The political establishment in Germany succeeded in maintaining the status quo through a policy of moderate reform How far do you agree with this judgement?

On the other hand, there are good signs and one of them comes in the form of the changing constituency boundaries. These changes in the constituency boundaries most definitely maintained the status quo for the political establishment of Germany as from the changes the most popular vote was not always followed through on and instead other ideas and views were listened, meaning other groups in society were now having a say in how their country was run. A prime example of where this happened was when the CP and the SPD received three million more votes than the Bulow Bloc, yet still suffered in terms of seating. This meant that although the CP and SPD received the most votes from the people, or the people that were permitted to vote, they did not gain the seats for their representatives in parliament and instead they went to a slightly less popular and unheard of party in order for them to express their opinions. This showed the power of the Reichstag and how it was willing to evolve and move forward in order to make Germany a more politically fair and modern nation

However, with this the Reichstag began to show signs of being over confident. They showed this when they told the Chancellor to resign, but this responsibility did not fall on the shoulders of the Reichstag and instead fell on those of the Kaiser and when the Chancellor did not leave it once again showed that Germany was infact still an autocracy and country that was not run on fair values. This in effect made the Reichstag look weak when they went back on their decision and claimed never to have asked the Chancellor to step down.

The Weltpolitiks (foreign policy) of the time became aggressive and with this the foreign policy also became more expensive and with this come the unbalanced decisions from the Reichstag and the Kaiser. An example of one of these decisions is that the Reichstag and the Kaiser decided to enforce unfair indirect taxes that just so happened to hit the working classes and these taxes were on the very common products/ necessities e.g. bread, tobacco and alcohol. All of which the working classes would have relied on due to them being basic and cheap before. However, you could argue that the Kaiser was the main factor behind these taxes due to the fact that with his Weltpolitiks becoming more aggressive he was looking to either launch an attack or go to war and this again shows that Kaiser ran the show and Germany as a country was not moving forward and instead were choosing to punish their people in order to pursue selfish acts.

Another factor that helped to maintain balance in Germany was the Imperial Insurance Code that was introduced in 1911. This act outlined that the rich should be taxed heavier in order to help develop the poor. This is a step in the right direction for Germany as it shows the will to help out its less fortunate civilians and with this Germany helped solve many economic problems such as unemployment and infact just general improvements of the living conditions of the lower classes. Helping their civilians can also be found, when they introduced the constitution in Alsace-Lorraine, which at the time was ruled by Germany, and they helped by allowing them to speak in their native language which was French and this again showed Germany’s willingness to ignore differences in order to pursue the best interests of its people.

After evaluating all of the points brought to the spotlight, I have come to the conclusion that Germany was not yet a political establishment with a status quo and this is due to the fact that the Kaiser still somewhat ran the country of his own accord and with this all political parties would dare not oppose him, even the socialist groups that believed in a fair political system, and this was all out of being branded unpatriotic or expelled from the Reichstag. This being said the Reichstag does show signs of changing Germany into a more democratic country with their willingness to make their own decisions without consulting the Kaiser and to try and help the lower classes in Germany, and they would even go as far to upset the Junkers in order to achieve this which was bold as the rich may have had a certain degree of power of the political status of Germany.