page_title: Kulturkampf
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Kulturkampf / Kulturkampf in Germany / Background
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Otto von Bismarck Otto Fürst von Bismarck-Schönhausen preußisch-deutscher Staatsmann, geb. 1.4.1815 Schönhausen, gest. 30.7.1898 Friedrichsruh. 1862 wurde er zum preußischen Ministerpräsidenten und Außenminister berufen, ab 1867 zum Kanzler des Norddeutschen Bundes. Von 1871 bis 1890 war er Reichskanzler des am 18.1.1871 von ihm gegründeten Deutschen Kaiserreichs. Bismarck in Kürassieruniform im Kriegsjahr 1870. 1344-30 [Porträt] Abgebildete Personen: Bismarck, Otto von Fürst: Reichskanzler, Deutschland (PND 11851136X)
context_page_description: Kulturkampf 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. What made the Kulturkampf unique in Germany compared to struggles between state and Church in other states was its anti-Polish aspect.
  In contemporary socio-political discussion, the term Kulturkampf 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.
context_section_description: By the mid-nineteenth century, liberal policies had also come to dominate Germany and the separation of church and state became a prominent issue.
  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). 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; article in German) of legal and policy issues regarding the children of mixed Protestant-Catholic marriages, Prussia's final settlement was considered a defeat for the state as it had given in to demands of the Catholic Church.
  In 1850, Prussia again had a dispute with the church about civil marriage and primary schools and in 1852, it issued decrees against the 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).
  Not to be left out, the German areas to the 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.
  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.
  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 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. Thus, Bismarck, the Liberals and the 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, Hohenlohe, the dogma of infallibility compromised the Catholic's loyalty to the state. 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 ev
caption: Bismarck c. 1875
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