 1878 and 1890, 900 labour leaders were expelled and 1500 were imprisoned.
• 2). SOCIAL WELFARE LEGISLATION:
  • Bismarck believed that, the way to end socialism, was to attract workers from socialism (give them what they wanted- a better alternative).
  • As a result, there was a spate of legislative reforms, meaning that 14 millions Germans were insured against sickness, accidents and old age in 1911.
• Despite this, the Socialists had 23.3% of the votes and 11.1% of the seats, which was an increase from what they had in 1871 (3.2% votes and 0.5% of seats).

The Kampfzeit:

• Bismarck's move against the socialists was partly was strengthen his alliance with the Conservatives, and he feared the danger of the new forces to the state.
• The Kampfzeit was a socialist party, formed in Gotha in 1877.
• It won 10% of the votes, meaning they won 12 seats.
• This meant that despite Bismarck's efforts to end socialism, the socialists' popularity was increasing.

The new German minorities, at this point, were:

• The French, Polish and Danish.
• They posed a lasting problem.
• This was because 15 representatives of Alsace Lorraine, in the Reichstaf, were a permanent opposition.
• In the Polish and Danish territories, a policy of Germanisation was followed with an insistence of German as the language of education and official business.
• Germans were encouraged to buy up Polish estates.
• The results were counter productive.
• Polish resentment was considerably increased.
• By 1914, a mjority of Danes in Schleswig wanred to join Denmark.