Editing German Empire (section)

====Domestic affairs====
[[File:Reichstagsgebaeude.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Reichstag building|Reichstag]]'' in the 1890s{{\}}early 1900s]]

Under Wilhelm II, Germany no longer had long-ruling strong chancellors like Bismarck. The new chancellors had difficulty in performing their roles, especially the additional role as [[Prime Minister of Prussia]] assigned to them in the German Constitution. The reforms of Chancellor [[Leo von Caprivi]], which liberalized trade and so reduced unemployment, were supported by the Kaiser and most Germans except for Prussian landowners, who feared loss of land and power and launched several campaigns against the reforms.{{Sfnp|Kurtz|1970|p=67}}

While Prussian aristocrats challenged the demands of a united German state, in the 1890s several organizations were set up to challenge the authoritarian conservative Prussian militarism which was being imposed on the country. Educators opposed to the German state-run schools, which emphasized military education, set up their own independent liberal schools, which encouraged individuality and freedom.{{Sfnp|Kurtz|1970|p=72}} However nearly all the schools in Imperial Germany had a very high standard and kept abreast with modern developments in knowledge.<ref>{{Harvp|Cocks|Jarausch|1990}}.{{page needed|date=May 2025}}</ref>

Artists began experimental art in opposition to Kaiser Wilhelm's support for traditional art, to which Wilhelm responded "art which transgresses the laws and limits laid down by me can no longer be called art".{{Sfnp|Kurtz|1970|p=76}} It was largely thanks to Wilhelm's influence that most printed material in Germany used [[blackletter]] instead of the Roman type used in the rest of Western Europe. At the same time, a new generation of cultural creators emerged.<ref>{{Harvp|Jefferies|2003}}.{{page needed|date=May 2025}}</ref>

[[File:Berlin Unter den Linden Cafe Bauer um 1900.jpg|thumb|Berlin in the late 19th century]]
From the 1890s onwards, the most effective opposition to the monarchy came from the newly formed [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD), whose radicals advocated [[Marxism]]. The threat of the SPD to the German monarchy and industrialists caused the state both to crack down on the party's supporters and to implement its own programme of social reform to soothe discontent. Germany's large industries provided significant social welfare programmes and good care to their employees, as long as they were not identified as socialists or trade-union members. The larger industrial firms provided pensions, sickness benefits and even housing to their employees.{{Sfnp|Kurtz|1970|p=72}}

Having learned from the failure of Bismarck's [[Kulturkampf]], Wilhelm II maintained good relations with the Roman Catholic Church and concentrated on opposing socialism.{{Sfnp|Kurtz|1970|p=56}} This policy failed when the Social Democrats won a third of the votes in the [[1912 German federal election|1912 elections]] to the ''Reichstag'', and became the largest political party in Germany. The government remained in the hands of a succession of conservative coalitions supported by right-wing liberals or Catholic clerics and heavily dependent on the Kaiser's favour. The rising militarism under Wilhelm II caused many Germans to emigrate to the U.S. and the British colonies to escape mandatory military service.

During World War I, the Kaiser increasingly devolved his powers to the leaders of the German High Command, particularly future [[President of Germany|German president]], Field Marshal [[Paul von Hindenburg]] and ''Generalquartiermeister'' [[Erich Ludendorff]]. Hindenburg took over the role of commander–in–chief from the Kaiser, while Ludendorff became de facto general chief of staff. By 1916, Germany was effectively a military dictatorship run by Hindenburg and Ludendorff, with the Kaiser reduced to a mere figurehead.{{Sfnp|Cecil|1996|loc=ch. 9–13}}