Editing History of Germany (section)

====Kulturkampf====
{{Main|Kulturkampf}}
[[File:Kladderadatsch 1875 - Zwischen Berlin und Rom.png|thumb|''Between Berlin and Rome'', Bismarck (left) confronts Pope Pius IX, 1875.]]

Bismarck would not tolerate any power outside Germany—as in Rome—having a say in domestic affairs. He launched the [[Kulturkampf]] ("culture war") against the power of the pope and the Catholic Church in 1873, but only in the state of Prussia. This gained strong support from German liberals, who saw the Catholic Church as the bastion of reaction and their greatest enemy. The Catholic element, in turn, saw in the [[National Liberal Party (Germany)|National-Liberals]] the worst enemy and formed the [[Centre Party (Germany)|Center Party]].<ref>Douglas W. Hatfield, "Kulturkampf: The Relationship of Church and State and the Failure of German Political Reform", ''Journal of Church and State'' (1981) 23#3 pp. 465–484 {{JSTOR|23916757}}</ref>

Catholics, although nearly a third of the national population, were seldom allowed to hold major positions in the Imperial government, or the Prussian government. After 1871, there was a systematic purge of the remaining Catholics; in the powerful interior ministry, which handled all police affairs, the only Catholic was a messenger boy. Jews were likewise heavily discriminated against.<ref>John C.G. Roehl, "Higher civil servants in Germany, 1890–1900" in James J. Sheehan, ed., ''Imperial Germany'' (1976) pp. 128–151</ref><ref>Margaret Lavinia Anderson, and Kenneth Barkin. "The myth of the Puttkamer purge and the reality of the Kulturkampf: Some reflections on the historiography of Imperial Germany". ''Journal of Modern History'' (1982): 647–686. esp. pp. 657–662 {{JSTOR|1906016}}</ref>

Most of the Kulturkampf was fought out in Prussia, but Imperial Germany passed the [[Pulpit Law]] which made it a crime for any cleric to discuss public issues in a way that displeased the government. Nearly all Catholic bishops, clergy, and laymen rejected the legality of the new laws and defiantly faced the increasingly heavy penalties and imprisonments imposed by Bismarck's government. Historian Anthony Steinhoff reports the casualty totals:

<blockquote>As of 1878, only three of eight Prussian dioceses still had bishops, some 1,125 of 4,600 parishes were vacant, and nearly 1,800 priests ended up in jail or in exile&nbsp;... Finally, between 1872 and 1878, numerous Catholic newspapers were confiscated, Catholic associations and assemblies were dissolved, and Catholic civil servants were dismissed merely on the pretence of having Ultramontane sympathies.<ref>Anthony J. Steinhoff, "Christianity and the creation of Germany", in Sheridan Gilley and Brian Stanley, eds., ''Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 8: 1814–1914'' (2008) p. 295</ref></blockquote>

Bismarck underestimated the resolve of the Catholic Church and did not foresee the extremes that this struggle would attain.<ref>John K. Zeender in ''The Catholic Historical Review'', Vol. 43, No. 3 (Oct. 1957), pp. 328–330.</ref><ref>Rebecca Ayako Bennette, ''Fighting for the Soul of Germany: The Catholic Struggle for Inclusion after Unification'' (Harvard U.P. 2012)</ref> The Catholic Church denounced the harsh new laws as anti-Catholic and mustered the support of its rank and file voters across Germany. In the following elections, the Center Party won a quarter of the seats in the Imperial Diet.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blackbourn |first=David |date=Dec 1975 |title=The Political Alignment of the Centre Party in Wilhelmine Germany: A Study of the Party's Emergence in Nineteenth-Century Württemberg |url=https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3629315/blackbourn_polalignment.pdf?sequence=1 |journal=Historical Journal |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=821–850 |doi=10.1017/s0018246x00008906 |jstor=2638516 |s2cid=39447688}}</ref> The conflict ended after 1879 because Pope Pius IX died in 1878 and Bismarck broke with the Liberals to put his main emphasis on tariffs, foreign policy, and [[Anti-Socialist Laws|attacking socialists]]. Bismarck negotiated with the conciliatory new pope [[Pope Leo XIII|Leo XIII]].{{Sfn|Clark|2006|pp=568–576}} Peace was restored, the bishops returned and the jailed clerics were released. Laws were toned down or taken back, but the laws concerning education, civil registry of marriages and religious disaffiliation remained in place. The Center Party gained strength and became an ally of Bismarck, especially when he attacked socialism.<ref>Ronald J. Ross, ''The failure of Bismarck's Kulturkampf: Catholicism and state power in imperial Germany, 1871–1887'' (1998).</ref>

Historians have cited the campaign against the Catholic church, as well as a similar campaign against the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]], as leaving a lasting influence on the German consciousness, whereby national unity can be encouraged by excluding or persecuting a minority. This strategy, later referred to as "negative integration", set a tone of either being loyal to the government or an enemy of the state, which directly influenced German nationalist sentiment and the later Nazi movement.<ref name="Childers negative integration">{{Cite episode |title=The First World War and Its Legacy |url=https://www.wondrium.com/a-history-of-hitlers-empire-2nd-edition |access-date=27 March 2023 |series=A History of Hitler's Empire, 2nd Edition |last=Childers |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Childers |date=2001 |number=2 |time=06:37-11:02 |language=English |publisher=[[The Great Courses]]}}</ref>