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German Empire

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The historical monarchy of Germany
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The German Empire (German: Deutsches Kaiserreich; 1871-1918) in central Europe Dual monarchy federalism The state, also known as the Second German Reich, was The Hohenzollern Dynasty The last country to rule. Its official name is Deutsches Reich. This became the official title of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.
Between 1864 and 1870, Kingdom of Prussia Pass successively Puttan-danish war , Austro-prussian war , Franco-prussian War Three times Dynastic war , completed German unification . January 18, 1871, King of Prussia William I In France The Palace of Versailles Crown as Emperor of Germany An empire is born. All the Southern German states except Austria were incorporated into Prussia The North German Confederation The German Confederation was renamed the German Empire. At the end of the 19th century, imperialism Countries revolve around competing for world hegemony and colony And launched a fierce struggle. In 1882, with Austro-hungarian Empire , Kingdom of Italy Signed the Treaty of Alliance, Triple Alliance The military bloc was formally established. In 1914, World War I Outbreak, Germany as Allied countries A member of the war. By the end of 1918, when the Allies' defeat was assured, war weariness was running high in Germany. November Revolution in Germany Eruption. On November 9, as the revolution had spread throughout the country, the Emperor Wilhelm II Forced to abdicate, the German Empire ended.
The German Empire was a federal state, consisting of 22 states, 3 free cities and 1 territory. Of the Hohenzollern family King of Prussia He holds the title of Emperor of Germany. It is a combination of military and political power, and has supreme power. The Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Prussia was the Imperial Prime Minister, appointed by and accountable to the Emperor.
Germany started industrialization late, but used its state-based capital more efficiently and avoided the process of using traditional methods to reach technological limits. It became a major economic power on the continent and the second largest exporter after the United Kingdom.
Chinese name
German Empire
Foreign name
German Empire
Abbreviated form
Germany, Germany, the Second Reich
continent
Europe
capital
Berlin
Major city
Hamburg , Munich , Cologne , Frankfurt , Stuttgart , Borussia Dortmund , Bonn Etc.
National Day
January 18, 1871
National song
" Long live the winner's crown "
Official language
German
currency
Mark
Political system
A dual constitutional monarchy
National leader
William I , Frederick III , Wilhelm II
Population number
64,925,993 (1910)
Major nationality
German , Danes , Polish
Major religion
Protestantism , Catholicism
Land area
540,857.54 km2 (1910)
Land area
540857.54 km²
Total GDP
392.9 billion yuan
Road access
Keep to the left
Front body
Kingdom of Prussia
inheritor
Weimar Republic
Time of existence
January 18, 1871 - November 11, 1918

catalogue

  1. oneCountry name
  2. 2Development history
  3. ▪Road to unification
  4. ▪Empire building
  5. ▪First Chancellor
  6. ▪Triple Alliance
  7. ▪Wilhelm II
  8. ▪External expansion
  9. ▪Destruction of empire
  10. 3territory
  11. ▪mainland
  1. ▪colony
  2. 4political
  3. 5Military affairs
  4. ▪Military force
  5. ▪Military system
  6. ▪Foreign war
  7. 6economy
  8. ▪population
  9. ▪agriculture
  10. ▪industry
  11. ▪traffic
  1. ▪Economic policy
  2. 7culture
  3. ▪thought
  4. ▪Literature and art
  5. ▪education
  6. ▪religion
  7. 8nation
  8. ▪nationalism
  9. ▪Alien immigrant
  10. 9Science and technology
  11. 10diplomacy
  1. ▪Foreign policy
  2. ▪Colonial expansion
  3. 11society
  4. ▪urbanization
  5. ▪Workers' movement
  6. ▪Social security
  7. twelveImperial lineage

Country name

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EDITOR
On 10 December 1870, the North German Bundestag renamed the Confederation the German Reich (German: Deutsches Kaiserreich). The German Empire, also known as the Second German Reich, Kaiserreich (German: Kaiserreich), or simply Germany, was officially named Deutschland (German: Deutsches Reich), which also became later Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany The official title of the country.
Coat of arms of the German Empire

Development history

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EDITOR

Road to unification

In 1415, Holy Roman Empire Emperor Sigismund The Edict gave Frederick VI of Hohenzollen-Frankenia the title of Brandenburg Elector He is known as the Elector Frederick I . In 1510, a branch of Hohenzollen-Ansbach Albrecht Be elected as The Teutonic Knights The 37th Grand Colonel. In 1525, he turned to Polish-lithuanian Commonwealth King Sigismund the First Oath of allegiance, and declare the state of the Teutonic Order secularized, renamed Duchy of Prussia . In 1594, his granddaughter married into the Hohenzollern family Elector of Brandenburg Son of the Lord John Sigismund . Johann Sigismund became Elector of Brandenburg in 1598. In 1618, when the Duke of Prussia died without a son, he gave the land to his son-in-law, and the two countries were merged and renamed Brandenburg-Prussia. In 1701, the Holy Roman Emperor exchanged Brandenburg-Prussia for Frederick III, Duke of Prussia War of the Spanish Succession His support raised the Duchy of Prussia to the Kingdom of Prussia, which became known as the King of Brandenburg-Prussia Frederick I . The Kingdom of Brandenburg-Prussia is also known simply as the Kingdom of Prussia.
In 1806, First French Empire Emperor Napoleon decreed the last emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Franz the Second By disbanding the Shenra Empire, the Shenra Empire was destroyed and the latter became Austrian Empire The Emperor. In 1815, Napoleon Battle of Waterloo Defeat, the end of the First French Empire, Napoleonic Wars That's the end of it. In the same year, due to Congress of Vienna With the opposition of the other participating states, Austria failed to restore the Holy Roman Empire and instead established an Austrian presidency German Confederation . However, the new German Confederation was loosely organized and the states remained fully sovereign, especially as Prussia, which had greatly increased its position and power during the Napoleonic Wars, began to compete with Austria for dominance of the German region.
In 1834, the 38 members of the German Confederation, headed by Prussia, were formed German customs union It was formally opposed to the Austrian-led German Confederation. In 1864, Prussia was in Puttan-danish war China defeated Denmark and Denmark was forced to cede Schleswig Territory to Prussia. In 1866, Prussia was in Austro-prussian war After the victory over Austria, Austria was forced to give up its dominance of Germany and dissolve the German Confederation. In 1867, led by Prussia The North German Confederation Set up.
The North German Confederation

Empire building

In 1870, Second French Empire with Kingdom of Prussia Eruption Franco-prussian War . On January 18 of the following year, Prussia was victorious in the war, the King of Prussia William I Crowned at Versailles, France Emperor of Germany The Empire was born and annexed the North German Confederation and the South German states.
The German Empire now became one of the most powerful countries in the world. The Kingdom of Prussia was dominant in the new Empire. It comprised three-fifths of the empire and two-thirds of the population. The Hohenzollern Dynasty The hereditary crown continued to be the imperial crown.
The coronation of William I

First Chancellor

Bismarck, first Chancellor of the German Empire
The short history of the German Empire can be roughly divided into two periods. The first period was the period of Chancellor Bismarck (1871-1890). The first Chancellor Otto von Bismarck Born April 1, 1815, died July 30, 1898, known as" Iron and blood Chancellor ". Appointed Prime Minister of Prussia during the Prussian Constitutional crisis of 1862, he led and initiated the Prussian War, the Prussian War, and the Franco-Prussian War, so that his influence after the establishment of the Empire even surpassed that of Kaiser Wilhelm I until he was dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890. His main policies after becoming the first Chancellor of the Empire were as follows:
First up is the Cultural struggle . It's Bismarck's crackdown in the 1870s Catholicism The actions of the church. As early as 1870, the First Vatican Council issued the Infallibility of the Pope, which brought the state into the affairs of the Church for the first time because of dissent among the Catholics of the Empire. The Central Party was founded by Catholics in December 1870 to protect Catholic interests, but Bismarck saw it as an enemy of the Empire, and its support for the Pope led to the perception that the party was loyal to the Pope rather than the state. The Centre Party won 63 seats in the 1871 general election, second only to the National Liberal Party. In addition, Bismarck believed that the Centre Party would form an anti-imperialist force with Catholic France and Austria, and that Catholics had supported the Greater German Plan at the Frankfurt Congress of 1849 and had supported Austria in the Austro-Prussian War. Therefore, Bismarck launched a "cultural struggle" to greatly reduce the influence of Catholics in Germany.
The cultural struggle was mainly waged between 1871 and 1876, weakened by Bismarck through a series of laws Catholic Church The influence of... First, in July 1871, Bismarck abolished the Catholic section of the Prussian Ministry of Culture. In March 1872, the "School Supervision Act" was promulgated, which provided for the state to replace the church in the supervision of schools. In 1873, a series of acts were passed, collectively known as the May Acts. The main measures were to control the training, appointment, and church education of the clergy, to prohibit Jesuit activities in the Empire, and to depose or arrest clergy who refused to obey these laws. In 1874, it was stipulated that the church could not control the wedding, and marriage affairs were handled by the state, and people had to register with the relevant departments to have legal effect. In 1875, the Granary Act was introduced, which denied government religious grants to priests who refused to sign a declaration of support for government legislative action. Finally came the Monasteries Act of June 1875, which banned all forms of Catholic congregations except for disease-serving societies and closed all monasteries. Many clerics who resisted the cultural struggle were imprisoned or deported. But instead of achieving the desired results, the cultural struggle has led to the growing power of the Centre Party, the cohesion of Catholics, and the support of voters. In the general election of 1874, the Centre Party doubled its seats in the Reichstag. This backfire, coupled with Bismarck's fear of an alliance between the Social Democrats and the Centre Party, and the death of Pope Pius IX in 1878, when the New Pope Leo XIII expressed his willingness to reconcile, forced Bismarck to abandon his hostility to the Catholics, gradually abolish the decrees, and cooperate with the Centre Party.
Second, after the establishment of the German Empire, German Social Democratic Party Its strength grew, and although it was still small in number, Bismarck saw it more and more as an enemy of the Empire. The Social Democrats criticized the internal and external policies of the Empire and fought for a better life for the vast majority of workers, and thus gradually became one of the most influential political parties in the Empire. When Kaiser Wilhelm I was assassinated in May 1878, in which no one was hurt, Bismarck used this as an excuse to submit a proposal to the Reichstag. The Socialist Law ". Soon after, William was assassinated again and seriously wounded. In October the Parliament passed the Socialist Law. The Socialist Law, also known as the Anti-Socialist Extraordinary Law, prohibited all socialist gatherings, organizations, associations, and newspapers, as well as any donations, but the Parliament refused to legislate against the Social Democrats running for Parliament, so that the Socialists still have a certain influence in the Parliament. Socialist laws were reenacted every three years until Bismarck stepped down in 1890.
The result of Bismarck's policy, like the cultural struggle, was that the bill failed to achieve its intended effect and instead strengthened the Social Democratic Party. The economic depression of the 1870s, which exacerbated the disparity between the rich and the poor in the Empire, aroused the concern not only of the socialists, but also of many different members of Imperial society, and the growing power of the Social Democrats, who Bismarck bought off through various welfare measures in order to suppress the political activities of these working classes. So while being anti-socialist, Bismarck actually implemented some measures to protect citizens' rights Socialist law These include the Sickness Insurance Act of 1883, the Accident Insurance Act of 1884 and the Old Age and Disability Insurance Act of 1889. Although these laws made the Empire the first country in the world to have a complete social security, they did little to bridge the gap between Bismarck and the workers. In 1890, when the Reichstag refused to pass the Socialist Law, Emperor Wilhelm II dismissed Bismarck as Prime Minister and Bismarck stepped down, ending anti-socialism.

Triple Alliance

Bismarck knew that the Empire had just been founded, was located in the center of Europe, was surrounded by strong enemies, and the establishment of the Empire had changed the balance of power in Europe, making the great powers uneasy. Thus, during his presidency, he adopted a continental policy, declaring Germany a "contented empire" to appease the great powers. He instigated confrontation between Britain and Russia, allied with Austria, blocked Russian expansion and isolated France, in order to consolidate the German Empire's hegemony on the European continent.
In 1873, Germany, Russia and Austria were formed Alliance of the Three Kings It is a very vague military covenant, there are conflicting interests between the three countries, so the Three Imperial Alliance is not a stable alliance. Bismarck had thought it would take a long time for France to recover from the Franco-Prussian war and the war Paris Commune However, in 1873, five billion francs in reparations were paid in advance, forcing the German army to withdraw from France. Bismarck did not want France to become strong again, and in 1874, under the pretext of French retaliation, he massed troops on the border, causing a crisis of war. Bismarck believed that the Alliance had just been established and that Russia would not object to German action against France, but Russia did not want Germany to be too strong and France to be an effective check on Germany, the Czar Alexander II Criticizing Bismarck's actions, saying that Russia would not turn a blind eye, Bismarck had to abandon the operation.
In 1878, Bismarck presided over the Berlin Congress, which was more than a revision for Germany Treaty of SAN Stefano It was a conference to show German strength. In the meeting, Germany tried to please Britain and Austria, and Russia's original interests were almost completely lost in the meeting, which worsened German-Russian relations, and the Three Imperial Alliance was dead in name.
In October 1879, Germany and Austria formed an alliance, which stipulated that if one party was attacked by Russia, the other should join the war; Italy joined the Covenant in 1882 because of its rivalry with France over Tunisia Triple Alliance . In 1879, Germany implemented a protectionist policy to restrict the import of Russian grain, and by the 1980s, German-Russian relations were basically unsustainable, at which time France took the initiative, proposed a Franco-Russian alliance in 1887, provided 500 million francs to help Russia solve its financial difficulties in 1888, and provided 1.9 billion to Russia in 1889. Bismarck signed it in 1887 in order to maintain German-Russian relations Reinsurance treaty When one of the States Parties to the Statute is attacked, the other party shall remain neutral. However, in 1890, Wilhelm II refused to renew the contract with Russia, and Russia joined the British and French camps.
Bismarck claimed that Germany was a "contented empire", so it did not establish colonies abroad in the early years to avoid friction with other powers, so Germany's colonial enterprise started late. The German Colonial Association (Deutscher Kolonialverein) was founded in Frankfurt on 6 December 1882, and the Gesellschaft fur deutsche Kolonisation (Gesellschaft fur deutsche Kolonisation) in Berlin in 1884. The two organizations merged in 1887. In 1884 Germany was still there Namibia , Togo and Cameroon A colony was established, and again in 1890 Tanganyika A colony was established.
Triple Alliance and Triple Entente

Wilhelm II

A cartoon depicting Bismarck's dismissal by Wilhelm II
The second period of the German Empire was that of Kaiser Wilhelm II (1890-1918). Kaiser Wilhelm II He was born on 27 January 1859 and died on 4 June 1941. In March 1888, Kaiser Wilhelm I died, predeceased by his son Frederick III However, he died of throat cancer in June of the same year, and after only 99 days as emperor, he was succeeded by his 29-year-old son William II, so 1888 is also known as the "Three Imperial year" (Dreikaiserjahr).
Wilhelm II was young, arrogant and imperious. He could not accept being controlled by Chancellor Bismarck and wanted to be involved in politics himself. Therefore, although Wilhelm II had admired Bismarck before he became emperor, he often disagreed with the chancellor after he became emperor.
In May 1889, after a strike in the Ruhr Industrial zone, Wilhelm II asked the Reichstag to enact a comprehensive labor security bill, which ran counter to Bismarck's anti-socialism. In 1890, due to the surge of the Social Democrats in the elections, Bismarck demanded a constitutional change, but disagreed with Kaiser Wilhelm II. Finally, on March 18, 1890, Bismarck resigned from Wilhelm II, and the Bismarck era ended.
Second prime minister Leo von Caprivi The Count succeeded him (March 20, 1890 - October 26, 1894). He adopted a moderate approach, pushing for trade treaties with European countries that provided jobs for workers and reduced German import tariffs. This led to an improvement in the standard of living of the workers and a reduction in the price of bread, but caused an outcry from the large landowners who were hurt. In 1892, the failure to pass the Education Bill severely damaged Caprivi's position, and he was forced to resign on 20 October 1894.
The third Chancellor Hohenlohe Hillingsfest He succeeded him from October 29, 1894 to October 17, 1900. In office, he tried to prevent or compensate for unnecessary losses caused by Kaiser Wilhelm II's religious fervor. In 1900, at the age of 81, he retired.
The fourth Chancellor Bernhard von Bulow The Count succeeded him (17 October 1900-14 July 1909). Count Bulow tried to establish friendly relations with the leaders of the parties in the Imperial Council in order to get them to approve his proposals, but his success was limited. His revival of farm protections has conservative support. But the high costs of his foreign policy, especially as colonial expansion forced him to raise taxes at home, led to strong opposition from members of Congress. Despite this, Count Bulow remained chancellor because of his close relationship with Kaiser Wilhelm II.
But during a visit to Britain in 1908, in an interview with a British journalist in The Daily Telegraph, Wilhelm II, who considered himself a friend of Britain, claimed that his devotion to Britain was at odds with that of the majority of the German people. Due to neglect of work, Count Bulow was unable to prevent the publication of the article. As soon as this article appeared in the newspaper, the press and Congress immediately uproar, the public uproar. Even conservatives urged the emperor to abdicate. Count Bulow blamed himself, but his speech on the matter in the Reichstag angered the Kaiser, who thereafter became less friendly to him than before. His indifference to the issue also cost him public support. He had to resign in 1909.
The fifth Chancellor Theobaden von Bateman Hollweg He succeeded him from July 14, 1909 to July 13, 1917. He is full of peace ideals and advocates peaceful solutions to problems. Internally, we strive to maintain the social status quo. He opposed any kind of change in the German political and social system, but these failed. In July 1917, he was forced to step down due to disagreements with Parliament over peace negotiations with the Allies.
Sixth Chancellor George Michaelis He succeeded him from July 14, 1917 to November 1, 1917. He was unproductive in office, eventually losing the support of parliament and being spurned by the military, forcing him to resign.
Seventh Chancellor George von Hertling He succeeded him from November 1, 1917 to September 30, 1918. Although he was the leader of the largest party in the Bavarian parliament, he had no influence and was little more than a figurehead like the sixth Chancellor, Michael Ellis. By the end of 1918, with Germany on the brink of collapse, he was unable to deal with the crisis and was forced to resign.
Eighth Chancellor Max von Baden The Prince succeeded him (3 October 1918-9 November 1918). With Germany's defeat imminent, the Kaiser and the Junker aristocracy wanted to take advantage of the Prince's reputation as a moderate, especially in opposition Unrestricted submarine warfare Through the President of the United States Woodrow Wilson To negotiate an armistice with the Allies.
He quickly realized that the current political system could no longer be limited to superficial tinkering, but had to be radically reformed, and he set about reforming it. In late October, he dismissed Ludendorff, a heavyweight in the General Staff, weakening the General Staff. However, these reforms did not satisfy the demands of the left Social Democrats and were resisted by the right, led by the emperor, so that the Prince of Baden doubted the prospects of reform, and he became indecisive, hesitating on both sides, unable to deal with them. At last the Prince of Baden decided to invite the leader of the Social Democrats Phillip Shedman He joined the cabinet, but by then it was too late. In November, the German November Revolution broke out, and on November 9, the Empire fell.

External expansion

Cartoons of Germany challenging Britain
Wilhelm II declared that Germany would seek "its place under the sun." As the fifth Chancellor Hollweg put it, "The time when other peoples were allowed to divide the continent and the sea, while we in Germany were satisfied with the blue sky, is over, and we demand a place in the sun."
Wilhelm II wanted to establish a colonial empire. Since the Bismarck period did not actively expand its colonies, Germany's overseas colonies had lagged far behind other powers, and Wilhelm II accelerated the pace of colonization when he took power. In order to intervene in the affairs of foreign colonies, he actively expanded the army, especially the navy, at the end of the 19th century. Conflict with the other powers was inevitable, especially with the traditional naval power, Britain.
In July 1890, Britain and Germany signed the Treaty of Helgoland-Zanzibar, which was recognized by Germany Zanzibar It's a British colony, and the British have Helgoland Island Giving it to Germany solved the Anglo-German colonial dispute and temporarily improved relations between the two countries. This treaty brought Russia closer to France, because of the fierce competition between Britain and Russia for colonies in the Far East, and the two countries formed the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1892, which ended Bismarck's earlier efforts to isolate France.
In 1895, the British attacked The Transvaal In the end, the British failed to act, William II congratulated the Transvaal, and as a result the British sent ships to the North Sea and the English Channel to demonstrate.
In 1897, Germany occupied China Shandong Peninsula .
In 1898, Britain and Germany signed a secret agreement to divide Portuguese Africa to prevent German intervention in the upcoming Second Boer War, and Germany promised to stop supporting the Boers.
1899, Germany Spanish-american War The opportunity to contribute to the purchase Guam , The Caroline Islands and Palau . However, at that time, the area of Germany's colonies was far less than that of Britain and France, and most of the land was poor in resources, and Wilhelm II was unwilling to accept these gains, and he was in direct competition with Britain and France. Germany's decision to build a fleet second only to Britain's was strongly resented by the British because it threatened their maritime supremacy.
In June 1902, Germany, Austria, and Italy extended the Tripartite Alliance, but a few months later Italy made a secret agreement with France in which Italy recognized French interests in Morocco, and the Tripartite alliance became unreliable.
In 1903, after Germany obtained the construction rights of the Baghdad Railway, it launched a trans-Eurasian railway plan connecting Berlin and Baghdad, through Constantinople, in order to infiltrate German power Ottoman Empire . The British offered to cede construction rights to the last section of the railway connecting the Persian Gulf Coast to the British, but Germany refused. So the Governor of Britain and India, escorted by a British fleet, made a demonstrative voyage in the Persian Gulf, which increasingly strained Anglo-German relations.
In 1905, Germany quarreled with France in Morocco The first Moroccan crisis Wilhelm II visited Morocco and said he would protect Morocco's independence and territorial integrity.
In 1906, Germany and France held a conference in Algeciras, Spain, to discuss the Moroccan question, and finally agreed that the Moroccan port police would be French and Spanish police, and Germany was isolated in the conference.
In 1911, The second Moroccan crisis The Germans have sent ships into Moroccan ports Agadir . Germany's deliberate provocation led to British intervention and the signing of the Moroccan-Congo Treaty, in which Germany acquired part of the Congolese territory, connected it to the land southeast of German Cameroon, and recognized France as a protectorate of Morocco. Even if the crisis is resolved, the deterioration of German-French relations is an irretrievable fact.
On June 28, 1914, Sarajevo incident Germany offered unconditional support to Austria, Russia declared war on Austria, Germany declared war on Russia, and World War I broke out.

Destruction of empire

In the 1890s, Germany came along chauvinism Groups, the most powerful of which is Pan-german association It advocated the theory of Germanic racial superiority, proposed to seize the colonies of Britain, France and other countries, and then annex small countries in Europe and the United States to establish a worldwide great Germanic empire. In 1887, Congress passed the Military Act, which approved an increase in military spending.
The last emperor, Wilhelm II
In 1898 the German Naval League was formed, Alfred von Tirpitz Appointed Secretary General of the Admiralty of the State, he advocated the construction of a large fleet and passed the first Naval expansion Act, building 19 battleships, eight armoured ships, and 42 cruisers by 1904. The Second Naval Act was passed in 1900, building more ships and making the German navy second only to Britain. The expansion of the German navy caused concern in Britain, and the two countries began an arms race. The launch of the first British dreadnoughts in 1906 made Germany very nervous, because at the time Kiel Canal and Wilhelmshaven The equipment is not enough to build and house this giant.
In 1891, Schlieffen, the German chief of the General Staff, began to adjust the war plan against Russia and France, with the principle of quick victory, first defeating France in six weeks, and then turning to the slower mobilization of Russia, and defeating it in four months. The project was finally completed in 1905, i.e." The Schlieffen Plan ". In preparation for the war, German military spending continued to increase, from 428 million marks in 1879 to more than 2 billion marks in 1913, and the number of troops increased from 400,000 in 1874 to 750,000 before the war, with 390 ships and 80,000 sailors.
When Germany entered World War I as a member of the Allied Powers in 1914, the imperial economy was in depression, and war weariness among the German public was growing as the war dragged on and casualties mounted. After food riots in 1915 and mass strikes in 1917, the government of Hollweg, the fifth chancellor, was replaced by the government of Michael Ellis, the sixth Chancellor, who had been replaced by military chiefs Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff Led by the German Junker nobility overhead. That same year, German Imperial Party Established, single-minded support for the military-led government.
However, following the surrender of Bulgaria, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and other allied members, the Junkers decided to form a civilian government under the eighth Chancellor, Prince Baden. The aim was to capitalise on Prince Baden's reputation as a moderate, in particular his opposition to unrestricted submarine warfare, and to negotiate an armistice with the Allies through US President Woodrow Wilson. At the same time, to prevent civil unrest from spreading. The new government began constitutional reforms, including the accountability of the ministries to the Reichstag, civilian control of the army, and the abolition of three-tier elections in Prussia. At this time, however, the German establishment still wanted to go to war with all its might.
On October 25, 1918, the German Naval Command ordered the German ocean Fleet in Kiel to go to sea to fight the British and "sink with honor" if they failed. The port of Kiel sailors refused to carry out the suicide order. As a result, although the resistance of the sailors forced the German naval authorities to withdraw the order, the sailors were persecuted and hundreds of them were arrested.
On 3 November, sailors took to the streets of Kiel to protest against the naval authorities and demand the release of those arrested. The demonstration then developed into an armed uprising, and the sailors disarmed their officers and quickly captured strategic positions and took control of the city. Workers responded with an armed uprising and established the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. By the evening of the 4th, Kiel and the surrounding suburbs were occupied by insurgents. On the 5th, Kiel went on a general strike in support of the sailors' uprising. Kiel Harbor sailors revolt becomes November Revolution in Germany The outbreak of the signal, the revolution quickly spread across the country. By 8 November, armed uprisings had broken out in almost all major German cities and Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' deputies had been established.
On November 9, Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate, ending the German Empire. On 10 November, the Council of People's Deputies took over government affairs. On November 11, Germany announced its unconditional surrender, bringing World War I to an end.

territory

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EDITOR

mainland

Before the reunification of Germany, the German region was divided into 39 separate states. These states included kingdoms, grand duchies, principalities, princely states, free Hanseatic cities, and imperial dominions. Prussia was the largest of the many states that made up the Empire, accounting for 60% of the Empire. The new German Empire consisted of 25 states (including three Hanseatic cities) and one direct territory. It implemented a "small German solution" (excluding Austria), rather than a "greater German solution" (which would include Austria). Although the German Empire was sometimes supported by monarchical alliances, it was strictly a union of states. [27]
The Second German Empire consisted of states
state
capital
realm
Kingdom of Prussia
Berlin
Kingdom of Bavaria
Munich
Kingdom of Saxony
Dresden
The Kingdom of Wurttemberg
Stuttgart
Grand duchy
The Grand Duchy of Baden
Karlsruhe
Hessen
Darmstadt
Mecklenburg-Shmelin
Schwerin
Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Noistrelitz
Oldenburg
Oldenburg
Weimar - Eisenach, Saxony
Weimar
duchy
Anhalt
Dessau
Brunswick
Brunswick
Altenburg, Saxony
Altenburg
Saxony Coburg Gotha
Coburg
Saxony-Meiningen
Meiningen
principality
Leeper
Daymold
Reus-Guerra
Guerra
Reuss-Greitz
Greitz
Schaumburg - Lieber
Buckeburg
Schwarzburg Rudolstadt
Rudolstadt
Schwarzburg Sandhausen
Sandhausen
Waldeck-Pyrmont
Arolson
Hanseatic Free City
Bremen
Hamburg
Lv Ke
Imperial dominion
Loringen, Alsace

colony

German overseas colonies
Pacific region
Samoa
It was established on 1 March 1900 under the command of the Imperial German Pacific Fleet, and in 1914 New Zealand occupied German Samoa. In 1920, Germany transferred the land to New Zealand
German New Guinea (German Solomon Islands, Caroline Islands, Palau, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands and Nauru)
In 1919, under the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations granted to Australia German New Guinea and all the islands south of the equator except for German Samoa and Nauru. Nauru was nominally entrusted to the United Kingdom, but in practice was also ruled by Australia
African region
German East Africa (Tanganyika, Rwanda, Burundi)
In 1919, under the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations transferred Rwanda and Burundi to Belgium, the area south of the Lovuma River to Portugal, and Tanganyika to the British mandate
German West Africa (Cameroon, Togoland)
It was occupied by Great Britain, France, and Belgium in 1914, and handed over to Great Britain and France respectively in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles.
German South-West Africa (Namibia)
It was seized in 1884 and invaded by British and South African forces in 1915. After the war its administration was taken over by the Union of South Africa (part of the British Empire), and the territory was administered under a League of Nations mandate as South West Africa
China
German Glue (Qingdao)
It was occupied on 17 December 1897 and was occupied by the Japanese military in 1914
Hankou German Concession
It was established on October 3, 1895 and resumed on March 15, 1917
Tianjin De Concession
It was established on October 30, 1895 and accepted by the Chinese government on August 14, 1917
Shandong sphere of influence
Table Reference: [12]

political

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EDITOR
By law of April 16, 1871 Kingdom of Prussia The Empire is a federal state, consisting of 22 states, three free cities, and one territory. The cantonal states transferred military, foreign affairs, customs, and criminal powers to the imperial government, retaining only powers such as education, health, and local administration, while retaining their own monarchical government and parliament.
But at the same time, the Empire was a dual monarchy. The Constitution states that the King of Prussia is the Emperor of the Empire, and the Prime Minister of Prussia is the Chancellor of the Empire. The Imperial emperor has the supreme power and can appoint and remove officials at all levels of the empire. The Imperial Chancellor was appointed and dismissed by the Emperor and was responsible only to the Emperor.
The legislative bodies of the Empire were the Federal Parliament and the Reichstag. The Federal Assembly is composed of representatives appointed by the monarchs of the states, chaired by the Chancellor, and has 58 seats. Prussia 17 seats, Bavaria 6 seats, Saxony Occupy 4 seats, Wurttemberg With only 14 votes needed to reject a constitutional amendment, Prussia had considerable influence in the Bundestag.
Members of the Reichstag were elected in secret by male citizens of the Empire who had reached the age of 25. There were 382 Reichstag members, which increased to 397 in 1873. All the resolutions passed by the Reichstag had to be approved by the Bundestag before they could come into effect, thus limiting the powers of the Reichstag and thus not much in practice.

Military affairs

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EDITOR

Military force

Under pressure from domestic nationalism and expansionism, Wilhelm II in 1888 abandoned Bismarck's sensible and prudent policy that Germany should maintain only a small navy, saw the navy as an important part of his world policy, and decided to build a fleet second only to Britain's. In 1897, Alfred von Tirpitz He was appointed Secretary General of the Admiralty and served as Minister of the Imperial Navy from 1898, the same year the German Naval Union was founded. Tirpitz On March 28, 1898, the first Naval Construction Act, guided by Naval Memorandum No. 9, was approved by Congress. The Act stipulated that Germany would build 19 battleships, eight armoured ships, 12 heavy cruisers, 30 light cruisers, and 63 destroyers by April 1904. In January 1900, Tirpitz submitted a second naval construction bill to the Reichstag. The German Navy was to double in size by 1917 to 38 battleships, 20 heavy cruisers and 38 light cruisers, and 100 torpedo boats, second only to Britain. [25]
The expansion of the German navy caused concern in Britain, and the two countries began an arms race. The first British ship in 1906 dreadnoughts When it was launched, it made Germany very nervous. The Third and Fourth Naval Acts were passed in 1906 and 1908. In April 1912, to ensure that the fleet was always on full alert, the German Naval Act was re-enacted, which was expected to increase to 41 battleships, 20 armoured cruisers, 40 light cruisers, 140 destroyers, and 72 submarines. This fleet formed the main part of the German navy in World War I. [25]
Under Tirpitz's stewardship, Germany built a formidable High seas fleet, consisting of 16 invincible battleships and six quasi-invincible battleships. Five battle cruisers, 11 light cruisers and 61 destroyers, with a total tonnage of 660,000 tons, became the second largest naval power in the world after the United Kingdom, which played a part in the defense of German overseas colonies and sea lines of communication. [25]
In preparation for the war, German military spending continued to increase, from 428 million marks in 1879 to more than 2 billion marks in 1913, and the number of troops increased from 400,000 in 1874 to 750,000 before the war, with 390 ships and 80,000 sailors. In the spring of 1914, Germany had a standing army of 870,000, the Army was equipped with a large number of new heavy guns, 117mm rapid-fire field guns, and there was a dense railway network for military transport, and Germany also added an airship force of 50 airships. [26]

Military system

The military system of the German Empire basically followed the military system of the Prussian period. [5] By the end of World War I, the prolongation of the war had made the High Command the de facto military arbiter of Germany. The Hindenburg-Ludendorff team, sent from the Eastern Front in August 1916, forced the Emperor to disarm Farkingham The post of Chief of the General Staff, by Hindenburg As Chief of the General staff, Rudendorf As the first quartermaster General. They hold not only the military command, but practically all major political decisions. The emperor completely receded into the background. [2]

Foreign war

Subject article: World War I

economy

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EDITOR

population

Germany's population grew rapidly throughout the 19th century. The population explosion in the early 19th century led to the phenomenon of "extreme poverty". The population explosion of William's empire did not have serious consequences, and mass immigration to the Americas tended to decline. In the last 30 years of the 19th century, the population of the German Empire increased by more than 9 million, from 41 million in 1871 to more than 50 million by the end of the century, and to 67 million in 1913, just before the outbreak of the First World War. [4]
From 1683, there are records of German immigration to the North American continent. The 19th century was the peak of German immigration to the Americas, only from 1821 to 1903 more than 80 years, there are more than 5 million Germans immigrated to North America, of which 1871 to 1890, there are nearly 2 million Germans immigrated abroad, the most turbulent immigration in 1881 and 1882, about 200,000 Germans left home. The main source of immigration is South Germany, such as the Swabian, Palatinate and other places. German immigration to North America was so large that people of German descent became the largest minority in American society. However, from 1893 onwards, the number of German immigrants to North America began to decline sharply, and in 1895, the number of immigrants plummeted to 37,498, and the number of Germans in North America has not been exceeded since. [4]

agriculture

The completion of the capitalist transformation of agriculture has laid a deep foundation for the take-off of the economy. The process of German industrialization is to protect the development of agriculture on the basis of industrial modernization and play a mutually promoting role in industrialization. Although the "protection of agricultural interests" is intended to take care of the interests of the Junkers in power, a more balanced development between agriculture and industry is the characteristic and advantage of German economic modernization. The Prussian leadership, which had been associated with big agriculture, was now also implementing a new mercantilism essentially as a representative of the nationalism of "solidarity" between east, south and west, between agricultural and industrial areas. The modernization of agriculture has promoted the high concentration of land, made agricultural farming technology, agricultural rational management and agricultural mechanization widely implemented, directly promoted the development of agricultural product processing industry, and accelerated the process of industrialization in agricultural management. [2]
The decade 1870-1880 marked a new beginning in the history of German farm farming: 1878 saw the maximum area of effective agricultural use, with the abolition of leisure and the transition to specially intensive farming; The German sheep industry ended between 1867 and 1881; Cotton instead of flax; Kerosene, gas, electric instead of vegetable lamp oil; To make margarine. German agricultural production projects are increasingly focused on cereals and vegetables. In 1879 Bismarck admitted to imposing protective tariffs on agriculture against the flood of grain from Eastern Europe and the United States, and he raised them again in 1885 and 1887. Thanks to intensification, increasing tariff protection, and state aid, German agriculture flourished in the second half of the 19th century. On the one hand, the increase in land rent and land prices, on the other hand, the increase in overall agricultural production to 3 to 3.5 times, the increase in output per labor force to 2 to 2.5 times, and the increase in population to 2.3 times. This development of the agricultural economy injected a strong stimulant into the development of industrialization in Germany, providing rich means of living, means of production, raw materials, funds and sufficient labor for the development of industry. But in the 1880s and 1890s, Germany went from being a food exporter to an importer, and German agriculture lost its priority in the overall economy. The Farmers' Union, founded in 1893, was an organization of Junker farmers who demanded constant "relief" and "subsidies" from the state in order to defend their interests. [2]

industry

The most important developments in the German economy were the coal and steel industries. In 1875, the output of stone coal was 37.44 million tons, and the output of lignite was 10.39 million tons. In 1890, the output of stone coal increased to 70.24 million tons, and the output of lignite increased to 19.5 million tons, almost a straight line rise, far exceeding France and ranking second in Europe. The combination of coal and iron produced the most powerful steel industry in Europe. merger Alsace , Lorraine The changes to Germany's mining industry are huge. The limonite reserves in Lorraine are estimated at 700 million tons, while the total reserves elsewhere in the Empire are less than 300 million tons. The French don't pay much attention to Lorraine limonite The value of the Germans have long known. When in 1879 the Germans used the Thomas freezing process invented by the British to remove phosphorus from limonite, the German iron and steel industry took a new leap forward. 1875 pig iron production of 2.03 million tons, to 1900 has reached 8.5 million tons, and by 1914 Germany pig iron production of 14 million tons, more than the highest level of production in the United Kingdom l020 million tons, Germany pig iron and coal mining industry has jumped to the first in Europe. In 1875, German steel production was about 350,000 tons, and after the Thomas Gilcress basic converter steelmaking process was adopted in the 1980s, production doubled and reached 3.2 million tons in 1890. Ten years later, in 1900, production had more than doubled to 7.4 million tons, ranking first in Europe and becoming the world's second largest steel producer after the United States. A huge metallurgical industrial system began to take shape. [2]
Emerging industries such as electrical industry, chemical industry, optical industry, etc., have been the earliest development and support. The founders of the electrical industry Werner Siemens and Rathenau . Siemens made the world's first high-power DC motor in 1866, completing the invention of converting mechanical energy into electrical energy, beginning the "strong electricity" technology era in the late 19th century; In 1879, he invented the electric motor, which converted electrical energy into mechanical energy. Two years later the first tram was built in Berlin. Ratnau brought it back from his trip to America Edison In 1883, he founded the German Edison Company. The company later changed its name The German General Electric Company It is famous for the successful erection of long-distance transmission grid in 1891. Because Siemens had a strong influence on government figures, it was largely in control for two decades after reunification. The development of the electrical industry is the basic factor for the prosperity of the German economy after the 1990s. Germany leads the world in the widespread use of electricity. [2]
Chemical industry It covers a wide and diverse range of industrial activities and is most closely related to science. The development of chemical fertilizers, synthetic dyes, synthetic fibers, and photographic equipment was most significant in the late 19th century. Known as the "father of organic chemistry" Justus Liebig Laid the foundation of the German fertilizer industry. His student, Wilhelm Holmann, returned to Germany from London in 1864 and founded the German dye industry. The first dye factory, the Friedrich-Bayer dyeworks, was already a world-renowned enterprise in the 1890s. As the tar dye industry boomed, so did the production of acids, bases and other inorganic by-products. In 1877 Germany accounted for half of the world's production of synthetic dyes. After the beginning of the 20th century, the German chemical industry ushered in a huge development, and much of it turned to war. In this regard, science, industry and national policy are closely aligned, not only to enable Organic chemistry It became a huge independent industry and influenced every aspect of modern civilization. [2]

traffic

During Bismarck's reign in the German Empire, the rapid development of railways, waterways, and post and telecommunications enabled the rapid transportation of raw materials and manufactured goods. Railway construction was the leading industry that drove the industrial revolution in the 1950s and 1960s, and after the reunification of Germany, it entered the second railway era, and there was another upsurge in construction. In 1870, Germany had 18,560 km of railway, which increased to 41,818 km in 1890, making it the largest railway in Western and Central Europe. In 1879-1880, Bismarck nationalized the Prussian Railways, and by 1900 the state-owned railways had become very dominant. The railway construction promoted by the national force strongly stimulated the rapid development of the iron and steel industry, machinery manufacturing, and smelting industry, and comprehensively promoted the adoption of new production technologies and the climax of industrialization in Germany in the late 19th century. [2]
During the Wilhelm II era, transport in Germany developed rapidly. In 1895, the North Sea - Baltic Sea Canal came into operation, making the Baltic Sea, an inland sea, open and giving eastern Germany an additional outlet to the sea. At the same time, work began on a canal across central Germany. In the early 20th century, Port of Hamburg The throughput jumped to third place in the world, surpassing London , Liverpool and Marseille Second only to New York and Antwerp . In 1890, the freight traffic of the German railways rose from 22.5 billion tons to 67.7 billion tons. The displacement of Germany's merchant fleet rose from 1.6 million tons to 4.6 million tons, second only to Britain's 19.9 million tons and ahead of the United States' 2.8 million tons. Moreover, the German fleet was more technologically equipped than that of the United States, where more than one-third of the merchant fleet consisted of sailboats, while the German fleet consisted of less than one-thirteenth of the total. [4]
Gottlieb Daimler In 1885, a two-wheeled motor vehicle with a fuel engine was developed, making it the world's first motorcycle. Karl Benz In 1886, he invented the world's first automobile, which was equipped with a cylinder, equipped with three wheels, and reached a speed of 16 kilometers per hour, so this motor vehicle, which was much smaller and more flexible than the train, much more personalized, and much cheaper, soon spread to the whole world. In the years that followed, Zeppelin The Count began building airships, and on July 2, 1900, he developed his first Led Zeppelin The LZ-1 made its first flight near Friedrichshafen on Lake Boden in southern Germany, and Lillienthal developed the first human flight instrument. [4]

Economic policy

The "protection" of the German economy by the Second Reich was very prominent. Bismarck took ensuring the unification of the empire and consolidating the gains of the European continent as the fundamental development point of his domestic and foreign policy, and took the road of "enriching the country and strengthening the army". He focused on the expansion of armaments in the national economic development, especially the construction of forts and the development of heavy industry related to military production. The Bismarck government took advantage of the favorable conditions of national unification, the national consciousness from the people to revive the country, and carried out a series of effective policies and measures. [2]
In 1875, the Reich established the Central German National Bank. Then the country enacted banking laws and declared the gold standard. With the acquiescence of the government, Germany has developed a unique "universal banking" financial system. The biggest feature of German banks is that the "production credit" business exceeds the "goods market credit" business. "Every bank is a financial center for a group of companies. And to share the risk, several banks lend to the same company together." They can participate in various industrial and commercial activities. They can finance German exports, as well as foreign industries on a large scale. German banks injected a strong impetus into the development of industry and promoted the development of industry. "The combination of the German credit Bank and the positive forces of industry itself contributed to the industrialization of Germany." [6]
In the early years of the Empire, Germany pursued liberal economic and trade policies. However, under the impact of the Great Depression in 1873, many countries that had pursued liberal trade policies changed their policies. Seeing this situation, Bismarck decisively abandoned the liberal economic policy and adopted Liszt Theory, into the arms of trade protection. In July 1879, Germany introduced the Protective Tariff Law, established the industrial and agricultural industry protection alliance, and implemented a protective trade system for its light and heavy industries and agriculture. The taxation of all products is a source of national revenue, and there are corresponding taxation standards. For example, colonial commodities, especially coffee, tea, oil, tobacco, wine, spirits, etc., had corresponding taxation standards. Industrial raw materials, such as cotton, wool and ore, are exempt. Every scientific instrument is duty-free, as are the ships carrying the machinery and furniture of their national instruments. In the following years, Germany also passed other economic laws in order to complete the comprehensive protection of the country's industry and agriculture. For the immature handicrafts and industries of the country, the government gave special tariff policies. In the free domestic competitive environment, in order for small and medium-sized businessmen to have a foothold, the state will "all German handicraft Association", "agricultural owners association" and other associations are included in the scope of tariff protection. [6] [19]

culture

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EDITOR

thought

Nietzsche
In the early days of the German Empire, Kant Classical philosophy is still very influential. [29] The representative figure of postmodern philosophy is Nietzsche . He opposed the construction of a large system favored by German philosophers, and instead wrote in fragments. Nietzsche's philosophical creation can be roughly divided into three stages. In the first phase, he wrote" The birth of tragedy ", a collection of essays An ill-timed survey "And other books. Especially in The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche showed an obvious irrational tendency. Nietzsche's works such as "Human, too Human" and "The Science of Happiness" focus on profound moral criticism of contemporary culture, and strongly attack social prejudices. He reappraises the "eternal values" that have been circulating in European society for nearly two thousand years, dissecting the roots of trends such as chauvinism and anti-Semitism. Nietzsche's later works are Beyond Good and Evil, the Genealogy of Morality, So said Zarathustra Under the shadow of mental illness. [4]
Lipknesi
During the German Empire period, class contradictions were acute, and the socialist movement under the guidance of Marxist theory also flourished. The representative figures of Marxism in Germany during this period are Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel , Rosa Luxemburg , Franz Merlyn . [32] Liebknecht is the author of Advance report One of the chief editors of "; He published a series of articles and books, such as Knowledge is Power and Power is Knowledge (1872), On the Land Question (1876), A History of the French Revolution (1890), Robert Owen (1892), and Remembering Karl Marx (1896). In addition to writing the Parliamentary Activities of the Reichstag and the Local Councils 301 and the Social Democracy (1876-1893), Christianity and Socialism (1892), Charles Fourier (1888), In addition to his works Social Democracy and Universal suffrage (1895) and My Life (1910-1914), Bebel also wrote a book, Women and Socialism (1883), which was widely read in the workers' movement. Based on a large number of documents, Bebel pointed out the basic attitude of socialists towards the question of women's liberation and the reasons for women's oppression in society, mainly social reasons, and for the first time put forward the demand for the complete elimination of women's political and social inequalities. Luxemburg's outstanding contribution was a critique of revisionism, and Merlyn was a famous Marxist historian. [30] The leader of the Second International Karl Kautsky and Bernstein The influence in this period is also huge. [31]

Literature and art

In the "founding period" of the German Empire, many academies of art were established in German cities, among which Dusseldorf The influence of the Academy of Arts was particularly strong, and its influence extended all the way to Scandinavia. At this time, painting also turned to history, showing a strong historicism purport. classicism , historicism Biedermeyer was welcomed. Wagner's opera caters to this social mentality and also marks the society with his brand. Richard Wagner All of his musical plays are written by him, including" The ring of Nibelungen "" Tristan and Isolde "" Lohengrin ". In the choice of subject matter, Wagner's works are mostly based on medieval German history. They break through the barriers of reason, are not restricted by logic and causality, and leave wide space for imagination. Wagner's plays, on the other hand, focused on the history and national legends of the country, which catered to the heightened national mood after the Franco-Prussian War. [4]
In the 1880s, there was a rise in "German literature." naturalism The movement marked the beginning of modern German literature. The appeal of naturalism is to reflect the "truth" of social reality. Based on this basic idea, naturalist writers demand to measure literary works with objectivity. They maintain that the works are close to life, reveal the true face of society without any whitewash, and require a profound portrayal of the overall situation of contemporary society. The achievement of naturalism lies in the drama. The German naturalist theorist Holz had the greatest influence on drama during this period. [28] Naturalistic drama pays special attention to the role of "atmosphere", tries to reproduce reality on the stage, and makes the audience think that what they see is reality with the help of various stage effects. The representative of German naturalistic drama is Gerhard Hauptmann . His theatrical debut Before sunrise Premiered in 1889, the play describes the physical and moral decline of a rural nouveau riches family, with a minimum of plot to achieve maximum dramatic intensity, characters with personalities, characters' language to express the social status of the characters, and the development of the plot with great internal tension. [4]

education

The Second German Empire paid attention to the development of education, science and technology, and paid attention to the systematic learning of advanced industrialization experience of Britain, the United States and France, so as to ensure the rapid process of economic modernization of Germany in spirit. In order to make education better serve the economy, politics and culture of the country, the Imperial government promulgated a new education law in 1872, namely the General Provisions for the Prussian National Schools and Intermediate Schools. The implementation of this act has greatly promoted the development of national education. According to statistics, the number of Prussian national schools grew from 34,016 in 1886 to 39,684 in 1911, and the number of students increased from 4,838,237 to 6,572,140. In the following years, the Imperial government continued to revise and improve the education law. In the process of promulgating and implementing the Education Law, the government has continuously increased its investment in education and supported the development of national education with the backing of economic strength. In 1880, Germany spent 1.6% of its GDP on education. In 1914, Germany's education expenditure was the second largest item after military expenditure. [6] The German Empire also introduced compulsory education. Military service and education are regarded as two basic obligations of citizens. This greatly improved the cultural quality of the whole German nation. On this basis, the system of secondary schools was adjusted, vocational and technical education was vigorously developed, and higher education was reformed. Germany became the center of world education. [2]
The German Empire had a very high level of universal education. In Second Reich Germany, people with university education were respected by the rich businessmen and entrepreneurs. The content of education at this time is the same Wilhelm von Humboldt It is far from the thoughts of the classical humanistic era, and is more inclined to master the practical knowledge of nature and society, rather than the cultivation of spirit and character. German universities and technical institutes are not only centers of learning, but also active facilitators of academic research for big business groups. Although the university is still financially supported by the state, it still maintains a high degree of autonomy and protects the principle of "academic freedom". [2] Under Wilhelm II, the German university was not only an educational institution, but also played a unique social role, in addition to the task of cultivating talents, but also assumed the function of balancing social mentality. The military and politics were still dominated by the aristocracy, and the citizens could only enter the upper echelons of society if they were educated. As a result, the citizens sent their children to be educated in order to fundamentally change the situation of the next generation. [4]

religion

Under the advocacy of Bismarck, the early German Empire vigorously suppressed Catholicism. As early as 1870, the First Vatican Council issued the Infallibility of the Pope, which brought the state into the affairs of the Church for the first time because of dissent among the Catholics of the Empire. The Central Party was founded by Catholics in December 1870 to protect Catholic interests, but Bismarck saw it as an enemy of the Empire, and its support for the Pope led to the perception that the party was loyal to the Pope rather than the state. The Centre Party won 63 seats in the 1871 general election, second only to the National Liberal Party. In addition, Bismarck believed that the Centre Party would form an anti-imperialist force with Catholic France and Austria, and that Catholics had supported the Greater German Plan at the Frankfurt Congress of 1849 and had supported Austria in the Austro-Prussian War. Therefore, Bismarck launched a "cultural struggle" to greatly reduce the influence of Catholics in Germany. [2]
The cultural struggle was mainly waged between 1871 and 1876, weakened by Bismarck through a series of laws Catholic Church The influence of... In July 1871, Bismarck abolished the Catholic section of the Prussian Ministry of Culture. In March 1872, the "School Supervision Act" was promulgated, which provided for the state to replace the church in the supervision of schools. In 1873, a series of acts were passed, collectively known as the May Acts. The main measures were to control the training, appointment, and church education of the clergy, to prohibit Jesuit activities in the Empire, and to depose or arrest clergy who refused to obey these laws. In 1874, it was stipulated that the church could not control the wedding, and marriage affairs were handled by the state, and people had to register with the relevant departments to have legal effect. In 1875, the Granary Act was introduced, which denied government religious grants to priests who refused to sign a declaration of support for government legislative action. Finally came the Monasteries Act of June 1875, which banned all forms of Catholic congregations except for disease-serving societies and closed all monasteries. Many clerics who resisted the cultural struggle were imprisoned or deported. But instead of achieving the desired results, the cultural struggle has led to the growing power of the Centre Party, the cohesion of Catholics, and the support of voters. In the general election of 1874, the Centre Party doubled its seats in the Reichstag. This backfire, coupled with Bismarck's fear of an alliance between the Social Democrats and the Centre party, and the Pope Pius IX He died in 1878, the New Pope Leo XIII Expressing a willingness to reconcile, Bismarck was forced to abandon his hostility to the Catholics, gradually abolish the relevant laws, and instead cooperate with the Centre Party, and the cultural struggle was defeated. [2]

nation

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EDITOR

nationalism

The main ethnic group of the German Empire was the Germanic people. As a result of the nation-building path of the national war, nationalist sentiment in the German Empire was very strong, although the continued development of nationalism led to the unification of Germany in the 1870s. However, since then, German nationalism has gradually deviated from its proper development direction, and successive imperial governments have allowed nationalism to evolve into ultra-nationalism. In the 1890s, chauvinist groups emerged in Germany, the largest of which was the Pan-German Association, which advocated the theory of Germanic racial superiority and proposed the seizure of colonies in Britain, France and other countries, and the annexation of small countries in Europe and the United States in order to establish a worldwide Great Germanic empire. In 1887, Congress passed the Military Act, which approved an increase in military spending. [8]
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the unification of Germany and its growing economic power, the advocacy of nationalism in Germany was on the rise. With the support of German industry, a number of nationalist propaganda groups such as the German Colonial Association (founded in 1887, formerly the German Colonial Federation), the Pan-German Association (founded in 1891), and the Naval Association (founded in 1898) were founded. The members of these associations were mostly university professors, teachers, priests, but also intellectuals, military officers, and so on. These educated bourgeois intellectuals monopolize the right to speak in most of the media in Germany and use newspapers, books and other media to exert influence on the people of all classes in Germany. They borrowed biological criteria to classify people into "white," "yellow," and "black," according to their physical characteristics, and to correspond certain intellectual, emotional, and character traits to their respective races. "The nature of man and his higher calling," they preached, "demand that civilized nations rule the world," and that the world would be unfair if it did not allow its best nations to play their proper roles." [9] . Chamberlain, a racist fanatic, preached the superiority of the Germanic peoples from a historical and religious point of view. He wrote in" The foundation of the nineteenth century The book emphasizes that the "pure blood" of the Teutons inherited Greek philosophy and art, Roman law, and Christian personality. And of the Teutons, the Germans were the most gifted, for they had inherited the best qualities of the Greeks and Indo-Aryans. So they have the right to be masters of the world [10] .
Closely linked to the theory of racial inequality, ultranationalists draw on the theory of geography to propose the "living space" theory. In 1897, the German geographer Ratzer wrote in his book Political geography The theory of the "state organism" was first proposed in 1901 in the article "Lebenzoic Space: Biogeography". Using the knowledge of biology and the prevailing social Darwinism at that time, he compared the state to a living organism, and believed that the survival and operation of the national organism depended on the environment in which it was located, just like organisms, which needed a certain "living space". Therefore, it is inevitable that the state, as a sound spatial organism, will increase its power through territorial expansion [11] . Lazer's geographical theory was admired by German ultra-nationalists, who argued that the root cause of the German people's poverty was the small size of the German territory, and that Germany must expand its living space like biological organisms in order to develop. [8]
The theory of racial inequality and the theory of "living space" constitute the theoretical basis of the ultra-nationalist theory, and provide reasons and excuses for Germany to launch the imperialist war of aggression. The ultra-democrats of the German Empire believed that the Germanic nation bore the "mission of God", but the German people were in poverty because of the narrowness of their own territory, and this kind of imprisonment of the "excellent nation" was contrary to the "destiny of heaven", and Germany needed to expand its territory to obtain a larger "living space" for itself. They preached foreign aggression as the only solution to the German problem, and war was distorted by their glorification and praise. [8]

Alien immigrant

Immigration was the product of the economic and social development of the German Empire, and immigration further promoted the economic and social development of the German Empire. A large number of immigrants moved in to meet the rapidly expanding German economy's demand for labor, to ensure the continued in-depth development of German industrialization, and to make a great contribution to the German economic take-off. However, the German Empire did not treat these immigrants as members of its society and adopted a policy of national integration, but treated them as aliens and implemented a strict policy of defensive control. [20]
In 1885, Bismarck The government banned Polish immigrants from Austria-Hungary and Russia from entering Germany, and deported more than 30,000 Polish immigrants working in the Empire. Since the 1990s, the eastern provinces of Germany have been short of labor and in need of cheap foreign labor. In 1890, the Caprivi government began to relax the immigration policy, allowing Polish immigrants to enter Germany, but only allowed them to work in the industrial and agricultural sectors of the four eastern provinces of Prussia, and they were allowed to leave seasonally during the Christmas season. In addition, families are not allowed to immigrate. Other immigrants in Germany were subject to the same but less stringent controls than the Poles. They can work in western Germany, and most can even apply for permission to stay in the Christmas eviction. In 1906, 90% of Polish immigrants had to leave Germany before Christmas, while 53% of non-Polish immigrants were allowed to stay in Germany for the entire year. In 1908, the Prussian government introduced a compulsory legal status system for foreign workers, stipulating that only those foreign workers who had been given a "legal identity card" by its agents could enter Prussia. This controls the free movement of migrants and restricts them to working in one place. [20]
Under the strict immigration control policy of the Imperial government, immigrants lived in poor conditions and could not integrate into German society, and their residential areas became "enclaves" in Germany. In daily life, migrants are isolated in housing provided by enterprises. Corporate tenements and temporary workhouses have become minority areas, where immigrants speak their language and continue their traditional customs. Their economic situation and living conditions are poor, and their wage level is comparable to India , Scotland Flat or even lower. In 1905 350 Russians and Croatia People live in about 50 units, with an average of 25 people per 40 square meters. Such housing conditions increase or increase illegal cohabitation, illegitimacy, infanticide and infant mortality, and crime. Intermarriage was common among immigrants, and it was not until their second and third generations that intermarriage rates began to rise. The living and working conditions of immigrants also affect the growth and education of their offspring, and the children of immigrants are often isolated from local students in school. These conditions slow the integration of the second generation of immigrants into Germany and reduce the pressure on them to assimilate. It is difficult for immigrants to move beyond the social status of labor, and even the second and third generations rarely get skilled jobs or higher social status. Even if the second generation abandons the cultural traditions of their parents, it is difficult to be fully accepted by German society. [20]

Science and technology

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EDITOR
Aiming at those scientific and technological fields that had a decisive influence on the national economy, especially on the development of heavy industry and new industries, the Second German Reich organized and established many scientific research institutes, such as the National Institute of Physics, the National Institute of Chemical Engineering, and the National Institute of Mechanical Research. Bismarck, the de facto ruler of the early German Empire, encouraged German students to learn and master the world's high and new technologies that Germany had not yet mastered. The "systematic learning" and "thorough spirit" in the German national spirit have been stimulated and developed in the new industrial revolution. On the basis of advanced systematic learning, the Germans completed an epoch-making transformation: turning science to reference in production. They link basic theoretical research and applied scientific research with the production process, penetrate each other and promote each other. [2]
During the German Empire, the advanced industrial science and technology culture took a firm foothold in Germany and flourished. A wave of natural scientists emerged to make groundbreaking contributions, such as the discovery of radio waves Heinrich Rudolf Hertz . Rudolf Virchow He was a renowned pathologist and hygienist who founded cytopathology and the future bacteriology. The representative of practical scientific research is Werner von Siemens He was an engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur who founded Siemens. In 1886, the National Institute of Physics and Technology was founded. [2-3]
During the imperial period, the German nation quickly caught up with and exceeded the world's advanced level in the development of science and technology. According to statistics, between 1901 and 1914, 14 of the 42 Nobel Prizes in natural sciences, or one third, were awarded to Germans. The founder of quantum mechanics Max Planck Discovery of X-rays Roentgen The discovery of crystals X-ray diffraction phenomenal Max von Laue , famous chemist William Ostwald The founder of the world's pathogenic bacteriology Robert Koch The founder of chemotherapy Ehrlich A leader in organic chemistry research Fischer with Adolf von Beyer and Ammonia synthesis by the Haber process Inventor of Haber It was during the German Empire that they achieved their amazing achievements. Einstein Made within two or three years of coming to Berlin General relativity A major discovery. [24]

diplomacy

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EDITOR

Foreign policy

The foreign policy of the early German Empire was basically made up of chancellors Bismarck Dominant. His foreign policy is characterized by a strong hegemony over Europe. Mainland policy ". In the early 1870s, Bismarck sought to further weaken and even destroy France. In 1875, the Bismarck government created a "war in prospect" crisis and prepared to launch a war of aggression against France. However, due to the strong intervention of Russia and Britain, Bismarck had to abandon his plans to attack France for the time being. Bismarck was particularly concerned about fighting on both the eastern and western fronts, and he began to adopt an "alliance system" to prevent alliances between other European powers, especially Russia and France. Therefore, he tried to "co-opt" Russia and prevent Russia and France from approaching. To draw in Austria-Hungary and prevent Russian expansion into western and southern Europe; Exacerbating the confrontation between Britain and Russia in various parts of the world, dressing themselves as "arbitrators" and profiting from it. This is Bismarck's" Balance of power diplomacy ". In 1873, Bismarck facilitated the conclusion of the Three Imperial Agreements between Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany. In 1879, a military alliance was concluded with Austria-Hungary, which was joined by Italy in 1882 Triple Alliance ; A reinsurance treaty was signed with Russia in the 1980s. On the European continent, two rival military alliances have emerged: the Triple Alliance and the Russian-French Entente. [2]
Cartoons of Germany challenging Britain
After Bismarck stepped down, faced with diplomatic difficulties and domestic expansion demands, in order to "break" diplomatic bottlenecks and expand German power, Wilhelm II and his followers determined a new national foreign strategy -" World policy ". 1897 is generally regarded as the official start of German "world policy". After Germany focused its national strategy on military and colonial expansion, German diplomacy became a tool in the service of the former, and became more and more aggressive and threatening in the face of international crises. The first manifestation of this kind of diplomacy was the 1896" Kruger telegraph "Up. [7]
In 1895, the British attacked The Transvaal In the end, the British failed to act, William II congratulated the Transvaal, and as a result the British sent ships to the North Sea and the English Channel to demonstrate. In 1898-1901, Britain and Germany held three alliance negotiations. However, the interests of the two countries were difficult to reconcile, and the alliance failed. Subsequently, Britain immediately turned to Japan and concluded the Anglo-Japanese alliance, the contradiction between Britain and Germany also escalated, and soon in 1904, Britain and France concluded the "Anglo-Japanese Alliance". Anglo-french Entente ". A series of diplomatic failures led Germany to continue to adopt more adventurous and threatening diplomacy, trying to force Britain to cooperate with Germany, alienate Anglo-French relations, and collapse the Russia-French alliance. In 1903, after Germany obtained the construction rights of the Baghdad Railway, it launched a trans-Eurasian railway plan connecting Berlin and Baghdad, through Constantinople, in order to infiltrate German power Ottoman Empire . The British offered to cede construction rights to the last section of the railway connecting the Persian Gulf Coast to the British, but Germany refused. So the Governor of Britain and India, escorted by a British fleet, made a demonstrative voyage in the Persian Gulf, which increasingly strained Anglo-German relations. [7]
In June 1902, Germany, Austria, and Italy extended the Tripartite Alliance, but a few months later Italy made a secret agreement with France in which Italy recognized French interests in Morocco, and the Tripartite alliance became unreliable. In early 1905 the French planned a "reform" of Morocco. Germany strongly objected, and Wilhelm II made a speech publicly supporting the preservation of Moroccan "sovereignty," which Germany provoked The first Moroccan crisis . Germany has called for an international conference to resolve the issue, putting pressure on France. Finally, Germany and France met in Spain in 1906 Algeciras A conference was held to discuss the Moroccan problem, and it was agreed that the Moroccan port police would be French and Spanish, leaving Germany isolated. In 1911, The second Moroccan crisis Germany has sent ships to the Moroccan port of Agadir. Germany's deliberate provocation led to British intervention and the signing of the Moroccan-Congo Treaty, in which Germany acquired part of the Congolese territory, connected it to the land southeast of German Cameroon, and recognized France as a protectorate of Morocco. This shows that Germany's threatening strategy has failed again. As a result, German diplomacy fell into a "dead circle of diplomatic failure". Anglo-russian treaty Germany was completely "surrounded" by the three powers, and eventually diplomacy failed. [7]

Colonial expansion

  • The first stage
The process of colonial expansion of the German Empire was divided into two stages, the first stage was in the mid-1880s.
The colonial expansion in this period was spearheaded by civil action, which was supported by the government. In the German Imperial society of the late 1870s and early 1880s, there were many civic organizations that advocated colonial expansion, For example, "the Central Association for the Geography of Commerce and the Promotion of German Interests Abroad, founded in 1878; the Association for the Colonization and Export of West Germany, founded in the summer of 1881 with the support of the industrialist Beek and others; the Association for the Colonization of Germany, founded in 1882; and the Association for the Colonization of Germany, founded in 1884." [18] Under the advocacy of these organizations, the people started a wave of colonial expansion.
In order to consolidate his power on the European continent, Bismarck took a more cautious attitude on the colonial issue, and he was particularly reluctant to clash with Britain on the overseas colonial issue. But the German bourgeoisie, with its growing economic power, was unwilling to allow other countries to dominate the world's raw material production and sales markets, and the big business companies in Hamburg and Bremen reacted particularly strongly. [2] In November 1882, Bremen merchant A. Luderitz was rich in diamond mines in South Africa Angela The port of Pequinna bought land from local indigenous leaders and applied for protection from the German government. In July 1884, the explorer Nachtigar announced that Togo Cameroon would be placed under German protection. In September and November 1884, Carl Peters, son of a Saxony priest, lured local indigenous leaders to accept protection by offering them liquor. [13] The German Empire, on the other hand, recognized the achievements of civilian colonial expansion, and Bismarck, after learning of Luderitz's purchase of land in Southwest Africa, telephoned the German consul in South Africa to tell the British Cape Colonial government that the Imperial government would protect the land purchased by Luderitz. In 1885, the Imperial government granted Peters a charter recognizing his colonial expansion in East Africa and the rights he had acquired. At the same time, the German Imperial government also carried out colonial expansion in the Pacific region through diplomatic channels. In May 1885, Britain and Germany signed an agreement to acquire sublainty over the northern coast of New Guinea, parts of the Solomon Islands, and the Bismarck Islands. In July 1890, Britain and Germany signed the Treaty of Helgoland-Zanzibar, which was recognized by Germany Zanzibar It's a British colony, and the British have Helgoland Island Giving it to Germany solved the Anglo-German colonial dispute and temporarily improved relations between the two countries. [12]
  • The second stage
The second phase was from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. Wilhelm II declared that Germany was seeking "its place under the sun". As the fifth Chancellor Hollweg put it, "The time when other peoples were allowed to divide the continent and the sea, while we in Germany were satisfied with the blue sky, is over, and we demand a place in the sun." Wilhelm II wanted to establish a colonial empire. Since the Bismarck period did not actively expand its colonies, Germany's overseas colonies had lagged far behind other powers, and Wilhelm II accelerated the pace of colonization when he came to power. In order to intervene in the affairs of foreign colonies, he actively expanded the army at the end of the 19th century. During this period, the colonial expansion of the German Empire began to extend its tentacles into the Far East and the Middle and near East. [12]
In Africa, the German Empire "attempted to build on the colonial Empire established by Bismarck a great African colonial Empire stretching from West and West Africa in the west to Tanganyika in the east." [13] Thus, in addition to its own colonies occupied in the first phase, it began to penetrate other parts of Africa, for example, the capital of the German Empire infiltrated one of the two Boer republics in South Africa on a large scale The Transvaal Republic . William Knape, head of South Africa's central bank from 1891-1894, had effectively run the Transvaal National Bank. [14] When Britain tried to annex the two Boer republics, the German Empire immediately said that it would not allow the status quo in the Transvaal to be changed. When the British operation failed, Wilhelm II immediately gave it to the President of the Transvaal Republic Paul Kruger Send a congratulatory message. [15] Although the German Empire had to give up the conquest of South Africa because the British navy was too powerful for its own, in order to prevent Germany from undermining Britain by supporting the Boers, in 1898, the two sides signed a secret agreement on the partition of Portuguese Africa, Germany included northern Mozambique and central and northern Angola into its sphere of influence. [13]
In the Pacific, in 1899 the German Empire used Britain to fall into Boer War , with the UK on Samoa Attribution issue signing agreement. "Germany has acquired the two largest islands of Samoa, Upolu and Savwe, and England has renounced all claims to Samoa Tonga Islands And part of the German Solomon Islands as compensation." And the German Empire took advantage of Spain Spanish-american War On the occasion of the defeat, "it was purchased from him for 17.25 million marks The Caroline Islands , Palau Islands and The Mariana Islands " [16]
In the Middle and Far East, the German Empire dominated." Baghdad railway "Under construction, the railway will depart from Berlin, by Bragg , Vienna , Budapest , Istanbul , Mosul , Baghdad All the way to the Persian Gulf Basra In order to penetrate the Ottoman Empire of Turkey and its neighbors into their sphere of influence, more conducive to access to India. "In 1898, Wilhelm II was in Damascus He gave a speech claiming to be an undying friend of the Sultan of Turkey and 300 million Muslims. On December 23, 1899, Deutsche Bank signed a preliminary agreement with the Turkish government for the lease of the Konya-Baghdad-Persian Gulf railway, despite competition from Britain, France and Russia. [13]
In the Far East, the German Empire broke its previous attitude of neutrality and non-intervention, using the "Boxer Incident" to protect German nationals, and ordered the East Asian Fleet to sail into Jiaozhou Bay in November 1897, and German troops landed and captured Qingdao. "On March 6, 1898, under diplomatic and military pressure from Germany, the Qing government was forced to sign the" Jiaota-macau Concession Treaty The territory within a radius of 50 kilometers around Jiaozhou Bay and the port of Qingdao were leased to Germany for 99 years. Germany also gained the right to build railways in Shandong and to mine on both sides." [13] During this period, the German Imperial government began to actively intervene in the colonial expansion activities, and began to dominate the direction and form of the colonial expansion movement to a certain extent. [12]
To sum up, the process of colonial expansion of the German Empire was characterized by a relatively conservative and passive colonial expansion in the first stage, which was reflected in the fact that the government played more of a supporter than a participant in colonial expansion, colonial expansion was only in the form of land occupation, and colonial expansion was mainly in Africa and the Pacific, which had not been completely divided. In the second stage, the colonial expansion of the German Empire was more active, reflected in the fact that the government had begun to actively participate in the colonial expansion movement, and colonial expansion began to turn to various forms, such as military occupation, large-scale economic capital penetration, or the use of conflict and war to support one side and force one side to sign a colonial partition agreement with it. And the direction of colonial expansion in Africa and the Pacific continued to consolidate the results of its colonial expansion, but also extended its tentacles to the Middle East and the Far East, which were divided by multinational powers. [12]

society

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urbanization

After the establishment of the German Empire, the new Constitution affirmed the freedom of movement and the freedom of choice of occupation, and the agricultural population, which accounted for the majority of the German population, flooded into the rapidly growing large, medium and small cities, which rapidly expanded the size of the cities. By 1890, half of Germany's population was urban; By 1895, less than 19 percent of the population was still farming for a living. The most prominent examples of urbanization are Berlin and the Ruhr region. In 1861, the population of the city of Berlin was just over 500,000, but in 1877 it had ballooned to more than 1 million, more than half of whom were "outsiders". The gap between the rich and the poor and the differentiation of classes are reflected in the appearance of upper and lower residential areas in housing. The severe housing shortage has caused housing prices and rents to rise, and as an emergency solution, people have built so-called "backyard homes." Behind the beautiful houses facing the street, the "backyard", are cheap housing for the poor. The city of Berlin grew in size again and again, becoming the capital of the Empire in the 1870s and becoming a famous metropolis. Banks, shops and office buildings line the city. The suburbs, factories and workers' quarters grew, and the rail network and canals connected Berlin to the rest of Germany and Europe, making the city constantly expanding. in Ruhr Industrial zone The government and management adopted the British-style terraced house model when solving the problem of workers' housing. The housing plan abandoned single-family houses and instead built rows of houses to reduce the cost of housing. [4]
The period from the beginning of the German Empire to before the First World War was a period of prosperity and realization of urbanization in Germany. During this period, the economy of the cities in the German states flourished and the population increased rapidly, and a considerable number of cities had a population of more than 100,000, becoming real big cities. Due to the expansion of urban area and the increase of population, the municipal departments strengthen the management of the migrant rural population in order to facilitate the management of the city, many cities are divided into factory areas, residential areas and commercial areas according to the needs of production and development [22] . Business districts are mostly located in urban areas, or areas with relatively concentrated industrial sectors, and these cities have gradually developed into comprehensive metropolises. Industrial cities get a large number of labor force from the countryside, which provides the basic conditions for the further development of industry. At the same time, some cities with industrial and commercial and service industries are also growing. Industrialization not only drives urbanization, but also creates favorable conditions for the development of cities. After the establishment of the German Empire, Germany's urbanization was based on the industrial base of the Rhine provinces and Saxony Especially outstanding. During the process of urbanization, Germany's population increased by about 58%, from 41.1 million in 1815 to 64.9 million before World War I. Not only the urban population increased significantly, but also the urban population structure showed obvious changes. From 1871 to 1910, the population of large cities with a population of more than 100,000 in Germany increased by more than four times, and the proportion of people living in cities with more than 10,000 residents increased from 12.5% in 1871 to 34.7% in 1910. [23] The proportion of the population of small cities or towns with more than 2,000 people and less than 10,000 people in the total population fell by 29.7 percentage points. [21]
On the whole scale of Germany, its economic development, population distribution and urban layout also have a trend of concentration, such as the Ruhr region in the west is an earlier developed industrial area, the northeast is mainly agricultural area, population distribution is less than the north, than the south population density. After the rise of industrialization, although the economic development gap between industrial and agricultural areas widened, the transfer of rural surplus labor was still dominated by near-area flow and dispersed flow, which on the one hand ensured the balance of economic development, on the other hand, people did not have to migrate too far, which was conducive to social stability. Compared with European countries, Germany is unique in that its small and medium-sized cities and small towns are scattered all over Germany, and in the process of urbanization, all kinds of cities develop relatively coordinated and the layout is more reasonable. The population growth of big cities is fast, but small and medium-sized cities are not lagging behind. By the beginning of the 20th century, various types of cities had risen in Germany, laying the general framework of urban layout, economic development and social structure of Germany today. [21]

Workers' movement

During the German Empire, the increase of unemployment, the decline of real wages, and the frequent occurrence of industrial accidents made the basic life of the working class insecure. In early 1877, about 6,800 miners were laid off in the Dortmont mines. The number of people employed in Berlin in 1876 was about 57,000, but by 1878 it had fallen to 29,000. Under extremely difficult working conditions, real wages "fell by 17.5 per cent between 1874 and 1879 alone." The living conditions of the working class have also been worsened by the frequent occurrence of industrial accidents in the process of industrialization. The complete lack of adequate safety devices in new industrial machinery makes industrial accidents caused by technical errors a growing danger." Taking the extractive industry as an example, in Prussia, from 1851 to 1860, 1.77‰ of the extractive workers died due to accidents; From 1861 to 1870, it increased to 2.22‰. Between 1870 and 1883, the number of deaths due to accidents was as high as 2-63 per thousand. [17]
The severe labor problem triggered the surging labor movement. During the period of the German Empire, the struggle of workers to get out of their predicament was constantly expanding. In July and August 1871, the masons' strike in Berlin had 4,000 participants; in the summer of 1872, a strike by miners in the Ruhr Valley had 16,000 participants; in June 1885, 12,000 workers in Berlin went on strike; and in May and June 1890, a strike by German coal miners had 150,000 participants. ... One hundred and four. The number of strikes of cylinder workers is becoming more and more frequent, and the areas involved in strikes are becoming more and more extensive. In the spring of 1857, the first wave of strikes in Germany, workers and manual workers in various industries, starting in April, held about 60 strikes, involving 24 districts such as Palmen and Coburg. The miners' strike of 1890 involved the entire German coal industry. The goal of the workers' strike is becoming clearer. In the growing workers' movement, working-class parties grew up and led the workers in active political struggle. In 1863, as a leader of the workers' movement Ferdinand Lassalle Headed by Germany's first workers' party" All German Workers' Federation "Established; In 1869," German Social Democratic Party The Social Democratic Party has survived to this day and is one of the largest political parties in Germany today. Under the leadership of trade unions or workers' parties and other organizations, the workers held rallies, demonstrations, strikes, and published and distributed propaganda materials of the workers' movement, which became more and more powerful and directly endangered the rule of the German Empire. In May 1878, blacksmith Heder unsuccessfully assassinated the German emperor; A few weeks later, another shot was fired at the Kaiser. [2]
On October 28, 1878, Bismarck issued the Law on the Suppression of the Social Democratic Party against the Social Order, which was outlawed Social Democratic Party The ban lasted until 1890. In addition, the Imperial government imposed martial law, closed trade unions, banned the press, arrested, imprisoned, exiled the leaders and activists of the workers' movement, and launched a large-scale repression of the workers' movement. The "extraordinary law" was in effect for 12 years. [2] [17]

Social security

From 1883 to 1889, the Imperial government enacted three laws on social security and established the Imperial Insurance Office as a supervisory body for rulings. On June 15, 1883, the Empire promulgated the Law on Sickness Insurance for Workers, which introduced compulsory sickness insurance for industrial workers and employees with an annual income of less than 2,000 marks. The cost of the insurance is shared by the employer and the employee, generally 30% by the employer and 70% by the employee. Workers typically pay 1.5 per cent of their daily wages for insurance. The Imperial Government also established public sickness insurance funds for industrial enterprises and local sickness insurance associations, which were responsible for providing insured persons with free treatment and medicines, medical care, funeral expenses for death, recuperation during sickness, sick leave benefits and sickness benefits of 50 per cent of the average daily wage. [1]
On July 6, 1884, the Imperial Government promulgated the "Labour Accident Insurance Act", which provided for the implementation of compulsory industrial accident insurance, the object of insurance is to all workers and some employees of particularly dangerous enterprises, that is, the personnel who have an accident in the enterprise or their families, can receive insurance money or pensions from the accident insurance. It was later extended to cover all workers earning less than DM 5,000 a year. The insurance costs of work-related accidents are all borne by the employer, and the insurance benefits provided to the unfortunates in work-related accidents are divided into death burial expenses and family pensions, loss of wages due to incapacity for work, medical expenses, and old-age pensions for permanent disablement. [1]
On June 22, 1889, the Imperial Government promulgated the Workers' Disability and Old Age Insurance Act, which required all wage laborers over the age of 16 to join in order to prevent disability and senility at work. The State shall pay alimony to workers who are over 70 years old when they join this insurance; The State shall provide alimony for disabled workers who have lost more than two thirds of their working capacity due to disability. The cost of insurance is borne equally by the employer and the employee, and the State provides an allowance of DM 50 for each insurance contribution. [1]
During the reign of Wilhelm II, a series of labor insurance legislation was enacted. For example, the draft legislation on the Amendment of the Regulations on the Administration of Industry and Commerce stipulates that the Sunday and holiday rest system shall be implemented, the working hours of eight hours a day and six days a week shall be implemented, women shall be prohibited from night work and underground mining operations, women shall be prohibited from working before and after childbirth, the working hours of female workers shall be shortened, and child labor under the age of 14 shall be prohibited. In 1891, the Imperial government enacted the Women Workers Act. In July 1911, the Empire combined the above three kinds of labor social insurance legislation into one, and added the "Officers Pension Law" and "Soldiers Pension Law" promulgated in 1906 and the "Survivors Insurance Law" promulgated in 1907 into the Code of Social Insurance. This "Social insurance Code" a total of 1805 articles, the scope of the insured, the government department in charge of insurance and litigation procedures have made clear provisions, becoming the first Germany. The government enforces the basic legal norms of social insurance. Also included in the Social Insurance Code was the Employees' Insurance Act of 20 December 1911. Its implementation extends the coverage of the insured to all industrial workers who live solely on wages. The above legislation and measures, together with the social insurance legislation, constitute the basic framework of the modern social security system in Germany, and make the modern social security system initially established in Germany. [1]
In 1883, three million industrial workers were covered by sickness insurance, accounting for 40 percent of all workers, and a quarter of workers in other industries were covered. In 1886, 7 million agricultural workers were also covered by the Workers' Accident Insurance; By 1911, permanent and temporary workers were also insured, and the total number of insured citizens had reached 13.6 million; By 1913, before World War I, 14.5 million people were enrolled in various forms of social security. By 1914, almost all workers and most clerks were covered by Social Security. [1]

Imperial lineage

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William I (1871-1888);
Frederick III (1888);
Wilhelm II (1888-1918).
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