The Failure of Bismarck's Kulturkampf

Few conflicts in Imperial Germany were more important than the Kulturkampf or ""struggle for civilization,"" a major conflict during the 1870s and early 1880s between the Catholic Church and Otto von Bismarck's Prussian government. Despite all its drama (the attempted assassination of governmental officials, the arrest and trial of prominent churchmen, even riots and mass demonstrations), the Kulturkampf remains among the neglected subjects of nineteenth-century German history.

Few conflicts in Imperial Germany were more important than the Kulturkampf or ""struggle for civilization,"" a major conflict during the 1870s and early 1880s between the Catholic Church and Otto von Bismarck's Prussian government. Despite all its drama (the attempted assassination of governmental officials, the arrest and trial of prominent churchmen, even riots and mass demonstrations), the Kulturkampf remains among the neglected subjects of nineteenth-century German history.

Because the customary focus for studies of the Kulturkampf is on church policy and its development, little is known about how those policies worked in practice or how effectively the government compelled obedience and deterred resistance to its new ecclesiastical regulations. To determine what the Kulturkampf did-or, more importantly, did not-achieve, Ronald J. Ross shifts the traditional focus to an interesting examination of how church policy was implemented, enforced, and resisted. His findings are based on extensive archival research in Germany (including the former East Germany), Poland, Austria, and Vatican City.

Ross's assessment of the Kulturkampf makes clear that repression as an instrument of policy failed of its purpose. Although Bismarck's ecclesiastical regulations crippled the operation of the Roman church, disrupted its organization, and inflicted genuine pain on the faithful at large, the Iron Chancellor failed to convince Catholics of the futility of resistance.

The book will be of interest to political, religious, and social historians, to political scientists or sociologists concerned with the state and its administration, and to readers interested in German history or church history.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ronald J. Ross, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is the author of Beleaguered Tower: The Dilemma of Political Catholicism in Wilhelmine Germany.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:

""The Failure of Bismarck's Kulturkampf is a lucid, wide-ranging, deeply-researched book about a topic, which, in Ross's words, 'remains among the least understood problems of modern German history.' With respect to understanding of the limits of state power, it breaks new ground. With respect to the social and cultural history of Catholic resistance, it is less original, but nowhere can one find the vast canvas of this resistance drawn together to show the way in which it effectively dammed in Prussian power on so many fronts at once. For this reason, this book is also a first-rate work of synthesis, and one of the best general books on the Kulturkampf currently available.""--Central European History

""[A] magesterial account. . . . Ross shows convincingly how the Kulturkampf had a lasting impact on the tensions between the different religious and social groups in the German Kaiserreich. The author . . . has produced an impressive study based on extensive archival research. This work, in every respect a very valuable account of one of the most critical events in the history of Bismarck's chancellorship, will be the point of departure for any future investigation.""--Journal of Ecclesiastical History

""Ross is the first to write a monograph which combines critical arguments and facts to demonstrate that the Kulturkampf was, ultimately, a failure. . . . There has never been such a sophisticated inquiry into oppressive laws and their inadequate implementation. . . . An important and revealing contribution to research on Catholicism. If the Kulturkampf was a failure, at least this book about it proves to be a striking success.""--German Historical Institute Bulletin