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Imperial Germany
Foundation of the Second German Empire (Second Reich) in 1871
The German Empire--often called the Second Reich to distinguish it from
the First Reich, established by Charlemagne in 800--was based on two compromises.
The first was between the king of Prussia and the rulers of the other
German states, who agreed to accept him as the Kaiser (emperor) of a united
Germany, provided they could continue to rule their states largely as
they had in the past. The second was the agreement among many segments
of German society to accept a unified Germany based on a constitution
that combined a powerful authoritarian monarchy with a weak representative
body, the Reichstag, elected by universal male suffrage. No one was completely
satisfied with the bargain. The Kaiser had to contend with a parliament
elected by the people in a secret vote. The people were represented in
a parliament having limited control over the Kaiser.
As had been the tradition in Prussia, the Kaiser controlled foreign policy
and the army through his handpicked ministers, who formed the government
and prepared legislation. The government was headed by a chancellor, also
selected by the Kaiser, who served in this post at the Kaiser's pleasure
and could be dismissed by him at any time. The Bundesrat (Federal Council)
represented Germany's princes. About one-third of its seats were held
by Prussians. Conceived as an upper house to the Reichstag, the Bundesrat,
like the Reichstag, was required to vote on legislation drawn up by the
government before it became law. The Reichstag had no power to draft legislation.
In addition, the government's actions were not subject to the Reichstag's
approval, and the government was not drawn from the Reichstag, as is ordinarily
the case in parliamentary democracies.
The government needed the approval of the Bundesrat and the Reichstag
to enact legislative proposals, and the Kaiser and his chancellor had
many means of securing this approval. Conservative in nature, the Bundesrat
was usually docile and needed little wooing. Compliant in the early years
of the empire, the Reichstag, by contrast, became less so with time. The
easiest means of controlling the Reichstag was to threaten it with new
elections in the hope of getting a legislative body more attuned to the
intentions of the government. During elections the government campaigned
for the parties it favored, sometimes cynically conjuring up fears of
national catastrophe if particular parties won many seats. The government
also bargained with parties, granting them what they sought in exchange
for votes. A last means of taming the Reichstag was to spread rumors of
a possible coup d'etat by the army and the repeal of the constitution
and universal suffrage. This technique was used repeatedly in imperial
Germany and could even frighten the conservative Bundesrat. However little
many of the Reichstag members might like the empire's political order,
the prospect of naked despotism pleased them even less.
Although the Reichstag did not wield real power, elections to it were
hotly contested, and Bismarck and later chancellors and governments were
concerned with their outcome. As more-democratic parties came to dominate
in the Reichstag, governing became more difficult for the Kaiser and his
officials. During the later decades of the reign of Wilhelm II (r. 1888-1918),
the empire's governing system experienced such difficulties that some
conservatives advocated scrapping it, and democrats argued for a new,
truly parliamentary system. A fear of these drastic choices and their
possible effects caused Germany to muddle through with the existing system
until the disaster of World War I culminated in that system's abolition.
- Imperial Germany
- Political Parties
- The Economy
and Population Growth
- The Tariff Agreement
of 1879 and Its Social Consequences
- Bismarck's
Foreign Policy
- Foreign
Policy in the Wilhelmine Era
- World War I
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