The formation of the Centre Party as a ‘natural rallying point for opponents of the Empire’ meant that potentially it was an extremely divisive factor in the causation of the Kulturkampf at a time when the state was looking towards German unification in all sectors. This plays into Bismarck’s frequent accusation that the Centre party was ‘a mobilization against the state’ and should be crushed. Other historians however, such as Craig, have seen the Catholic Centre Party as being largely defensive in nature - ‘founded in 1870 to protect the rights of Roman Catholics in a predominantly Protestant country’. More specifically, the fact that the Centre Party became the prominent voice of political Catholicism, which ‘seemed to stand for an allegiance to an authority other than the nation state’, has been seen by many as a vital cause of the Kulturkampf. The formation of the Catholic Centre Party certainly allowed Catholicism to be represented nationally under the powerful, unifying bond of religion and thus meant that the Catholics became a more easily definable group to suppress. Bismarck was greatly concerned about the ‘mobilization of Catholic opposition into a viable political entity’ and this development, according to Farr, ‘did most to provoke Bismarck into instituting…the Kulturkampf’. However, as Evans points out, one should not highlight the establishment of the Centre Party as the only cause of the Kulturkampf as other political groups (such as anti clerical liberals and Protestant Conservatives) had religious agendas and didn’t cause such a movement.
Some historians, such as Ellen Lovell Evans, have argued that the principal origin of the Kulturkampf lay in the individual role of Bismarck. Evans for instance highlights how all legislation against the Catholics was clearly ‘urged by Bismarck’. Bismarck was a Protestant and had what many historians have now concluded was an irrational overestimation of both the danger posed by Catholics, and the level of authority that he held over them. Bismarck saw state intervention as a pre-emptive necessity to avoid Papal domination and ‘an enormous foreign conspiracy of Catholic powers that would seek to destroy the Empire’. However, in reality neither of these threats was real enough to justify a movement such as the Kulturkampf. As the main institutor of the Kulturkampf legislation then, Bismarck’s own political and religious views against the Catholics must be seen as an important cause of the Kulturkampf.
Some historians have suggested that the German Kulturkampf was a part of a general anti-Catholic European trend as ‘church and state came into conflict in several countries’. David Blackbourn has argued that anticlericalism was common, as was the ‘fear that revolution would break out unless political life was rigidly controlled’. However, Ian Farr holds an opposing view by suggesting that anticlerical, let alone anti-Catholic, sentiment had ‘limited extent and importance’ in the second half of the nineteenth century.
It may be possible to attribute the development of the Kulturkampf to some even longer term causes, such as the German Reformation of the early sixteenth century. The Reformation resulted in the presence of many different religious groups in Germany, and the elimination of religious differences was considered by some to be the next step in German unification. In this way, the Catholic Kulturkampf was paradoxically a conflict intended to unify the German people.
A final cause of the Kulturkampf may be seen as the defensive nature of the Catholics against state pressure, which meant that a conflict rather than a cultural suppression of the Catholics emerged. Blackbourn’s comment that ‘Catholics felt themselves beleaguered within a Protestant dominated Germany’ holds much truth as they became defensive to protect their religious beliefs and cultural heritage against undue state intervention. Sperber suggests that the Catholics were contesting ‘a radical attack on the church and the social and political order it upheld’ and thus contributed to the cause of the Kulturkampf by reacting to the state in a ‘conservative fashion’.
The Catholic Kulturkampf had many consequences, not least the evident suffering, resentment against the government and permanent alienation from the state that was felt by the thousands of Catholics that were suppressed. Craig suggests that this was a very important consequence as it resulted in ‘the great mass of Roman Catholic believers’ being ‘involved with a distrust of their government which was to last for years’. Similarly, Farr suggests that the state’s ability during this period to limit substantially the autonomy of the Church in crucial areas of social and political life aroused deep resentment among the Catholics. Violent persecution and harsh imposition of anti-Catholic laws had dire implications both for Catholic society and for Catholic institutions. Socially speaking, Catholics ‘fell behind Protestants’ in employment, losing opportunities for higher education and positions in the civil service, indeed, disruption to Catholic social life was profound. Within the Church, the Kulturkampf had a negative impact on the clergy as ‘bishops and priests were imprisoned and expelled… by 1876 a total of 1,400 parishes were without incumbents’. The dissolution of religious orders, obligatory implementation of civil marriage and repression of the power of the Roman Catholic clergy was totally degrading and threatened the ultimate powerbase of the Catholic Church.
However, the Kulturkampf actually had the counter-productive long term consequence of strengthening Catholicism both as a religious grouping and as a political force in the form of the Centre Party. Germany witnessed the growth of a confirmed Catholic identity and a mobilization of a Catholic sub-culture in the localities through the formation of social clubs, trade unions and associations. The German Catholic Church witnessed both an organisation and a spiritual renewal as a result of defence against the Kulturkampf. A tighter and more efficient church bureaucracy was formed, and Catholic solidarity developed with the emergence of new brotherhoods and improved Church attendance and behaviour. As Catholics managed to unite across class boundaries in defence of their religion the Centre party became extremely influential, consistently achieving 20% of the vote and becoming a central power for fifty years under the Weimar Republic. The fact that in 1874 the Catholic Centre Party had doubled their votes and by 1881 they had a hundred seats in the Reichstag can all be associated with the effects of the Kulturkampf.
In geopolitical terms, the Kulturkampf had the consequence of hampering the prospect of national unity and had ‘an injurious effect upon the development of responsible parliamentary government in Germany’. Administration and jurisdictional courts both suffered a loss of esteem due to their dubious partaking in the Kulturkampf and from Bismarck’s perspective, he was forced to end the Kulturkampf in a public manner that presented the danger of a significant weakening of the Empire and led to a conflict between Bismarck and the Reichstag in 1880.
Consequences in terms of actual lasting reforms from the Kulturkampf were relatively minor, as there were few. The laws of 1874-6, which changed the education system, laws on civil marriage and the expulsion of the Jesuits, all remained, but these were the only ones. Of these, perhaps the most important consequence was the continuation of the legislation on schooling which resulted in the provision of teaching untouched by religious influence. However, perhaps the most poignant yet also disputed aspect to the consequences of the Kulturkampf is the accusation that the persecution of the Catholics by the state set a dangerous precedent of ‘negative integration’ which acted as a precondition to the Nazis and their emancipation of the Jews.
The suppression of the German Catholics in what has become known as the Kulturkampf had a number of precipitating factors stretching across several years. Long term hostilities such as religious divisions from the Reformation, general anticlerical feelings in Europe and the threat of a Catholic crusade combined with short term provocations such as the rise of the Catholic Centre Party, the personal antagonisms of Bismarck and the defensive nature of the Catholic reaction to culminate in the Kulturkampf of 1871-1883. The consequential resentment and alienation of Catholics in Germany caused deep rooted social divisions, and, counter to state intentions, led to the political and spiritual strengthening of Catholicism and the hampering of German unity which the Kulturkampf had originally aimed to create. Thus it can be concluded that there were an extensive number of causes and consequences of the Kulturkampf between Catholics and the German state.
1970 words
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