An Army with a State?Wilhelmine Germany I

HI290- History of Germany

The Captain of Köpenick

• On 16 October 1906 an unemployed shoemaker named Wilhelm Voigt dressed as a captain in the German Army.

• Collecting together a small group of soldiers off the streets he went to the small town of Köpenick outside Berlin, occupied the town hall, arrested mayor and demanded 4000 marks.

• Such was the authority that his uniform gave him, all of Voigt’s orders were obeyed without question.

• He absconded with the money, only to be picked up by the police and sentenced to four years in prison.

The Army and German Society

Carl Röchling, Parade in the Lustgarten 9.2.1894 (1894) Landsturm reservists in Allenstein c.1914

The Officer Corps

Kaiser Wilhelm II and his Generals, 1914

A Military Society?

• Social make-up of the officer corps – in 1913, 70% of officers and 50% of colonels and generals were from non-noble families. However, “better” barracks and regiments largely inhabited with nobility.• Contemporary critics of the German Army

• Criticism in the left-wing press• Satirical novels criticising the behaviour of the officer corps• The Zabern Affair (1913) – public outcry over military behaviour

• This more of a Prussian than a German phenomenon – the Bavarians routinely mocked Prussian militarism.• Germany not the only nation in Europe where the army and navy were held in

high esteem.

The Zabern Affair (1913)

"The Alsatian Bogeyman“, Simplicissimus, 1913

The Kaiser and his Court• The power of the Kaiser made the court an

important place in Imperial politics and society.

• The court provided access to the monarch and opportunities to gain political/social influence.

• John Röhl – Wilhelm II presided over a political system in which the imperial court successfully established a primacy over other sources of power.

• However, Wilhelm II more of a playboy than an omnipotent autocrat – he lacked the self-discipline necessary for effective government and administration.

Democratisation and Party Politics• Deutschkonservative Partei (German Conservative Party)

– Representing farmers and Prussian landowners.

• Reichspartei (Free Conservative Party) - Representing industrialists and landowners.

• Zentrumspartei (Centre Party) – Formed in 1871 to uphold the interests of the Catholic Church, its support came from Catholics of all classes.

• Nationalliberale Partei (National Liberal Party) – The party of the liberal Protestant upper-middle-classes.

• Deutsche Freisinnige Partei (German Free Thought Party) – The party of more radical liberals. Split in 1893 & reunited in 1910 as the Fortschrittliche Volkspartei (Progressive People’s Party)

• Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party) – Representing the working classes.

The state opening of the Reichstag, December 1894

Pressure Groups• Deutscher Kolonialverein (German Colonial Association):

• Founded 1882.• Campaigned for the establishment of German colonies.• Membership had reached 9,000 by 1884.• Merged with the Society for German Colonization in 1887 to form the Deutsche

Koloialgesellschaft (German Colonial Society).

• Alldeutscher Verband (Pan-German League):• Founded in 1891 by Alfred Hugenberg & Karl Peters.• Radical right-wing nationalist organization which supported Weltpolitik and saw

itself as an unofficial watchdog, critic and advisor to successive governments.• Had 8,601 members in 1896, rising to over 20,000 in 1900.

• Deutscher Flottenverein (German Navy League): • Founded in 1898 with just over 14,000 members.• Campaigned for an enlarged German fleet and supported Weltpolitik.• Had strong links with big business and Conservative politicians.• Had over 330,000 members in 1914.

Demographic Change

The Corner of Unter den Linden and Friedrichstraße (c. 1900)

Diagram advertising the benefits of the German social security system (1913)

Education

• Volksschule provided primary education for a literate, mobile, industrial society.

• Realgymnasian and Oberrealschulen begin to replace the old Gymnasian.

• New emphasis on the natural sciences and technical subjects instead of Latin and Greek.

• Expansion of Higher Education: 28,000 students in 1890; over 60,000 in 1914.

• Technische Hochschulen (‘Technical Colleges’) focus on vocational subjects such as engineering.

• Created a literate, highly-skilled population.

Contrasting images of the education system: a cartoon satirising militarism in the class room (above),

and pupils at a girls’ secondary school (c.1896)

The ‘New Woman’?• Traditionally women seen as fundamentally

unsuited to public life and politics, being naturally predisposed towards a domestic and caring role.

• 1865: The Allgemeiner Deutsche Frauenverein (General Association of German Women) founded.

• 1894: The ADF replaced by the Bund Deutscher Frauenverbände (Federation of German Women’s Associations).

• Increasing demand from the middle classes for more educational and employment opportunities for single women.

• 1880s: Secondary Education extended to middle class girls.

• New Civil Legal Code (1900) allows women to hold wealth and property independent of their husbands.

• 1900-1909: Women permitted to attend German universities.

Poster advertising a demonstration in favour of women’s suffrage, 8 March 1914

The sexologist Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935)

The Kaiser’s favourite: Prince Phillip zu Eulenburg (1847-

1921)

Sexuality

Treatment of Ethnic Minorities

• Poles (Westprussia and Posen, Western Germany: Ruhr). At first assimilation, resentmens from the local population, national turn after the Germanizing laws; Poles Catholic

• Expropriation law 1908; new law defining citizenship as ethnically German (1913)

• Danes: smaller numbers, deportations of those deemed “anti-German” to Denmark after 1900

• Alsace-Lorraine: “milder” praxeological approach, special territory in the German Empire, escalation after Zabern

• Jews

• School laws and Germanization

• Mentality defining ethnic minorities as “enemies of the Empire” (Reichsfeinde)

Jews in Imperial Germany

Title page of The Jewish State (1896) by Theodore Herzl, the founding

text of the Zionist movement.

Members of the Jewish students’ club at Breslau University (c.1900). As anti-Semitism grew at the end of the 19th

century Jews were barred from membership in established student fraternities so they founded their own organizations

at a number of universities.

Cultural Change • Thomas Mann (1875-1955), Buddenbrocks

(1901).

• Heinrich Mann (1871-1950), Professor Unrat (1905), Der Untertan (1918).

• Freie Volksbühne (free people’s theatre) – established 1889 and staged plays with a social message such as Gerhard Hauptmann’s Die Weber.

• Scientific Discoveries• X-rays (1895)• Radioactivity (1896)• The electron (1897)• Quantum theory (1900)• Special theory of relativity (1905)

• Munich Secession (1892).

• Berlin Secession (1898).

• Die Brucke (1905)

• Der Blaue Reiter (1911-14)August Macke, Woman in Front of a Hat Shop (c. 1914)

Mass Culture/Entertainment• Publishing explosion after 1880 to service the

new literate mass market for printed matter.

• Popular literary, arts and satirical magazines such as Pan (1895-1900), Jugend (founded 1896) and Simplicissimus (1896-1967) had wide circulations.

• Electric lighting led to the proliferation of dance halls and cabarets.

• The first ‘moving pictures’ shown in Berlin in 1895 – by 1914 there were 300 cinemas in Berlin and over 3,000 throughout Germany.

• Sport – riding, golf and tennis for the upper and middle classes, cycling and boxing for the working classes.

• Sport was encouraged by the SPD and was an important feature of many working-men’s clubs and associations.