Germany Under Kaiser Wilhelm

Personal rule in an industrial age

Wilhelm II became Kaiser on 15 June 1888 at 29, and on 20 March 1890 he dismissed Otto von Bismarck, the Chancellor who had united Germany and governed it for nineteen years. Wilhelm meant to rule himself. The constitution of 1871 let him: the Kaiser commanded the army as Supreme War Lord, appointed and dismissed the Chancellor and every minister, and controlled foreign policy, while the Reichstag, elected by all men over 25, could debate and could refuse the budget but could not remove a government. Above it sat the Bundesrat, where the 17 Prussian votes of 58 could block any change to the constitution, and Prussia itself, three-fifths of Germany, was run on a three-class franchise that gave the richest voters a third of the seats. Beneath that unchanged structure the country changed faster than any in Europe. Population rose from around 49 million in 1890 to 67 million in 1914; steel output passed Britain in the 1890s and by 1914 stood at around 17.6 million tons against 7.7; Germany led the world in chemicals and electricals, and by 1910 six Germans in ten lived in towns. The workers who made that possible voted for the Social Democratic Party, legal again after the Anti-Socialist Law lapsed in 1890: 35 seats that year, 110 in 1912, the largest party in the Reichstag on 4.25 million votes. Wilhelm tried welfare in 1891 and 1911 to win them, tariffs in 1902 to please the landowners, and from 1898 a battle fleet to unite the nation behind the flag, and each answer created a new difficulty. AQA asks what made Germany difficult to rule and, for grade 9, wants the link forward: an army outside parliamentary control, a parliament with a veto and no power, a Prussian elite that never accepted the majority, and a socialist party that was feared rather than absorbed are the cracks of the Kaiser era, and they are exactly where Weimar broke. This module gives you the structure, the figures, the Navy Laws at home, and the shapes.

Five terms with their dates

Each definition carries the date and the figure that make it usable as evidence, because a bare definition earns nothing in an explain or judgement answer.

The Kaiser era in order

Put these six events in the order they happened.

• Wilhelm dismisses Bismarck and the Anti-Socialist Law lapses
• Laws ban Sunday working and the employment of children under 13
• Tirpitz introduces the first Navy Law
• An interview in a London newspaper embarrasses the Kaiser and the Reichstag debates his fitness to rule
• The SPD becomes the largest party in the Reichstag
• The Reichstag censures the Chancellor over the conduct of army officers in Alsace

Why was Germany so hard to rule?

Germany between 1890 and 1914 was the strongest economy in Europe and had a wider franchise than Britain, and its Kaiser went through four Chancellors and never found a stable way of governing. Which explanation best accounts for the difficulty?

• The constitution of 1871 had been built for Bismarck and a rural Prussia and could not absorb an industrial Germany: the Reichstag elected by all men could refuse money but not change the government, so the SPD, growing to 110 seats by 1912 on the votes of the new working class, could obstruct but never be brought into office; the army, the Prussian landowners and the Bundesrat veto kept real power with an elite that would not share it; and every attempt by the Kaiser to bridge the gap, welfare to win the workers, tariffs to keep the landowners, a fleet to unite the nation, cost money that only the Reichstag could vote, so that the more he tried to rule without parliament the more he needed it.
• The Kaiser was mentally unstable and nobody could work with him.
• Germany was poor and could not afford to govern itself.
• Britain interfered constantly in German politics.

The cracks of 1890, the breaks of 1919

The grade-9 note for this Part asks for the link forward: each structural weakness of the Kaiser era is the place where Weimar later broke. Read the columns across, because that reading is the top-level answer to any question on the difficulties of ruling Germany.

Question 1: how do the interpretations differ?

Two interpretations of how Germany was governed between 1890 and 1914, written for this module. Interpretation A: Germany under Wilhelm II was an autocracy with a parliamentary decoration. The Kaiser chose the Chancellor, commanded the army and set foreign policy, and the Reichstag could vote against him without ever removing him, as the Zabern affair showed. Power lay with the crown and the Prussian officer corps. Interpretation B: Germany was becoming a parliamentary state whether the Kaiser liked it or not. The Reichstag controlled the budget on which his fleet and army depended, it forced out a Chancellor over taxation in 1909, and by 1912 the largest party in it was the socialists. The trend was towards the Reichstag, and 1914 interrupted it. AQA Question 1 asks how they differ about where power lay. Tap the TWO statements from Interpretation B that show the difference.

• The Reichstag controlled the budget on which his fleet and army depended.
• Germany under Wilhelm II was an autocracy with a parliamentary decoration.
• The trend was towards the Reichstag, and 1914 interrupted it.
• Power lay with the crown and the Prussian officer corps.
• The Reichstag could vote against him without ever removing him, as the Zabern affair showed.

Industry, socialism and reform

Select the THREE statements that are accurate about the economic and social change of the Kaiser era.

• German steel output overtook Britain in the 1890s and by 1914 was more than twice the British figure, coal output roughly doubled between 1890 and 1913, and firms such as Krupp, Siemens and BASF made Germany the world leader in steel, electricals and chemicals.
• The SPD grew with the factories, from 35 Reichstag seats in 1890 to 110 in 1912 on around 4.25 million votes, and the free trade unions attached to it had around 2.5 million members by 1913, so that by the last election before the war the largest party in Germany was one its ruler regarded as an enemy of the state.
• Wilhelm answered socialism with reform as well as hostility: laws of 1891 banned Sunday working and the employment of children under 13, factory inspection was extended, and the Reich Insurance Code of 1911 consolidated sickness, accident and old-age insurance and added cover for widows and orphans.
• Britain remained far ahead of Germany in every major industry until 1914.
• The SPD remained illegal throughout the reign of Wilhelm II.
• Wilhelm refused all social reform on principle.

Question 2: why do the interpretations differ?

AQA Question 2 asks why the two interpretations differ, for 4 marks, and the answer is about what each author is looking at and asking, not about which is right. Interpretation A is looking at the constitution and at the moments when it was tested: who appointed the Chancellor, who commanded the army, what happened when the Reichstag censured Bethmann Hollweg in 1913 and he stayed. Its question is where power lay on paper and in a crisis, and its evidence is the rules and the Zabern outcome. Interpretation B is looking at trends over the whole reign: the budget votes, the tax crisis of 1909, the SPD rising to 110 seats. Its question is which way Germany was moving, and its evidence is what changed between 1890 and 1912 rather than what the rules said. Both use real evidence. This meant that the difference comes from their focus, the constitution in a crisis against the direction of change over 25 years, and from the question each asks, where power lay against where it was going. A top-level answer names the focus of each, gives one piece of evidence each has chosen, and says that the choice explains the difference. Writing that one historian admires the Kaiser and the other does not scores nothing.

In the shoes of the Kaiser and his Chancellors

Four decisions between 1890 and 1913. Choose what was actually done at each, and notice what each choice cost.

• March 1890. You are Wilhelm II, 31 years old and two years on the throne. Bismarck wants to renew the Anti-Socialist Law and to keep you out of the details of government; you want to rule yourself and to win the workers. What do you do?
• 1897. You are the Kaiser. The SPD has 56 seats and is growing, Bulow has just promised the Reichstag a place in the sun, and Admiral Tirpitz proposes a battle fleet that will take twenty years and a great deal of money. What do you do?
• 1909. You are Chancellor Bulow. The fleet and the army have pushed the Reich into debt, and your budget needs a new inheritance tax that the Conservatives and the Centre, your own coalition, will not vote for. What do you do?
• December 1913. You are Bethmann Hollweg. Army officers at Zabern in Alsace have insulted the population, arrested civilians without authority and been protected by their commanders. The Reichstag has just passed a vote of no confidence in you by 293 to 54. What do you do?

From cause to consequence

Because the constitution of 1871 let the Kaiser appoint the Chancellor and command the army, the Reichstag could refuse the _____ but could not change the government. Because industry grew faster than anywhere in Europe, the working class grew with it, and the _____ rose from 35 seats to 110 by 1912. Because the Kaiser feared that party, he tried welfare, tariffs and a battle fleet to win the nation away from it, and each cost money only the Reichstag could vote. Because the fleet pushed the Reich into debt, the Chancellor fell over a tax in _____. Because the army answered to the Kaiser alone, its officers were acquitted after _____ and the Reichstag learned it could censure and not remove. And because none of that was settled by 1914, the Republic of 1919 inherited an army, a civil service and a Prussian elite that had never accepted _____ rule.

The rise of the SPD

The SPD won 35 Reichstag seats in 1890 and 110 in 1912, when it became the largest party. How many seats did it gain across those 22 years?

Question 4: describe two problems, marked

AQA Question 4 asks: Describe two problems Kaiser Wilhelm II faced in ruling Germany. It is marked for 4, two marks per problem, one for identifying and one for supporting detail. Which answer scores all four?

• One problem was the growth of socialism: the SPD, legal again after the Anti-Socialist Law lapsed in 1890, rose from 35 seats to 110 in 1912 on around 4.25 million votes and became the largest party in a Reichstag whose approval the Kaiser needed for every budget. A second problem was paying for his ambitions: the Navy Laws from 1898 and the army pushed the Reich debt from around 1.2 billion marks to around 5 billion by 1913, and when Bulow tried to raise an inheritance tax in 1909 his own Conservative and Centre supporters defeated it and he resigned.
• The Kaiser had a problem with the socialists because they did not like him.
• Problems included socialists, money, Prussia, the army, Bismarck, Britain and the Reichstag.
• The main problem was hyperinflation, which made money worthless.

Question 6: the 12-mark judgement, marked

Question 6: Which of the following was the more important reason why Germany was difficult to rule between 1890 and 1914: the growth of socialism; the Navy Laws? Explain your answer with reference to both bullet points. The growth of socialism was a difficulty because it put the largest group of voters permanently outside the system. Industrialisation created a working class that voted SPD as soon as the Anti-Socialist Law lapsed in 1890, and the party grew from 35 seats to 110 in 1912 on around 4.25 million votes; this meant that the largest party in the Reichstag was one the Kaiser called fellows without a fatherland and would never allow into government, so that a growing share of the parliament whose budget votes he needed had no reason to help him. His answers made it worse: the welfare laws of 1891 and 1911 did not stop the SPD vote rising, and the tariff of 1902, passed to please the landowners, raised the price of bread for the workers the welfare was meant to win. The Navy Laws were a difficulty of a different kind, because they turned foreign ambition into a domestic bill. The five laws from 1898 were meant to unite the nation behind the Kaiser, and the Navy League did reach around a million members, but the fleet had to be paid for every year by the Reichstag; the debt rose to around 5 billion marks by 1913, the attempt to raise an inheritance tax split the government coalition and brought down Bulow in 1909, and the indirect taxes that replaced it fell on the workers and pushed them further towards the SPD. The Navy Laws therefore fed the first difficulty rather than standing apart from it. The growth of socialism was the more important reason, because it was the permanent condition that every other problem ran into: the fleet was built to counter it, the tax crisis was made worse by it, and the constitution had no way to absorb it, which is why the same unabsorbed party inherited the state in 1918. What earned the marks: both bullet points explained as reasons with dates and figures; a link phrase that turns each into an explanation of difficulty rather than a description; the relationship between the two shown, since AQA rewards seeing that one reason worked through the other; and a judgement that says which was more important on a stated criterion. That structure is what reaches the top level of the 12-mark question, and the writing task next asks you to do it for a different pair.

Question 6: your turn

Which of the following was the more important reason for the growth of parliamentary government in Germany between 1890 and 1914: industrialisation; the weaknesses of Kaiser Wilhelm II? Explain your answer with reference to both bullet points.

• For industrialisation, show how economic change produced the SPD and the budget demands that gave the Reichstag its leverage
• For the Kaiser, show how his personal rule, the Daily Telegraph affair of 1908, the Zabern affair and the four Chancellors weakened the crown

Question 3: which interpretation is more convincing?

AQA Question 3 asks which of the two interpretations from Question 1 is more convincing about where power lay in Germany between 1890 and 1914, for 8 marks. Interpretation A called it an autocracy with a parliamentary decoration; Interpretation B said Germany was becoming a parliamentary state. Which answer reaches the top level?

• Interpretation A is convincing about the crisis test, because the Kaiser appointed all four Chancellors without reference to the Reichstag, the army swore its oath to him and its Zabern officers were acquitted in January 1914, and the censure of 293 to 54 changed nothing, so that when parliament and crown collided the crown won. But it is less convincing than B about the direction of change, because the Reichstag did bring down Bulow over the inheritance tax in 1909, the fleet and the army depended on its votes every year, and the SPD grew from 35 seats to 110 by 1912, so that the government had to bargain with a parliament it could not control. B is more convincing about the trend and A about the structure, and since the question asks where power lay rather than where it was going, A explains 1890 to 1914 better while B explains why the structure could not last; on balance A, with the qualification that B is right about what the war interrupted.
• Interpretation A is more convincing because the Kaiser was a dictator.
• Interpretation B is more convincing because Germany had elections.
• Neither is convincing because historians cannot know what would have happened without the war.