German Empire

The term German Empire commonly refers to Germany, from its consolidation as a unified nation-state on January 18 1871, until the abdication of Kaiser (Emperor) Wilhelm II on November 9 1918. Germans, when referring to the Reich in this period under the Kaisers, typically use the term Kaiserreich and this term has often been used by non-German historians.

Legacy

Bismarck's rule of reactionary co-optation and coercion and his perpetuation of Junker virtues of militarism, hierarchy, and autocracy can be understood best when one considers that the nation was only recently and in some ways tenuously united; that the large and powerful neighbor, France, had for centuries pursued an active policy of keeping "the Germanies" weak and divided; and that Germany had again and again been the field where the power struggles of other European states and kingdoms were played out, with devastating consequences in most German regions. The earliest memories of Bismarck's generation of leaders encompassed the Napoleonic Wars and Prussia's attendant national humiliations. A perceived need not to manifest outward weakness made the adoption of more liberal means of government by these men unlikely, at best.

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Intensified by the reign of the far more militaristic Kaiser Wilhelm II, Bismarck's legacy would contribute to the political culture in which Nazism found significant support-bases. This should raise questions over their true roles in history, despite the era of progress and prosperity over which they presided. Under Bismarck, much of this entails his strategies to suppress Catholic and socialist opposition while promoting militaristic Prussianism. As a result, in Germany, as in Japan and Italy, later attempts to extend democracy would succeed in establishing unstable democracies (the Weimar Republic, Japan in the twenties, and Italy from the end of World War I to the 1922 appointment of Mussolini as premier by Victor Emmanuel III). Each of these constitutional democracies could not to cope with the severe problems of the day and the reluctance or inability to bring about fundamental structural changes.

Related Topics:
Kaiser Wilhelm II - Nazism - Weimar Republic - Japan - Italy - 1922 - Mussolini

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Despite advances in industry and science under the Second Reich, Germany retained a despotic aspect to its character, due to its militaristic inclinations and having achieved its unification by "blood and iron". The armed forces, inculcated in the militarism of the Prussian Junkers – the glorification of war, and supreme and unquestioning loyalty to the state, leader, and hierarchy – remained passionately loyal to the Hohenzollern dynasty. The values of Prussia's repressive "garrison state," grounded in Prussia's repressive system of agriculture since the defeat of the Teutonic Knights, would be carried to a new extreme under the Third Reich.

Related Topics:
Hohenzollern - Teutonic Knights - Third Reich

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Prussianism caught on because prosperity satisfied the old support base of the middle class liberals, and the state was solicitous of the material welfare for many eventually won over—including the working class. German education emerged strong in vocational fields as well as propaganda. From the side of the landed aristocracy came the conceptions of inherent superiority in the ruling class and a sensitivity to matters of status, prominent traits well into the twentieth century. Fed by new sources, these conceptions could later be vulgarized and made appealing to the German population as a whole in doctrines of racial superiority. The royal bureaucracy introduced, against considerable aristocratic resistance, the ideal of complete and unreflecting obedience to an institution over and above class and individual.

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At the foundation of these currents was centuries of economic, political, and cultural evolution starting with an agricultural system dominated for centuries by repressive means rather than through the market. German peasants were not only under the repressive watch of their landowners, but grounded in village and work structures that favor solidarity, diminishing their revolutionary potential. Thus, in the realm of propaganda, the Junkers established the generally successful Agrarian League in 1894, laying the groundwork for Nazi doctrine. The league sought the support of peasants in non-Junker areas of smaller farms, inculcating them in "führer worship," the idea of a corporative state, militarism, anti-Semitism. They would also make the distinction between "predatory" and "productive" capital used by the Nazis, which were devices used to appeal to anti-capitalist sentiments among the peasantry.

Related Topics:
Agrarian League - 1894 - Nazi - Anti-capitalist

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Bismarck's unification of Germany also had a significant impact in East Asia. The unification of Germany was considered a model for both the successful modernization of Japan and the less successful modernization of China at the beginning of the 20th century. The German civil code became the basis of the legal systems of Japan and the Republic of China and after the retreat of the latter to Taiwan remains as the basis of the legal system there.

Related Topics:
Japan - China - Republic of China - Taiwan

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