Social Flashcards
What was Germany’s situation like socially in 1789?
- Germans in the south were overwhelmingly Catholic and those in the North were mainly Protestant
- It seemed impossible to define Germany’s extent on ethnic grounds as the Holy Roman Empire included land populated by French, Dutch, Danish, Polish and Czech speakers
- The aristocracy owned most of the land and held key posts in various courts, armies and administrations
What was the impact of French rule on Germany socially?
-Germans resented French rule and thus French xenophobia in someway started to unite Germans
What was the role of German intellectuals and the middle-class?
- German intellectuals stressed the importance of a common language, common cultural traditions and supported unity
- The Romantic Movement was when Germans looked back to Germany’s past to inspire the actions of the present
- German philosophers included: Fichte, Herder and Hegel who all believed German people were a unique ‘volk’ and should belong to the same state
How did Prussia reform socially under French Rule?
- Major reforms were made to the education system such as state certification requirement for teachers and the establishment of the University of Berlin (1810)
- The civil service was opened up to men of all classes
What was Germany’s situation like socially in 1815?
- Although ideas of liberalism and nationalism had started to develop there was still a strong degree of state loyalty and also these ideas were largely attributed to the middle class solely
- In north and east Germany people were predominantly Lutheran Protestant and in the south and west people were mainly Catholic
What was the Wartburg Festival (1817)?
- In 1817, the students of the University of Jena organised a celebration of Luther’s defiance of the Papacy and the victory over Napoleon at Leipzig
- They burned reactionary books and even an effigy of Metternich as well as making patriotic speeches
What was the murder of Kotzebue (1819)?
-In 1819, a student of the same university stabbed anti-liberal journalist: Kotzebue
What did the Carlsbad Decrees forbid and order (1819)?
They forbade:
-political meetings
-student associations set up without permission
They ordered:
-a strict censorship of the press
-close inspection for university teaching
What was the Hambach Festival 1832?
-In 1832, 25,000 nationalists met at Hambach Castle to demonstrate liberal ideas and promote nationalistic feeling
What was the social impact of the building of the railways (1835-1840s)?
- The first railway was built in 1835 and was only 6km long
- By 1840, there was 462km of track laid throughout Germany
- Railways made Germans more mobile and thus started to break down localism
What were the social influences for the 1848 revolutions?
- At the end of February 1848, King Louis-Phillipe fled Paris and France was declared a republic
- This sparked desire to revolt for liberty across Europe
- The middle-class population were firmly committed to liberal principles whereas the working class sought radical improvements to their working and living conditions
What were some of the social events of the 1848 revolutions?
- In late February and March 1848, mass meetings and petitions persuaded many leaders throughout Germany to agree to demands such as freedom of the press and elected parliaments
- Demonstrations within Prussia sparked off many days of street fighting with 300 rioters killed by troops
What did King Frederick William IV do in response to the revolutions?
-He announced he was in favour of liberty and a united Germany
What did the Vorparlament agree on how those who’d draw up the new constitution would be elected (1848)?
- Each member would represent 50,000 inhabitants
- Elected by citizens who were male, ‘of age’ and ‘economically independent’
What was the significance of the Frankfurt Parliament elections?
- Carried out in all 39 states and approximately 75-90% of men could vote (dependent on their area)
- The elections were indirect however as citizens voted for ‘electors’ who then chose representatives
- Of the 596 members ‘elected’, the majority were middle/upper class with few landowners and craftsmen and one peasant
When were the Nationalverein and the Reformverein founded and what were they?
- The Nationalverein was founded in 1859 and was a pressure group expressing the desire for Prussian dominance and a Kleinedeutchland
- It was formed by the middle class who were always faithful to nationalism
- However it peaked at only 25,000 members in the 1860s
- The Reformverein, founded in 1862, advocated Austrian leadership
What was the social impact of the new German constitution (1871)?
- There was an insistence on uniform legal procedure in courts throughout the Reich
- National criminal and civil law codes were drafted
- Bismarck’s Germany felt more modern and peopled felt free to express their opinions, it also had a free press
- Delegates weren’t paid and so had to be self-sufficient which excluded the lower classes
Why was Bismarck suspicious of Catholicism?
- The French and Poles in the east- who had no desire to be in the Reich- were Catholic
- Germans in the southern states who identified more with Austria were also widely Catholic
- He saw centre (Zentrum) politicians as encouraging civil disobedience when state policies conflicted with those of the Catholic Church
What were the events of the Kulturkampf?
1872-Catholic schools brought into direct supervision of the state
1872-Reichstag forbade the Jesuit order
1874-Obligatory civil marriage was introduced
1875-Kulturkampf reached a climax when subsidies were suspended when clergies resisted the new legislation
-All orders (except nursing orders) were dissolved
More than 1,000 priests were suspended from their posts
What was the impact of the Kulturkampf?
- The Pope counterattacked threatening to excommunicate those who obeyed Bismarck
- Only 30 of the 10,000 Catholic Prussian priests submitted to the new legislation
- It strengthened the Catholics and gained them more support politically
Why did Bismarck see Socialism as a threat?
-Bismarck was hostile to socialists as he saw them as dangerous revolutionaries
What was Bismarck’s anti-Socialist law?
- Bismarck attempted to ban the publication of socialist propaganda in 1876 but it failed
- When in 1878, an anarchist attempted to murder William I, Bismarck labelled it as part of a ‘red conspiracy’
- When a week later there was a second assassination attempt, Bismarck blamed the National liberals for not passing the anti-Socialist law claiming it could have ‘protected’ William I
- The anti-Socialist law was then passed in October 1878 which prevented Socialist meetings, publications and organisations such as trade unions
How else did Bismarck repress Socialists?
-Between 1878-90, some 1500 Socialists were imprisoned and many emigrated
What was State Socialism?
- Bismarck not only used repression in his efforts to destroy Socialism but introduced various welfare measures designed to assist workers
- A devout christian, Bismarck was conscious of a moral obligation to aid those in need
- In 1883, Bismarck introduced the Sickness Insurance Act
- In 1889, he introduced the Old Age and Disability Act which was paid for by workers, employers and the state
How successful was State Socialism?
- Most workers though it was a ‘sham’ as the government still opposed the formation of trade unions
- Bismarck also did not grant unemployment insurance
- Nonetheless, Bismarck’s measures laid the foundations of the welfare state in Germany
How did Bismarck treat National Minorities?
- Bismarck regarded the national minorities (the Danes, French and Poles) as potential enemies of the state
- Bismarck outlawed the Polish language in education and law courts
- Alsace-Lorraine was not granted full autonomy
- However, Bismarck did not solely rely on repression and allowed French people who disliked German rule to leave (400,000 had done so by 1914)
- School, conscription and everyday experience ‘Germanized’ many minorities and so they became less alienated
How did the war effect German Civilian Morale?
- Cold weather and poor potato crop led to a food and fuel crisis 1917-18
- Workers had to work longer hours due to the ‘Auxiliary Service Law’
- Civilians began to blame scapegoats for their misery such as the Jews which heightened the anti-Semitic feeling that Wilhelm II had himself
