1900-14 Flashcards
When were the naval laws introduced and what did they include?
- 1898 by von Tirpitz
- June 1900 proposition to build 38 battleships over next 20 years. Delighted the Naval League and Industrialists
- In response the Royal Navy’s launch of HMS Dreadnought, May 1906 saw a third Navy Law. Added six battle cruisers to building programme and widening of the Kiel Canal to give huge battleships access to the North Sea
When did Von Bulow become Chancellor?
October 1900
When did Bethmann-Hollweg become Chancellor?
July 1909
When did the Reichstag introduce Army and Finance bills to increase the size of the armed forces?
June 1913
What were the powers of the Kaiser?
- Full control of foreign and dipolomatic policy
- Appointed and dismissed Chancellors and could dissolve Reichstag
- Guardian of constitution
- King of Prussia
What were the powers of the Chancellor?
- Chief Minister and responsible for appointment and dismissal of state secretaries
- Could ignore resolutions passed by Reichstag
- Success of Chancellors depended on their political ability
What were the powers of the Bundesrat?
-Could veto legislation if 14 members voted against the bill (Prussia had 17 representatives)
Created by Bismarck as a barrier to radical legislation
-No law could be passed without the consent of the Prussian chamber of deputies - but electorate was divided into three class franchise so wealthier voters would always be over represented
e.g 1908 election in Prussia, 418,000 votes translated into 212 conservative seats whereas 600,000 votes were only rewarded with six Social Democrat seats
What were the powers of the Reichstag?
-Most significant power was control over defence budget - stood at 2,405 million marks by 1913
But limited by 1874 and 1893 Acts which limited the Recihstag vote to once every five years to limit their political leverage.
-Could not be dissolved indefinitely, had the right to hold elections after it was dissolved
-Could pass an annual budget but the federal government had its own income and some financial independence from Reichstag
-Limited powers to initiate legislation
-Chancellor not accountable to Reichstag
-Members were not paid (only the rich would be able to run for office)
What was the role of the army?
- German state had been founded upon military victories
- Bismarck decided not to nake army accountable to Reichstag - directly responsible to Kaiser
- Swore oath of allegiance to Kaiser
- Could declare Martial Law
- Officer class was dominated by Prussian Junkers - no respect for democracy
- State within a state
Steel production in Germany vs Britain
1870 Germany were producing 170,000 tonnes compared to Britain’s 290,000 tonnes.
By 1910 Germany producing over double Britain’s 6 million tonnes
Problems of urbanisation
- Berlin Homelss Shelter accomadated around 200,000 a year after 1900
- 3.45 million unemployed in 1907
- 1/3 of all workers in any year from 1900-14 experienced some form of underemployment
- Lack of housing to accomadate population boom
- 1892 Hamburg, 8600 people died from Cholera outbreak
Population growth
- 4 million in 1900
64. 9 million 1910
Flottenpolitik
German Policy to create a navy to rival that of Britain’s. Momentum was maintained by the Naval League.
Became a focus for popular patriotism and nationalism - somewhat soaked up the tnesions that existed in this period
von Bulow’s reforms
-1899 Old Age and Invalidity Law extended to new occupations
-1802 new Tariff law introduced- influenced heavily by the Agrarian League and saw a higher duty placed on imported products, lead to a rise in food prices.
Subsequent general election saw shift towards Social Democrats
-April 1903 Sickness Insurance law amended to give more generous help to workers in poor health
-1908 law to restrict factory work carried out by children and young people
Herero Uprising
-Herero uprising in Jan 1904 was put down by August
-Herero people then subjected to deliberate policy of genocide
-Population stood at 15,000 in 1911 compared to 80,000 before the uprising
-Reports reached Germany of the atrocities.. highlighted the lack of parliamentary accountability for the colonial serivce and army
showed need for greater financial controls in the colonies - putting down the rebellions had cost the equivalent of building 12 dreadnoughts
Hottentot election
- May 1906 Centre Party joined the SPD in voting down a set of colonial policies
- Reichstag subsequently dissolved
- Following election of 1907 fought on the issue of nationalism
- von Bulow entered fray with support of Pan German League and frightened voters with the image of an alliance of Centre and SPD parties.
- Bulow Bloc delivered a convincing majority despite gaining 3 million less votes than the SPD and centre parties.
Daily Telegraph Affair
- October 1908 Kaiser held an interview with British newspaper in which he gave the impression that he wanted a close alliance with Britain
- Reichstag objected to the implication that the Kaiser made foreign policy without consultation - was widely criticised.
- Publicly blamed Bulow for not cencoring the interview
- His Chancellorship came to an end in summer of 1909 when his budget was defeated and the Bulow Bloc broke up
- His defeat was more down to falling out of favour with Kaiser
1912 election
- SPD polled 4.25 million votes with 110 deputies, partly due to alliance with progressive liberals
- Philipp Schiedemann of SPD became vice-President of the Reichstag
- But few other parties in the Reichstag would be willing to ally with them
- 1913 voted for a bill to increase size of army in order to avoid being labelled un patriotic
Zaberne Affair
- 1911 Government of Bethmann-Heollweg attempted to promote closer assimilation of Alsace-Lorraine by granting it a constitution.
- Undermined by events in Zaberne December 1913
- Army officer Forstner made derogatory remarks about the locals that was printed in the press
- Governer Wedel attempted to have Forstner tranferred away from the area but Colonel von Reuter refused.
- Forstner was jeered at in the streets of Zaberne and the repsonse was to jail many of the locals
- Kaiser was unmoved by reports from von Wedel and ordered reinforcements into town
- Kaiser remained on a huntingtrip and took underplayed reports form General Deimling.
- Kaiser saw it as a military affair and forbade Bethmann-Hollweg from informing the Reichstag he had sent a senior military officer to investigate the situation.
- SPD and Progressive Liberals began a barrage of questions towards the Chancellor who defended the actions of the military.
- Reichstag vote of no confidence against B-H 293-54
Highlighted limits of Reichstag’s influence:
- Reichstag’s vote of no confidence simply ignored by B-H
- Governer Wedel replaced by someone much more reactionary and opposed to the 1911 AL constitution
- Parties were far too timid - took a week after vote for Schiedemann to demand B-H’s resignation, but was ignored by most other politicians in Reichstag
- Jan 1914, Reichstag set up Committee to decide the boundary between military and civilian authority, but was disbanded after just a month.
