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'''''Kulturkampf''''' ({{IPA-de|kʊlˈtuːɐ̯kampf|lang|De-Kulturkampf.ogg}}, "culture struggle") is a German term referring to the conflict
between the government of the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] and the Roman Catholic Church from about 1872 to 1878, predominantly over the control of educational and ecclesiastical appointments.<ref>Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, 1989, "Kulturkampf" p. 796.</ref><ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica: ''Kulturkampf, (German: "culture struggle"), the bitter struggle (c. 1871–87) on the part of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck to subject the Roman Catholic church to state controls''.</ref> What made the Kulturkampf unique in Germany compared to struggles between state and Church in other states was its anti-Polish aspect.<ref>The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History Helmut Walser Smith, page 360, OUP Oxford, 29.09.2011</ref><ref name="Sebastian Conrad page 171">Sebastian Conrad, Globalisation and the Nation in Imperial Germany, Cambridge University Press page 171</ref>
In contemporary socio-political discussion, the term Kulturkampf (see also [[culture war]]) is often used to describe any conflict between secular and religious authorities or deeply opposing values, beliefs between sizable factions within a nation, community, or other group.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/american/kulturkampf |title=Kulturkampf – Definition, meaning & more – Collins Dictionary |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref>
== Background ==
Under the influence of ascending new philosophies and ideologies such as the [[Age of Enlightenment|enlightenment]], [[Scientific realism|realism]], [[positivism]], [[materialism]], [[nationalism]], [[secularism]] and [[liberalism]], the role of religion in society and the relationship between society and church underwent profound changes in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many countries endeavoured to strip the church of worldly powers, reduce the duties of the church to spiritual affairs by secularising the public sphere and by [[separation of church and state]] and to assert the supremacy of the state, especially in education.<ref>Christopher Clark, ''Iron Kingdom'' (2006) pp 412-19</ref> Róisín Healy argues that across Europe, the Kulturkampf operated mainly on the state level and was found "especially in strongholds of liberalism, anti-clericalism, and anti-Catholicism."<ref>{{cite book |author=Róisín Healy |title=The Jesuit Specter in Imperial Germany |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=om6MiDM8sNQC&pg=PA57 |year=2003 |publisher=BRILL |page=57|isbn=978-0391041943 }}</ref>
[[File:IX. Piusz pápa.jpg|thumb|200px|Pope Pius IX (ca. 1878)]]
The Catholic Church resisted this development which it portrayed as an attack on religion and sought to maintain and even strengthen its strong role in the state and society.<ref>Nicholas Atkin and Frank Tallett, ''Priests, Prelates and People: A History of European Catholicism since 1750'' (Oxford UP, 2003) pp 128, 193</ref>
With the growing influence of enlightenment and after having lost much of its wealth, power and influence in the [[mediatisation]] and [[secularization]] of the early 19th century the church had been in a state of decline.<ref>Franz, Georg in: Kulturkampf. Staat und katholische Kirche in Mitteleuropa von der Säkularisation bis zum Abschluss des preußischen Kulturkampfes, Munich 1954, ASIN: B0027NO7I4 , p. 16</ref><ref>Robbins, Keith in: The Dynamics of Political Reform in Northern Europe 1780–1920, Political and Legal Perspectives, Leuven University Press, {{ISBN|9789058678256}}, p.154</ref>
The papacy at this time was at a weak point in its history, having just lost all its territories to Italy, with the pope a [[prisoner in the Vatican|"prisoner" in the Vatican]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Roland Sarti |title=Italy: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xhoLorFC1iwC&pg=PA462 |year=2009 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |page=462|isbn=9780816074747 }}</ref>
The church strove to revert its waning influence and to keep sway in such matters as e. g. marriage, family and education and initiated a Catholic revival by founding associations, papers, schools, social establishments or new orders and encouraging religious practices such as [[pilgrimage]]s, mass assemblies, the devotion of [[Marian devotions|Virgin Mary]] or the sacred heart of Jesus and the veneration of [[relic]]s;<ref>Knight, Frances in : History of the Christian Church, Vol. 6: The Church in the 19th. Century, I.B.Tauris, London, 2008, {{ISBN|9781850438991}}</ref> the pope himself became an object of devotion.<ref>Dittrich, Lisa in: Antiklerikalismuns in Europa: Öffentlichkeit und Säkularisierung in Frankreich, Spanien und Deutschland (1848–1914), Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1914, {{ISBN|9783525310236}}, p. 58</ref> Apart from the extraordinary proliferation of religious orders, the 19th. century also witnessed the rise of countless Catholic associations and organisations, especially in Germany and in France.<ref name="Dittrich 1914 p. 55">Dittrich, Lisa in: Antiklerikalismuns in Europa: Öffentlichkeit und Säkularisierung in Frankreich, Spanien und Deutschland (1848–1914), Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1914, {{ISBN|9783525310236}}, p. 55</ref> Catholic [[propaganda]] including the interpretation of daily events was spread through local and national Catholic newspapers prominent in all western European nations as well as through organized missions and groups dedicated to pious literature.<ref>Ruppert, Stefan in: Kirchenkampf und Kulturkampf: Historische Legitimation, politische Mitwirkung und wissenschaftliche Begleitung durch die Schule Emil Ludwig Richter, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2002, {{ISBN|978-3-16-147868-0}}, p.6-8</ref>
In the 19th. century, the Catholic Church promulgated a series of contentious [[dogma]]s and [[encyclical]]s: In
* 1832, in the [[encyclical]] [[Mirari vos]], Pope [[Gregory XVI]] condemned liberalism, [[freedom of the press|free press]] and [[free thought]].
Under the leadership of his successor, Pope [[Pius IX]], in
* 1854, the church proclaimed Mary's [[immaculate conception]]. In
* 1864, the Vatican published the encyclical [[Quanta cura]] and [[Syllabus of Errors]]. In
* 1870, the [[First Vatican Council]] declared the [[dogma]] of [[Papal infallibility]].
With its "Syllabus of Errors" of 1864, the Catholic Church launched an assault on the new ideologies, condemning 80 philosophical and political statements, mainly the foundations of the modern nation state, as false. It outright rejected such concepts as [[freedom of religion]], [[free thought]], [[separation of church and state]], [[civil marriage]], [[Popular sovereignty|sovereignty of the people]], [[democracy]], [[liberalism]] and [[socialism]], [[reason|reason as the sole base of human action]], and in general condemned the idea of conciliation with [[progress (history)|progress]]. The announcements included an index of forbidden books.<ref>Nicholas Atkin, and Frank Tallett. ''Priests, Prelates and People: A History of European Catholicism, 1750 to the Present'' (2003). pp 104-6</ref>
A profound change was the gradual reorganization of the Catholic Church and its expansive use of the media. The popes worked to increase their control of the Church. Heavily criticized by European governments, it was centralized and streamlined with a strict hierarchy, the bishops sought direction from the Vatican and the needs and views of the international church were given priority over the local ones. Opponents of the new hierarchical church organization pejoratively called it [[ultramontanism]].<ref>Healy, Roisin in: The Jesuit Spectre in Imperial Germany, Brill Academic Publishers, Boston, 2003, {{ISBN|0391041940}}, p. 42</ref><ref>Grew, Raymond in: "Liberty and the Catholic Church in 19th. century Europe", Freedom and Religion in the 19th. Century, edited by Richard Helmstadter, Stanford University Press, 1997, {{ISBN|9780804730877}}, p. 198-200</ref>
In view of the church's opposition to enlightenment, liberal reforms and the revolutions of the 18th/19th centuries, these dogmas and the church's expressed insistence on [[papal primacy]] angered the liberal-minded all across Europe, even among some Catholics, adding fuel to the heated debates.<ref name="Robbins 1920, p. 178" /><ref>Dittrich, Lisa in: Antiklerikalismuns in Europa: Öffentlichkeit und Säkularisierung in Frankreich, Spanien und Deutschland (1848–1914), Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1914, {{ISBN|9783525310236}}, p. 182</ref>
The dogmas represented a threat to the secularized state as they reaffirmed that the fundamental allegiance of Catholics was not to their nation-state, but to the Gospel and the Church and that the pope's teaching was absolutely authoritative and binding on all the faithful. Secular politicians even wondered whether "Catholicism and allegiance to the modern liberal state were not mutually exclusive". British Prime Minister [[William Gladstone|Gladstone]] wrote in 1874 that the teaching on papal infallibility compromised the allegiance of faithful English Catholics. For European liberalism, the dogmas were a declaration of war against the modern state, science and spiritual freedom.<ref>Bucheim, Karl in: Geschichte der christlichen Parteien in Deutschland. Kösel, Munich, 1953, ASIN B0000BGX87, p. 197</ref><ref name="unamsanctamcatholicam.com" />
The pope's handling of dissent of the dogmas, e. g. by excommunication of critics or demanding their removal from schools and universities, was considered as "epitome of papal authoritarianism".<ref>Healy, Roisin in: ''The Jesuit Spectre'' in Imperial Germany, Brill Academic Publishers, Boston, 2003, {{ISBN|0391041940}}, p. 55</ref>
In direct response to the Vatican's announcements, Austria passed the so-called May-Laws for [[Cisleithania]] in 1868, restricting the Concordat of 1855, and then cancelled the concordat altogether in 1870.
Saxony and Bavaria withheld approval to publish the papal infallibility dogma; Hesse and Baden even denied it any legal validity. France refused to publish the doctrines altogether; Spain forbade publication of the Syllabus of Errors in 1864.<ref>Dittrich, Lisa in: Antiklerikalismuns in Europa: Öffentlichkeit und Säkularisierung in Frankreich, Spanien und Deutschland (1848–1914), Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1914, {{ISBN|9783525310236}}, p. 95</ref>
== Kulturkampf in Germany ==
=== Background ===
[[File:094 leuchtkugeln nr 12.jpg|thumb|300 px|Anti-Catholic caricature in the Munich ''Leuchtkugeln'', 1848. A warning not to rejoice yet. The Catholic cleric as a fox and blind passenger on the wagon of progress, in order to later reverse the course of history.]]
By the mid-nineteenth century, liberal policies had also come to dominate Germany and the separation of church and state became a prominent issue.<ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 199-200</ref><ref>Iván T. Berend in: An Economic History of 19th-century Europe, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-1-107-03070-1}}, p 93</ref>
The Kulturkampf in Prussia is usually framed by the years 1871 and 1878 with the Catholic Church officially announcing its end in 1880 but the struggle in Germany had been an ongoing matter without definite beginning and the years 1871 to 1878 only mark its culmination in Prussia. In the wake of other European countries, most German states had taken first steps of secularisation well before unification. Predominantly Catholic Baden was at the forefront curbing the power of the Catholic Church (1852–1854 Baden Church Dispute) and (1864–1876 Kulturkampf Baden, see [[:de:Badischer Kulturkampf]]).<ref name="Healy 2003, p. 57">Healy, Roisin in: The Jesuit Spectre in Imperial Germany, Brill Academic Publishers, Boston, 2003, {{ISBN|0391041940}}, p. 57</ref><ref>de Gruyter, Walter in: Theologische Realenzykolpädie, Vol. 1, Berlin-New York, 1993, p. 101, {{ISBN|3-11 013898-0}}</ref> Other examples are Prussia (1830s, 1850, 1859 and 1969), Württemberg (1859/1862), Bavaria (1867, see [[:de:Bayerischer Kulturkampf]]), Hesse-Nassau or Hesse-Darmstadt.
In the 1837 Kölner Wirren ([[Cologne Confusion]]; [[:de:Kölner Wirren|article in German]]) of legal and policy issues regarding the children of mixed Protestant-Catholic marriages,<ref>Rowe, Michael in: From Reich to State. The Rhineland in the Revolutionary Age, Cambridge University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-521-82443-5}}, p. 248-249</ref> Prussia's final settlement was considered a defeat for the state as it had given in to demands of the Catholic Church.<ref>Ruppert, Stefan in: Kirchenkampf und Kulturkampf: Historische Legitimation, politische Mitwirkung und wissenschaftliche Begleitung durch die Schule Emil Ludwig Richter, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2002, {{ISBN|978-3-16-147868-0}}, p.13</ref>
In 1850, Prussia again had a dispute with the church about civil marriage and primary schools<ref>Robbins, Keith in: The Dynamics of Political Reform in Northern Europe 1780–1920, Political and Legal Perspectives, Leuven University Press, {{ISBN|9789058678256}}, p.150-175</ref> and in 1852, it issued decrees against the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]].
As in many European countries, Jesuits were being banned or heavily restricted in many of the German states e. g. in Saxony (1831) and even in Catholic ones such as Bavaria (1851), Baden (1860) or Württemberg (1862).<ref>Healy, Roisin in: The Jesuit Spectre in Imperial Germany, Brill Academic Publishers, Boston, 2003, {{ISBN|0391041940}}, p. 52</ref>
Not to be left out, the German areas to the [[Left Bank of the Rhine|west of the Rhine]] had already gone through a process of separation of church and state in line with a radical secularization after annexation by revolutionary and Napoleonic France in 1794. After their return to Germany in 1814, many if not most of the changes were kept in place.<ref>Rowe, Michael in: From Reich to State. The Rhineland in the Revolutionary Age, Cambridge University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-521-82443-5}}, p. 259-264</ref>
In the [[Vormärz]]-years, Catholic publications usually portrayed revolutions as negative and dangerous to the existing order as well as to the interests of the Catholic Church. Most of them considered a viable Catholicism to be necessary for the very health of society and state and to be the only true and effective protection against the scourge of revolution.<ref>Schneider, Bernhard in: Katholiken auf die Barrikaden? Europäische Revolutionen und deutsche katholische Presse 1815–1848, Reihe B: Forschungen, Vol. 84., Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, 1998, {{ISBN|978-3-506-79989-0}}</ref>
The unsuccessful [[German revolutions of 1848–49]], which the Catholic Church had opposed, produced no democratic reforms and attempts to radically disentangle state-church relationships failed. In the [[Frankfurt Parliament|revolutionary parliament]], many prominent representatives of political Catholicism took the side of the extreme right-wingers. In the years following the revolution, Catholicism became increasingly politicised due to the massive anti-modernist and anti-liberal policies of the Vatican.
In the [[Austro-Prussian War]] of 1866 and [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1870 the Catholic Church sided against Prussia and it was an outspoken opponent of German unification under Prussia (as well as of Italy's unification).
The Catholic dogmas and doctrines announced in 1854, 1864 and 1870 were perceived in Germany as direct attacks on the modern nation state.<ref>Robbins, Keith in: ''The Dynamics of Political Reform in Northern Europe 1780–1920, Political and Legal Perspectives,'' Leuven University Press, {{ISBN|9789058678256}}, p.158-161</ref> Thus, Bismarck, the [[National Liberal Party (Germany)|Liberals]] and the [[Free Conservative Party|Conservatives]] representing orthodox Protestants found the Centre Party's support of the pope highly provocative. Many Catholics shared these sentiments, especially against the pope's declared infallibility and the majority of Catholic German bishops deemed the definition of the dogma as "'unpropitious' in light of the situation in Germany". While most Catholics eventually reconciled themselves to the doctrine, some founded the small breakaway [[Old Catholic Church]].
According to the Bavarian head of government, [[Chlodwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst|Hohenlohe]], the dogma of infallibility compromised the Catholic's loyalty to the state.<ref>Healy, Roisin in: ''The Jesuit Spectre in Imperial Germany,'' Brill Academic Publishers, Boston, 2003, {{ISBN|0391041940}}, p. 56</ref> He sent a circular to all the diplomatic representatives of the Bavarian Kingdom saying, "The only dogmatic thesis which Rome desires to have decided by the Council, and which the Jesuits in Italy and Germany are now agitating, is the question of the Infallibility of the Pope. This pretension once become a dogma, will have a wider scope than the purely spiritual spheres, and will become evidently a political question: for it will raise the power of the Sovereign Pontiff, even in temporal matters, above all the princes and peoples of Christendom."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Life of His Holiness Pope Leo XIII: Vicar of Jesus Christ and Bishop of Rome|author=Richard Henry Clarke|year=1903|publisher=P.W. Ziegler & Co.|location=Philadelphia, PA|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofhisholines00claruoft|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifeofhisholines00claruoft/page/321 321]|quote=Prince Hohenlohe circular to all the diplomatic representatives of the Bavarian Kingdom.}}</ref>
The liberal majorities in the Imperial Diet and the Prussian parliament as well as liberals in general regarded the Church as backward, a hotbed for [[reactionary|reactionaries]], enemies of progress and cast monastic life as the epitome of a backward Catholic medievalism. They were alarmed by the dramatic rise in the numbers of monasteries, convents and clerical religious groups in an era of widespread religious revival. The Diocese of Cologne, for example, saw a tenfold increase of monks and nuns between 1850 and 1872. Prussian authorities were particularly suspicious of the spread of monastic life among the Polish and French minorities.<ref>Gross, ''The War Against Catholicism'', pp. 128-131, Univ. of Michigan Press 2004</ref>
The Church, in turn, saw the [[National Liberal Party (Germany)|National-Liberals]] its worst enemy, accusing them of spearheading the war against Christianity and the Catholic Church.<ref>Winkler, Heinrich in: Der lange Weg nach Westen: Deutsche Geschichte vom Ende des Alten ..., Vol 1, Beck Verlag, Munich, 2002, p. 218, {{ISBN|3406460011}}</ref>
At unification in 1871, the new German Empire included 25.5 million Protestants (62% of the population) and 15 million Catholics (36.5% of the population). Although a minority in the empire, Catholics were the majority in the states of [[Bavaria]], [[Baden]], and [[Alsace-Lorraine]] as well as in the four Prussian Provinces of [[West Prussia]], [[Province of Posen|Posen]], [[Rhine Province|Rhineland]], [[Westphalia]] and in the Prussian [[Regierungsbezirk|region]] of [[Upper Silesia]]. Since the [[Thirty Years' War]] the population was generally segregated along religious lines and rural areas or towns were overwhelmingly if not entirely of the same religion. Education was also separate and usually in the hands of the churches. There was little mutual tolerance, interaction or intermarriage. Protestants in general were deeply distrustful of the Catholic Church.
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R29818, Otto von Bismarck.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Bismarck c. 1875]]
Unification had been achieved through many obstacles with strong opponents. These were the European powers of France and Austria, both Catholic nations, and the Catholic Church itself, the three of which Bismarck perceived as "Coalition of Catholic Revenge". For Bismarck, the empire was very fragile and its consolidation was an important issue. Biographer Otto Pflanze emphasizes, "Bismarck's belief in the existence of a widespread Catholic conspiracy that posed a threat to both his German and European policies."<ref>{{cite book |author=Otto Pflanze |title=Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II: The Period of Consolidation, 1871–1880 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kT0ABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 |year=1990 |publisher=Princeton UP |page=189|isbn=9781400861088 }}</ref>
In a Protestant empire, the Catholic Church was to lose its good standing which it had enjoyed for centuries in the Catholic-dominated Holy Roman Empire and which it would have continued to enjoy in a German empire united under Austrian auspices. Thus, in 1870, on the eve of unification, the [[Centre Party (Germany)|Center Party]] was explicitly founded to defend the position of the church in the new empire.
Bismarck was highly concerned that many major members and supporters of this new party were not in sympathy with the new empire: the [[House of Hanover]], the ethnic minority of the Poles, the southern German states. In 1871, the predominantly Catholic states of Southern Germany had only reluctantly joined the empire, increasing the overall share of the Catholic population to 36.5%. Among this Catholic share was Germany's largest ethnic minority, well over 2 million Poles in the east of Prussia, who under Prussia and Germany suffered discrimination and oppression.<ref>''Wielka historia Polski'' t. 4 Polska w czasach walk o niepodległość (1815–1864). Od niewoli do niepodległości (1864–1918) Marian Zagórniak, Józef Buszko 2003 page 186</ref> Bismarck regarded the new Centre Party not only as an illegal mixup of politics and religion and the church's "long arm" but also as a unifying force for [[Catholic Germans]] and Poles and thus a threat to the consolidation of the empire. He feared that the Centre Party would frustrate his broader political agendas and he accused the Catholic priests of fostering Polish nationalism as had been done openly in the provinces of Posen and Upper Silesia.<ref name="Robbins 1920, p. 178">Robbins, Keith in: The Dynamics of Political Reform in Northern Europe 1780–1920, Political and Legal Perspectives, Leuven University Press, {{ISBN|9789058678256}}, p. 178</ref><ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 199</ref><ref>Arlinghouse, Francis in: The Kulturkampf and European Diplomacy 1871–1875 in The Catholic Historical Review 28/3, 1942, p. 342</ref><ref>Ross, Ronald in: "Kulturkampf. Restrictions and Controls on the Practice of Religion in Bismarck's Germany", Freedom and Religion in the 19th. Century, edited by Richard Helmstadter, Stanford University Press, 1997, {{ISBN|9780804730877}}, p. 173</ref><ref>The War between Prussia and Rome in: Quarterly Review, John Murray, London, 1874, Vol. 136, p. 314</ref>
[[File:Die Gartenlaube (1872) b 141.jpg|thumb|150px|Prussian Minister of Education, [[Adalbert Falk]], 1872]]
The Liberals regarded the Catholic Church as a powerful force of reaction and anti-modernity, especially after the proclamation of papal infallibility in 1870 and the tightening control of the Vatican over the local bishops.<ref>Lamberti, (2001)</ref> The renewed vitality of Catholicism in Germany with its mass gatherings also attracted Protestants – even the heir to the Prussian throne, with the king's approval, attended one.<ref name="books.google">Gross, Michael B., [https://books.google.com/books?id=fnCzk2fI9Z4C&dq The war against Catholicism: liberalism and the anti-Catholic imagination in nineteenth-century Germany], p. 75, University of Michigan Press, 2004</ref>
Antiliberalism, anticlericalism and anti-Catholicism became powerful intellectual forces of the time and the antagonism between Liberals and Protestants on one side and the Catholic Church on the other was fought out through mud-slinging in the press. A wave of anti-Catholic, anticlerical and antimonastic pamphleteering in the liberal press<ref name="books.google" /> was answered by antiliberal preaching and propaganda in Catholic newspapers and vice versa.
For these reasons, the government sought to wean the Catholic masses away from the hierarchy and the Centre Party and the liberal's demands to curb the power of the churches meshed well with Bismarck's main political objective to crush the Centre Party.
According to historian Anthony J. Steinhoff, "Bismarck's plan to disarm political Catholicism delighted liberal politicians, who provided the parliamentary backing for the crusade. Yet, the phrase the left-liberal Rudolf Virchow coined for this struggle, the Kulturkampf, suggests that the liberals wanted to do more than prevent Catholicism from becoming a political force. They wanted victory over Catholicism itself, the long-delayed conclusion of the Reformation".<ref name="Anthony J. Steinhoff 2008 p 294">Anthony J. Steinhoff, "Christianity and the creation of Germany," in Sheridan Gilley and Brian Stanley, eds. ''Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 8: 1814–1914'' (2008) p 294</ref>
At least since 1847 and in line with the Liberals, Bismarck had also been of the professed opinion, that state and church should be completely separated and "the sphere of the state had to be made secure against the incursions by the church",<ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 201</ref> although his ideas were not as far-reaching as in the United States or in Great Britain. He had in mind the traditional position of the Protestant church in Prussia and provoked considerable resistance from conservative Protestants. This became clear in a heated debate with Prussian culture minister von Mühler in 1871 when Bismarck said: "Since you stopped my plans in the Protestant church, I have to go via Rome".<ref>Rumschöttel, Prof. Dr. Hermann in: Bismarcks Kulturkampf. Motive und Gegner, Presentation at Sommerakademie St. Bonifaz 2013 –Kulturkampf in Bayern- http://sankt-bonifaz.de/fileadmin/images-bonifaz/redakteur/colloquium/docs/neu-Rumsch%C3%B6ttel_Bismarck-2013.pdf</ref> In August 1871 at Bad Ems, Bismarck revealed his intention to fight against the Centre Party, to separate state and church, to transfer school inspection to laymen, to abolish religious instruction from schools and to transfer religious affairs to the minister of justice.<ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 200-201</ref>
On 22 January 1872, liberal [[Adalbert Falk]] replaced conservative Heinrich von Mühler as Prussian minister for religion, education and health. In Bismarck's mind, Falk was "to re-establish the rights of the state in relation to the church". Yet, unlike Bismarck, whose main motivation for the Kulturkampf was the political power struggle with the Centre Party, Falk, a lawyer, was a strong proponent of state authority having in mind the legal aspects of state-church relationships. Falk became the driving force behind the Kulturkampf laws. Although Bismarck publicly supported Falk, he doubted the success of his laws and was unhappy with his lack of political tact and sensitivity. The differences in their attitudes concerning the Kulturkampf eventually put the two politicians at odds with each other.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz15511.html |title=Falk, Adalbert – Deutsche Biographie |first=Deutsche |last=Biographie |accessdate=21 December 2016|year=1961 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/biography/Adalbert-Falk |title=Adalbert Falk – Prussian official |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref>
With this background and the determination of church and state, the Kulturkampf in Germany acquired an additional edge as it gathered in intensity and bitterness.
=== Timeline and laws enacted during the Kulturkampf ===
[[File:Kladderadatsch 1875 - Zwischen Berlin und Rom.png|thumb|300px|"Between Berlin and Rome", with Bismarck on the left and the Pope on the right, from the German satirical magazine ''[[Kladderadatsch]]'', 1875. Pope: "Admittedly, the last move was unpleasant for me; but the game still isn't lost. I still have a very beautiful secret move." Bismarck: "That will also be the last one, and then you'll be mated in a few moves – at least in Germany."]]
From 1871 to 1876, the Prussian state parliament and the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|federal legislature (''Reichstag'')]], both with liberal majorities, enacted 22 laws in the context of the Kulturkampf. They were mainly directed against clerics: bishops, priests and religious orders ([[anti-clerical]]) and enforced the supremacy of the state over the church.<ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 202</ref><ref name="kath.de">{{cite web |url=http://www.kath.de/kurs/kg/18.htm |title=www.kath.de Kirchengeschichte – Der Kulturkampf |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref> While several laws were specific to the Catholic Church (Jesuits, congregations etc.) the general laws affected both Catholic and Protestant churches.
In an attempt to overcome increasing resistance by the Catholic Church and its defiance of the laws, new regulations increasingly went beyond state matters referring to the purely internal affairs of the church. Even many liberals saw them as an encroachment on civil liberties, compromising their own credo.<ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 206</ref>
Constitutionally, education and regulation of religious affairs were vested in the federal states and the leading actor of the Kulturkampf was [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], Germany's largest state. But some of the laws were also passed by the Reichstag and applied to all of Germany. In general, the laws did not affect the press and associations including Catholic ones.<ref name="kath.de" />
The major Kulturkampf laws were:
==== 1871 ====
* 8 June 1871, fusion of Catholic and Protestant sections in the Prussian Ministry of Culture (responsible for religious matters). The Catholic section had been installed in 1840. The reason given for the merger was, that "the exclusively political attitude of equal justice to all" was to be adopted and that for that purpose one ecclesiastical department was required.<ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, 1971, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 200</ref><ref>The War between Prussia and Rome in: Quarterly Review, John Murray, London, 1874, Vol. 136, p. 311</ref> The merger was also a precondition for the School Supervision Act of the following year.<ref>Geschichte der CDU (History of the Christian Democratic Party of Germany) in: http://www.kas.de/wf/de/71.8617/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926131524/http://www.kas.de/wf/de/71.8617/ |date=2015-09-26 }}</ref>
* 10 December 1871, Empire, [[Pulpit Law]] (Kanzelparagraph) passed at the initiative of Bavaria and meant to curb what was considered the misuse of religious sermons for political agitation from the pulpit.<ref name="Robbins 1920, p. 178" /><ref>Lougee, Robert W., [https://www.jstor.org/pss/3161311 The ''Kulturkampf'' and Historical Positivism], pp. 219–220, Church History, Vol. 23, No. 3, Sep., 1954, Cambridge Univ.</ref> The law read:<ref>see [http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=669 text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703004617/http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=669 |date=2015-07-03 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Thomas Vormbaum |author2=Michael Bohlander |title=A Modern History of German Criminal Law |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8h24BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA133 |year=2013 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |page=133|isbn=9783642372735 }}</ref> Any cleric or other minister of religion shall be punished with imprisonment or incarceration of up to two years if he, while exercising his occupation or having his occupation exercised, makes state affairs the subject of announcements or discussion either in public before a crowd, in a church, or before any number of people in some other place designated for religious gatherings in such a way that it endangers the public peace.
==== 1872 ====
* 22 January 1872, [[Adalbert Falk]] became Prussian minister for spiritual, educational and health matters
* 11 March 1872, Prussian [[:de:Schulaufsichtsgesetz|School Supervision Act]]. This legislation was at the heart of the Kulturkampf, abolishing church oversight of the Prussian primary school system (Catholic and Protestant), excluding the clergy from education and eliminating its influence in curricular matters.<ref name="unamsanctamcatholicam.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.unamsanctamcatholicam.com/history/79-history/394-kulturkampf.html |title=Understanding the Kulturkampf |last=Boniface |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref> This was a milestone for liberalism, as placing education into the hands of the government had always been at the top of its agenda. It was to ensure an open-minded and neutral education as the prerequisite for a progressive society. In the eyes of Bismarck, this law was necessary after the church, putting itself in opposition to the state, used the schools to incite the young against the government.
* On April 1872, the Vatican rejected [[Gustav Adolf, Cardinal Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst]] as German ambassador to the [[Holy See]]. Schillingsfürst had been critical of the infallibility dogma but eventually accepted the decision of the council. Therefore, Bismarck took him for a suitable mediator. In response to the rejection, the diplomatic mission was left vacant and Prussia suspended relations with the Vatican in December 1872.
* 4 July 1872, Empire, [[Jesuits Law (1872)|Jesuit Law]] banning of the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]] who were seen as the emissaries of Rome and the spearhead of ultramontanism. By acknowledging the supremacy of Papal authority, the Jesuits were accused of contesting the secular authority. The law allowed for the dissolution of all Jesuit chapters and expulsion of its members. The following year the law was extended to closely related orders: the Redemptorists, Lazarists, Fathers of the Holy Ghost, and the Ladies of the Sacred Heart. Continued and increasing Church resistance and contempt of the 1871/1872 laws led to changes in the constitution and the enactment of further laws. In order to facilitate these laws, the Prussian Constitution was amended.
* 20 September 1872, at a conference in Fulda the Prussian bishops protested against the regulations hostile to the church.
* 23 December 1872, in an address to his cardinals, the pope denounced the new laws as persecution of the church.
==== 1873 ====
[[File:Rudolf Virchow by Hugo Vogel, 1861.JPG|thumb|150px|Rudolf Virchow, 1861]]
* 17 January 1873, the term "Kulturkampf" came into play. Debating the law on education conditions for the employment of clerics, a [[German Progress Party|Progressive]] deputy in the Prussian legislature – the distinguished medical scientist and pioneer of public health methods, [[Rudolf Virchow]] said: "Ich habe die Überzeugung, es handelt sich hier um einen großen Kulturkampf." (I am of the conviction that this is about a great cultural struggle)<ref name="Catholic Dict">{{cite book |title=New Catholic Dictionary |year=1910 |chapter=Kulturkampf |chapterurl=http://www.catholic-forum.com/SAINTS/ncd04572.htm |url=http://www.catholic-forum.com/SAINTS/indexncd.htm |quote=It was the distinguished liberal politician and scientist, Professor Rudolph Virchow, who first called it the Kulturkampf, or struggle for civilization. |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130825052022/http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/indexncd.htm |archivedate=2013-08-25 }}</ref><ref>Winkler, Heinrich August in: Der lange Weg nach Westen. Deutsche Geschichte 1806–1933, Munich 2000, p. 222.</ref> He repeated this term in a call for a vote by the [[German Progress Party]] on 23 March 1873. It was ironically picked up and derided in the Catholic press and enthusiastically defended in the liberal.<ref>Bachem, Karl in: 'Vorgeschichte, Geschichte und Politik der Deutschen Zentrumspartei, Vol. III, 1927, p. 268–269</ref>
* 30 January 1873, while the laws were being debated in parliament, the Prussian bishops submit a protest against the planned legislation and in a memorial, they announced their opposition to the new laws.
* 5 April 1873, Prussia, Amendment of Sections 15, 16 and 18 of the Prussian Constitution
:In section 15 the sentence "The Protestant and the Roman Catholic Church, as well as every other religious community, regulates and administers its affairs independently" is supplemented by "but remain subject to the laws of the state and its legally regulated superintendence". It is added, that the same applies to the possession or beneficial use of institutions for religion, teaching, charity, endowments and funds.
:Section 16, regarding the unrestricted dealings of religious communities with their seniors and public announcements according to general regulations was cancelled.
:Section 18 cancelled the state's right to appoint, nominate, elect or confirm clerics for a post. But the amendment added, that the state could regulate the minimum education required for clerical posts, the appointment and dismissal of clergymen and servicemen of religion, and define the limits of ecclesiastical disciplinary measures.
* On 2 May 1873, the bishops issued a common pastoral letter explaining to the faithful the necessity to unanimously and passively resist these laws.
[[File:Ludwig Windthorst 1872 JS.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Ludwig Windthorst]], 1872]]
* '''May Laws'''
:The May Laws (''Maigesetze''), or [[Falk Laws]], were a set of laws passed by the Prussian parliament in the years 1873, 1874 and 1875.
:Four laws passed in 1873 were enacted on 11/12/13/14 May 1873:
:1. Law on [[religious disaffiliation]] allowing a person to sever his connection with the church by simple declaration before a justice of the peace. This declaration freed him from all civil effects of belonging to a church, especially ecclesiastical burthens and dues.
:2. Law on ecclesiastical disciplinary measures restricting the exercise of ecclesiastical punishments and means of discipline directed against the life, property, freedom or honour of citizens. This included the infliction of the great excommunication if proclaimed with the name of the guilty, because of possible disturbances of civil and social intercourse. Thus, disciplinary measures were almost totally restricted to the spiritual realm (see state [[Monopoly on violence]]).
:3. Ecclesiastical disciplinary law concerning ecclesiastical power of discipline and the establishment of The Royal Court of Justice for Ecclesiastical Affairs. This subordinated the Catholic Church to state jurisdiction not only in external but also in internal matters.<ref>Geschichte der CDU in: http://www.kas.de/wf/de/71.8617/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926131524/http://www.kas.de/wf/de/71.8617/ |date=2015-09-26 }}</ref> The law regulated the exercise of disciplinary power by church authorities against their officers for special violation of their duties. Members of the court had to be Germans residing in Germany. Bodily chastisement by the Church was entirely forbidden, fines were limited to maximum amounts, restrictions of freedom could only consist in banishment to a church institution within Germany no longer than 3 months and not against the will of the person concerned. On the other hand, the new court also was given jurisdiction over ecclesiastical officers in violation of state laws.
:With this law, the German clergy was to be exempt from any juridical body outside of the nation. Hence, judgments of the Holy See or the Roman Rota would not be binding upon them. The highest court was made up of Prussian ecclesiastics, all appointed with the permission of Prussian civil authorities. The Church's juridical and punitive powers were restricted by allowing clerics, e. g. those punished by the Church for not resisting the Kulturkampf laws, to appeal to the Royal Court of Justice for Ecclesiastical Affairs. Bishops in defiance of this law could be deposed.
:4. Education standards and civic registry law concerning the education and appointment of priests. Regarding the Protestant Church, these regulations had already been in force for a long time. All men intended for priesthood needed a graduate degree ([[Abitur]]) from a German {{lang|de|gymnasium}} and study 3 years of theology at a German university.
:All appointments of clerics had to be approved by the state. Herewith, training and appointment of the clergy came under state supervision. The traditional regimen of clerical study was to be replaced by a modern education in a liberal German institution, thus ensuring that candidates to the priesthood were imbued with the spirit of secularism. Furthermore, ecclesiastical offices could only be filled with the permission of the highest civil authority in each province, essentially reviving the ancient practice of lay investiture.<ref name="unamsanctamcatholicam.com" />
* 26 May 1873, the bishops issued another pastoral letter calling on the faithful to resist the new laws and informed the Prussian government that they would not cooperate in their execution. Parish councils declined to elect new pastors or accept parish administrators. Exiled or imprisoned bishops used underground networks. The bishops of Münster and Paderborn refused the Kulturexamen for their seminaries and appointed priests without notifying authorities. Clergy obeying the mandate of the bishops immediately became subject to the punishments prescribed by the laws. Fines were imposed in hundreds of cases and the clerics resisted to pay at which, in turn, the government resorted to force, either by confiscation or imprisonment of up to two years.<ref name="newadvent.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08703b.htm |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Kulturkampf |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref>
* 21 November 1873, in his encyclical [[Etsi multa]] on the persecution of the Church in Italy, Germany, and Switzerland, the pope wrote of Germany "No wonder, then, that the former religious tranquility has been gravely disturbed in that Empire by this kind of law and other plans and actions of the Prussian government most hostile to the Church. But who would wish to falsely cast the blame of this disturbance on the Catholics of the German Empire!"<ref name="Robbins 1920, p. 180">Robbins, Keith in: The Dynamics of Political Reform in Northern Europe 1780–1920, Political and Legal Perspectives, Leuven University Press, {{ISBN|9789058678256}}, p. 180</ref> He claimed that [[Anticlericalism and Freemasonry|Freemasonry]] was the motivating force behind the ''Kulturkampf''.<ref name="synagogue">"Some of you may perchance wonder that the war against the Catholic Church extends so widely. Indeed each of you knows well the nature, zeal, and intention of sects, whether called Masonic or some other name. When he compares them with the nature, purpose, and amplitude of the conflict waged nearly everywhere against the Church, he cannot doubt but that the present calamity must be attributed to their deceits and machinations for the most part. For from these the synagogue of Satan is formed which draws up its forces, advances its standards, and joins battle against the Church of Christ." Para 28, [http://www.ewtn.com/library/encyc/p9etsimu.htm Etsi Multa] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060403171135/http://ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/P9ETSIMU.HTM |date=2006-04-03 }}</ref>
==== 1874 ====
* 9 March 1874: Prussian [[Civil registry|Civil Registry Law]] (birth, [[Civil marriage|marriage]], death). The same law was passed for the whole empire on 6 February 1875.
* 4 May 1874: Empire, Expatriation Law: meant to curb the exercise of church duties by clerics without the required consent of authorities. The law stipulated, that in such cases, after a final conviction, a cleric would be banned from his parish or sent to another place within the empire and, in case of reoccurrence, that the cleric would be expatriated and expelled.
* 20 May 1874: Prussian Law on the administration of vacant bishoprics. According to the law of 11 May 1873, administrators were to be elected for vacant bishoprics, authorizing laymen to assume administrative responsibilities at the parish level. This additional law stipulated that should an administrator not be elected according to the law, the property would be managed by a state superintendent.
* On July 13, 1874, in the town of [[Bad Kissingen]], [[Eduard Kullmann]] attempted to [[assassinate]] Bismarck with a [[pistol]], but only hit his hand. Kullmann cited church laws as the reason for his attempt; he was sentenced to 14 years of ''Zuchthaus'' (correctional facilities with harsh forced labor). The assassination attempt led to an intensification of the Kulturkampf measures.
==== 1875 ====
* 5 February 1875, the encyclical, [[Quod Nunquam]] declared that the May Laws were invalid, "insofar as they totally oppose the divine order of the Church". The Catholic newspaper ''Westfälischer Merkur'' was the first to publish the whole text on the 18th of the same month in Germany. All the following papers publishing the encyclical were confiscated.<ref name="Robbins 1920, p. 180" />
* 22 April 1875, the Prussian Payment Law (Breadbasket Law) stopped government subsidies and payments for the Catholic bishoprics and clerics unless they signed a declaration of adherence to all laws.
* 31 May 1875, Prussian Congregations Law dissolving all orders within 6 months except those involved in care for the infirm. For teaching orders, the time could be extended.
* 20 June 1875, Prussian Church Finances Administration Law providing for a representation and a council elected by the parish for the administration of property.
* 4 July 1875, Prussian Old-Catholic Church Entitlement Law giving Old-Catholic communities of a certain size the right to use Catholic churches and cemeteries.
==== 1876 ====
The last two laws passed in 1876 were of no practical importance.
* 26 February 1876, the possible punishment for violation of the pulpit law was extended to publications.
* 7 June 1876, the State Supervision Act provided for government supervision of all church assets in the Catholic dioceses in Prussia.
=== Mitigation and Peace Laws ===
[[File:Leo XIII..jpg|thumb|Pope Leo XIII (c. 1898)]]
The political situation in Europe was very volatile. Initially perceived as a possible enemy hostile to German unification under Prussian leadership, Austria and Germany very quickly became friends and formed the [[Dual Alliance (1879)|Dual Alliance]] in 1879. The possibility of a war with France or Russia also became more remote. Therefore, social and economic problems moved to the fore and Bismarck's attention gradually turned to other topics he deemed more threatening such as the increasing popularity of the [[Socialism|socialists]] or more important such as questions of import duties. In these matters, he could either not rely on the support of the liberals to pursue his goals or they were not sufficient to form a majority.
Bismarck had not been comfortable with the increasing ferocity of the Kulturkampf. Concerning the rise of the Centre Party, the laws had proven to be greatly ineffective and even counterproductive. He soon realized that they were of no help battling the Centre Party and as far as separation of state and church was concerned, he had achieved more than he wanted.<ref>{{cite book |first=Christopher |last=Clark |title=Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 |url=https://archive.org/details/ironkingdomrised00chri |url-access=registration |year=2006 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ironkingdomrised00chri/page/568 568–576]}}</ref>
In order to garner support for his [[Anti-Socialist Laws]] and protective trade tariffs,
Bismarck turned his back on the liberals in search of new alliances. The death of Pius IX on 7 February 1878 opened the door for a settlement with the Catholic Church. The new pope, [[Pope Leo XIII|Leo XIII]] was pragmatic and conciliatory and expressed his wish for peace in a letter to the Prussian king on the very day of his election followed by a second letter in a similar vein that same year.
Bismarck and the Pope entered into direct negotiations without the participation of the Church or the Reichstag, yet initially without much success. It came to pass that Falk, vehemently resented by Catholics, resigned on 14 July 1879, which could be read as a peace offering to the Vatican. A decisive boost only came in February 1880, when the Vatican unexpectedly agreed to the civic registry of clerics. As the Kulturkampf slowly wound down the talks lead to a number of so-called mitigation and peace laws which were passed until 1887.<ref name="Robbins 1920, p. 180" />
* July 1880, the First Mitigation Law reallowed government payments to Prussian dioceses and freed the bishops from swearing allegiance to the Prussian laws. Hereupon, four new bishops were reinstated where seats had been left vacant after the death of former bishops. Catholic associations involved in the care of the infirm were readmitted.
* 1882 resumption of diplomatic relations between Prussia (not Germany) and the Vatican, which had been cut in 1872
* 31 May 1882, the Second Mitigation Law allowed the waiver of government exams for clerics
* July 1883, the Third Mitigation Law legalized all religious actions of bishops and in certain cases, the king could pardon deposed bishops. 280 expelled clerics were pardoned.
On 29 September 1885, as another sign of peace, Bismarck proposed the Pope as arbiter in a dispute with Spain about the [[Caroline Islands]] and accepted his verdict in favour of Spain. In gratitude but to the great horror of Catholics, the Pope awarded Bismarck the [[Supreme Order of Christ]], the highest order of chivalry to be granted by the Holy See. Bismarck was the only Protestant ever to receive this award.
After further negotiations between Prussia and the Vatican, the Prussian parliament passed 2 additional laws amending some of the Kulturkampf laws.
* 21 May 1886, the First Peace Law amended some of the regulations in the education standards and civic registry law of 11 May 1873 and state exams for clerics (waiver in Second Mitigation Law of 31 May 1882) were totally abolished. Episcopal-theological academies and seminaries, as well as theological studies at these institutions, were readmitted. Students were allowed to be quartered in Catholic boarding houses (Konvikts). The state acknowledged papal disciplinary powers and abolished The Royal Court of Justice for Ecclesiastical Affairs
* 26 April 1887, the Second Peace Law readmitted all orders except the Jesuits to Prussia
On 23 May 1887, the Pope declared "The struggle which damaged the church and was of no good to the state is now over". The Mitigation and Peace Laws restored the inner autonomy of the Catholic church while leaving key regulations and the laws concerning separation of church and state in place (civic marriage, civic registry, religious disaffiliation, government school supervision, civic registry of clerics, ban of Jesuits, pulpit law, state supervision of church assets, constitutional amendments and the Catholic section in the Ministry of Culture was not reintroduced).
The respective opposing parties in the Reichstag harshly criticized the concessions made by the Vatican and the Prussian government.
Windthorst and the Centre Party were dismayed at being sidelined and not being consulted about the concessions the pope made, e. g. about the ban on Jesuits or the civil registry of clerics. None of the party's major demands were met. Instead, the pope even sided with Bismarck on non-religious issues and pressured the Centre Party to support Bismarck or at least abstain, e. g. in the matter of the hotly debated Septennat 1887 (7-year military budget).
Many Liberals, especially Falk, objected to the concessions Bismarck made to the Church.
The growth of the Centre Party has been considered a major setback for Bismarck although never publicly conceded. Yet, in spite of strong Catholic representation in the Reichstag, the political power and influence of the Church in the public sphere and its political power was greatly reduced.
Although Germany and the Vatican were officially at peace after 1878, religious conflicts and tensions continued. At the turn of the century, [[Pope Pius X]] announced the encyclical [[Pascendi dominici gregis]], mounting new attacks on historical criticism of biblical texts and any accommodation of Catholicism to modern philosophy, sociology or literature. As of 1910, clerics had to take an oath against all forms of modernism, a requirement later extended to teachers of Catholic religion at schools and professors of Catholic theology resulting in intense political and public debates and new conflicts with the state.<ref>Robbins, Keith in: The Dynamics of Political Reform in Northern Europe 1780–1920, Political and Legal Perspectives, Leuven University Press, {{ISBN|9789058678256}}, p. 180-181</ref>
=== Effects of the laws, contemporary criticism and long-term results ===
The abolition of the Catholic section of the Prussian Ministry of ecclesiastical and educational affairs deprived Catholics of their voice at the highest level. The system of strict government supervision of schools was applied only in Catholic areas; the Protestant schools were left alone. The school politics also alienated Protestant conservatives and churchmen.<ref>Lamberti, (2001) p 177</ref>
The British ambassador [[Odo Russell, 1st Baron Ampthill|Odo Russell]] reported to London in October 1872 how Bismarck's plans were backfiring by strengthening the ultramontane (pro-papal) position inside German Catholicism:
:The German Bishops who were politically powerless in Germany and theologically in opposition to the Pope in Rome – have now become powerful political leaders in Germany and enthusiastic defenders of the now infallible Faith of Rome, united, disciplined, and thirsting for martyrdom, thanks to Bismarck's uncalled for antiliberal declaration of War on the freedom they had hitherto peacefully enjoyed.<ref>Quoted in Edward Crankshaw, ''Bismarck'' (1981) pp 308-9</ref>
Nearly all German bishops, clergy and laymen rejected the legality of the new laws and were defiantly facing the increasingly heavy penalties, trials and imprisonments. As of 1878, only three of eight Prussian dioceses still had bishops, some 1,125 of 4,600 parishes were vacant, and nearly 1,800 priests ended up in jail or in exile, nearly half the monks and nuns had left Prussia, a third of the monasteries and convents were closed. Between 1872 and 1878, numerous Catholic newspapers were confiscated, Catholic associations and assemblies were dissolved, and Catholic civil servants were dismissed merely on the pretence of having Ultramontane sympathies. Thousands of laypeople were imprisoned for assisting priests to evade the punitive new laws.<ref name="books.google.com">Helmstadter, Richard J., [https://books.google.com/books?id=aw_1aaE0Fb4C&pg Freedom and religion in the nineteenth century], p. 19, Stanford Univ. Press 1997</ref><ref>Steinhoff, "Christianity and the creation of Germany," (2008) p 295</ref>
The general ideological enthusiasm among the liberals for the Kulturkampf<ref name="PI1">"Liberals were the most enthusiastic champions of the general policy, because it satisfied a tradition of passionate anti-clericalism. Virchow meant Kulturkampf as a term of praise, signifying the liberation of public life from sectarian impositions (though the term was later taken up by Catholic leaders in a spirit of bitter derision)." From [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 "A Supreme Court in the Culture Wars"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311012430/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 |date=2007-03-11 }} by Jeremy Rabkin in the Fall edition of the ''Public Interest''</ref> was in contrast to Bismarck's [[wikt:pragmatic|pragmatic]] attitude towards the measures<ref name="PI2">"Even Bismarck – who initially saw a variety of tactical political advantages in these measures – took pains to distance himself from the rigors of their enforcement." From [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 A Supreme Court in the culture wars] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311012430/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 |date=2007-03-11 }} by Jeremy Rabkin in the Fall edition of the Public Interest</ref> and growing disquiet from the Conservatives.<ref name="PI3">"Conservative political forces, centering on the old Prussian aristocracy, became increasingly critical of these measures, fearing that they would jeopardize the status of their own [[Protestant]] [[Prussian Union of churches|Evangelical Church]]. "From [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 A Supreme Court in the culture wars] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311012430/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 |date=2007-03-11 }} by Jeremy Rabkin in the Fall edition of the Public Interest</ref>
Apart from the outspoken criticism of the Kulturkampf Laws by the Catholic Church and the Centre Party, there were also a number of Liberals and Protestants who voiced concern at least at the so-called "Kampfgesetze" (battle laws). "Unease concerning the effects of his programme continued to spread among all but the most bigoted priest-haters and the most doctrinaire liberals".<ref>{{cite book |author=Gordon A. Craig |title=Germany, 1866–1945 |url=https://archive.org/details/germany1866194500crai |url-access=registration |year=1978 |publisher=Oxford UP |pages=[https://archive.org/details/germany1866194500crai/page/75 75]–76|isbn=9780198221135 }}</ref>
Such noted critics outside the Catholic camp were [[Friedrich Heinrich Geffcken]], [[Emil Albert Friedberg]] or [[Julius von Kirchmann]]. Although they were proponents of state superiority, they regarded some of the laws as either ineffective or as interference in internal church affairs and not consistent with liberal values. Geffcken wrote that "with the intention to emancipate the laity from the hierarchy, the main body of the Catholics was brought in phalanx into the hands of leaders from which it was to be wrested. But the state cannot fight at length against a third of the population, it has no means to break such a passive resistance supported and organized by religious fanaticism. If a statesman desists from the correctness of a measure it only matters that he has the power to enforce it."
Even Bismarck – who initially saw a variety of tactical political advantages in these measures, e. g. for his suppressive policies against the Polish population – took pains to distance himself from the rigors of their enforcement."<ref>[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 A Supreme Court in the culture wars] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311012430/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 |date=2007-03-11 }} by Jeremy Rabkin in the Fall edition of the Public Interest</ref>
The Kulturkampf law considered the harshest and with no equivalent in Europe was the Expatriation Law. Passed by a liberal majority in parliament, it stipulated banishment as a punishment that all civilized peoples considered the harshest beyond the death penalty.<ref>Ruppert, Stefan in: Kirchenkampf und Kulturkampf: Historische Legitimation, politische Mitwirkung und wissenschaftliche Begleitung durch die Schule Emil Ludwig Richter, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2002, {{ISBN|978-3-16-147868-0}}, p.257 – 263</ref>
As to the Centre Party, these measures did not have the effect that Bismarck had in mind. In the state elections of November 1873, it grew from 50 to 90 seats and in the Reichstag elections from 63 to 91. The number of Catholic periodicals also increased; in 1873 there were about 120.<ref name="newadvent.org" />
The Kulturkampf gave secularists and socialists an opportunity to attack all religions, an outcome that distressed the Protestant leaders and especially Bismarck himself, who was a devout pietistic Protestant.<ref name="Christopher Clark (2006) pp 568-576">Christopher Clark, ''Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947'' (2006) pp. 568–576</ref>
In the face of systematic defiance, the Bismarck government increased the penalties and its attacks, and were challenged in 1875 when a papal encyclical declared that the entire ecclesiastical legislation of Prussia was invalid, and threatened to excommunicate any Catholic who obeyed. There was no violence, but the Catholics mobilized their support, set up numerous civic organizations, raised money to pay fines and rallied behind their church and the Center Party.
To Bismarck's surprise, the Conservative Party especially the Junkers from his own landowning class in East Prussia sided with the Catholics. They were Protestants and did not like the Pope, but they had much in common with the Center Party. The Conservatives controlled their local schools and did not want bureaucrats from Berlin to take them over. They were hostile to the liberals, being fearful of free trade that would put them in competition with the United States and other grain exporters, and disliking their secular views. In the Prussian legislature, they sided with the Center Party on the school issue. Bismarck was livid, and he resigned the premiership of Prussia (while remaining Chancellor of the German Empire), telling an ally, "in domestic affairs I have lost the ground that is for me acceptable through the unpatriotic treason of the Conservative Party in the Catholic question." Indeed, many of Bismarck's conservative friends were in opposition. So too was Kaiser William I, who was King of Prussia; he was strongly opposed to the civil marriage component of the Kulturkampf.<ref>Edgar Feuchtwangler, ''Bismarck'' (2000) pp 186-87</ref>
The Kulturkampf made Catholics more resolute; they responded not with violence but with votes, and as the newly formed Center Party became a major force in the Imperial Parliament, it gained support from non-Catholic minorities who felt threatened by Bismarck's centralization of power.<ref name="Christopher Clark (2006) pp 568-576" />
In the long run, the most significant result was the mobilization of the Catholic voters through the Center Party, and their insistence on protecting their church. Historian Margaret Anderson says:
:The effort was perceived, and not only by its opponents, as aiming at nothing less than the forcible assimilation of the Catholic Church and its adherents to the values and norms of the empire's Protestant majority....[it led] Catholics – young and old, male and female, cleric and lay, big men and small – to cleave to their priests and defy the legislation.<ref>Margaret Lavinia Anderson, ''Practicing democracy: Elections and political culture in Imperial Germany'' (Princeton University Press, 2000) p 107.</ref>
After the Center party had doubled its popular vote in the elections of 1874, it became the second largest party in the national parliament, and remained a powerful force for the next 60 years. It became difficult for Bismarck to form a government without their support.<ref name="Christopher Clark (2006) pp 568-576" /><ref>Hajo Holborn, ''A History of Modern Germany: 1840–1945'' (1969), 258–260</ref>
From the decades-long experience in battling against the Kulturkampf, the Catholics of Germany, says Professor Margaret Anderson, learned democracy. She states that the clergy:
:Acquired a pragmatic, but nonetheless real, commitment to democratic elections, parliamentary procedures, and party politics – commitments in which they schooled their flock, by their practice as much as by their preaching."<ref>Anderson, ''Practicing Democracy (2000) p 150</ref>
=== Anti-Polish aspect of Kulturkampf ===
Studies that analyze the nationalist aspect of Kulturkampf, point out its anti-Polish character and Bismarcks attempt to Germanize Polish provinces in German Empire<ref>The War against Catholicism: Liberalism and the Anti-Catholic Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Germany, page 8 Michael B. Gross, 2004.</ref><ref name="Sebastian Conrad page 171"/>
The Poles had already suffered from discrimination and numerous oppressive measures in Germany long before unification. These measures were intensified after the [[German Empire]] was formed<ref>History 1871–1939 Warszawa 2000 dr.Anna Radziwił prof.dr.hab Wojciech Roszkowski page 80</ref> and Bismarck was known to be particularly hostile towards the Poles.<ref name="ReferenceA">Jerzy Zdrada – Historia Polski 1795–1918 Warsaw Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN 2007; pages 268, 273-291, 359-370</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">Andrzej Chwalba – Historia Polski 1795–1918 Wydawnictwo Literackie 2000 Kraków pages 175-184, 307-312</ref> [[Christopher Clark]] argues that Prussian policy changed radically in the 1870s in the face of highly visible Polish support for France in the Franco-Prussian war.<ref>{{cite book |author=Christopher Clark |title=Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eEOLV_TtNfQC&pg=PT699 |year=2007 |publisher=Penguin |pages=579–81|isbn=9780141904023 }}</ref> Polish demonstrations made clear the Polish nationalist feeling, and calls were also made for Polish recruits to desert from the [[Prussian Army]] – though these went unheeded. Bismarck was outraged, telling the Prussian cabinet in 1871: From the Russian border to the Adriatic Sea we are confronted with the combined propaganda of Slavs, ultramontanes, and reactionaries, and it is necessary openly to defend our national interests and our language against such hostile actions.<ref>(in English) Jarmila Kaczmarek, Andrzej Prinke (2000). "Two Archaeologies in one Country: Official Prussian versus amateur Polish activities in Mid-Western (i.e.: Greater) Poland in XIXth-early XXth cent.", Poznań Archaeological Museum publications. Retrieved February 16, 2006</ref> Therefore, in the Province of Posen the Kulturkampf took on a much more nationalistic character than in other parts of Germany.<ref name="Kaczmarek_Prinke">{{cite web |author=Jarmila Kaczmarek, Andrzej Prinke |year=2000 |title=Two Archaeologies in one Country: Official Prussian versus amateur Polish activities in Mid-Western (i.e.: Greater) Poland in XIXth-early XXth cent. |work=Poznań Archaeological Museum publications |url=http://www.muzarp.poznan.pl/archweb/archweb_eng/Publications/dwarch/index_dwa.html |accessdate=February 16, 2006 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060303072621/http://www.muzarp.poznan.pl/archweb/archweb_eng/Publications/dwarch/index_dwa.html |archivedate=March 3, 2006 }}</ref>
Not an adamant supporter of the Liberal's general Kulturkampf goals, Bismarck did recognize the potential in some of them for subduing Polish national aspirations and readily made use of it. While the Liberals main objective was the separation of state and church as essential for a democratic and liberal society, Bismarck saw its use in separating the Polish population from the only supporter and guardian of its national identity.
Prussian authorities imprisoned 185 priests and forced hundreds of others into exile. Among the imprisoned was the [[Primate of Poland]] Archbishop [[Mieczysław Halka Ledóchowski|Mieczysław Ledóchowski]]. A large part of the remaining Catholic priests had to continue their service in hiding from the authorities. Although most of the 185 imprisoned were finally set free by the end of the decade, those who were released emigrated.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}} The anti-Polish aspects of Kulturkampf remained in place in Polish provinces of German Empire until First World War<ref name="Sebastian Conrad page 171"/>
== Kulturkampf in Austria ==
The Kulturkampf in Austria has roots dating back to the 18th century. Emperor [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph II]] launched a religious policy (later called "[[Josephinism]]") that advocated the supremacy of the state in religious matters. This resulted in far-reaching state control over the Catholic Church, including the reorganization of dioceses, the regulation of the number of masses, the transfer of many schools into government hands, state-controlled seminaries, and the limitation of the number of clerics and dissolving numerous monasteries. Protests of [[Pope Pius VI]], and even his visit to Vienna in 1782, were to no avail.
In the concordat of 1855, which was the culmination of Catholic influence in Austria, many of the Catholic Church's previous rights that were taken away under Joseph II were restored (marriage, partial control of censorship, elementary and secondary education, full control of the clergy and religious funds).
In 1886 and 1869, after sanctioning from the December constitution, emperor [[Franz Joseph I of Austria|Francis Joseph]]'s newly appointment cabinet undid parts of the concordat with several liberal reforms. These reforms are referred to as the May Laws. After strong protests from the Catholic Church, the laws of May 25, 1868 and May 14, 1869 restored civil marriage, passed primary and secondary education into government hands, installed interconfessional schools, and regulated interconfessional relations (for example, mixed marriages and children's rights to chose their faith).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/topic/concordat-of-1855 |title=concordat of 1855 – Austrian religious history |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.k/k629588.htm;internal&action=_setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en |title=Konkordat |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref>
In a secret consistory, [[Pope Pius IX]] condemned the constitution of 1867 and the May Laws as "leges abominabiles." In a pastoral letter dated September 7, 1868, bishop [[Franz-Josef Rudigier]] called for resistance to these May Laws. However, the letter was confiscated, and Rudigier had to appear before court on June 5, 1869. This event lead to the first-ever public demonstrations by the Catholic population. On July 12, 1869, the bishop was sentenced to a jail term of two weeks, but he was later pardoned by the emperor.
The May Laws provoked a serious conflict between state and church. After the promulgation of papal infallibility in 1870, Austria abrogated the concordat of 1855 and abolished it entirely in 1874. In May 1874, the Religious Act was officially recognized.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kath.net/news/22570 |title='Heroischer Tugendgrad' für Bischof Rudigier |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref>
== Contemporary use of the term "Kulturkampf" ==
=== United States ===
In the late 19th century, cultural wars arose over issues of prohibition and education in the United States.<ref>Richard Jensen, ''The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political conflict, 1888–1896'' (1971) [https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Winning_of_the_Midwest_Social_and_Po.html?id=XpCgCNZwpvoC online] ch 3-5</ref> The [[Bennett Law]] was a highly controversial state law passed in Wisconsin in 1889 that required the use of English to teach major subjects in all public and private elementary and high schools. Because Wisconsin German Catholics and Lutherans each operated large numbers of parochial schools where German was used in the classroom, it was bitterly resented by [[German-American]] (and some Norwegian) communities. Although the law was ultimately repealed, there were significant political repercussions, with the Republicans losing the governorship and the legislature, and the election of Democrats to the Senate and House of Representatives.<ref>William Foote Whyte, [http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u/?/wmh,5642 "The Bennett Law Campaign in Wisconsin,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.is/20120709114033/http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u/?/wmh,5642 |date=2012-07-09 }} ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'', 10: 4 (1926–1927).</ref><ref>Roger E. Wyman, "Wisconsin ethnic groups and the election of 1890." The Wisconsin Magazine of History (1968): 269-293. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4634354 in JSTOR]</ref>
In the United States, the terms "[[culture war]]" and "culture wars" refer to conflict in the late 20th and early 21st centuries between religious [[social conservative]]s and secular [[liberalism|social liberals]].<ref>Morris P. Fiorina, Samuel J. Abrams, and Jeremy C. Pope, ''Culture war?'' (2005)</ref> This theme of "culture war" was the basis of [[Patrick Buchanan]]'s keynote speech at the [[1992 Republican National Convention]].<ref>see [http://buchanan.org/blog/1992-republican-national-convention-speech-148 August 17, 1992 Buchanan Speech] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141005032823/http://buchanan.org/blog/1992-republican-national-convention-speech-148 |date=October 5, 2014 }}</ref> The term "culture war" by 2004 was in common use in the United States by both liberals and conservatives.
Throughout the 1980s, there were battles in Congress and the media regarding federal support for the [[National Endowment for the Arts]] and the [[National Endowment for the Humanities]] that amounted to a war over high culture between neoconservatives and paleoconservatives.<ref>Richard Jensen, "The Culture Wars, 1965–1995: A Historian`s Map." ''Journal of Social History'' (Oct 1995), 17-36. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3789064 in JSTOR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313221140/http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789064 |date=2016-03-13 }}</ref>
Justice [[Antonin Scalia]] referenced the term in the Supreme Court case ''[[Romer v. Evans]]'', [[judicial citation|517 U.S. 620]] (1996), saying "The Court has mistaken a ''Kulturkampf'' for a fit of spite." The case concerned an amendment to the [[Colorado]] state constitution that prohibited any subdepartment from acting to protect individuals on the basis of sexual orientation. Scalia believed that the amendment was a valid move on the part of citizens who sought "recourse to a more general and hence more difficult level of political decision making than others." The majority disagreed, holding that the amendment violated the Equal Protection clause of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]].
=== Israel ===
The term, translated to [[Hebrew]], (Milhemet Tarbut, ''מלחמת תרבות'') is also frequently used, with similar connotations, in the political debates of [[Israel]]—having been introduced by Jews who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s.<ref>"Secular and Ultra Orthodox Knesset Members threaten 'Culture War'", Israeli National News, May 11, 2013 [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173639] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105161535/http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173639 |date=2013-11-05 }}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Febronianism]]
* [[Gallicanism]]
* [[Josephinism]]
* [[Culture war]]
* [[Kirchenkampf]]
* [[Holy See – Germany relations]]
* [[Away from Rome!]]
* The [[First School War]] in Belgium (1879–84)
* The [[Jules Ferry Laws]] in France
* [[Freedom of religion]]
* [[Pope Pius IX and Germany]]
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
* Anderson, Margaret Lavinia. ''Windthorst: A Political Biography'' (1981), the leader of the Catholic Center Party
* Anderson, Margaret Lavinia. ''Practicing democracy: Elections and political culture in Imperial Germany'' (Princeton University Press, 2000)
* Atkin, Nicholas, and Frank Tallett. ''Priests, Prelates and People: A History of European Catholicism since 1750'' (Oxford UP, 2003).
* Bennette, Rebecca Ayako. ''Fighting for the Soul of Germany: The Catholic Struggle for Inclusion After Unification'' (Harvard University Press; 2012) 368 pages; examines Catholics' promotion of an alternative national identity after 1871.
* Blackbourn, David. ''Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Nineteenth-Century Germany'' (Oxford, 1993)
* Clark, Christopher and Wolfram Kaiser, eds. ''Culture Wars: Secular-Catholic Conflict in Nineteenth Century Europe'' (Cambridge University Press, 2003); Covers 10 countries; [http://www.h-france.net/vol4reviews/vol4no36Curtis.pdf online review]
* Gross, Michael B. ''The War against Catholicism: Liberalism and the Anti-Catholic Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Germany'' (2005)
* {{Citation |last=Hollyday |first=FBM |title=Bismarck |series=Great Lives Observed |publisher=Prentice-Hall |year=1970}}.
* Hope, Nicholas, "Prussian Protestantism," in Philip G. Dwyer, ed. ''Modern Prussian History: 1830–1947'' (2001) pp. 188–208
* Lamberti, Marjorie. "Religious conflicts and German national identity in Prussia, 1866–1914," in Philip G. Dwyer, ed. ''Modern Prussian History: 1830–1947'' (2001) pp. 169–187
* Ross, Ronald J. ''The failure of Bismarck's Kulturkampf: Catholicism and state power in imperial Germany, 1871–1887'', (Washington, D.C., 1998)
* Ross, Ronald J. "Enforcing the Kulturkampf in the Bismarckian state and the limits of coercion in imperial Germany." ''Journal of Modern History'' (1984): 456-482. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1880020 in JSTOR]
* Ross, Ronald J. "The Kulturkampf: Restrictions and Controls on the Practice of Religion in Bismarck's Germany." in Richard Helmstadter, ed. ''Freedom and Religion in the Nineteenth Century'' (1997) pp: 172-195.
* Trzeciakowski, Lech. ''The Kulturkampf in Prussian Poland'' (East European Monographs, 1990) 223 pp
* Weir, Todd. ''Secularism and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Germany: The Rise of the Fourth Confession'', Cambridge University Press, 2014, {{ISBN|1139867903}}, 9781139867900
* Zeender, John. "Ludwig Windthorst, 1812-1891" ''History'' (1992) 77#250 pp 237–54, the leader of the Catholic Center Party
=== Historiography ===
* Anderson, Margaret Lavinia. "Confessions of a Fellow Traveler," ''Catholic Historical Review'' (2013) 99#4 pp 623–648.
* Heilbronner, Oded. "From Ghetto to Ghetto: The Place of German Catholic Society in Recent Historiography" ''Journal of Modern History'' (2000) 72#2 pp. 453–495. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/315995 in JSTOR]
{{refend}}
== External links ==
* {{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Kulturkampf |short=x}}, detailed article by Martin Spahn, written in 1910.
* {{Cite NIE |wstitle=Kulturkampf |year=1905 |short=x}}
* [http://members.aol.com/megxyz/heather.html "Bismarck's Failure: the Kulturkampf"] long description
* [http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=1792 Founding Manifesto of the Protestant League (1887); Statistics on Membership (1887–1913) (English translation)] a German anti-Catholic propaganda organization that became active after the Kulturkampf
* [http://www.historyhome.co.uk/europe/bisdom.htm Bismarck's Domestic Policies 1871–1890] Kulturkampf in the context of Bismarck's entire domestic policies, by a head of history at Catholic University School in Dublin
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051108200950/http://www.wlajournal.com/12_1/Boxwell.pdf Kulturkampf Now and Then] 13-paged essay in [[Portable Document Format|pdf]] by a Professor of the [[United States Air Force Academy]]
* [http://h-net.org/~german/gtext/kaiserreich/windhorst.html Ludwig Windthorst Speaks in the Prussian Parliament (1873)] speech of [[Ludwig Windthorst]] following its analysis
* [http://www.zum.de/psm/imperialismus/bismarck3e.php Bismarck on the purpose of the Kulturkampf] Speech in the Prussian House of Lords, March 10, 1873
* [http://www.litdok.de/cgi-bin/litdok?lang=en&t_multi=x&v_0=THS&q_0=kulturkampf+(1871-1887)%0F Kulturkampf: Bibliography by] LitDok East-Central Europe [[Herder-Institut (Marburg)]]
{{Religious persecution|right}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Kulturkampf| ]]
[[Category:19th-century Catholicism]]
[[Category:Jesuit history in Europe]]
[[Category:History of Catholicism in Germany]]
[[Category:History of Catholicism in Italy]]
[[Category:Anti-Catholicism in Germany]]
[[Category:Politics of the German Empire]]
[[Category:Religion and politics]]
[[Category:1870s in Germany]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:German words and phrases]]
[[Category:Otto von Bismarck]]
[[Category:1870s in Christianity]]
[[Category:1870s in Prussia]]
[[Category:Wars involving Switzerland|Sonderbundskrieg]]
[[Category:19th century in Switzerland]]' |
New page wikitext, after the edit (new_wikitext) | '{{italic title}}
'''''Kulturkampf''''' ({{IPA-de|kʊlˈtuːɐ̯kampf|lang|De-Kulturkampf.ogg}}, "culture struggle") is a German term referring to the conflict
between the government of the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] and the Roman Catholic Church from about 1872 to 1878, predominantly over the control of educational and ecclesiastical appointments.<ref>Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, 1989, "Kulturkampf" p. 796.</ref><ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica: ''Kulturkampf, (German: "culture struggle"), the bitter struggle (c. 1871–87) on the part of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck to subject the Roman Catholic church to state controls''.</ref> What made the Kulturkampf unique in Germany compared to struggles between state and Church in other states was its anti-Polish aspect.<ref>The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History Helmut Walser Smith, page 360, OUP Oxford, 29.09.2011</ref><ref name="Sebastian Conrad page 171">Sebastian Conrad, Globalisation and the Nation in Imperial Germany, Cambridge University Press page 171</ref>
In contemporary socio-political discussion, the term Kulturkampf (see also [[culture war]]) is often used to describe any conflict between secular and religious authorities or deeply opposing values, beliefs between sizable factions within a nation, community, or other group.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/american/kulturkampf |title=Kulturkampf – Definition, meaning & more – Collins Dictionary |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref>
== Background ==
Under the influence of ascending new philosophies and ideologies such as the [[Age of Enlightenment|enlightenment]], [[Scientific realism|realism]], [[positivism]], [[materialism]], [[nationalism]], [[secularism]] and [[liberalism]], the role of religion in society and the relationship between society and church underwent profound changes in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many countries endeavoured to strip the church of worldly powers, reduce the duties of the church to spiritual affairs by secularising the public sphere and by [[separation of church and state]] and to assert the supremacy of the state, especially in education.<ref>Christopher Clark, ''Iron Kingdom'' (2006) pp 412-19</ref> Róisín Healy argues that across Europe, the Kulturkampf operated mainly on the state level and was found "especially in strongholds of liberalism, anti-clericalism, and anti-Catholicism."<ref>{{cite book |author=Róisín Healy |title=The Jesuit Specter in Imperial Germany |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=om6MiDM8sNQC&pg=PA57 |year=2003 |publisher=BRILL |page=57|isbn=978-0391041943 }}</ref>
[[File:IX. Piusz pápa.jpg|thumb|200px|Pope Pius IX (ca. 1878)]]
The Catholic Church resisted this development which it portrayed as an attack on religion and sought to maintain and even strengthen its strong role in the state and society.<ref>Nicholas Atkin and Frank Tallett, ''Priests, Prelates and People: A History of European Catholicism since 1750'' (Oxford UP, 2003) pp 128, 193</ref>
With the growing influence of enlightenment and after having lost much of its wealth, power and influence in the [[mediatisation]] and [[secularization]] of the early 19th century the church had been in a state of decline.<ref>Franz, Georg in: Kulturkampf. Staat und katholische Kirche in Mitteleuropa von der Säkularisation bis zum Abschluss des preußischen Kulturkampfes, Munich 1954, ASIN: B0027NO7I4 , p. 16</ref><ref>Robbins, Keith in: The Dynamics of Political Reform in Northern Europe 1780–1920, Political and Legal Perspectives, Leuven University Press, {{ISBN|9789058678256}}, p.154</ref>
The papacy at this time was at a weak point in its history, having just lost all its territories to Italy, with the pope a [[prisoner in the Vatican|"prisoner" in the Vatican]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Roland Sarti |title=Italy: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xhoLorFC1iwC&pg=PA462 |year=2009 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |page=462|isbn=9780816074747 }}</ref>
The church strove to revert its waning influence and to keep sway in such matters as e. g. marriage, family and education and initiated a Catholic revival by founding associations, papers, schools, social establishments or new orders and encouraging religious practices such as [[pilgrimage]]s, mass assemblies, the devotion of [[Marian devotions|Virgin Mary]] or the sacred heart of Jesus and the veneration of [[relic]]s;<ref>Knight, Frances in : History of the Christian Church, Vol. 6: The Church in the 19th. Century, I.B.Tauris, London, 2008, {{ISBN|9781850438991}}</ref> the pope himself became an object of devotion.<ref>Dittrich, Lisa in: Antiklerikalismuns in Europa: Öffentlichkeit und Säkularisierung in Frankreich, Spanien und Deutschland (1848–1914), Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1914, {{ISBN|9783525310236}}, p. 58</ref> Apart from the extraordinary proliferation of religious orders, the 19th. century also witnessed the rise of countless Catholic associations and organisations, especially in Germany and in France.<ref name="Dittrich 1914 p. 55">Dittrich, Lisa in: Antiklerikalismuns in Europa: Öffentlichkeit und Säkularisierung in Frankreich, Spanien und Deutschland (1848–1914), Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1914, {{ISBN|9783525310236}}, p. 55</ref> Catholic [[propaganda]] including the interpretation of daily events was spread through local and national Catholic newspapers prominent in all western European nations as well as through organized missions and groups dedicated to pious literature.<ref>Ruppert, Stefan in: Kirchenkampf und Kulturkampf: Historische Legitimation, politische Mitwirkung und wissenschaftliche Begleitung durch die Schule Emil Ludwig Richter, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2002, {{ISBN|978-3-16-147868-0}}, p.6-8</ref>
In the 19th. century, the Catholic Church promulgated a series of contentious [[dogma]]s and [[encyclical]]s: In
* 1832, in the [[encyclical]] [[Mirari vos]], Pope [[Gregory XVI]] condemned liberalism, [[freedom of the press|free press]] and [[free thought]].
Under the leadership of his successor, Pope [[Pius IX]], in
* 1854, the church proclaimed Mary's [[immaculate conception]]. In
* 1864, the Vatican published the encyclical [[Quanta cura]] and [[Syllabus of Errors]]. In
* 1870, the [[First Vatican Council]] declared the [[dogma]] of [[Papal infallibility]].
With its "Syllabus of Errors" of 1864, the Catholic Church launched an assault on the new ideologies, condemning 80 philosophical and political statements, mainly the foundations of the modern nation state, as false. It outright rejected such concepts as [[freedom of religion]], [[free thought]], [[separation of church and state]], [[civil marriage]], [[Popular sovereignty|sovereignty of the people]], [[democracy]], [[liberalism]] and [[socialism]], [[reason|reason as the sole base of human action]], and in general condemned the idea of conciliation with [[progress (history)|progress]]. The announcements included an index of forbidden books.<ref>Nicholas Atkin, and Frank Tallett. ''Priests, Prelates and People: A History of European Catholicism, 1750 to the Present'' (2003). pp 104-6</ref>
A profound change was the gradual reorganization of the Catholic Church and its expansive use of the media. The popes worked to increase their control of the Church. Heavily criticized by European governments, it was centralized and streamlined with a strict hierarchy, the bishops sought direction from the Vatican and the needs and views of the international church were given priority over the local ones. Opponents of the new hierarchical church organization pejoratively called it [[ultramontanism]].<ref>Healy, Roisin in: The Jesuit Spectre in Imperial Germany, Brill Academic Publishers, Boston, 2003, {{ISBN|0391041940}}, p. 42</ref><ref>Grew, Raymond in: "Liberty and the Catholic Church in 19th. century Europe", Freedom and Religion in the 19th. Century, edited by Richard Helmstadter, Stanford University Press, 1997, {{ISBN|9780804730877}}, p. 198-200</ref>
In view of the church's opposition to enlightenment, liberal reforms and the revolutions of the 18th/19th centuries, these dogmas and the church's expressed insistence on [[papal primacy]] angered the liberal-minded all across Europe, even among some Catholics, adding fuel to the heated debates.<ref name="Robbins 1920, p. 178" /><ref>Dittrich, Lisa in: Antiklerikalismuns in Europa: Öffentlichkeit und Säkularisierung in Frankreich, Spanien und Deutschland (1848–1914), Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1914, {{ISBN|9783525310236}}, p. 182</ref>
The dogmas represented a threat to the secularized state as they reaffirmed that the fundamental allegiance of Catholics was not to their nation-state, but to the Gospel and the Church and that the pope's teaching was absolutely authoritative and binding on all the faithful. Secular politicians even wondered whether "Catholicism and allegiance to the modern liberal state were not mutually exclusive". British Prime Minister [[William Gladstone|Gladstone]] wrote in 1874 that the teaching on papal infallibility compromised the allegiance of faithful English Catholics. For European liberalism, the dogmas were a declaration of war against the modern state, science and spiritual freedom.<ref>Bucheim, Karl in: Geschichte der christlichen Parteien in Deutschland. Kösel, Munich, 1953, ASIN B0000BGX87, p. 197</ref><ref name="unamsanctamcatholicam.com" />
The pope's handling of dissent of the dogmas, e. g. by excommunication of critics or demanding their removal from schools and universities, was considered as "epitome of papal authoritarianism".<ref>Healy, Roisin in: ''The Jesuit Spectre'' in Imperial Germany, Brill Academic Publishers, Boston, 2003, {{ISBN|0391041940}}, p. 55</ref>
In direct response to the Vatican's announcements, Austria passed the so-called May-Laws for [[Cisleithania]] in 1868, restricting the Concordat of 1855, and then cancelled the concordat altogether in 1870.
Saxony and Bavaria withheld approval to publish the papal infallibility dogma; Hesse and Baden even denied it any legal validity. France refused to publish the doctrines altogether; Spain forbade publication of the Syllabus of Errors in 1864.<ref>Dittrich, Lisa in: Antiklerikalismuns in Europa: Öffentlichkeit und Säkularisierung in Frankreich, Spanien und Deutschland (1848–1914), Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1914, {{ISBN|9783525310236}}, p. 95</ref>
== Kulturkampf in Germany ==
=== Background ===
[[File:094 leuchtkugeln nr 12.jpg|thumb|300 px|Anti-Catholic caricature in the Munich ''Leuchtkugeln'', 1848. A warning not to rejoice yet. The Catholic cleric as a fox and blind passenger on the wagon of progress, in order to later reverse the course of history.]]
By the mid-nineteenth century, liberal policies had also come to dominate Germany and the separation of church and state became a prominent issue.<ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 199-200</ref><ref>Iván T. Berend in: An Economic History of 19th-century Europe, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-1-107-03070-1}}, p 93</ref>
The Kulturkampf in Prussia is usually framed by the years 1871 and 1878 with the Catholic Church officially announcing its end in 1880 but the struggle in Germany had been an ongoing matter without definite beginning and the years 1871 to 1878 only mark its culmination in Prussia. In the wake of other European countries, most German states had taken first steps of secularisation well before unification. Predominantly Catholic Baden was at the forefront curbing the power of the Catholic Church (1852–1854 Baden Church Dispute) and (1864–1876 Kulturkampf Baden, see [[:de:Badischer Kulturkampf]]).<ref name="Healy 2003, p. 57">Healy, Roisin in: The Jesuit Spectre in Imperial Germany, Brill Academic Publishers, Boston, 2003, {{ISBN|0391041940}}, p. 57</ref><ref>de Gruyter, Walter in: Theologische Realenzykolpädie, Vol. 1, Berlin-New York, 1993, p. 101, {{ISBN|3-11 013898-0}}</ref> Other examples are Prussia (1830s, 1850, 1859 and 1969), Württemberg (1859/1862), Bavaria (1867, see [[:de:Bayerischer Kulturkampf]]), Hesse-Nassau or Hesse-Darmstadt.
In the 1837 Kölner Wirren ([[Cologne Confusion]]; [[:de:Kölner Wirren|article in German]]) of legal and policy issues regarding the children of mixed Protestant-Catholic marriages,<ref>Rowe, Michael in: From Reich to State. The Rhineland in the Revolutionary Age, Cambridge University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-521-82443-5}}, p. 248-249</ref> Prussia's final settlement was considered a defeat for the state as it had given in to demands of the Catholic Church.<ref>Ruppert, Stefan in: Kirchenkampf und Kulturkampf: Historische Legitimation, politische Mitwirkung und wissenschaftliche Begleitung durch die Schule Emil Ludwig Richter, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2002, {{ISBN|978-3-16-147868-0}}, p.13</ref>
In 1850, Prussia again had a dispute with the church about civil marriage and primary schools<ref>Robbins, Keith in: The Dynamics of Political Reform in Northern Europe 1780–1920, Political and Legal Perspectives, Leuven University Press, {{ISBN|9789058678256}}, p.150-175</ref> and in 1852, it issued decrees against the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]].
As in many European countries, Jesuits were being banned or heavily restricted in many of the German states e. g. in Saxony (1831) and even in Catholic ones such as Bavaria (1851), Baden (1860) or Württemberg (1862).<ref>Healy, Roisin in: The Jesuit Spectre in Imperial Germany, Brill Academic Publishers, Boston, 2003, {{ISBN|0391041940}}, p. 52</ref>
Not to be left out, the German areas to the [[Left Bank of the Rhine|west of the Rhine]] had already gone through a process of separation of church and state in line with a radical secularization after annexation by revolutionary and Napoleonic France in 1794. After their return to Germany in 1814, many if not most of the changes were kept in place.<ref>Rowe, Michael in: From Reich to State. The Rhineland in the Revolutionary Age, Cambridge University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-521-82443-5}}, p. 259-264</ref>
In the [[Vormärz]]-years, Catholic publications usually portrayed revolutions as negative and dangerous to the existing order as well as to the interests of the Catholic Church. Most of them considered a viable Catholicism to be necessary for the very health of society and state and to be the only true and effective protection against the scourge of revolution.<ref>Schneider, Bernhard in: Katholiken auf die Barrikaden? Europäische Revolutionen und deutsche katholische Presse 1815–1848, Reihe B: Forschungen, Vol. 84., Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, 1998, {{ISBN|978-3-506-79989-0}}</ref>
The unsuccessful [[German revolutions of 1848–49]], which the Catholic Church had opposed, produced no democratic reforms and attempts to radically disentangle state-church relationships failed. In the [[Frankfurt Parliament|revolutionary parliament]], many prominent representatives of political Catholicism took the side of the extreme right-wingers. In the years following the revolution, Catholicism became increasingly politicised due to the massive anti-modernist and anti-liberal policies of the Vatican.
In the [[Austro-Prussian War]] of 1866 and [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1870 the Catholic Church sided against Prussia and it was an outspoken opponent of German unification under Prussia (as well as of Italy's unification).
The Catholic dogmas and doctrines announced in 1854, 1864 and 1870 were perceived in Germany as direct attacks on the modern nation state.<ref>Robbins, Keith in: ''The Dynamics of Political Reform in Northern Europe 1780–1920, Political and Legal Perspectives,'' Leuven University Press, {{ISBN|9789058678256}}, p.158-161</ref> Thus, Bismarck, the [[National Liberal Party (Germany)|Liberals]] and the [[Free Conservative Party|Conservatives]] representing orthodox Protestants found the Centre Party's support of the pope highly provocative. Many Catholics shared these sentiments, especially against the pope's declared infallibility and the majority of Catholic German bishops deemed the definition of the dogma as "'unpropitious' in light of the situation in Germany". While most Catholics eventually reconciled themselves to the doctrine, some founded the small breakaway [[Old Catholic Church]].
According to the Bavarian head of government, [[Chlodwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst|Hohenlohe]], the dogma of infallibility compromised the Catholic's loyalty to the state.<ref>Healy, Roisin in: ''The Jesuit Spectre in Imperial Germany,'' Brill Academic Publishers, Boston, 2003, {{ISBN|0391041940}}, p. 56</ref> He sent a circular to all the diplomatic representatives of the Bavarian Kingdom saying, "The only dogmatic thesis which Rome desires to have decided by the Council, and which the Jesuits in Italy and Germany are now agitating, is the question of the Infallibility of the Pope. This pretension once become a dogma, will have a wider scope than the purely spiritual spheres, and will become evidently a political question: for it will raise the power of the Sovereign Pontiff, even in temporal matters, above all the princes and peoples of Christendom."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Life of His Holiness Pope Leo XIII: Vicar of Jesus Christ and Bishop of Rome|author=Richard Henry Clarke|year=1903|publisher=P.W. Ziegler & Co.|location=Philadelphia, PA|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofhisholines00claruoft|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifeofhisholines00claruoft/page/321 321]|quote=Prince Hohenlohe circular to all the diplomatic representatives of the Bavarian Kingdom.}}</ref>
The liberal majorities in the Imperial Diet and the Prussian parliament as well as liberals in general regarded the Church as backward, a hotbed for [[reactionary|reactionaries]], enemies of progress and cast monastic life as the epitome of a backward Catholic medievalism. They were alarmed by the dramatic rise in the numbers of monasteries, convents and clerical religious groups in an era of widespread religious revival. The Diocese of Cologne, for example, saw a tenfold increase of monks and nuns between 1850 and 1872. Prussian authorities were particularly suspicious of the spread of monastic life among the Polish and French minorities.<ref>Gross, ''The War Against Catholicism'', pp. 128-131, Univ. of Michigan Press 2004</ref>
The Church, in turn, saw the [[National Liberal Party (Germany)|National-Liberals]] its worst enemy, accusing them of spearheading the war against Christianity and the Catholic Church.<ref>Winkler, Heinrich in: Der lange Weg nach Westen: Deutsche Geschichte vom Ende des Alten ..., Vol 1, Beck Verlag, Munich, 2002, p. 218, {{ISBN|3406460011}}</ref>
At unification in 1871, the new German Empire included 25.5 million Protestants (62% of the population) and 15 million Catholics (36.5% of the population). Although a minority in the empire, Catholics were the majority in the states of [[Bavaria]], [[Baden]], and [[Alsace-Lorraine]] as well as in the four Prussian Provinces of [[West Prussia]], [[Province of Posen|Posen]], [[Rhine Province|Rhineland]], [[Westphalia]] and in the Prussian [[Regierungsbezirk|region]] of [[Upper Silesia]]. Since the [[Thirty Years' War]] the population was generally segregated along religious lines and rural areas or towns were overwhelmingly if not entirely of the same religion. Education was also separate and usually in the hands of the churches. There was little mutual tolerance, interaction or intermarriage. Protestants in general were deeply distrustful of the Catholic Church.
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R29818, Otto von Bismarck.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Bismarck c. 1875]]
Unification had been achieved through many obstacles with strong opponents. These were the European powers of France and Austria, both Catholic nations, and the Catholic Church itself, the three of which Bismarck perceived as "Coalition of Catholic Revenge". For Bismarck, the empire was very fragile and its consolidation was an important issue. Biographer Otto Pflanze emphasizes, "Bismarck's belief in the existence of a widespread Catholic conspiracy that posed a threat to both his German and European policies."<ref>{{cite book |author=Otto Pflanze |title=Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II: The Period of Consolidation, 1871–1880 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kT0ABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 |year=1990 |publisher=Princeton UP |page=189|isbn=9781400861088 }}</ref>
In a Protestant empire, the Catholic Church was to lose its good standing which it had enjoyed for centuries in the Catholic-dominated Holy Roman Empire and which it would have continued to enjoy in a German empire united under Austrian auspices. Thus, in 1870, on the eve of unification, the [[Centre Party (Germany)|Center Party]] was explicitly founded to defend the position of the church in the new empire.
Bismarck was highly concerned that many major members and supporters of this new party were not in sympathy with the new empire: the [[House of Hanover]], the ethnic minority of the Poles, the southern German states. In 1871, the predominantly Catholic states of Southern Germany had only reluctantly joined the empire, increasing the overall share of the Catholic population to 36.5%. Among this Catholic share was Germany's largest ethnic minority, well over 2 million Poles in the east of Prussia, who under Prussia and Germany suffered discrimination and oppression.<ref>''Wielka historia Polski'' t. 4 Polska w czasach walk o niepodległość (1815–1864). Od niewoli do niepodległości (1864–1918) Marian Zagórniak, Józef Buszko 2003 page 186</ref> Bismarck regarded the new Centre Party not only as an illegal mixup of politics and religion and the church's "long arm" but also as a unifying force for [[Catholic Germans]] and Poles and thus a threat to the consolidation of the empire. He feared that the Centre Party would frustrate his broader political agendas and he accused the Catholic priests of fostering Polish nationalism as had been done openly in the provinces of Posen and Upper Silesia.<ref name="Robbins 1920, p. 178">Robbins, Keith in: The Dynamics of Political Reform in Northern Europe 1780–1920, Political and Legal Perspectives, Leuven University Press, {{ISBN|9789058678256}}, p. 178</ref><ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 199</ref><ref>Arlinghouse, Francis in: The Kulturkampf and European Diplomacy 1871–1875 in The Catholic Historical Review 28/3, 1942, p. 342</ref><ref>Ross, Ronald in: "Kulturkampf. Restrictions and Controls on the Practice of Religion in Bismarck's Germany", Freedom and Religion in the 19th. Century, edited by Richard Helmstadter, Stanford University Press, 1997, {{ISBN|9780804730877}}, p. 173</ref><ref>The War between Prussia and Rome in: Quarterly Review, John Murray, London, 1874, Vol. 136, p. 314</ref>
[[File:Die Gartenlaube (1872) b 141.jpg|thumb|150px|Prussian Minister of Education, [[Adalbert Falk]], 1872]]
The Liberals regarded the Catholic Church as a powerful force of reaction and anti-modernity, especially after the proclamation of papal infallibility in 1870 and the tightening control of the Vatican over the local bishops.<ref>Lamberti, (2001)</ref> The renewed vitality of Catholicism in Germany with its mass gatherings also attracted Protestants – even the heir to the Prussian throne, with the king's approval, attended one.<ref name="books.google">Gross, Michael B., [https://books.google.com/books?id=fnCzk2fI9Z4C&dq The war against Catholicism: liberalism and the anti-Catholic imagination in nineteenth-century Germany], p. 75, University of Michigan Press, 2004</ref>
Antiliberalism, anticlericalism and anti-Catholicism became powerful intellectual forces of the time and the antagonism between Liberals and Protestants on one side and the Catholic Church on the other was fought out through mud-slinging in the press. A wave of anti-Catholic, anticlerical and antimonastic pamphleteering in the liberal press<ref name="books.google" /> was answered by antiliberal preaching and propaganda in Catholic newspapers and vice versa.
For these reasons, the government sought to wean the Catholic masses away from the hierarchy and the Centre Party and the liberal's demands to curb the power of the churches meshed well with Bismarck's main political objective to crush the Centre Party.
According to historian Anthony J. Steinhoff, "Bismarck's plan to disarm political Catholicism delighted liberal politicians, who provided the parliamentary backing for the crusade. Yet, the phrase the left-liberal Rudolf Virchow coined for this struggle, the Kulturkampf, suggests that the liberals wanted to do more than prevent Catholicism from becoming a political force. They wanted victory over Catholicism itself, the long-delayed conclusion of the Reformation".<ref name="Anthony J. Steinhoff 2008 p 294">Anthony J. Steinhoff, "Christianity and the creation of Germany," in Sheridan Gilley and Brian Stanley, eds. ''Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 8: 1814–1914'' (2008) p 294</ref>
At least since 1847 and in line with the Liberals, Bismarck had also been of the professed opinion, that state and church should be completely separated and "the sphere of the state had to be made secure against the incursions by the church",<ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 201</ref> although his ideas were not as far-reaching as in the United States or in Great Britain. He had in mind the traditional position of the Protestant church in Prussia and provoked considerable resistance from conservative Protestants. This became clear in a heated debate with Prussian culture minister von Mühler in 1871 when Bismarck said: "Since you stopped my plans in the Protestant church, I have to go via Rome".<ref>Rumschöttel, Prof. Dr. Hermann in: Bismarcks Kulturkampf. Motive und Gegner, Presentation at Sommerakademie St. Bonifaz 2013 –Kulturkampf in Bayern- http://sankt-bonifaz.de/fileadmin/images-bonifaz/redakteur/colloquium/docs/neu-Rumsch%C3%B6ttel_Bismarck-2013.pdf</ref> In August 1871 at Bad Ems, Bismarck revealed his intention to fight against the Centre Party, to separate state and church, to transfer school inspection to laymen, to abolish religious instruction from schools and to transfer religious affairs to the minister of justice.<ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 200-201</ref>
On 22 January 1872, liberal [[Adalbert Falk]] replaced conservative Heinrich von Mühler as Prussian minister for religion, education and health. In Bismarck's mind, Falk was "to re-establish the rights of the state in relation to the church". Yet, unlike Bismarck, whose main motivation for the Kulturkampf was the political power struggle with the Centre Party, Falk, a lawyer, was a strong proponent of state authority having in mind the legal aspects of state-church relationships. Falk became the driving force behind the Kulturkampf laws. Although Bismarck publicly supported Falk, he doubted the success of his laws and was unhappy with his lack of political tact and sensitivity. The differences in their attitudes concerning the Kulturkampf eventually put the two politicians at odds with each other.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz15511.html |title=Falk, Adalbert – Deutsche Biographie |first=Deutsche |last=Biographie |accessdate=21 December 2016|year=1961 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/biography/Adalbert-Falk |title=Adalbert Falk – Prussian official |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref>
With this background and the determination of church and state, the Kulturkampf in Germany acquired an additional edge as it gathered in intensity and bitterness.
=== Timeline and laws enacted during the Kulturkampf ===
[[File:Kladderadatsch 1875 - Zwischen Berlin und Rom.png|thumb|300px|"Between Berlin and Rome", with Bismarck on the left and the Pope on the right, from the German satirical magazine ''[[Kladderadatsch]]'', 1875. Pope: "Admittedly, the last move was unpleasant for me; but the game still isn't lost. I still have a very beautiful secret move." Bismarck: "That will also be the last one, and then you'll be mated in a few moves – at least in Germany."]]
From 1871 to 1876, the Prussian state parliament and the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|federal legislature (''Reichstag'')]], both with liberal majorities, enacted 22 laws in the context of the Kulturkampf. They were mainly directed against clerics: bishops, priests and religious orders ([[anti-clerical]]) and enforced the supremacy of the state over the church.<ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 202</ref><ref name="kath.de">{{cite web |url=http://www.kath.de/kurs/kg/18.htm |title=www.kath.de Kirchengeschichte – Der Kulturkampf |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref> While several laws were specific to the Catholic Church (Jesuits, congregations etc.) the general laws affected both Catholic and Protestant churches.
In an attempt to overcome increasing resistance by the Catholic Church and its defiance of the laws, new regulations increasingly went beyond state matters referring to the purely internal affairs of the church. Even many liberals saw them as an encroachment on civil liberties, compromising their own credo.<ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 206</ref>
Constitutionally, education and regulation of religious affairs were vested in the federal states and the leading actor of the Kulturkampf was [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], Germany's largest state. But some of the laws were also passed by the Reichstag and applied to all of Germany. In general, the laws did not affect the press and associations including Catholic ones.<ref name="kath.de" />
The major Kulturkampf laws were:
==== 1871 ====
* 8 June 1871, fusion of Catholic and Protestant sections in the Prussian Ministry of Culture (responsible for religious matters). The Catholic section had been installed in 1840. The reason given for the merger was, that "the exclusively political attitude of equal justice to all" was to be adopted and that for that purpose one ecclesiastical department was required.<ref>Pflanze, Otto, in: Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Volume II, Princeton University Press, 1971, {{ISBN|0-691-05587-4}}, p 200</ref><ref>The War between Prussia and Rome in: Quarterly Review, John Murray, London, 1874, Vol. 136, p. 311</ref> The merger was also a precondition for the School Supervision Act of the following year.<ref>Geschichte der CDU (History of the Christian Democratic Party of Germany) in: http://www.kas.de/wf/de/71.8617/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926131524/http://www.kas.de/wf/de/71.8617/ |date=2015-09-26 }}</ref>
* 10 December 1871, Empire, [[Pulpit Law]] (Kanzelparagraph) passed at the initiative of Bavaria and meant to curb what was considered the misuse of religious sermons for political agitation from the pulpit.<ref name="Robbins 1920, p. 178" /><ref>Lougee, Robert W., [https://www.jstor.org/pss/3161311 The ''Kulturkampf'' and Historical Positivism], pp. 219–220, Church History, Vol. 23, No. 3, Sep., 1954, Cambridge Univ.</ref> The law read:<ref>see [http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=669 text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703004617/http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=669 |date=2015-07-03 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Thomas Vormbaum |author2=Michael Bohlander |title=A Modern History of German Criminal Law |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8h24BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA133 |year=2013 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |page=133|isbn=9783642372735 }}</ref> Any cleric or other minister of religion shall be punished with imprisonment or incarceration of up to two years if he, while exercising his occupation or having his occupation exercised, makes state affairs the subject of announcements or discussion either in public before a crowd, in a church, or before any number of people in some other place designated for religious gatherings in such a way that it endangers the public peace.
==== 1872 ====
* 22 January 1872, [[Adalbert Falk]] became Prussian minister for spiritual, educational and health matters
* 11 March 1872, Prussian [[:de:Schulaufsichtsgesetz|School Supervision Act]]. This legislation was at the heart of the Kulturkampf, abolishing church oversight of the Prussian primary school system (Catholic and Protestant), excluding the clergy from education and eliminating its influence in curricular matters.<ref name="unamsanctamcatholicam.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.unamsanctamcatholicam.com/history/79-history/394-kulturkampf.html |title=Understanding the Kulturkampf |last=Boniface |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref> This was a milestone for liberalism, as placing education into the hands of the government had always been at the top of its agenda. It was to ensure an open-minded and neutral education as the prerequisite for a progressive society. In the eyes of Bismarck, this law was necessary after the church, putting itself in opposition to the state, used the schools to incite the young against the government.
* On April 1872, the Vatican rejected [[Gustav Adolf, Cardinal Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst]] as German ambassador to the [[Holy See]]. Schillingsfürst had been critical of the infallibility dogma but eventually accepted the decision of the council. Therefore, Bismarck took him for a suitable mediator. In response to the rejection, the diplomatic mission was left vacant and Prussia suspended relations with the Vatican in December 1872.
* 4 July 1872, Empire, [[Jesuits Law (1872)|Jesuit Law]] banning of the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]] who were seen as the emissaries of Rome and the spearhead of ultramontanism. By acknowledging the supremacy of Papal authority, the Jesuits were accused of contesting the secular authority. The law allowed for the dissolution of all Jesuit chapters and expulsion of its members. The following year the law was extended to closely related orders: the Redemptorists, Lazarists, Fathers of the Holy Ghost, and the Ladies of the Sacred Heart. Continued and increasing Church resistance and contempt of the 1871/1872 laws led to changes in the constitution and the enactment of further laws. In order to facilitate these laws, the Prussian Constitution was amended.
* 20 September 1872, at a conference in Fulda the Prussian bishops protested against the regulations hostile to the church.
* 23 December 1872, in an address to his cardinals, the pope denounced the new laws as persecution of the church.
==== 1873 ====
[[File:Rudolf Virchow by Hugo Vogel, 1861.JPG|thumb|150px|Rudolf Virchow, 1861]]
* 17 January 1873, the term "Kulturkampf" came into play. Debating the law on education conditions for the employment of clerics, a [[German Progress Party|Progressive]] deputy in the Prussian legislature – the distinguished medical scientist and pioneer of public health methods, [[Rudolf Virchow]] said: "Ich habe die Überzeugung, es handelt sich hier um einen großen Kulturkampf." (I am of the conviction that this is about a great cultural struggle)<ref name="Catholic Dict">{{cite book |title=New Catholic Dictionary |year=1910 |chapter=Kulturkampf |chapterurl=http://www.catholic-forum.com/SAINTS/ncd04572.htm |url=http://www.catholic-forum.com/SAINTS/indexncd.htm |quote=It was the distinguished liberal politician and scientist, Professor Rudolph Virchow, who first called it the Kulturkampf, or struggle for civilization. |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130825052022/http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/indexncd.htm |archivedate=2013-08-25 }}</ref><ref>Winkler, Heinrich August in: Der lange Weg nach Westen. Deutsche Geschichte 1806–1933, Munich 2000, p. 222.</ref> He repeated this term in a call for a vote by the [[German Progress Party]] on 23 March 1873. It was ironically picked up and derided in the Catholic press and enthusiastically defended in the liberal.<ref>Bachem, Karl in: 'Vorgeschichte, Geschichte und Politik der Deutschen Zentrumspartei, Vol. III, 1927, p. 268–269</ref>
* 30 January 1873, while the laws were being debated in parliament, the Prussian bishops submit a protest against the planned legislation and in a memorial, they announced their opposition to the new laws.
* 5 April 1873, Prussia, Amendment of Sections 15, 16 and 18 of the Prussian Constitution
:In section 15 the sentence "The Protestant and the Roman Catholic Church, as well as every other religious community, regulates and administers its affairs independently" is supplemented by "but remain subject to the laws of the state and its legally regulated superintendence". It is added, that the same applies to the possession or beneficial use of institutions for religion, teaching, charity, endowments and funds.
:Section 16, regarding the unrestricted dealings of religious communities with their seniors and public announcements according to general regulations was cancelled.
:Section 18 cancelled the state's right to appoint, nominate, elect or confirm clerics for a post. But the amendment added, that the state could regulate the minimum education required for clerical posts, the appointment and dismissal of clergymen and servicemen of religion, and define the limits of ecclesiastical disciplinary measures.
* On 2 May 1873, the bishops issued a common pastoral letter explaining to the faithful the necessity to unanimously and passively resist these laws.
[[File:Ludwig Windthorst 1872 JS.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Ludwig Windthorst]], 1872]]
* '''May Laws'''
:The May Laws (''Maigesetze''), or [[Falk Laws]], were a set of laws passed by the Prussian parliament in the years 1873, 1874 and 1875.
:Four laws passed in 1873 were enacted on 11/12/13/14 May 1873:
:1. Law on [[religious disaffiliation]] allowing a person to sever his connection with the church by simple declaration before a justice of the peace. This declaration freed him from all civil effects of belonging to a church, especially ecclesiastical burthens and dues.
:2. Law on ecclesiastical disciplinary measures restricting the exercise of ecclesiastical punishments and means of discipline directed against the life, property, freedom or honour of citizens. This included the infliction of the great excommunication if proclaimed with the name of the guilty, because of possible disturbances of civil and social intercourse. Thus, disciplinary measures were almost totally restricted to the spiritual realm (see state [[Monopoly on violence]]).
:3. Ecclesiastical disciplinary law concerning ecclesiastical power of discipline and the establishment of The Royal Court of Justice for Ecclesiastical Affairs. This subordinated the Catholic Church to state jurisdiction not only in external but also in internal matters.<ref>Geschichte der CDU in: http://www.kas.de/wf/de/71.8617/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926131524/http://www.kas.de/wf/de/71.8617/ |date=2015-09-26 }}</ref> The law regulated the exercise of disciplinary power by church authorities against their officers for special violation of their duties. Members of the court had to be Germans residing in Germany. Bodily chastisement by the Church was entirely forbidden, fines were limited to maximum amounts, restrictions of freedom could only consist in banishment to a church institution within Germany no longer than 3 months and not against the will of the person concerned. On the other hand, the new court also was given jurisdiction over ecclesiastical officers in violation of state laws.
:With this law, the German clergy was to be exempt from any juridical body outside of the nation. Hence, judgments of the Holy See or the Roman Rota would not be binding upon them. The highest court was made up of Prussian ecclesiastics, all appointed with the permission of Prussian civil authorities. The Church's juridical and punitive powers were restricted by allowing clerics, e. g. those punished by the Church for not resisting the Kulturkampf laws, to appeal to the Royal Court of Justice for Ecclesiastical Affairs. Bishops in defiance of this law could be deposed.
:4. Education standards and civic registry law concerning the education and appointment of priests. Regarding the Protestant Church, these regulations had already been in force for a long time. All men intended for priesthood needed a graduate degree ([[Abitur]]) from a German {{lang|de|gymnasium}} and study 3 years of theology at a German university.
:All appointments of clerics had to be approved by the state. Herewith, training and appointment of the clergy came under state supervision. The traditional regimen of clerical study was to be replaced by a modern education in a liberal German institution, thus ensuring that candidates to the priesthood were imbued with the spirit of secularism. Furthermore, ecclesiastical offices could only be filled with the permission of the highest civil authority in each province, essentially reviving the ancient practice of lay investiture.<ref name="unamsanctamcatholicam.com" />
* 26 May 1873, the bishops issued another pastoral letter calling on the faithful to resist the new laws and informed the Prussian government that they would not cooperate in their execution. Parish councils declined to elect new pastors or accept parish administrators. Exiled or imprisoned bishops used underground networks. The bishops of Münster and Paderborn refused the Kulturexamen for their seminaries and appointed priests without notifying authorities. Clergy obeying the mandate of the bishops immediately became subject to the punishments prescribed by the laws. Fines were imposed in hundreds of cases and the clerics resisted to pay at which, in turn, the government resorted to force, either by confiscation or imprisonment of up to two years.<ref name="newadvent.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08703b.htm |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Kulturkampf |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref>
* 21 November 1873, in his encyclical [[Etsi multa]] on the persecution of the Church in Italy, Germany, and Switzerland, the pope wrote of Germany "No wonder, then, that the former religious tranquility has been gravely disturbed in that Empire by this kind of law and other plans and actions of the Prussian government most hostile to the Church. But who would wish to falsely cast the blame of this disturbance on the Catholics of the German Empire!"<ref name="Robbins 1920, p. 180">Robbins, Keith in: The Dynamics of Political Reform in Northern Europe 1780–1920, Political and Legal Perspectives, Leuven University Press, {{ISBN|9789058678256}}, p. 180</ref> He claimed that [[Anticlericalism and Freemasonry|Freemasonry]] was the motivating force behind the ''Kulturkampf''.<ref name="synagogue">"Some of you may perchance wonder that the war against the Catholic Church extends so widely. Indeed each of you knows well the nature, zeal, and intention of sects, whether called Masonic or some other name. When he compares them with the nature, purpose, and amplitude of the conflict waged nearly everywhere against the Church, he cannot doubt but that the present calamity must be attributed to their deceits and machinations for the most part. For from these the synagogue of Satan is formed which draws up its forces, advances its standards, and joins battle against the Church of Christ." Para 28, [http://www.ewtn.com/library/encyc/p9etsimu.htm Etsi Multa] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060403171135/http://ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/P9ETSIMU.HTM |date=2006-04-03 }}</ref>
==== 1874 ====
* 9 March 1874: Prussian [[Civil registry|Civil Registry Law]] (birth, [[Civil marriage|marriage]], death). The same law was passed for the whole empire on 6 February 1875.
* 4 May 1874: Empire, Expatriation Law: meant to curb the exercise of church duties by clerics without the required consent of authorities. The law stipulated, that in such cases, after a final conviction, a cleric would be banned from his parish or sent to another place within the empire and, in case of reoccurrence, that the cleric would be expatriated and expelled.
* 20 May 1874: Prussian Law on the administration of vacant bishoprics. According to the law of 11 May 1873, administrators were to be elected for vacant bishoprics, authorizing laymen to assume administrative responsibilities at the parish level. This additional law stipulated that should an administrator not be elected according to the law, the property would be managed by a state superintendent.
* On July 13, 1874, in the town of [[Bad Kissingen]], [[Eduard Kullmann]] attempted to [[assassinate]] Bismarck with a [[pistol]], but only hit his hand. Kullmann cited church laws as the reason for his attempt; he was sentenced to 14 years of ''Zuchthaus'' (correctional facilities with harsh forced labor). The assassination attempt led to an intensification of the Kulturkampf measures.
==== 1875 ====
* 5 February 1875, the encyclical, [[Quod Nunquam]] declared that the May Laws were invalid, "insofar as they totally oppose the divine order of the Church". The Catholic newspaper ''Westfälischer Merkur'' was the first to publish the whole text on the 18th of the same month in Germany. All the following papers publishing the encyclical were confiscated.<ref name="Robbins 1920, p. 180" />
* 22 April 1875, the Prussian Payment Law (Breadbasket Law) stopped government subsidies and payments for the Catholic bishoprics and clerics unless they signed a declaration of adherence to all laws.
* 31 May 1875, Prussian Congregations Law dissolving all orders within 6 months except those involved in care for the infirm. For teaching orders, the time could be extended.
* 20 June 1875, Prussian Church Finances Administration Law providing for a representation and a council elected by the parish for the administration of property.
* 4 July 1875, Prussian Old-Catholic Church Entitlement Law giving Old-Catholic communities of a certain size the right to use Catholic churches and cemeteries.
==== 1876 ====
The last two laws passed in 1876 were of no practical importance.
* 26 February 1876, the possible punishment for violation of the pulpit law was extended to publications.
* 7 June 1876, the State Supervision Act provided for government supervision of all church assets in the Catholic dioceses in Prussia.
=== Mitigation and Peace Laws ===
[[File:Leo XIII..jpg|thumb|Pope Leo XIII (c. 1898)]]
The political situation in Europe was very volatile. Initially perceived as a possible enemy hostile to German unification under Prussian leadership, Austria and Germany very quickly became friends and formed the [[Dual Alliance (1879)|Dual Alliance]] in 1879. The possibility of a war with France or Russia also became more remote. Therefore, social and economic problems moved to the fore and Bismarck's attention gradually turned to other topics he deemed more threatening such as the increasing popularity of the [[Socialism|socialists]] or more important such as questions of import duties. In these matters, he could either not rely on the support of the liberals to pursue his goals or they were not sufficient to form a majority.
Bismarck had not been comfortable with the increasing ferocity of the Kulturkampf. Concerning the rise of the Centre Party, the laws had proven to be greatly ineffective and even counterproductive. He soon realized that they were of no help battling the Centre Party and as far as separation of state and church was concerned, he had achieved more than he wanted.<ref>{{cite book |first=Christopher |last=Clark |title=Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 |url=https://archive.org/details/ironkingdomrised00chri |url-access=registration |year=2006 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ironkingdomrised00chri/page/568 568–576]}}</ref>
In order to garner support for his [[Anti-Socialist Laws]] and protective trade tariffs,
Bismarck turned his back on the liberals in search of new alliances. The death of Pius IX on 7 February 1878 opened the door for a settlement with the Catholic Church. The new pope, [[Pope Leo XIII|Leo XIII]] was pragmatic and conciliatory and expressed his wish for peace in a letter to the Prussian king on the very day of his election followed by a second letter in a similar vein that same year.
Bismarck and the Pope entered into direct negotiations without the participation of the Church or the Reichstag, yet initially without much success. It came to pass that Falk, vehemently resented by Catholics, resigned on 14 July 1879, which could be read as a peace offering to the Vatican. A decisive boost only came in February 1880, when the Vatican unexpectedly agreed to the civic registry of clerics. As the Kulturkampf slowly wound down the talks lead to a number of so-called mitigation and peace laws which were passed until 1887.<ref name="Robbins 1920, p. 180" />
* July 1880, the First Mitigation Law reallowed government payments to Prussian dioceses and freed the bishops from swearing allegiance to the Prussian laws. Hereupon, four new bishops were reinstated where seats had been left vacant after the death of former bishops. Catholic associations involved in the care of the infirm were readmitted.
* 1882 resumption of diplomatic relations between Prussia (not Germany) and the Vatican, which had been cut in 1872
* 31 May 1882, the Second Mitigation Law allowed the waiver of government exams for clerics
* July 1883, the Third Mitigation Law legalized all religious actions of bishops and in certain cases, the king could pardon deposed bishops. 280 expelled clerics were pardoned.
On 29 September 1885, as another sign of peace, Bismarck proposed the Pope as arbiter in a dispute with Spain about the [[Caroline Islands]] and accepted his verdict in favour of Spain. In gratitude but to the great horror of Catholics, the Pope awarded Bismarck the [[Supreme Order of Christ]], the highest order of chivalry to be granted by the Holy See. Bismarck was the only Protestant ever to receive this award.
After further negotiations between Prussia and the Vatican, the Prussian parliament passed 2 additional laws amending some of the Kulturkampf laws.
* 21 May 1886, the First Peace Law amended some of the regulations in the education standards and civic registry law of 11 May 1873 and state exams for clerics (waiver in Second Mitigation Law of 31 May 1882) were totally abolished. Episcopal-theological academies and seminaries, as well as theological studies at these institutions, were readmitted. Students were allowed to be quartered in Catholic boarding houses (Konvikts). The state acknowledged papal disciplinary powers and abolished The Royal Court of Justice for Ecclesiastical Affairs
* 26 April 1887, the Second Peace Law readmitted all orders except the Jesuits to Prussia
On 23 May 1887, the Pope declared "The struggle which damaged the church and was of no good to the state is now over". The Mitigation and Peace Laws restored the inner autonomy of the Catholic church while leaving key regulations and the laws concerning separation of church and state in place (civic marriage, civic registry, religious disaffiliation, government school supervision, civic registry of clerics, ban of Jesuits, pulpit law, state supervision of church assets, constitutional amendments and the Catholic section in the Ministry of Culture was not reintroduced).
The respective opposing parties in the Reichstag harshly criticized the concessions made by the Vatican and the Prussian government.
Windthorst and the Centre Party were dismayed at being sidelined and not being consulted about the concessions the pope made, e. g. about the ban on Jesuits or the civil registry of clerics. None of the party's major demands were met. Instead, the pope even sided with Bismarck on non-religious issues and pressured the Centre Party to support Bismarck or at least abstain, e. g. in the matter of the hotly debated Septennat 1887 (7-year military budget).
Many Liberals, especially Falk, objected to the concessions Bismarck made to the Church.
The growth of the Centre Party has been considered a major setback for Bismarck although never publicly conceded. Yet, in spite of strong Catholic representation in the Reichstag, the political power and influence of the Church in the public sphere and its political power was greatly reduced.
Although Germany and the Vatican were officially at peace after 1878, religious conflicts and tensions continued. At the turn of the century, [[Pope Pius X]] announced the encyclical [[Pascendi dominici gregis]], mounting new attacks on historical criticism of biblical texts and any accommodation of Catholicism to modern philosophy, sociology or literature. As of 1910, clerics had to take an oath against all forms of modernism, a requirement later extended to teachers of Catholic religion at schools and professors of Catholic theology resulting in intense political and public debates and new conflicts with the state.<ref>Robbins, Keith in: The Dynamics of Political Reform in Northern Europe 1780–1920, Political and Legal Perspectives, Leuven University Press, {{ISBN|9789058678256}}, p. 180-181</ref>
=== Effects of the laws, contemporary criticism and long-term results ===
The abolition of the Catholic section of the Prussian Ministry of ecclesiastical and educational affairs deprived Catholics of their voice at the highest level. The system of strict government supervision of schools was applied only in Catholic areas; the Protestant schools were left alone. The school politics also alienated Protestant conservatives and churchmen.<ref>Lamberti, (2001) p 177</ref>
The British ambassador [[Odo Russell, 1st Baron Ampthill|Odo Russell]] reported to London in October 1872 how Bismarck's plans were backfiring by strengthening the ultramontane (pro-papal) position inside German Catholicism:
:The German Bishops who were politically powerless in Germany and theologically in opposition to the Pope in Rome – have now become powerful political leaders in Germany and enthusiastic defenders of the now infallible Faith of Rome, united, disciplined, and thirsting for martyrdom, thanks to Bismarck's uncalled for antiliberal declaration of War on the freedom they had hitherto peacefully enjoyed.<ref>Quoted in Edward Crankshaw, ''Bismarck'' (1981) pp 308-9</ref>
Nearly all German bishops, clergy and laymen rejected the legality of the new laws and were defiantly facing the increasingly heavy penalties, trials and imprisonments. As of 1878, only three of eight Prussian dioceses still had bishops, some 1,125 of 4,600 parishes were vacant, and nearly 1,800 priests ended up in jail or in exile, nearly half the monks and nuns had left Prussia, a third of the monasteries and convents were closed. Between 1872 and 1878, numerous Catholic newspapers were confiscated, Catholic associations and assemblies were dissolved, and Catholic civil servants were dismissed merely on the pretence of having Ultramontane sympathies. Thousands of laypeople were imprisoned for assisting priests to evade the punitive new laws.<ref name="books.google.com">Helmstadter, Richard J., [https://books.google.com/books?id=aw_1aaE0Fb4C&pg Freedom and religion in the nineteenth century], p. 19, Stanford Univ. Press 1997</ref><ref>Steinhoff, "Christianity and the creation of Germany," (2008) p 295</ref>
The general ideological enthusiasm among the liberals for the Kulturkampf<ref name="PI1">"Liberals were the most enthusiastic champions of the general policy, because it satisfied a tradition of passionate anti-clericalism. Virchow meant Kulturkampf as a term of praise, signifying the liberation of public life from sectarian impositions (though the term was later taken up by Catholic leaders in a spirit of bitter derision)." From [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 "A Supreme Court in the Culture Wars"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311012430/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 |date=2007-03-11 }} by Jeremy Rabkin in the Fall edition of the ''Public Interest''</ref> was in contrast to Bismarck's [[wikt:pragmatic|pragmatic]] attitude towards the measures<ref name="PI2">"Even Bismarck – who initially saw a variety of tactical political advantages in these measures – took pains to distance himself from the rigors of their enforcement." From [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 A Supreme Court in the culture wars] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311012430/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 |date=2007-03-11 }} by Jeremy Rabkin in the Fall edition of the Public Interest</ref> and growing disquiet from the Conservatives.<ref name="PI3">"Conservative political forces, centering on the old Prussian aristocracy, became increasingly critical of these measures, fearing that they would jeopardize the status of their own [[Protestant]] [[Prussian Union of churches|Evangelical Church]]. "From [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 A Supreme Court in the culture wars] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311012430/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 |date=2007-03-11 }} by Jeremy Rabkin in the Fall edition of the Public Interest</ref>
Apart from the outspoken criticism of the Kulturkampf Laws by the Catholic Church and the Centre Party, there were also a number of Liberals and Protestants who voiced concern at least at the so-called "Kampfgesetze" (battle laws). "Unease concerning the effects of his programme continued to spread among all but the most bigoted priest-haters and the most doctrinaire liberals".<ref>{{cite book |author=Gordon A. Craig |title=Germany, 1866–1945 |url=https://archive.org/details/germany1866194500crai |url-access=registration |year=1978 |publisher=Oxford UP |pages=[https://archive.org/details/germany1866194500crai/page/75 75]–76|isbn=9780198221135 }}</ref>
Such noted critics outside the Catholic camp were [[Friedrich Heinrich Geffcken]], [[Emil Albert Friedberg]] or [[Julius von Kirchmann]]. Although they were proponents of state superiority, they regarded some of the laws as either ineffective or as interference in internal church affairs and not consistent with liberal values. Geffcken wrote that "with the intention to emancipate the laity from the hierarchy, the main body of the Catholics was brought in phalanx into the hands of leaders from which it was to be wrested. But the state cannot fight at length against a third of the population, it has no means to break such a passive resistance supported and organized by religious fanaticism. If a statesman desists from the correctness of a measure it only matters that he has the power to enforce it."
Even Bismarck – who initially saw a variety of tactical political advantages in these measures, e. g. for his suppressive policies against the Polish population – took pains to distance himself from the rigors of their enforcement."<ref>[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 A Supreme Court in the culture wars] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311012430/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n125/ai_18798593 |date=2007-03-11 }} by Jeremy Rabkin in the Fall edition of the Public Interest</ref>
The Kulturkampf law considered the harshest and with no equivalent in Europe was the Expatriation Law. Passed by a liberal majority in parliament, it stipulated banishment as a punishment that all civilized peoples considered the harshest beyond the death penalty.<ref>Ruppert, Stefan in: Kirchenkampf und Kulturkampf: Historische Legitimation, politische Mitwirkung und wissenschaftliche Begleitung durch die Schule Emil Ludwig Richter, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2002, {{ISBN|978-3-16-147868-0}}, p.257 – 263</ref>
As to the Centre Party, these measures did not have the effect that Bismarck had in mind. In the state elections of November 1873, it grew from 50 to 90 seats and in the Reichstag elections from 63 to 91. The number of Catholic periodicals also increased; in 1873 there were about 120.<ref name="newadvent.org" />
The Kulturkampf gave secularists and socialists an opportunity to attack all religions, an outcome that distressed the Protestant leaders and especially Bismarck himself, who was a devout pietistic Protestant.<ref name="Christopher Clark (2006) pp 568-576">Christopher Clark, ''Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947'' (2006) pp. 568–576</ref>
In the face of systematic defiance, the Bismarck government increased the penalties and its attacks, and were challenged in 1875 when a papal encyclical declared that the entire ecclesiastical legislation of Prussia was invalid, and threatened to excommunicate any Catholic who obeyed. There was no violence, but the Catholics mobilized their support, set up numerous civic organizations, raised money to pay fines and rallied behind their church and the Center Party.
To Bismarck's surprise, the Conservative Party especially the Junkers from his own landowning class in East Prussia sided with the Catholics. They were Protestants and did not like the Pope, but they had much in common with the Center Party. The Conservatives controlled their local schools and did not want bureaucrats from Berlin to take them over. They were hostile to the liberals, being fearful of free trade that would put them in competition with the United States and other grain exporters, and disliking their secular views. In the Prussian legislature, they sided with the Center Party on the school issue. Bismarck was livid, and he resigned the premiership of Prussia (while remaining Chancellor of the German Empire), telling an ally, "in domestic affairs I have lost the ground that is for me acceptable through the unpatriotic treason of the Conservative Party in the Catholic question." Indeed, many of Bismarck's conservative friends were in opposition. So too was Kaiser William I, who was King of Prussia; he was strongly opposed to the civil marriage component of the Kulturkampf.<ref>Edgar Feuchtwangler, ''Bismarck'' (2000) pp 186-87</ref>
The Kulturkampf made Catholics more resolute; they responded not with violence but with votes, and as the newly formed Center Party became a major force in the Imperial Parliament, it gained support from non-Catholic minorities who felt threatened by Bismarck's centralization of power.<ref name="Christopher Clark (2006) pp 568-576" />
In the long run, the most significant result was the mobilization of the Catholic voters through the Center Party, and their insistence on protecting their church. Historian Margaret Anderson says:
:The effort was perceived, and not only by its opponents, as aiming at nothing less than the forcible assimilation of the Catholic Church and its adherents to the values and norms of the empire's Protestant majority....[it led] Catholics – young and old, male and female, cleric and lay, big men and small – to cleave to their priests and defy the legislation.<ref>Margaret Lavinia Anderson, ''Practicing democracy: Elections and political culture in Imperial Germany'' (Princeton University Press, 2000) p 107.</ref>
After the Center party had doubled its popular vote in the elections of 1874, it became the second largest party in the national parliament, and remained a powerful force for the next 60 years. It became difficult for Bismarck to form a government without their support.<ref name="Christopher Clark (2006) pp 568-576" /><ref>Hajo Holborn, ''A History of Modern Germany: 1840–1945'' (1969), 258–260</ref>
From the decades-long experience in battling against the Kulturkampf, the Catholics of Germany, says Professor Margaret Anderson, learned democracy. She states that the clergy:
:Acquired a pragmatic, but nonetheless real, commitment to democratic elections, parliamentary procedures, and party politics – commitments in which they schooled their flock, by their practice as much as by their preaching."<ref>Anderson, ''Practicing Democracy (2000) p 150</ref>
=== Anti-Polish aspect of Kulturkampf ===
Studies that analyze the nationalist aspect of Kulturkampf, point out its anti-Polish character and Bismarcks attempt to Germanize Polish provinces in German Empire<ref>The War against Catholicism: Liberalism and the Anti-Catholic Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Germany, page 8 Michael B. Gross, 2004.</ref><ref name="Sebastian Conrad page 171"/>
The Poles had already suffered from discrimination and numerous oppressive measures in Germany long before unification. These measures were intensified after the [[German Empire]] was formed<ref>History 1871–1939 Warszawa 2000 dr.Anna Radziwił prof.dr.hab Wojciech Roszkowski page 80</ref> and Bismarck was known to be particularly hostile towards the Poles.<ref name="ReferenceA">Jerzy Zdrada – Historia Polski 1795–1918 Warsaw Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN 2007; pages 268, 273-291, 359-370</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">Andrzej Chwalba – Historia Polski 1795–1918 Wydawnictwo Literackie 2000 Kraków pages 175-184, 307-312</ref> [[Christopher Clark]] argues that Prussian policy changed radically in the 1870s in the face of highly visible Polish support for France in the Franco-Prussian war.<ref>{{cite book |author=Christopher Clark |title=Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eEOLV_TtNfQC&pg=PT699 |year=2007 |publisher=Penguin |pages=579–81|isbn=9780141904023 }}</ref> Polish demonstrations made clear the Polish nationalist feeling, and calls were also made for Polish recruits to desert from the [[Prussian Army]] – though these went unheeded. Bismarck was outraged, telling the Prussian cabinet in 1871: From the Russian border to the Adriatic Sea we are confronted with the combined propaganda of Slavs, ultramontanes, and reactionaries, and it is necessary openly to defend our national interests and our language against such hostile actions.<ref>(in English) Jarmila Kaczmarek, Andrzej Prinke (2000). "Two Archaeologies in one Country: Official Prussian versus amateur Polish activities in Mid-Western (i.e.: Greater) Poland in XIXth-early XXth cent.", Poznań Archaeological Museum publications. Retrieved February 16, 2006</ref> Therefore, in the Province of Posen the Kulturkampf took on a much more nationalistic character than in other parts of Germany.<ref name="Kaczmarek_Prinke">{{cite web |author=Jarmila Kaczmarek, Andrzej Prinke |year=2000 |title=Two Archaeologies in one Country: Official Prussian versus amateur Polish activities in Mid-Western (i.e.: Greater) Poland in XIXth-early XXth cent. |work=Poznań Archaeological Museum publications |url=http://www.muzarp.poznan.pl/archweb/archweb_eng/Publications/dwarch/index_dwa.html |accessdate=February 16, 2006 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060303072621/http://www.muzarp.poznan.pl/archweb/archweb_eng/Publications/dwarch/index_dwa.html |archivedate=March 3, 2006 }}</ref>
Not an adamant supporter of the Liberal's general Kulturkampf goals, Bismarck did recognize the potential in some of them for subduing Polish national aspirations and readily made use of it. While the Liberals main objective was the separation of state and church as essential for a democratic and liberal society, Bismarck saw its use in separating the Polish population from the only supporter and guardian of its national identity.
Prussian authorities imprisoned 185 priests and forced hundreds of others into exile. Among the imprisoned was the [[Primate of Poland]] Archbishop [[Mieczysław Halka Ledóchowski|Mieczysław Ledóchowski]]. A large part of the remaining Catholic priests had to continue their service in hiding from the authorities. Although most of the 185 imprisoned were finally set free by the end of the decade, those who were released emigrated.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}} The anti-Polish aspects of Kulturkampf remained in place in Polish provinces of German Empire until First World War<ref name="Sebastian Conrad page 171"/>
== Kulturkampf in Austria ==
The Kulturkampf in Austria has roots dating back to the 18th century. Emperor [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph II]] launched a religious policy (later called "[[Josephinism]]") that advocated the supremacy of the state in religious matters. This resulted in far-reaching state control over the Catholic Church, including the reorganization of dioceses, the regulation of the number of masses, the transfer of many schools into government hands, state-controlled seminaries, and the limitation of the number of clerics and dissolving numerous monasteries. Protests of [[Pope Pius VI]], and even his visit to Vienna in 1782, were to no avail.
In the concordat of 1855, which was the culmination of Catholic influence in Austria, many of the Catholic Church's previous rights that were taken away under Joseph II were restored (marriage, partial control of censorship, elementary and secondary education, full control of the clergy and religious funds).
In 1868 and 1869, after sanctioning from the December constitution, emperor [[Franz Joseph I of Austria|Francis Joseph]]'s newly appointment cabinet undid parts of the concordat with several liberal reforms. These reforms are referred to as the May Laws. After strong protests from the Catholic Church, the laws of May 25, 1868 and May 14, 1869 restored civil marriage, passed primary and secondary education into government hands, installed interconfessional schools, and regulated interconfessional relations (for example, mixed marriages and children's rights to chose their faith).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/topic/concordat-of-1855 |title=concordat of 1855 – Austrian religious history |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.k/k629588.htm;internal&action=_setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en |title=Konkordat |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref>
In a secret consistory, [[Pope Pius IX]] condemned the constitution of 1867 and the May Laws as "leges abominabiles." In a pastoral letter dated September 7, 1868, bishop [[Franz-Josef Rudigier]] called for resistance to these May Laws. However, the letter was confiscated, and Rudigier had to appear before court on June 5, 1869. This event lead to the first-ever public demonstrations by the Catholic population. On July 12, 1869, the bishop was sentenced to a jail term of two weeks, but he was later pardoned by the emperor.
The May Laws provoked a serious conflict between state and church. After the promulgation of papal infallibility in 1870, Austria abrogated the concordat of 1855 and abolished it entirely in 1874. In May 1874, the Religious Act was officially recognized.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kath.net/news/22570 |title='Heroischer Tugendgrad' für Bischof Rudigier |accessdate=21 December 2016}}</ref>
== Contemporary use of the term "Kulturkampf" ==
=== United States ===
In the late 19th century, cultural wars arose over issues of prohibition and education in the United States.<ref>Richard Jensen, ''The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political conflict, 1888–1896'' (1971) [https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Winning_of_the_Midwest_Social_and_Po.html?id=XpCgCNZwpvoC online] ch 3-5</ref> The [[Bennett Law]] was a highly controversial state law passed in Wisconsin in 1889 that required the use of English to teach major subjects in all public and private elementary and high schools. Because Wisconsin German Catholics and Lutherans each operated large numbers of parochial schools where German was used in the classroom, it was bitterly resented by [[German-American]] (and some Norwegian) communities. Although the law was ultimately repealed, there were significant political repercussions, with the Republicans losing the governorship and the legislature, and the election of Democrats to the Senate and House of Representatives.<ref>William Foote Whyte, [http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u/?/wmh,5642 "The Bennett Law Campaign in Wisconsin,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.is/20120709114033/http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u/?/wmh,5642 |date=2012-07-09 }} ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'', 10: 4 (1926–1927).</ref><ref>Roger E. Wyman, "Wisconsin ethnic groups and the election of 1890." The Wisconsin Magazine of History (1968): 269-293. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4634354 in JSTOR]</ref>
In the United States, the terms "[[culture war]]" and "culture wars" refer to conflict in the late 20th and early 21st centuries between religious [[social conservative]]s and secular [[liberalism|social liberals]].<ref>Morris P. Fiorina, Samuel J. Abrams, and Jeremy C. Pope, ''Culture war?'' (2005)</ref> This theme of "culture war" was the basis of [[Patrick Buchanan]]'s keynote speech at the [[1992 Republican National Convention]].<ref>see [http://buchanan.org/blog/1992-republican-national-convention-speech-148 August 17, 1992 Buchanan Speech] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141005032823/http://buchanan.org/blog/1992-republican-national-convention-speech-148 |date=October 5, 2014 }}</ref> The term "culture war" by 2004 was in common use in the United States by both liberals and conservatives.
Throughout the 1980s, there were battles in Congress and the media regarding federal support for the [[National Endowment for the Arts]] and the [[National Endowment for the Humanities]] that amounted to a war over high culture between neoconservatives and paleoconservatives.<ref>Richard Jensen, "The Culture Wars, 1965–1995: A Historian`s Map." ''Journal of Social History'' (Oct 1995), 17-36. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3789064 in JSTOR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313221140/http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789064 |date=2016-03-13 }}</ref>
Justice [[Antonin Scalia]] referenced the term in the Supreme Court case ''[[Romer v. Evans]]'', [[judicial citation|517 U.S. 620]] (1996), saying "The Court has mistaken a ''Kulturkampf'' for a fit of spite." The case concerned an amendment to the [[Colorado]] state constitution that prohibited any subdepartment from acting to protect individuals on the basis of sexual orientation. Scalia believed that the amendment was a valid move on the part of citizens who sought "recourse to a more general and hence more difficult level of political decision making than others." The majority disagreed, holding that the amendment violated the Equal Protection clause of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]].
=== Israel ===
The term, translated to [[Hebrew]], (Milhemet Tarbut, ''מלחמת תרבות'') is also frequently used, with similar connotations, in the political debates of [[Israel]]—having been introduced by Jews who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s.<ref>"Secular and Ultra Orthodox Knesset Members threaten 'Culture War'", Israeli National News, May 11, 2013 [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173639] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105161535/http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173639 |date=2013-11-05 }}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Febronianism]]
* [[Gallicanism]]
* [[Josephinism]]
* [[Culture war]]
* [[Kirchenkampf]]
* [[Holy See – Germany relations]]
* [[Away from Rome!]]
* The [[First School War]] in Belgium (1879–84)
* The [[Jules Ferry Laws]] in France
* [[Freedom of religion]]
* [[Pope Pius IX and Germany]]
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
* Anderson, Margaret Lavinia. ''Windthorst: A Political Biography'' (1981), the leader of the Catholic Center Party
* Anderson, Margaret Lavinia. ''Practicing democracy: Elections and political culture in Imperial Germany'' (Princeton University Press, 2000)
* Atkin, Nicholas, and Frank Tallett. ''Priests, Prelates and People: A History of European Catholicism since 1750'' (Oxford UP, 2003).
* Bennette, Rebecca Ayako. ''Fighting for the Soul of Germany: The Catholic Struggle for Inclusion After Unification'' (Harvard University Press; 2012) 368 pages; examines Catholics' promotion of an alternative national identity after 1871.
* Blackbourn, David. ''Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Nineteenth-Century Germany'' (Oxford, 1993)
* Clark, Christopher and Wolfram Kaiser, eds. ''Culture Wars: Secular-Catholic Conflict in Nineteenth Century Europe'' (Cambridge University Press, 2003); Covers 10 countries; [http://www.h-france.net/vol4reviews/vol4no36Curtis.pdf online review]
* Gross, Michael B. ''The War against Catholicism: Liberalism and the Anti-Catholic Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Germany'' (2005)
* {{Citation |last=Hollyday |first=FBM |title=Bismarck |series=Great Lives Observed |publisher=Prentice-Hall |year=1970}}.
* Hope, Nicholas, "Prussian Protestantism," in Philip G. Dwyer, ed. ''Modern Prussian History: 1830–1947'' (2001) pp. 188–208
* Lamberti, Marjorie. "Religious conflicts and German national identity in Prussia, 1866–1914," in Philip G. Dwyer, ed. ''Modern Prussian History: 1830–1947'' (2001) pp. 169–187
* Ross, Ronald J. ''The failure of Bismarck's Kulturkampf: Catholicism and state power in imperial Germany, 1871–1887'', (Washington, D.C., 1998)
* Ross, Ronald J. "Enforcing the Kulturkampf in the Bismarckian state and the limits of coercion in imperial Germany." ''Journal of Modern History'' (1984): 456-482. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1880020 in JSTOR]
* Ross, Ronald J. "The Kulturkampf: Restrictions and Controls on the Practice of Religion in Bismarck's Germany." in Richard Helmstadter, ed. ''Freedom and Religion in the Nineteenth Century'' (1997) pp: 172-195.
* Trzeciakowski, Lech. ''The Kulturkampf in Prussian Poland'' (East European Monographs, 1990) 223 pp
* Weir, Todd. ''Secularism and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Germany: The Rise of the Fourth Confession'', Cambridge University Press, 2014, {{ISBN|1139867903}}, 9781139867900
* Zeender, John. "Ludwig Windthorst, 1812-1891" ''History'' (1992) 77#250 pp 237–54, the leader of the Catholic Center Party
=== Historiography ===
* Anderson, Margaret Lavinia. "Confessions of a Fellow Traveler," ''Catholic Historical Review'' (2013) 99#4 pp 623–648.
* Heilbronner, Oded. "From Ghetto to Ghetto: The Place of German Catholic Society in Recent Historiography" ''Journal of Modern History'' (2000) 72#2 pp. 453–495. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/315995 in JSTOR]
{{refend}}
== External links ==
* {{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Kulturkampf |short=x}}, detailed article by Martin Spahn, written in 1910.
* {{Cite NIE |wstitle=Kulturkampf |year=1905 |short=x}}
* [http://members.aol.com/megxyz/heather.html "Bismarck's Failure: the Kulturkampf"] long description
* [http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=1792 Founding Manifesto of the Protestant League (1887); Statistics on Membership (1887–1913) (English translation)] a German anti-Catholic propaganda organization that became active after the Kulturkampf
* [http://www.historyhome.co.uk/europe/bisdom.htm Bismarck's Domestic Policies 1871–1890] Kulturkampf in the context of Bismarck's entire domestic policies, by a head of history at Catholic University School in Dublin
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051108200950/http://www.wlajournal.com/12_1/Boxwell.pdf Kulturkampf Now and Then] 13-paged essay in [[Portable Document Format|pdf]] by a Professor of the [[United States Air Force Academy]]
* [http://h-net.org/~german/gtext/kaiserreich/windhorst.html Ludwig Windthorst Speaks in the Prussian Parliament (1873)] speech of [[Ludwig Windthorst]] following its analysis
* [http://www.zum.de/psm/imperialismus/bismarck3e.php Bismarck on the purpose of the Kulturkampf] Speech in the Prussian House of Lords, March 10, 1873
* [http://www.litdok.de/cgi-bin/litdok?lang=en&t_multi=x&v_0=THS&q_0=kulturkampf+(1871-1887)%0F Kulturkampf: Bibliography by] LitDok East-Central Europe [[Herder-Institut (Marburg)]]
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