Writing introductions How Liberal was Germany in the Period

Introduction Your introduction should: – Focus on the key words/concepts – In this case Make clear what the meaning of Liberalism was – this will provide you with the main guiding light as we assess the liberalism or otherwise of Bismarck’s policies. Your introduction might: – Raise the historiographical issues that you might be arguing against.

Understanding the key word: Liberalism Key documents, both from 1776: – American Declaration of Independence – Adam Smith’s Wealth of the Nations Belief in the essential goodness of human beings: a perfect society could therefore be achieved by the establishment of a regime which preserved their liberties and empowered them to choose their rulers. Also born in the French Revolution AND the reaction AGAINST the terror of mob violence that followed – when the middle classes lost control of the revolution. Constitutionalism – designed to protect rights and liberties and ensure that government was in the hands of those who had material interests to defend; but not in the hands of the mob.

Social background In countries without trade and industry they were to be found among educated and students; In countries where trade and industry became important, they were also to be found among merchants, manufacturers, businessmen and financiers. Some landowners were liberals, but they were usually the newer ‘improving’ landowners, rather than members of the great and noble families.

Beliefs FOR: – Economic and professional freedom; – State protection of laws and frontiers; – Parliaments elected by a property owning, tax-paying citizens; – Parliamentary government. AGAINST: – Governments intervention in economic matters; – Trade Guilds – Trade Unions – SUSPICIOUS of state support for the poor (leads to high taxation; creates a dependency culture) – Extending the franchise to the working classes. KEY WEAKNESS – Liberals depended upon working class support to gain power but once they had it they didn’t want to share it with the working classes. (This was a key reason for the failings of the 1830 and 1848 revolutions AND this is why Bismarck supported universal suffrage).

Historiography – what historians have to say. The Bielefeld school argued that 1879 is more important than By securing the Reichstag’s assent to protective tariffs, Bismarck won the support of a formidable alliance of industrial and agrarian capital and interest groups. This immensely strengthened the Conservative-Prussian German establishment and made any challenges to its power unlikely to succeed. This they argue constituted the virtual re-founding of the Reich in more authoritarian form (H-U Wehler, Imperial Germany, 1985). Lothar Gall has argued that Bismarck renounced his role as a mediator between Liberals and Conservatives and threw in his lot with the traditional classes.