Bismarck’s reign after the formation of Germany can be very easily split in to two definite periods, the first being from 1871 to 1878 and was known as his liberal era.  During this time the German Chancellor appeared to sympathise with liberal interests, much to the annoyance of the Conservatives, whom felt he was rejecting his roots.  Policies promoted fast industrialisation, the Gold standard was adopted and Free trade established, weights and measures uniformed, a nation bank formed, and a commercial and criminal code implemented.  Bismarck wanted to see Germany rival the dominance of Great Britain, in order to do this a strong military was needed; industrialisation was the best way to pay for this.  Of course this pleased the Industrialists and what followed was economic growth unparalleled in history, the middle classes and thus Liberals viewed the Chancellor as a comrade.   However this alliance also led Bismarck in to a conflict with the Roman Catholic Church in 1873 called Kulturkampf.

In 1870 the First Vatican Council had enunciated the doctrine of papal infallibility; this meant that when the Pope spoke on matters of faith and morals, as a spokesman of God he was infallible.  This announcement had raised alarm in Liberal and protestant circles, especially in Germany where the Catholic Church had a strong presence.  The state saw this as an act of defiance from the Pope as the popularity of Catholicism wavered across Europe, and it was worried that he might try and foster militant Catholicism.  Up until 1873 Bismarck had always believed that Church matters were not the concern of the state, however events in 1870s were threatening to bring this to an end. 

The first problem presented itself when some Catholics refused the Papal infallibility, Bishops in Germany called for the dissenters to be removed from teaching posts, schools, catholic theologian facilities, and universities.  The state replied that it was committed to tolerance and could not interfere, but the Bishops persisted with their demands.  Soon the states’ patience wore out with these bishops and suspended subsidies towards them.  This immediately caused friction between the state and Church, however this event alone hardly led to Kulturkampf.

Bismarck was more worried by the growing power of the Centre party that had formed in 1870 to represent Catholic interests.  Catholics had in previous years been the majority religion in Germany due to the annexation of Austria, however this had changed in 1866 after the Austro Prussian war.   By 1870 Catholics represented 37 percent of the total religions in Germany, they were now in a protestant state, ruled by a protestant emperor, and thus felt intimidated.  The Centre party was formed to represent their interests and unlike other political parties it borrowed from all the social strata in the country, the aristocracy, middle classes and working classes.  This meant that the Centre party grew quickly in popularity and had considerable influence in much of the social legislation of the Reich.  Already by 1871 it had become the largest single party with 63 seats, and this grew to 91 in 1874.  The Centre party vowed to defend the Church, support confessional schools, and oppose civil marriage.  Fundamentally the party was committed to resisting Imperialism, in favour of decentralisation and the reaffirming of the states.

With its growing power it was not long before the Centre party upset Bismarck when it called for intervention in Italy, and called for religious guarantees to be included in the Prussian Constitution of 1850.  Although it failed to achieve these aims it convinced the German Chancellor that the Centre was a sectarian party bent on putting religion at the forefront of the countries politics.  He observed “It’s becoming a natural rallying point for opponents of the empire”.   He saw an anti-Prussian alignment in the Reichstag as a Vatican inspired conspiracy that had the support of Polish nationals, Alsace-Lorrainers, Hanoverians, and Danish, all whom wanted freedoms from Prussia and had clustered around the Centre party.  Because the party had grown so powerful in the Reich it was acting as a barrier to Bismarkian policies and threatened German nationalism.  Thus Bismarck wanted to see it destroyed, and as it was also a concern of the Liberals it seemed natural he should build upon on his alliance with them and invoke what was the Kulturkampf.

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