How successful was Bismarck's domestic policy between 1871 and 1890?

Bismarck's domestic policies had many different aims. The German constitution of 1871
for example had the aim of 'Prussianisation', while Bismarck's Kulturkampf had the aim to
destroy the influence of the Catholic Church in Germany. Similar to this the aim of his anti-
social phase was to destroy the socialists' influence. Lastly Bismarck's economic policies
had the aim of creating an economically strong German state, but he changed his methods
from liberal to protectionist ones. So all of these policies had different aims and so varying
degrees of success.
The aim of the constitution for example, Prussian conservatism, was only partially
successful. It stated that Germany was a federal state with vertical separation of powers.
This allowed the states to maintain lots of their self-administration, as their own
constitution, monarchs or other ruler, parliaments and administration, while Prussia had
the lead role in the government. The Prussian King for example was the head of the state
executive and supreme general of the armed forces. Also Prussia's other administrative
institution were highly connected to the government's ones. The Prussian Secretary of War
was also the Imperial one and other Imperial Secretaries had very close work relations
with their Prussian counterparts. As a direct consequence of this, Prussian autocracy, who
already controlled the upper parliament chamber in Prussia, the house of peers, had most
of the leading positions in the government. The parliament of the German Empire was also
dominated by the autocracy, especially Prussia's. Most of all the Bundesrat, the Federal
Council, consisted of representatives of the state government. Although it had theoretically
very extensive power, for example it had the right to change the constitution and its
consent was required in the process of passing law, in reality it was a puppet to the
Chancellor, as most members were part of the nobility. From the 58 seats in it, 14 were
required to stop a law from passing with a veto. Prussia controlled 17 seats. The other
German states all had 1 but Bavaria with 6. The lower house, the national parliament
Reichstag, on the other hand was elected by all males over 25 years every 5 years and so
a strong representation of the German people. But while it had the power to propose new
laws, they were not automatically passed as the consent of the Bundesrat was needed
and the chancellor didn't have to sign them. The main power of the Reichstag was the
ability to approve or reject the state budget. Also the members of the Reichstag were not
paid and thus a member had to have some wealth. Also the State Secretaries & the
chancellor were only responsible to the King and not to the parliament. The chancellor was
also able to fire and replace them without reason. But whilst this constitution seemed to be
a strong basis for Prussian conservatism, the government couldn't only regard Prussia's
interests but also Germany's. So slowly Prussia's interest lost in importance and soon
Germany was more important and Non-Prussians had important lead roles. Also the
parliament used his powers against Bismarck. It had the power to summon the Secretaries
and the chancellor and question him. Also Bismarck often had to bow to the parliament to
get his own plans through, a fact often underestimated by historians. Also as the press
was allowed full-coverage of the parliamentary discussions, the public had a good
knowledge about what happened. In the end however the Prussian conservatism was still
the main factor in the government, although new interests were gaining importance. In
total Bismarck's constitution of 1871 was rather successful than not.
His anti-catholic phase, the Kulturkampf, however was not successful. After Pope Pius XI's
Syllabus of Errors, in which major liberal principals were condemned, led to new conflicts
with the states, especially the National Liberals wanted to destroy Catholic influence in
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Germany. After the Centre Party's success in the elections 1871, where they got 58 seats,
a number that eventually increased to100 in 1881, Bismarck supported this view, also
alarmed by the decreasing German nationalism in the catholic parts, who often rather
identified themselves with catholic Austria. But he only started this 'war' openly after many
catholic teachers were dismissed after refusing the Papal infallibility. Bismarck's first
actions were quite successful, some of them are still in place in modern Germany. After
every Church school was brought under control and the ban of the very conservative
Jesuit Order, both in 1872, the May laws were introduced by Secretary of Education and
Religion Dr. Falk. Their main point was that priests could only be consecrated if they had a
secular university decree. In 1874 civil marriage was also introduced. The punishment for
acting against these laws went up to imprisonment. In 1875 all religious orders were
dissolved. The result of this was 1000 suspended priests and 10 Prussian bishops under
house arrest. However Pius XI's counter attacks was more successful. He threatened with
excommunication for everybody who bowed to the May laws. So only 30 of 10000 priests
actually followed them. Also the power of the Centre party wasn't destroyed, it increased.
By 1874 it had gained 33 new seats in the parliament. And Bismarck's idea of a Protestant
crusade was neither successful as also many of them were opposed to these at it also
diminished Protestant influence in education. The Kulturkampf was a failure and quickly
changed it to a fight against socialism. After its after Pius' death in 1878 Bismarck started a
policy of reconciliation and for example expelled priests were allowed to return. But some
of the May laws remained active. So while the Kulturkampf did not diminishe the power of
the Centre Party, it definitely diminished the Church's one. However the original aim was
not achieved.
The fight against socialism was, again, rather unsuccessful than successful. Although the
first socialist party was founded in 1869, Bebel's and Liebknecht's Sozialdemokratische
Arbeiterartei Deutschlands
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(SDAP), a radical-communist party, Bismarck only regarded
the socialist movement as a threat after the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland
(SPD)
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increased their seats from 2 to 12 in 1877. The SPD was created after the SDAP
fused with the Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiter Verein (ADAV)
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and more moderate wings
of the party gained control. However Bismarck's early policies were unsuccessful. A law
that would have prevented socialist propaganda spreading was blocked by the Reichstag,
just like other bills. However he was successful after 2 assassination attempts on the
Kaiser, where the National Liberals refused to pass laws against socialism after the first
one, and he achieved to dissolve the Reichstag. However his new policies didn't lead to a
elimination of socialism but rather to increasing support. The socialists managed to do this
by ignoring the Anti-Socialist Laws, which banned socialist organisations like trade unions
and penalized the spreading of socialist programmes, and still debating in the parliament
and against the government. This led to an increase in parliament seats for the SPD to 35
by 1878. However Bismarck's other measures were more successful. Especially the new
form of State Socialism that Bismarck introduced was more successful in turning people
from the SPD. The main changes, that State Socialism introduced, were the new
Insurances, the Sickness Insurance (1883) the Accident Insurance (1884) and the Old age
pensions (1889). However while some workers approved this and turned to the state as
lead role, most of them weren't pleased enough by State Socialism as trade unions were
still banned and much of the Insurances budget was payed by the workers themselves. So
in total Bismarck's anti-socialist policies were not successful, as the SPD was granted a
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$
future by the ban of trade unions. However Bismarck introduced a welfare-state that was
regarded as 20 years ahead of the British one.
Bismarck's last field of domestic policies is probably the most debated one is the economic
field. This debate is to a large extent still going on because of Bismarck's view change
from free-trade, the Zollverein, a free-trade organisation within Germany, and economic
liberalism to protectionism. This is also represented by his change in political allies from
the National Liberals to the Centre and Conservative Party. Bismarck achieved the
introduction of protected tariffs in the 1879 Tariff Act. However it was only possible for this
act to pass the Reichstag because the Conservatives and the Centre Party had by now
gained a majority in the Reichstag. The passing of this bill is also often seen as the end of
his liberal phase. But Bismarck's motives for this are another strongly debated topic in
Bismarck life. However most of the interpretations claim Realpolitik
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was the reason. But
new agricultural imports from USA and Russia, which undercut the German prices, caused
problems for the German economy. These were also the cause for the slow-down of the
economic growth. So this and the fear for German dependency on foreign wheat are often
named as the reasons for Bismarck's introduction of protected tariffs. Also protective tariffs
were by now a common economic measure as other European states like Austria or
France had already introduced them. Bismarck himself stated in a speech in front of the
Reichstag: The only country [which persists in a policy of free trade] is England
Furthermore Bismarck tried to achieve full coverage of armament and administration for
the federal government as the taxation on trade before was not enough to cover the
spendings. In the end Bismarck's economic policies are highly debated and there are
different opinions on how successful they were. However it is generally agreed that whilst
protectionism meant higher custom prices they did safe German jobs. It is hard to say if
liberalism would have been better but it can be said that while the success of his
protectionism is strongly debated, it did not fail.
Bismarck's domestic policies for the German Empire were rather unsuccessful. While the
German Constitution partially achieved its aim of Prussianisation, the Kulturkampf and the
fight against socialism were unsuccessful. However both of them led to changes that are
still active in modern Germany. But they didn't achieve their aims. Finally his economic
policies while not unsuccessful, were not successful either, these are highly debated. In
the end it can be said that his domestic policies were not successful but not failures either.
However they weren't even close on being as successful as his policies that led to German
unification.
' (opportunism
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