KULTURKAMPF
70G
KULTURKAMPF
habitual distrust of Prussia for its Polish subjects, and
was persuaded that in case of war they would be on
the side of Panslavism — that, whether in war or diplo-
macy, they would always prove a thorn in the side of
Germany. He had watched them closely for several
years and noted with deep suspicion the alliance of
their deputies with the German Catholics. He laid
great stress on this fact; as is well known, the Polish
question is one of those which cause most uneasiness
to Prussian statesmen. It offended him, moreover,
that Catholic members of the Centre frequented the
Radziwill salons in Berlin, and were thereby willing to
appear friendly to Polish demands and aspirations.
His suspicions were still further aroused by the unde- niably lively zeal which the Catholic clergy at large exhibited for the growth of the Centre, while, under Windthorst's direction, the party was standing out not only for the rights of the Catholic Church, but also for a definite political programme. This zeal of the German clergy was at this juncture especially odious to Bismarck; despite his clear-headed political realism, his imagination was deeply affected by the idea that Protestant Prussia had restored to Germany its former imperial grandeur precisely when Papal Infallibility was being proclaimed at Rome. In his eyes the em- pire once more stood over against the papacy; only there was now added another antithesis, that of Prot- estant individual freedom against submission to eccle- siastical authority. He persuaded hirrtself that Rome was less friendly to the new empire than any other European power, and that it meant to unite against the new Protestant Empire all the Catholic nations of Europe and its own priesthood everywhere. To ob- tain definite information as to the relations of Rome and the Centre he demanded, in the spring of 1871, through the Bavarian ambassador at the Vatican, that Rome should censure the (Centre party for its antago- nistic attitude in the Parliament. A friendly answer was made him by the Holy See, but on the representa- tion of prominent members of the Centre, notably of Bishop Ketteler, Rome refused to further influence the Catholic party, whereat the indignation of the chancellor was boimdless. In the meantime the South German Liberals, foremost among them Prince Hohenlohe, stirred up unceasingly his original mis- trust of the Centfe, the Catholic clergy, and Rome.
Though for a while slow to act, he became daily more convinced that a grave peril for the empire existed in the activity of a powerful parliamentary party of German Catholics under the leadership of a man like Wintlthorst, to which must be added the influence of the Vatican over this party. In his eyes the Cen- tre was an outcome of the German Catholic Movement (die katholische Bewegung) ; deprived of the support of the latter it would collapse. Now the Catholic Movement, as he knew it since 1850, was for Bismarck something entirely hostile; it had been friendly to Austria, and its adherents were numerous in Southern Germany and Westphalia. Moreover, its enthusiasm for Rome and for the independence of the Catholic Church was odious to him. As a Prussian official he believed in a State Church; the Church should not only be under the supervision of the State, but should positively serve the purposes of the State. It seemed, therefore, that the psychological moment had come for the arrest of this Catholic Movement. All Ger- many was enthusiastic over the new-born imperial unity. To judge by various occurrences within the ranks of German Catholicism, it seemed as if Rome had gone too far in its claims on the obedience of Ger- man (,'atholics in matters of faith. The Old-Catholic organization then taking shape sc<'me(l a likely nu- cleus for a German National Church, a State Cluirch for Catholics; it would welcome all Beccders from Rome and guarantee them a new ecelesLastical life. (>ld-('at!iolicism, he argued, must be supported; the Roman Catholic clergy forced to submit; the, ronissea
behind the Catholic Movement must be intimidated;
the immediate pressure of Roman authority removed
from them, and the Centre stigmatized before its con-
stituents as an enemy of the German Empire.
II. CouHSE OF THE CONFLICT. — It may be divided roughly into three periods: 1871-72; 1872-78; 1878-91.
A. 1871-72. — The afore-mentioned views of Bis- marck concerning the Centre and the Catholic Move- ment were by no means so clearly worked out in the summer of 1871 that he was then ready to begin a sys- tematic onslaught on German Catholicism. For a year and a half his policy was manifested only in in- dividual cases, though in all such cases a unity of atti- tude was clearly exhibited. As early as 8 July, 1871, he abolished the Catholic Section of the Prussian Min- istry of Worship and gave over henceforth to officials in great majority Protestant the conduct of all gov- ernmental matters pertaining to Catholic churches and schools. His excuse was that the members of the aforesaid Catholic Section of the Department of Wor- ship were guilty of too close relations with the Poles. Towards the end of 1871 he ]iroceeded, on similar grounds, against the Catholic clergy of the eastern provinces of Prussia; he introduced at that time in the Reichstag a law concerning the supervision of in- struction and education. This act contemplated the extension of the civil school-supervision to religious instruction and simultaneously the abolition of all ec- clesiastical supervision of the entire primary-school system hitherto exercised conjointly with the civil authorities. Henceforth, whenever the schools of a district were entrusted to ecclesiastical sujjerintend- ents, their authority was to be derived solely from the State ; in large measure, moreover, the Catholic clergy were excluded from any supervision of the schools.
During the discussion of this School Supervision Law, Bismarck made an extremely violent attack (2 Feb., 1872) on Windthorst's leadership of the Centre, held out to the latter the olive branch of peace on condition of abandoning Windthorst, but threatened, in case of refusal, to pillory the party before all Germany as an enemy of the Empire. Shortly afterwards he caused the house of a Polish canon in Posen to be searched by the police, in the hope of finding there correspondence that would enable him to convict Windthorst of an alliance with the Poles. In this he was unsuccessful. On 4 July, 1872, the Reichstag passed the law against the Jesuits (Jesuilengesetz), on the plea that they were the emissaries of Rome in Germany (pretending at the same time to free the bishops from the Jesuit yoke) ; moreover, in defiance of all legality (both from a Conservative and a Liberal standpoint) the Jesuits were handed over to the arbitrary supervision of the police authorities and could at any moment be ex- pelled from the Empire. In addition, the Bundesrath (Imperial Supreme Council) interpreted the law to mean complete exclusion from all ministry either in church or school. Thereupon the Jesuits left Ger- many. The next year the law was extentled to the Redemptorists, Lazarists, Fathers of the Holy Ghost, and the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, as being closely related to the Jesuits, whereupon these orders also left Germany. In the same month the Government again manifested its ecclesiastico-political views by the measures which it sanctioned against the Prussian bishops, in the interest of the Old Catholics. Still earlier (1 Dec, 1871) the .so-called Kanzelpara- graf, or "pulpit-law", was, for a similar purpose, incorporated in the Criminal Code. The Bishop of I'>mland had forbidden the Old Catholic teacher of religion { [ieligionslehrer) in Braunsburg Gymnasimn any loiiurr to exercise his office. The Government then interefered and compellerl the parents to send their children f ii the lessons of tlii.s instructor. Later, after a unanimous protest from the bisho|)s of Prussia, the Govermncnt abandoned its position in this case, but demanded from the Bishoji of Ermland a declara-
