Chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck. World history in faces

Otto Eduard Leopold von Schönhausen Bismarck

Bismarck Otto Eduard Leopold von Schonhausen Prussian-German statesman, the first Chancellor of the German Empire.

Carier start

A native of the Pomeranian Junkers. Studied law in Göttingen and Berlin. In 1847-48 he was a deputy to the 1st and 2nd Prussian Landtags, during the revolution of 1848 he advocated armed suppression of unrest. One of the organizers of the Prussian Conservative Party. In 1851-59 Prussian representative in the Bundestag in Frankfurt am Main. In 1859-1862 Prussian ambassador to Russia, in 1862 Prussian ambassador to France. In September 1862, during a constitutional conflict between the Prussian royal government and the liberal majority of the Prussian Landtag, Bismarck was called by King Wilhelm I to the post of Prussian minister-president; stubbornly defended the rights of the crown and achieved a resolution of the conflict in her favor.

German unification

Under the leadership of Bismarck, the unification of Germany was carried out by means of a "revolution from above" as a result of three victorious wars of Prussia: in 1864 together with Austria against Denmark, in 1866 against Austria, in 1870-71 against France. Remaining loyal to the Junkers and loyal to the Prussian monarchy, Bismarck was forced during this period to link his actions with the German national liberal movement. He managed to embody the hopes of the rising bourgeoisie and the national aspirations of the German people, to ensure Germany's breakthrough on the path to an industrial society.

Domestic politics

After the formation of the North German Confederation in 1867, Bismarck became the Bundeschancellor. In the German Empire proclaimed on January 18, 1871, he received the highest state post of imperial chancellor, and, in accordance with the constitution of 1871, practically unlimited power. In the first years after the formation of the empire, Bismarck had to reckon with the liberals who constituted the parliamentary majority. But the desire to ensure Prussia's dominant position in the empire, to strengthen the traditional social and political hierarchy and its own power caused constant friction in relations between the chancellor and parliament. The system created and carefully guarded by Bismarck - a strong executive power, personified by himself, and a weak parliament, a repressive policy towards the workers' and socialist movement did not correspond to the tasks of a rapidly developing industrial society. This was the underlying cause of the weakening of Bismarck's position by the end of the 80s.

In 1872-1875, on the initiative and under pressure from Bismarck, laws were passed against the Catholic Church depriving the clergy of the right to supervise schools, prohibiting the Jesuit order in Germany, making civil marriage compulsory, repealing articles of the constitution that provided for the autonomy of the church, etc. These measures so-called. "Kulturkampf", dictated by purely political considerations of the struggle against the particularist-clerical opposition, seriously limited the rights of the Catholic clergy; attempts of disobedience provoked reprisals. This led to the alienation from the state of the Catholic part of the population. In 1878, Bismarck passed through the Reichstag an "exceptional law" against the socialists, which prohibited the activities of social democratic organizations. In 1879, Bismarck secured the adoption by the Reichstag of a protectionist customs tariff. Liberals were forced out of big politics. The new course of economic and financial policy corresponded to the interests of large industrialists and large farmers. Their union occupied a dominant position in political life and in public administration. In 1881-89, Bismarck passed "social laws" (on insurance of workers in case of illness and injury, on pensions for old age and disability), which laid the foundations for the social insurance of workers. At the same time, he demanded a tougher anti-worker policy and during the 80s. successfully sought the extension of the "exceptional law". The dual policy towards workers and socialists prevented their integration into the social and state structure of the empire.

Foreign policy

Bismarck built his foreign policy on the basis of the situation that developed in 1871 after the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian war and the capture of Alsace and Lorraine by Germany, which became a source of constant tension. With the help of a complex system of alliances that ensured the isolation of France, the rapprochement of Germany with Austria-Hungary and the maintenance of good relations with Russia (the alliance of the three emperors of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia in 1873 and 1881; the Austro-German alliance in 1879; the Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Hungary and Italy in 1882; the Mediterranean agreement of 1887 between Austria-Hungary, Italy and England and the "reinsurance agreement" with Russia in 1887) Bismarck managed to maintain peace in Europe; The German Empire became one of the leaders in international politics.

Career decline

However, in the late 1980s, this system began to crack. A rapprochement between Russia and France was planned. The colonial expansion of Germany, begun in the 80s, aggravated Anglo-German relations. Russia's refusal to renew the "reinsurance pact" at the beginning of 1890 was a serious setback for the Chancellor. Bismarck's failure in domestic politics was the failure of his plan to turn the "exceptional law" against the socialists into a permanent one. In January 1890 the Reichstag refused to renew it. As a result of contradictions with the new emperor Wilhelm II and with the military command on foreign and colonial policy and on the labor issue, Bismarck was dismissed in March 1890 and spent the last 8 years of his life on his Friedrichsruh estate.

S. V. Obolenskaya

Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius

January 18, 1871 proclamation of the German Empire. The first German imperial chancellor was von Bismarck (1815-1898). For almost 20 years (1871-1890).

Bismarck has become an unattainable model. His power deliberately pursued public goals and dynastic interests. Self-interest was sacrificed. All his achievements were not appreciated by his contemporaries or followers. He was not a monarchist and was not an adherent of Prussian hegemony. Its main goal is the national interest.

administrative reform.

1872. in Prussia, an administrative reform was carried out, according to which the hereditary patrimonial power of the Junkers in the countryside was canceled;

In the communities, she passed to the elected elders,

In the volost - to the amtman, Amtman ruled with the participation of elected elders

In the district - to the landrat, who were appointed by the Prussian king from candidates presented by the local elected assembly, almost always from among the local landowners. Under the landrats, district councils were formed, which were elected according to a three-class electoral system.

As a result, the state apparatus was strengthened in the interests of the junkers.

financial reform.

Strengthening the economic and political position of the country, the imperial government introduced 1871 - 1873. single monetary system. adopted as the main currency gold mark. AT 1875. the Prussian bank was transformed into the Reichsbank (Reichsbank) with a monopoly on the issuance of bank notes throughout the empire. Centralization of mail.

Judicial reform.

AT 1876. laws were passed that determined a single system of justice throughout the empire. They met with strong resistance from the South German states, and here the practical application of the new legal proceedings began only in 1879. According to the judicial reform, the highest court was imperial court, but the seat of the imperial court was established not in the capital of the empire - Berlin, but in the Saxon city Leipzig. With this gesture, the German government made an ostentatious concession.

military sphere.

After the formation of the empire, Bismarck always dreamed of revenge on the part of the defeated in the war of 1870-1871. France. AT 1874. with the support of the National Liberal faction, he achieved the approval of the Reichstag military budget immediately on seven years ahead.

Kulturkampf.

Bismarck's policy of Prussianization of Germany was opposed by the Catholic clergy, who sought to maintain their former independence and influence. To fight with Prussianization Some sections of the population of the southwestern states of Germany also rose, subjected to heavy national oppression: the Poles, the French population of Alsace and Lorraine. The party of the Catholic "center" acted as a "defender" of the interests of these peoples, as it saw in this a means of strengthening its political role.

To break the stubbornness of the Catholic Church and the "center" party, Bismarck held in 1872 the law, according to which the clergy was deprived of the right to supervise schools, the priests were forbidden to conduct political agitation. At the same time, the so-called May Laws were adopted by the Prussian Landtag. was held civil record law marriages, births and deaths, which took away from the church the rights that strengthened its social influence, and very solid sources of income . Catholic clergy disobeyed these laws and boycotted them. Pope Pius IX issued a call to fight. Bismarck responded by arresting and deporting recalcitrant priests from Germany.

Catholic priests began to pose as "martyrs" of the church. Bismarck's struggle with recalcitrant priests was compared with the persecution of Christians by ancient Roman emperors. The clergy must submit to the spiritual court, and the spiritual court is arranged by secular authorities, The state appoints pastors., Religious education is removed from episcopal jurisdiction., The clergy as a whole were subordinate to secular authorities, the activities of the Jesuit Order, etc. were prohibited.

In order to fight the working class, Bismarck agreed to reconcile with the opposition "Centre" party. During the period from 1878 to 1882. Almost all laws against the Catholic Church were repealed. All that remained of the Kulturkampf legislation was the law on civil marriage and government oversight of schools.

In 1838 he entered the military service.

In 1839, after the death of his mother, he retired from the service and managed the family estates in Pomerania.

After his father's death in 1845, the family property was divided and Bismarck received the estates of Schönhausen and Kniephof in Pomerania.

In 1847-1848, he was a deputy of the first and second United Landtags (parliament) of Prussia, during the revolution of 1848 he advocated armed suppression of unrest.

Bismarck became known for his conservative stance during the constitutional struggle in Prussia from 1848-1850.

Opposing liberals, he contributed to the creation of various political organizations and newspapers, including the "New Prussian newspaper" (Neue Preussische Zeitung, 1848). One of the organizers of the Prussian Conservative Party.

He was a member of the lower house of the Prussian Parliament in 1849 and of the Erfurt Parliament in 1850.

In 1851-1859 he was the representative of Prussia in the Allied Sejm in Frankfurt am Main.

From 1859 to 1862 Bismarck was the Prussian envoy to Russia.

In March - September 1962 - the Prussian envoy to France.

In September 1862, during a constitutional conflict between the Prussian royalty and the liberal majority of the Prussian Landtag, Bismarck was called by King Wilhelm I to the post of head of the Prussian government, and in October of the same year he became Minister-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Prussia. He stubbornly defended the rights of the crown and achieved a resolution of the conflict in her favor. In the 1860s, he carried out a military reform in the country and significantly strengthened the army.

After the formation of the North German Confederation in 1867, Bismarck became Chancellor. In the German Empire proclaimed on January 18, 1871, he received the highest state post of imperial chancellor, becoming the first Reich Chancellor. Under the 1871 constitution, Bismarck was given virtually unlimited power. At the same time, he retained the post of Prussian Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Bismarck reformed German law, administration and finance. In the years 1872-1875, on the initiative and under pressure from Bismarck, laws were passed against the Catholic Church depriving the clergy of the right to supervise schools, prohibiting the Jesuit order in Germany, making civil marriage compulsory, repealing articles of the constitution providing for the autonomy of the church, etc. These events seriously limited the rights of the Catholic clergy. Attempts to disobey caused repression.

In 1878, Bismarck passed through the Reichstag an "exceptional law" against the socialists, which prohibited the activities of social democratic organizations. He ruthlessly persecuted any manifestation of political opposition, for which he was nicknamed the "Iron Chancellor".

In 1881-1889, Bismarck passed "social laws" (on insurance of workers in case of illness and injury, on pensions for old age and disability), which laid the foundations for the social insurance of workers. At the same time, he demanded a tougher anti-worker policy and during the 1880s successfully sought the extension of the "exclusive law".

Bismarck built his foreign policy on the basis of the situation that developed in 1871 after the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian war and the seizure of Alsace and Lorraine by Germany, contributed to the diplomatic isolation of the French Republic and sought to prevent the formation of any coalition that threatened the hegemony of Germany. Fearing a conflict with Russia and wanting to avoid a war on two fronts, Bismarck supported the creation of the Russian-Austrian-German agreement (1873) "Union of the Three Emperors", and also concluded a "reinsurance agreement" with Russia in 1887. At the same time, in 1879, on his initiative, an alliance agreement was concluded with Austria-Hungary, and in 1882, the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy), directed against France and Russia and marked the beginning of the split of Europe into two hostile coalitions. The German Empire became one of the leaders in international politics. Russia's refusal to renew the "reinsurance pact" at the beginning of 1890 was a serious setback for the chancellor, as was the failure of his plan to turn the "exceptional law" against the socialists into a permanent one. In January 1890, the Reichstag refused to renew it.

In March 1890, Bismarck was dismissed from his post as Reich Chancellor and Prussian Prime Minister as a result of contradictions with the new Emperor Wilhelm II and with the military command on foreign and colonial policy and on the labor issue. He received the title of Duke of Lauenburg, but refused it.

Bismarck spent the last eight years of his life at his Friedrichsruhe estate. In 1891 he was elected to the Reichstag for Hanover, but never took his seat there, and two years later refused to run for re-election.

From 1847 Bismarck was married to Johanna von Puttkamer (died 1894). The couple had three children - daughter Marie (1848-1926) and two sons - Herbert (1849-1904) and Wilhelm (1852-1901).

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Bismarck's reforms. The political weakness of the German bourgeoisie was reflected in the fact that the reunification of Germany took place not by means of a revolution destroying the remnants of feudalism, but by counter-revolutionary methods, i.e., with the preservation of the rule of obsolete classes and all the “Gothic” rubbish of feudal-absolutist statehood. For twenty years after reunification, Bismarck was the liveliest expression of the duality that had been created and the contradictions that followed from it. More connected in his class interests with Germany's past than with its future, however, he strove to the best of his understanding to satisfy the basic economic needs of the bourgeoisie. At first, he became close to the National Liberals, or rather, imperiously led them along, often meeting resistance from them, but easily overcoming it with combinations of an intra- and extra-parliamentary nature.

The first half of the 1870s was the time when the National Liberals reached the height of their influence, having 152 representatives in the Reichstag of 1874, that is, more than any other party during the entire existence of the Reichstag. During this particular period, a unified system of monetary circulation was established and a gold currency was introduced, major steps were taken towards the creation of a single law. Germany received an almost monotonous criminal and commercial law (the general imperial Civil Code was put into effect only in 1900). In 1874, the imperial press law eliminated the limitations of the press that had remained from the Middle Ages, although it introduced severe judicial penalties for anti-government

official speeches. Of the measures of a local nature, it should be noted that Bismarck carried out in 1872 the reform of local self-government in the eastern provinces of Prussia. In each province, which was divided into districts, elected district assemblies were established. However, the police power of the landowner in the district, which had previously been a feudal privilege, was essentially preserved, since within the district the duties of police chiefs were gratuitously carried out by persons appointed by the king always from local landowners. Moreover, large estates constituted independent regions, where the landowner, with the consent of the head of the district (landrat), himself was a foreman or appointed a foreman.

"Kulturkampf". The steps taken by Bismarck on the road to imperial unity strengthened not the German, but the Prussian-German empire, and thereby promised to perpetuate the hegemony of Prussia, which was painful for all non-Prussians. These measures were supposed to cause the strengthening and rallying of all anti-government elements, no matter how colorful they were. And “these motley elements found a common banner in ultramontanism”1. On the one hand, the imperial government in the person of Bismarck was ready to hate any force that seemed to him too independent and dared to compete with him, and the Catholic Church threatened to become such in Germany, inspired by the militant plans of the pope (Pius IX), and on the other hand, everything that everything was centrifugal in Germany, everything suppressed and insulted by Prussia in its national, mainly, dignity, everything opposed to Prussianism, began to group around the Catholic Church, the spokesman of whose interests in 1870

As we already know, the party of the center has become established, always, however, strictly and purely Catholic in its composition. It was not for nothing that the leader of the party was Windhorst, the leader of the Hanoverian Welfs, especially and demonstratively irreconcilable antagonists of Prussia. Bismarck without hesitation entered the battle with the center, having on his side the liberal factions of the Reichstag, and passed a series of anti-clerical laws, the most important of which was the law on the transfer to secular officials of the conduct of civil status acts and on compulsory civil marriage (1875). Since the clergy, on the direct instructions of Rome, refused to obey these laws, the government brought down a hail of administrative repressions on the recalcitrant priests and laity. All this, however, turned out to be completely futile. The sympathy and assistance of numerous and varied opposition elements made the resistance of the Catholics very persistent and effective. Even conservative Protestant circles armed themselves against Bismarck, especially dissatisfied

those who were allied with the liberals and willingly depicted his struggle with the Catholic Church as undermining religious foundations in general. This struggle, nicknamed by the supporters of Bismarck "Kulturkampf", ended, in essence, with the complete defeat of Bismarck. He himself admitted in his speech to the Prussian Landtag in 1886 that his struggle with the Catholics was "chasing wild geese on horseback." The “iron chancellor” had to make peace with geese: some of the anti-clerical laws were no longer applied, others were completely canceled later, and only the one just mentioned remained in force. Government persecution only strengthened the Center Party and for a fairly long time forged from it the most powerful and staunch opposition after the Social Democrats. Even in the Reichstag of 1912, the center remained the largest faction after the Social Democrats.

The collapse of the national liberals. Abandoning Kulturkampf, Bismarck abandoned the National Liberals, who had already lost interest for him, and at the same time turned towards an economic policy that the National Liberals could not approve: he stopped encouraging free trade and a kind of protectionism and began to patronize not so much industry as large land ownership. By raising customs duties on consumer goods (tobacco, coffee, kerosene), he also wanted to increase the income of the imperial treasury and free it from the well-known dependence in which it was in relation to the members of the Union. The conservatives and the centre, backed by the landlords and kulaks, sympathized with his undertakings, with reservations of one kind or another; the national liberals, since they represented the commercial bourgeoisie, were against it, and since they reflected the interests of the industrialists, they were also inclined to compromise. As a result, as we already know, they split and from 1881 forever lost their significance as one of the leading parties in the Reichstag, which they had until that time. But the collapse of the National Liberals, the only, strictly speaking, middle party of the Reichstag, on which the government could rely for a long time, intensified the disintegration and discord that already reigned in the Reichstag, and most importantly, made the extreme factions a decisive force in parliamentary battles.

The fall of Bismarck. It was after the “victory” over the National Liberals in the elections of 1881 that it became more and more difficult for Bismarck to carry out his legislative measures through the Reichstag. The policy of maneuvering between classes and parties, the further, the more clearly, revealed its failure. The conflict reached its peak in 1887, when the Reichstag refused to renew the law on the seven-year contingent of the army. After the dissolution of this Reichstag, Bismarck managed to create a coalition of national liberals with both factions of conservatives in the elections - a “cartel”. In the new Reichstag, Bismarck had an obedient majority, and it was with

Relying on this majority, he passed, among other things, his provocative “social laws” on compulsory insurance of workers, trying in this way to paralyze the influence of the Social Democrats, which was irresistibly growing in breadth and depth, despite the persecution of the government. But it was precisely this same Reichstag that inflicted a severe defeat on Bismarck, refusing to approve a new, even more cruel exclusive law in 1890 and to extend the old law against socialists, which expired in the autumn of 1890. In the same year, the powers of the Reichstag ended , and in the new elections, the artificial combination of the cartel was upset. The right-wing parties were defeated. The Social Democrats immediately tripled the number of mandates. This was perhaps the most striking indication of the bankruptcy of the government's domestic policy, and consequently Engels was right when he spoke of the "Social Democratic Party that overthrew Bismarck"1. In order to regain his lost control in the new Reichstag, Bismarck, true to his method of unprincipled political tricks and behind-the-scenes inter-party machinations, turned his eyes to the center, the strongest faction of the Reichstag, and had a secret meeting with Windhorst. This served as a pretext for a sharp clash between him and Wilhelm II, who had recently assumed the throne. Times and circumstances have changed to such an extent for the old chancellor that his request for resignation was, against all his expectations, accepted.

Strengthening monopoly capital. Times really changed so quickly and radically that statesmen with a broader outlook than Bismarck did not have time to notice and note the shifts that were taking place. The forces of industrial development emerged at the end of the century with overwhelming energy. Coal, which Germany had in abundance even before the territorial acquisitions as a result of the victory over France, the iron received by Germany together with Alsace-Lorraine, finally, the French billions that poured into the country's economy in a golden stream - all this, hand in hand with political factors, which was the reunification of Germany and the reforms that followed it, caused an exceptional growth of German industry. In its development, Germany clearly overtook the oldest industrial country - England - and far outstripped it in the concentration and centralization of capital. In the twenty years from 1890 to 1910, Germany consistently outstripped England in the extraction and consumption of ore and coal, in the production of iron, steel and cast iron. Heavy industry began to unquestionably dominate the industrial economy of Germany. Mechanical engineering has taken unusually rapid steps. At the same time, the protectionist policy of the government contributed to the growth of all kinds of monopolies, the main form of which was the cartel. The cartelization of industry began already at the end of the 1970s, and by the end of the century the number of cartels had grown considerably and continued to grow. “The number of cartels in Germany was estimated at approximately 250 in 1896 and 385 in 1905, with the participation of about 12 thousand establishments.” This, in turn, made it easier for banking capital to penetrate the cartelized industry from top to bottom: at the beginning of the 20th century. finance capital laid its hand on the entire domestic and foreign policy of Germany.

Activation of German imperialism. Such economic upheavals caused major reshuffling of classes. While the petty Junkers continued to degenerate and declassify, following the forecast set for them by Engels in the 1980s, the magnates of landownership, who, as we have noted, had previously found points of contact with large-scale industry, were now more and more closely linked with the industrial kings. They willingly started industrial enterprises on their lands, became even more willingly participants in capitalist concerns, and Wilhelm II himself did not disdain handouts of this kind from the cannon king Krupp. Both the landlords and monopoly capital proved to be equally interested in turning Germany onto the path of an active colonial policy. Bismarck once said: “I don't want colonies. They are only good for sinecures.” Although ten years later he made some attempts to reorganize in this direction and supported and rounded up the land acquisitions of German entrepreneurs in Africa, which formed the core of German South-West Africa and German East Africa, neither he nor his successor Caprivi understood the real significance of colonial expansion. who gave Zanzibar to England in exchange for Heligoland and argued that there is nothing worse than receiving all of Africa as a gift. This point of view at the same time met with sharp opposition among some sections of the Junkers and the big bourgeoisie, who demanded a broad colonial expansion. In 1891, the General German Confederation was created, which over time gained great influence under the name of the Pan-German Confederation. The pan-Germanists placed increasing emphasis on propaganda for the seizure by Germany of a number of lands in Europe itself, describing these lands as German and including Austria, Denmark, Holland, part of Switzerland and Belgium, and the Baltic possessions of Russia. They made plans for a distant advance to the East (“Drang nach Osten!”). The idea of

The division of Russia played an ever-increasing role in these plans. A significant trend in pan-Germanism was directed against England, calling for all efforts to be concentrated against her in order to achieve a redivision of the colonies. Finally, under Chancellor Hohenlohe (1894-1900) there is a sharp turn in German foreign policy, and she is rapidly moving towards a predatory imperialist policy. The matter is not limited to land seizures on the western and eastern coasts of Africa, the lease of Kyao-Chao, which opened the way for German capital to the natural wealth of the Shandong Peninsula, and the acquisition of the Mariana, Caroline and Marechal Islands, which strengthened German positions on the approaches to the Asian mainland. Germany is turning its gaze to the Middle East, to Turkey, with a view to penetrating along the paths of economic and political subjugation of Turkey to Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, where the German imperialists were irresistibly attracted by deposits of oil and rare metals and inexhaustible sources of agricultural raw materials.

Since that time, the imperialist policy of Hohenzollern Germany has become more and more energetic. The magnates of landownership are turning into the fighting vanguard of finance capital and are drawing it more and more strongly into the direction of unbridled aggression, to which, it must be said, it resists very little. The impatient pressure of the Junker reaction, with its admiration for strength, with its cult of the soldiery, with contempt for weak nations, with the firm conviction that military violence is the fastest and surest creator of “national wealth,” becomes the main engine of German policy.

There is no doubt that the immediate foundations of Hitlerism, as an integral system with its own domestic and foreign policy, were already laid in Imperial Germany, in order to receive the fullest and most complete expression after the First World War.

Only the proletariat could resist this fatal craving for reaction within and for military explosions without. But the leaders of the Social Democracy did everything in their power to disorientate, split and disarm him. And they reached their goal

reaction across the line. In full accordance with the new and extremely energetic imperialist policy, accompanied, of course, by a feverish increase in armaments (especially naval), Germany's domestic policy is becoming more and more reactionary every year. Caprivi, who replaced Bismarck, still relied for some time on the national liberals and the center and was forced to make certain concessions to the bourgeoisie, as well as to carry out some labor protection measures (the law on Sunday rest for workers and on the 11-hour maximum working day for women) . But in the Hohenlohe chancellorship, the Junker magnates, supported by heavy industry, gain the upper hand, and in the Reichstag the conservatives in alliance with the center set the tone, followed by the National Liberals, who have finally lost all independence.

But the Conservatives were numerically weak, the National Liberals decayed and fell apart, and the government found itself in a rather unpleasant dependence on the center, unpleasant because the center, which was pressed by the petty-bourgeois part of its voters, was forced from time to time to make oppositional gestures: thus, it failed in 1893, as we already know, the military law, in 1895 did the same with the bill, as it were, resurrecting the exceptional law against socialists (Umsturzvorlage), and in 1900 with the law, in essence, destroying freedom of association. But this was nothing more than a burp of the former opposition of the center: it turned more and more clearly to the right, towards an impudent reaction, and during the first decade of the 20th century. rendered invaluable services to Chancellor Bülow (1900-1909), who replaced Hohenlohe, in carrying out reactionary military and financial bills. It was the center, for example, that came out as the author of the sanctimonious law, the official purpose of which was to combat crimes against morality in the press and in art, but which actually opened the way for extremely captious political censorship (1900). It was a time of a broad offensive against the already insignificant political rights of the workers, when strikers were subjected to all kinds of repressions on the basis of a “state of siege” introduced here and there, when strikebreakers and provocateurs were provided with police and court protection, when censorship was rampant, when the indigenous population in Alsace-Lorraine and in the Polish provinces were subjected to fierce persecution. Under Hohenlohe, and especially under Bülow, the oppression of the Polish population in Posen and in Upper Silesia intensified enormously. The Germanizers frankly and almost officially set as their goal the Germanization of the Polish lands and the Polish population, and the “gakatists” (after the initials of the three leaders of the Germanizer union) were especially raging. The Poles resisted with all means available to them, among other things, school strikes that were notorious in their time. However, in the Reichstag, the Polish National Party (“Kolo”) was led by the center for a long time and only a few years before the First World War more or less decisively goes into opposition.

Party coalitions in the Reichstag. Supporting the reactionary policy of Bülow, the center demanded handouts and handouts for its services. The government, however, far from always satisfied his harassment, and just in 1906, when it refused departmental transfers and appointments, with which the leaders of the center had long been pestering, the latter allied with the Social Democrats and denied the government credits for suppressing the Hottentot uprising. (herero) in the African possessions of Germany. Bülow took advantage of this to dissolve the Reichstag and try to get rid of the center. The new elections, however, even strengthened the center (105 mandates instead of 100), but they severely hit the Social Democrats, whom Bülow both feared and hated. Numerous petty-bourgeois voters, who usually gave their votes to the Social Democrats, were sprayed into this election campaign by chauvinist agitation and dizzying promises of the imperialists - they betrayed the Social Democrats, and they lost almost half of their mandates (38 out of 81). In the Reichstag of 1907, Bülow managed to unite in the so-called “Hottentot” bloc both conservatives and national liberals, and even freethinkers, and even progressives. The miserable decline of German liberalism in all its factions, currents and shades could not have been more clearly demonstrated. Almost the only concession on the part of the reaction to its liberal collaborators was the new law on unions and assemblies (1908), which, however, was mutilated by the amendments of the conservatives. However, the cooperation of the bloc with the government proved to be fragile, and when the question arose of a tax on inheritances as one of the sources of covering new naval expenses, the conservatives, together with the center, rejected such an attempt on the pockets of the landlords, and the “Hottentot” bloc fell apart. For this failure, Bülow paid with his chancellorship.

The new chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg (1909-1917) inherited the fragments of the bloc in the form of an alliance between the center and both conservative factions, known as the "black and blue" (189 mandates in total). Involving, if necessary, the Black Hundreds from the Christian Social Party (16 mandates) or the like, the black-and-blue bloc firmly dominated for about three years, and this domination was marked by a number of new indirect taxes and new legislative persecutions of the proletariat.

The struggle for reforms in Prussia and in Alsace-Lorraine. However, the militant mood of the proletariat is clearly growing and is reflected, for example, in the energetic struggle for the reform of the suffrage in Prussia. Here the famous three-class system still served as a stronghold of the political dominance of the agrarians and moneybags. Bethmann-Hollweg tried to update this electoral system with some amendments, but they did not satisfy either the right or the left, and the bill he submitted to the Prussian Landtag was rejected (1910). Berlin workers reacted to Bethmann-Hollweg's reformism with violent mass demonstrations. A new attempt at electoral reform, which came in 1912 from the free-thinking faction of the Landtag, proved to be just as unsuccessful.

foot. The stagnant reactionary nature of the Prussian state regime was drawn particularly brightly against the background of the comparative successes of the movement for electoral reform in southern Germany: in the period 1904-1911. universal suffrage was introduced in Bavaria, Württemberg and Hesse. However, in Saxony around the same period, the right to vote was significantly worsened out of fear of the success of the Saxon Social Democrats.

At the end of 1910, under strong pressure from the Social Democrats, the Reichstag finally adopted a law on the autonomy of Alsace-Lorraine: a provincial bicameral Landtag was established, the lower house of which was elected by universal suffrage; at the same time, Alsace-Lorraine gained representation in the Bundesrat. All this "constitution" did not in the least interfere with the manifestations of the wildest arbitrariness in Alsace-Lorraine on the part of the German military and administration. As before, as 40 years ago, exceptional laws prevailed here in one form or another, regulating in their own way the rights of the press, freedom of assembly and association, etc. When in 1913 in the Alsatian city of Tzarben (Savern) a Prussian , the living embodiment of the stupid and base all-German soldierism, allowed himself a rude and stupid mockery of the local population, Lenin rightly noted the symptomatic significance of this incident: in Zabern “the true order of Germany, the rule of the saber of the Prussian semi-feudal landowner, aggravated and came out into the open”1. Didn't the commander of the regiment, in which the distinguished lieutenant was a member, receive demonstrative approval from the Prussian crown prince? Didn't Wilhelm II himself, in his innermost essence the same narrow-minded and narcissistic Prussian lieutenant, threaten even before the Alsace-Loringia incident that he would simply take away her constitution, which had just been granted?

Electoral victory of the Social Democrats. The black-and-blue bloc, in the comparatively short period of its rule, has thoroughly turned against itself the most diverse circles of voters. Already in the last two years of the existence of the Reichstag (1910-1911), the Social Democrats acquired 10 new mandates in by-elections. It is not surprising that the elections of 1912 were marked by serious setbacks for the clerical-landowner reaction. The Conservatives lost 26 mandates, the Center lost 14, the Christian Socialists - 13, even the National Liberals lost 9 mandates. On the contrary, the Social Democrats almost tripled the number of their mandates compared to the previous elections (110 instead of 43) and immediately took the line of the strongest party in the Reichstag.

Reformism and opportunism of social democracy. Thus, the Social Democrats with the Progressives and the National Liberals, with the support of the national parties, could have a majority. But the fact is that not only the liberal factions by this time, as, indeed, before, were absolutely incapable of sustained opposition to the government, the infection of opportunism and conciliatory flabbiness began to penetrate into the top of the Social-Democratic Party. After the fall of the law against the socialists, this began to affect both theoretically and practically. The Erfurt program, which replaced the Gotha program in 1891, was, of course, a step forward compared to that one, but it also made a major mistake, not only by not declaring the dictatorship of the proletariat as the ultimate goal of the class struggle, but also by not mentioning the dictatorship of the proletariat in general. It was this error that Engels had in mind when he ridiculed "peace-loving opportunism and the peaceful, calm, free, cheerful" "growing" of the old swine into "socialist society." He pointed to this in his criticism of the Erfurt Program, demanding recognition of the inevitability and necessity of a violent proletarian revolution.

The departure from revolutionary ideals, the closer to the First World War, became more and more noticeable among the leaders of the German Social Democracy and became especially striking in connection with the fact that the Russian revolution of 1905 contributed to a significant increase in the revolutionary activity of the German proletariat, showing it, among other things, concrete example of the great revolutionary significance of the general strike. Although the leadership of the party officially condemned the attempts of renegades like Bernstein to push the German workers away from the path of class struggle bequeathed by Marx and Engels, revisionism in practice made great strides in social democracy and left its mark on the tactics of the leaders. The deviation towards reformism and compromise with the bourgeoisie is showing itself more and more often, parliamentary struggle began to occupy more and more place in the work of the party to the detriment of direct and immediate mass revolutionary struggle. The rebuff given to this current by the old leaders of the party, among them Liebknecht and Bebel, was by no means always sufficient, as Lenin pointed out many times in his tireless and consistent struggle against opportunism and reformism in the Second International in general and in German Social Democracy, in particular. For the German Social Democracy turned out to be the leading party of the Second International and, more than others, was responsible for the mistakes, errors, and finally, the betrayal of the Second International. In its time, the German Social Democracy did much to organize and educate the proletariat in an atmosphere of more or less peaceful development. But when by the end of the XIX century. peaceful development was replaced by an epoch of class battles and civil wars of the proletariat, the German Social Democracy, and with it the Second International, found itself in the rearguard of the working-class movement, convulsively clinging to the old methods of struggle and hindering revolutionary development.

War of 1914 and the situation within the Social Democratic Party. In this situation, the leaders of the Social Democracy did not want to and were unable to organize a real rebuff to imperialist reaction. When the war began, they became the servants of this reaction, diligently helping the government and the capitalists in establishing and maintaining a military regime within the country, which turned into military hard labor for the workers at the front or at enterprises. In December 1914, only Karl Liebknecht in the parliamentary faction of the Reichstag openly expressed his negative attitude towards the war, refusing to vote for war loans. The gradually increasing resistance of the working masses was expressed, among other things, in the fact that in 1915 the Left Social Democrats (Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Franz Mehring and others) formed a group that soon received the name Spartak.

Treason of social democratic leaders. The leaders of the party, meanwhile, did not yawn, and in their renegacy they slid further and lower. In accordance with the complicated political situation, the ruling classes of Germany made more and more serious demands on them, and they strove to be up to the mark of their tasks. Under the blows of military defeats, the foundations of the Hohenzollern monarchy staggered, the masses of the people were revolutionized. After the February Revolution of 1917, the German bourgeoisie saw that the danger of a military defeat was joined by the even more formidable danger of a revolutionary explosion. In the Reichstag, under the leadership of the left wing of the center, a majority began to crystallize, ready to abandon the aggressive aims of the war. But the bank and the landlords did not give up yet. Bethmann-Hollweg, a strong supporter of such a refusal, resigned (July 1917). The agrarian Michaelis was appointed chancellor, accepting this refusal with various reservations. In such a situation, the bourgeoisie charged the leaders of the Social Democracy with the duty to restrain the masses from the revolutionary uprising, which was becoming more and more urgent. In 1917, the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany was formed, the direct purpose of which was to play an imaginary opposition to the leadership of the Social Democratic Party and to lure workers into its ranks with demagogic talk, who had already seen through the betrayal of the Social Democratic elite, but were not yet aware of that the Independent Social Democratic Party is nothing more than an exposition of the Social Democratic Party. The movement of independents took place under the leadership of Kautsky, who made every effort to emasculate and neutralize this movement and to neutralize the energy of the workers who joined it.

Death cramps regimen. But the efforts of the faithful servants of the bourgeoisie were in vain: the Great October Socialist Revolution inflamed the German workers and soldiers with revolutionary enthusiasm. At that time the leaders of the Social Democracy, “loyal without flattery”, consistent in their treachery to the end, did not hesitate to expose their own backs to the monarchy threatening to collapse, a monarchy that covered itself with disgrace, guilty of innumerable crimes against the working class, generously stained people's blood. The fact is that at the end of December 1917, Wilhelm I, who so often and so cheekily declared his contempt for parliamentarism, felt sympathy for him, finding himself in trouble, and in an appeal addressed to Chancellor Gertling, one of the leaders of the center, who replaced On November 1, 1917, Michaelis announced his desire to involve the German people in a more active participation than before in determining the fate of the fatherland. However, even this dubious love of the people was under a bushel until the very time when the last hope for a turn of military happiness disappeared from the German military. It was only on October 1, 1918, that the new Imperial Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, began to urgently create democracy and parliamentarism in Germany, with the obligatory preservation of the Hohenzollern dynasty and all, of course, other dynasties. It was then that the leaders of the Social Democracy offered their services, and a number of these leaders (Scheidemann among them) became part of the government formed by the prince. New constitutional laws were published (October 28, 1918), amending the Constitution of the German Empire. Amendment to Art. 15 of the Constitution decreed that the Imperial Chancellor needed the confidence of the Reichstag and was responsible to the Bundesrat and the Reichstag. Less important was the amendment to Art. 11, which required the consent of the Reichstag and the Bundesrat to declare war and conclude international treaties. But even these changes could no longer save the empire.

Fall of the monarchy. All heroic measures were in vain. A few days later, workers, soldiers and sailors began to capture one city after another. On November 9, Max of Baden announced the abdication of the Kaiser and handed over the position of Imperial Chancellor to the Social Democrat Ebert. On the same day, in the face of spontaneous Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, Scheidemann hastened to declare a republic.

The Russian government kept pension savings for citizens. The Treasury will have to look for other sources to fulfill current social obligations. It is possible that the National Wealth Fund will be involved. Another option is to cut spending on education and healthcare. Or on defense. Which is unlikely to cause enthusiasm among the population. But labor pensions were initially considered precisely as a payment for public peace.

Otto von Bismarck is credited with the famous phrase about socialism that it is “of course possible to build it, but for this you need to choose a country that you don’t feel sorry for.” The Iron Chancellor was indeed extremely wary of the ideas of universal equality, whose "ghosts" just during his reign began to "roam Europe." But, ironically, it was precisely these fears that led Bismarck to embark on an unprecedented experiment that has become a kind of creed for almost all left-wing politicians and supporters of the “welfare state”.

In 1889, a law on disability and age insurance was passed in Germany. It covered all workers, as well as production employees with an annual income of up to 2,000 Reichsmarks per year, and provided for retirement upon reaching the age of seventy. Thus, at the suggestion of Bismarck, compulsory pension provision arose.

The specter of paternalism

Of course, the initiator of a large-scale social reform took into account the interests of the proletarians themselves last. For Bismarck, it was much more important to make the workers as dependent as possible on the state and thereby deprive them of any reason whatsoever for participating in revolutionary experiments.

The charismatic German official was very useful to the developments of the French Emperor Napoleon III, who, in fact, carried out the policy of authoritarian socialism, extracting the most striking appeals and slogans from the program of the socialists. True, the founder of "Bonapartism" sought to ensure stability by turning the majority of the French into rentiers whose incomes depended on the state. And Bismarck went even further, including in this paternalistic circle the workers on welfare.

As early as March 1863, as Prime Minister of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck proposed to Minister of Commerce Itzenplitz to support the introduction of an insurance system in factories and factories. In 1864-1865, Bismarck approached the King of Prussia with a project to provide financial resources to an experimental workers' association formed for the production of agricultural products, organized assistance to laid-off weavers.

Image: Corbis

By the way, some historians argue that Bismarck was puzzled by the relevant innovations, having studied the social policy of not only Napoleon III, but also some Russian industrialists. Back in the late 1850s, auxiliary cash desks for workers and employees were organized on the Nikolaev, Kharkov-Nikolaev, Warsaw-Vienna and Warsaw-Bromberg roads. And on August 25, 1860, the Emeritus Pension Fund for Railway Engineers was established. “The best, most useful and most powerful measure of attracting trustworthy, capable and sufficiently trained people to the railway service,” Konstantin Posyet, then Minister of Railways of the Russian Empire, described this decision.

It is worth recalling that during his stay in the diplomatic service, Bismarck managed to work both in St. Petersburg and in Paris. That is, he had the opportunity to observe the results of these experiments with his own eyes. But in France social innovations were carried out personally by the emperor. In Russia, this was more of a local initiative than an element of a well-thought-out court strategy. Bismarck served as Chancellor of the newly created German Empire from 1871 with virtually unlimited powers. But his career depended on the favor of the Kaiser, and also, albeit to a lesser extent, of Parliament.

In this regard, the appeasement of the proletariat gave the iron chancellor a no less serious trump card than his contribution to the unification of Germany. Moreover, this, as they would say now, “geopolitical success”, accompanied by impressive French indemnities, led to a significant overheating of the German financial market. Prices and wages have risen sharply. Berlin has become the most expensive city in Europe. And German industrialists, due to the rapid increase in costs, were losing their competitive positions.

Following the fall of German exports, the ranks of adherents of liberalism and free trade ideas were also melting. Conversely, conservatives and protectionists gained political weight. A similar metamorphosis took place with Bismarck's economic views. As one of his contemporaries noted, the ways of the chancellor, like the ways of the Lord, are inscrutable.

The increase in customs duties, on the one hand, reduced the dependence of the federal treasury on deductions from individual German lands and provided the state with money for large-scale social reforms. On the other hand, it greatly simplified the competitive environment for German manufacturers. Both worked for Bismarck.

“The state should take this matter into its own hands - it is easiest for it to mobilize the necessary funds. Not as alms, but as the right to support, when a sincere desire to work can no longer help a person. Why should only those who became incapacitated in the war or in the position of an official receive a pension, while the soldier of labor does not? ... It is possible that our policy will someday fall into ruins, but state socialism will break through. Anyone who picks up this idea again will come to the helm of power, ”said the Reich Chancellor.

Rentier dictatorship

He turned out to be right in many respects, but did not take into account one important nuance. The state can guarantee a secure old age for citizens, without incurring significant financial losses, only at a high retirement age.

In 1900, only 600,000 pensions were paid in Germany. Moreover, two-thirds of them are due to disability. The fact is that few lived to see the 70th anniversary designated by Bismarck's laws. The average life expectancy in Germany at that time was 40.6 years for men and 44 years for women. And by 1925, the number of pensioners increased by 2.5 times, as the retirement age dropped to 65 years.

“A ghost roams the world - the ghost of the bankruptcy of state pension systems. […] Two external factors exacerbate this outcome: 1) the global demographic trend towards declining fertility and 2) advances in medicine leading to increased life expectancy. As a result, fewer and fewer workers support an increasing number of pensioners. Since increases in both the retirement age limit and payroll taxes have an upper limit, sooner or later the system is forced to reduce the level of liabilities - a sure sign of bankruptcy. So, almost a century after the social reforms of Otto von Bismarck, a subordinate of another authoritarian leader Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean Minister of Labor, José Piñera, wrote.

In 1979, Piñera began to create the pension system that would later make Chile famous. Every employee was given the opportunity to opt out of the state pension. In this case, 10 percent of his earnings were sent not to pay taxes, but to a retirement savings account (PSA). “Social programs should encourage the efforts of individuals, reward those who are not afraid to take responsibility for their own destiny. There is nothing worse than social programs that give rise to a society of parasites, ”explained Piñera’s colleague, Finance Minister Hernan Buchi.

At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Labor promised fellow citizens "not to give your grandmother's savings to anyone." Proper fulfillment by the state of current pension obligations was one of the key conditions for the reform. As Piñera emphasized, "It would be unfair to older people to drastically change their income or expectations at this point in their lives."

But all new employees were included in the PSS system without fail. Also, the authorities showed toughness when the trade unions tried to lock in the choice of pension funds that manage the savings of citizens.

By the end of the 1980s, more than 70 percent of Chileans were saving for their own old age. And the savings rate in the country has reached 30 percent of GDP - a record figure for Latin America. Iron Chancellor Bismarck made the Germans paternalists. And the Chileans under the dictator Pinochet became full-fledged rentiers, independent of the state.

However, the power resource of the junta is by no means the only thing that determined the success of Piñera's undertaking. Chile has a very low proportion of older people, about 8 percent. There are 12.8 workers per pensioner. For comparison, in today's Russia there are only 5 workers for every 3 pensioners. Moreover, the actual length of service - that is, the period during which personal savings are made and / or contributions to the Pension Fund are paid - has significantly decreased. Starting to work at about 24 years old, Russians retire at the age of 55-60.

This does not negate the desire of citizens to receive decent remuneration in their declining years. As well as the desire of the state not to go bankrupt when fulfilling pension obligations. Otto von Bismarck opened Pandora's box instead of a panacea. Pensions have turned from a guarantor of social peace into a new source of tension. And as the Chilean experience shows, in order to avoid a "short circuit", cardinal decisions are needed. It is extremely difficult to untie the knot tied by the iron chancellor without an iron hand.