The Kulturkampf

• Actions against the Catholic Church
• Bismacrk and catholicism
• End
• May Laws
• Reasons for clash
• Results
• Syllabus of errors
• The 'Old Catholics'
• The Centre Party

•  Bismarck protestant, biews Catholics with suspicion
• Wanted to unify and consolidate new Reich
• Saw success of Centre Party as danger to Empire's unity
• War against internal opponents of unification
• Put Bismarck as head of Protestant crusade
• Enabled him to work closely with the National Liberals in the 1870s

• German Catholics formed own party
• 1871, second largest party in the Reichstag
• Drawing support from all social strata
• Favoured greater self-rule for the component states of the Reich
• Objected to state interference in the Church's traditional sphere of influence: the education system

• 5,000 refused to accept decree of papal infallibility and broke with the Church
• Old Catholic teachers and professors dismissed by Bishops gave Bismarck an excuse to attack
• Maintained that the Prussian government was committed to the principle of religous toleration
• Condemned Catholic Church's actions in a series of newspaper articles in 1872

• two thirds of Germany Protestant and one third Catholic
• Church and state came into conflict in several countries
• Vatican council laid down doctrine of papal infallibility
• Ruled that papal pronouncements on matters of faith and morals could not be questioned
• Papal measures aroused great alarm in liberal circles
• Future of mankind at stake
• Militant Catholicism would interfere in Reich's domestic affairs and support reactionary causes
• Liberals do battle with Catholic Church
• Life and detah struggle for freedom and process against forces of reaction

Pope Pius IX condemned every major principle for which liberals stood:

• Freedom of Speech
• Freedom of the press
• Freedom of worship
• Freedom to form political associations and hold political meetings

• Legislation against the church passed by the Prussian Landtag, other state governments and the Reichstag
• Catholic schools brought under supervision of state
• Forbade Jesuit order to set up establishments and empowered state government to expel individual Jesuits
• May Laws introduced in 1873
• 1875, laws empowered Prussia to suspend subsidies to the Church in parishes where clergy resisted new legislation
• All religous orders dissolved
• Enforced vigorously by Falk
• 1876, all but 2 Prussian Catholic Bishops didn't abide by laws and were in excile or house arrest
• More than 1000 priests suspended from posts

• May 1873, Dr Falk, Prussian Minister of religion and education
• Aimed to bring Catholic Church under state control

May Laws 1873:

• All candidates for priesthood had to attend a secular university before commencing training
• Religious appointments subject to state approval
• 1874 obligatory civil marriage introduced

Clergy could be fined, imprisoned or even expelled if they failed to comply with the May Laws

• Not what Bismarck had hoped
• Met with considerable opposition
• Pope attacked, threatened to excommunicate those who obeyed the May Laws
• Only 30 of the 10,000 priests submitted to May Laws
• Catholic communities sheltered priests
• Hopes of destroying Centre Party backfired
• Strengthened rather than weakened
• Protestants opposed some of Kulturkampf legislation

• Failed. Bismarck had underestimated enemy (Catholic Church had more popular support than he had realised)
• Rift between Reich and Catholic subjects. Increased disunity and not removed it
• Anxious for Centre Party on his side against socialism
• Death of Pope Pius IX in 1873
• Successor Leo XIII was conciliatory and direct negotiation led to improved relations with Bismarck and Church
• Some anti-Catholic measures repealed
• Many May Laws still remained in force
• Sought to turn failure into an advantage by harnessing Catholic political power in the Reichstag to support conservative, protectionist and anti-socialist measures