To what extent did Bismarck successfully achieve his political goals in the years 1870-79?? Flashcards
Introduction
Bismarck had very limited success in achieving his political goals, and instead of uniting politics, he divided it further between himself, and groups like the catholics and socialists who subsequently grew in support and hatred towards Bismarcks idea of a unified country. Bismarcks success regarding socio-economic problems weren’t enough to consider him an overwhelming success.
factor 1- inspring nationalism
Successes- Schools from primary to university level promoted nationalism as a subject and inspiring loyalty to the Kaiser; known as Reichsdeutsche identity. This was to create a homogenous nation; one group all with nationalist beliefs. He clearly had some success here as he had many students and families turning up to his regular military street processions, and increased support for Germany as a country by referring to the threat of ‘reichsfeinde’; enemies of the empire eg French or catholic
Failure- Despite these policies to enforce nationalism across Germany, in reality it wasn’t quite as successful, because it didn’t captivate many groups across Germany eg 1/3 of population was catholic, and the militaristic focus was viewed as a celebration of PRUSSIAN militarism by socialists, and so they refused to accept it. There was no flag or anthem unity 1890, and although Sedentag day (national holiday celebrating Germany’s victory over France) was celebrated in the North, the South had no involvement and weren’t as inspired by the national holiday. Bismarck may have had some good policies for inspiring nationalism, but in reality his approach was too aggressive and focused too much on military values and encouraging support of the Kaiser; the idea was too exclusive of groups like the catholics and people in the South to be considered successful, he referred to catholics as German enemies and lacked the realisation that the south didn’t accept his approach to nationalism.
Factor 2- reducing political divides (catholics and socialists)
Successes- He used two assassination attempts on the Kaiser in 1878 to declare socialism was a threat to German unity (despite the killers having no connection to the SADP), so he dissolved the reichstag who refused his anti socialist laws, and subsequently the National liberals votes fell by 130,000, and the SADP votes fell 181,000.
Failures- The banning of socialists had limited long term success however, as it pushed the socialist agenda underground and it still had considerable support. By 1890, it existed under the name of the SPD and had 1 million votes, along with 35 seats. The kulturkampf that Bismarck set up to attack the church following the syllabus of errors and papal infallibility was a complete failure because it further increased political divisions between Bismarcks and the national liberals, and the church. His first set of laws in 1873 included state control over catholic education, and when this failed he introduced even more oppressive laws that imprisoned 1800 priests and took 16 million marks of church land. The army was called upon to break up catholic violence as retaliation. Bismarck was largely unable to reduce political divisions because he focused on the oppression of minority groups rather than negotiating with them. They resented the fact that he attacked their policies just because they opposed unification, and his only success was in the short term against the SAPD. Eventually, the SPD had over a million votes and the Z party grew 9% between 1861-64; Bismarck had only increased political divisions with his policies.
Factor 3- socio economic problems (army, economy, budget problems)
Successes- Bismarck’s army was based in Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Wurttemburg, but came together under the control of the Kaiser to protect all of Germany when necessary. Conscription meant all German men spent 3 years in Prussia, being taught discipline, loyalty and pride, and breaking down pre existing state loyalties by living together for extended periods of time. He also broke down economic barriers between states with standardised measures, currencies and laws; such as removing freedom of trade and movement restrictions and introducing the reichsmark currency, which happened to be the basis of the 1890 boom. His pro tariff agenda (which led to his split with the national liberals in 1879) was seen as patriotic by peasants and farmers, and so those who could vote began voting for conservative party, whilst the vote of the NL who were against unification Began to fall.
Failures- budget/ reichstag problems- Despite lots of positive socio-economical change initiated by Bismarck, it wasn’t popular among everyone and resulted in some further political division when he presented a law giving an army of over 400,000 members automatic state finance. This angered the reichstag who wanted control over the budget, to make up for their lack of political control anyway. However, it probably wasn’t enough opposition to undermine the success that Bismarck had to reduce socio-economic division. In this area of Germany, Bismarck enjoyed more success than failure among the middle classes and some peasants, because he was protecting them economically, as well as breaking down pre existing state loyalty barriers using the German army and training to bring people together.
conclusion
Overall, Bismarck had no long term success of his political goals, other than helping the economy in the long term, and some goals regarding German society achieved. He inspired some interaction and nationalism through the army, but he divided Germany politically more than ever before by attacking minority groups like the catholics and socialists, and his attempts to inspire nationalism were short lived if accepted at all. Most people kept their feelings of state loyalty over German nationalism in the south, because it wasn’t a concern to them at this point to be part of a wider nation, and therefore Bismarck had failed to achieve the majority of his political goals because Germany had no widespread feeling of unity among its people.
