The Role of the Reichstag

Question 1

What is autocracy?

Answer 1

A system of government where one person has absolute power.

Question 2

What was wrong with Bismarck’s relationship with the National Liberals?
Why was this relationship brought to an end?

Answer 2

• Negative
• In 1870-78, Junker supported were concerned about Bismarck’s unnatural alliance with the National Liberals. They were jealous of the growing power of the merchants, business owners and factory owners and feared that Liberal domination would harm the interests of Prussian landowners. Clashes over the Press Law, military budget, economic protection and measures to curb socialism eventually brought the alliance with the National Liberals to an end.

Question 3

What happened after the policy changes on 1878-79?

What was Bismarck’s relationship with the Reichstag like?

Answer 3

-Positive/Negative
After the policy changes of 1878-79, Bismarck turn towards the Conservatives, not the Zentrum, and played on the fears of socialism. In 1879, the relationship between Bismarck and the Reichstag wasn’t much better. It did worsen when SDP deputies grew louder in their opposition

Question 4

What did Bismarck try to do to bypass the Reichstag?

How did this work?

Answer 4

• Negative
• In 1880, Bismarck considered setting up an alternative ‘Reich Council’ which would ‘bypass’ the Reichstag. He experimented them in Prussia, by establishing a Prussian Council which had representatives from commerce, industry and agriculture. Unsurprisingly, this scheme was rejected by the imperial Reichstag.

Question 5

What happened from 1881? Why was this bad for Bismarck’s government?

Answer 5

• Negative
• From 1881, the Progressives (left Liberals) gained the most seats in the Reichstag elections. As many as 75% of the Reichstag elections were hostile to Bismarck’s government and challenged almost every measure.

Question 6

What couldn’t Bismarck do between 1881-86?

What did this mean?

Answer 6

• Negative
• Between 1881-86, neither a Conservative-Centre coalition or a Conservative-National Liberal one could command a majority of the Reichstag. This meant Bismarck had to create various majorities from various disparate groups according to the measure that the pace of legislation was slowed down.

Question 7

What did Bismarck seek in 1886?

Answer 7

• Neutral

- In 1886, Bismarck sought the Reichstag’s support for a 10% increase in taxation to finance army growth.

Question 8

What was Bismarck met with in 1887?

What did the February 1887 elections produce but what did this mean?

Answer 8

• Negative
• In January 1887, Bismarck met with hostility, dissolved the Reichstag and artificially controlled a war scare crisis in order to get the support that he needed in a new Reichstag. The elections produced a pro-Bismarck combination of two Conservative parties and the National Liberals, and taxation was duly granted. However, government remained unstable and unreliable.

Question 9

• What did Bismarck propose in October 1890?

- What did the Reichstag do?

Answer 9

• In October 1890, Bismarck proposed a new permanent Anti-Socialist Bill, which would permit stronger police action. This provoked heated debate and Bismarck rashly suggested that he should, perhaps, allow the Socialists to rise in rebellion so that the army could be called upon to crush them once and for all.
• The Reichstag rejected the bill and another General Election was held in February 1890. It increased the representation of the SDP and the Progressive Parry and was to be Bismarck’s last as Chancellor.

Question 10

What was the War Scare crisis?

Answer 10

In 1886, General Georges Boulanger was appointed French Minister of War. Boulanger wanted revenge for the French defeat of 1871 and the return of Alsace-Lorraine. When the Germans arrested a French official on the border of Alsace in April in 1887, Boulanger made some war-like threats. Bismarck used these as evidence of an imminent war with France.