A conflict between the German imperial government and the Roman Catholic Church in Germany was launched by the imperial chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. His policy of national unification required the Church to be subordinate in authority to the state. He failed to achieve this subordination of the Church, primarily because of an inept bureaucracy and effective passive resistance sustained by the Church despite extensive persecution.
The Kulturkampf, or “cultural conflict,” against the Roman Catholic Church in Germany took place against the background of two brilliant military and foreign policy triumphs by Otto von Bismarck as prime minister of Prussia. Over a five-year span from 1866 to 1871, Bismarck’s armies had delivered crushing defeats to Austria and France, Prussia’s chief rivals for supremacy in continental Europe. Prussia’s defeat of Austria in the Seven Weeks’ War of 1866 had given Prussia control of the North German Confederation, a loose conglomeration of industrial cities and duchies in the Rhineland. Based on these acquisitions, William I,
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Four years later, Bismarck provoked France into the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. At the 1871 Treaty of Versailles, which confirmed Prussia’s triumph, King William I
Despite his astonishing foreign policy successes up to 1871, Bismarck had no desire for further conquests. He was a conservative nationalist whose prime goal as chancellor was to consolidate the new German nation he had created. At the outset, however, the staunchly Protestant Bismarck saw an imminent threat from a resurgent Roman Catholic Church under the dynamic Pope Pius
In any case, Bismarck regarded the Roman Catholic Church in Germany as the major obstacle to his dream of a powerful Protestant German nation under the firm guiding hand of his native Prussia. He strongly suspected the loyalty of a church whose members constituted nearly one-third of the population of the empire, gave their religious allegiance to the pope, and enjoyed virtual independence from German state authorities in religious matters.
In his campaign against the Catholic peril in the German Empire, the pragmatic Bismarck found a ready ally in the National Liberal Party
Between 1871 and 1877, Chancellor Bismarck, through his agents and his parliamentary allies, waged a wide-ranging program of intimidation and open persecution upon the Catholic Church, especially in Prussia. Bismarck’s goal was to reduce the Church and its ally, the Catholic Center Party, to complete subservience to the government. Following a few preliminary moves in 1871, Bismarck launched a barrage of anti-Church legislation, which was introduced for him by a compliant National Liberal majority in parliament. His chief agent in implementing these measures was a Prussian civil official named Adalbert Falk
From 1872 through 1874, Falk’s Ministry for Religion and Education relentlessly targeted the Catholic clergy and the Catholic schools. Seminaries were taken over by the government in order to imbue seminarians with the nationalist and broadly secular values of the state. All church appointments had to be approved by the government, especially appointments of teachers conducting religious instruction in Catholic schools. Between 1872 and 1875, nearly 250 Catholic priests were arrested in Prussia, most for disobeying the Kulturkampf decrees. By 1875, all 11 Prussian bishops were either in jail or exiled. Pope Pius
Other laws struck at old enemies of the liberals, such as the Jesuits.
By 1875, the government campaign against the Catholic Church was in serious trouble. Exasperated by mounting opposition to his policies, Bismarck took personal charge. Adalbert Falk
Probably the most important single factor in the failure of the Kulturkampf was the inability of the sluggish, tradition-bound Prussian bureaucracy to compel compliance. Bismarck could not correct this problem. He had also badly underestimated the resiliency of the Catholic Church to weather systematic persecution. In the process, German Catholics had built a more cohesive and committed religious community and had even experienced a notable spiritual renewal. By 1878 Bismarck, ever the pragmatist, had determined to cut his losses and move on to other pressing problems, such as the economy and the challenge of socialism. Falk
The Kulturkampf in Germany was part of a broader European conflict between Catholicism and liberalism during the late nineteenth century. In Germany, this conflict was complicated by the presence of a solid conservative Protestant element led by Bismarck. Bismarck’s greatest achievement was to make the German Empire a world power. Among his worst setbacks was his failure to reduce the German Catholic Church to the position of state servant. He had found that there were severe limits to the means he could muster to this end. In short, Bismarck’s genius in foreign policy was not matched by his understanding of the power of religious faith. He lost prestige from this episode, although it was not a complete debacle. Kulturkampf laws on state control of schools and mandatory civil marriages survived in modified form.
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Anderson, Margaret Livinia. Windthorst: A Political Biography. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1986. Sympathetic, scholarly assessment of the career of the German Catholic politician who most effectively opposed Bismarck’s Kulturkampf. -
Lerman, Katherine Anne. Bismarck. New York: Pierson and Longman, 2004. Places the Kulturkampf within the context of Bismark’s overall political motives and goals. -
Ross, Ronald J. The Failure of Bismarck’s Kulturkampf: Catholicism and State Power in Wilhelmine, Germany. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1998. Contends that Bismarck’s Kulturkampf failed largely because of the government’s inability to enforce its laws and decrees -
Smith, Helmut W. German Nationalism and Political Conflict, 1870-1912. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995. First section describes the impact of the Kulturkampf on the national unification of Germany.
Jesuits Are Expelled from Russia, Naples, and Spain
Strauss Publishes The Life of Jesus Critically Examined
Bismarck Becomes Prussia’s Minister-President
North German Confederation Is Formed
Vatican I Decrees Papal Infallibility Dogma
Franco-Prussian War
German States Unite Within German Empire
Germany Passes Anti-Socialist Law
Bismarck Introduces Social Security Programs in Germany
Otto von Bismarck; Napoleon I; Pius IX.