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Blood And Iron

Katja Hoyer

This book covers the origins of the German Empire from the defeat of Napoleon through to the end of the First World War. It’s a good, quick read that explains the difficulties of forging a single nation state out of a variety of autonomous regions. We don’t get much of the pre-history: little time is given to the Holy Roman Empire and its role in the many German states pre 1850. It’s also quite light on Bismarck himself. We get a glimpse of his strategy and some treatment of his motivations and character, but it wasn’t as in depth as I wanted. Kaiser Wilhelm II gets more attention.

In this post I’m going to write about some of the events, quotes, characters and circumstances that I found interesting. There will be major gaps in the history and it should not be read as a summary.

Pre and post Napoleon

Napoleon is decisively defeated in 1815 at Waterloo. Otto Von Bismarck is born the same year. Prior to this Germany didn’t exist and was instead a wide variety of states and territories that had at various times been members of the Holy Roman Empire. Sensing opportunity after Napoleon’s defeat in 1812 at the hands of the Russians, the Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm, resolves to take back territories lost in earlier conflicts with France. His call to arms invokes notions of a ‘Fatherland’ and united ‘Germans’ repelling a foreign occupier:

“Strong regional loyalties stood in the way of national sentiment during peacetime but would fade into the background when Germans were pitted against a hostile external force”.

The resulting force of 290,000 volunteers and soldiers pledge allegiance not to Prussia, but to the German Fatherland. The volunteer corps wore a uniform made of black cloth, red trim and gold buttons, the origin of the German tricolour. The defeat of the French at Leipzig in 1813 is a major milestone on the path to German nationhood.

The Congress of Vienna (post Waterloo) is a jostling match between the non-French European powers over how to settle freed lands. There is tension between Austria and Prussia, with the former seeking to retain their position as the senior German speaking power. In the end Prussia acquires 40% of Saxony and a chunk of the Rhineland. The British see a strong Prussia as providing a reliable bulwark against future French expansionism in Europe. The result is Prussian control over much of northern Germany: “A vast expansion of power, resources and people that would add weight to Prussian dominance for decades to come”. Significantly, the Rhineland gave the Prussians vast coal reserves in a pre-industrial Europe, i.e. before its strategic value had become apparent.

Cultural influences also played their part in the unification movement. The author describes how the Grimm’s Fairytales “create a shared cultural good for all German speakers, unified […] the morals they believed in and their childhood experiences. Obedience is a theme of many of the tales, and children often end up suffering terrible fates after they fail to listen to their elders”.

This was a memorable quote from the end of the chapter:

“A continental power, wedged between Russia and France while lacking the security of definite and impregnable physical boundaries, Germany’s national psyche was hypersensitive to the threat of invasion. The intense defensive nationalism that a foreign enemy could conjure up in German hearts and minds would never be matched by political arguments, fairy tales or economic interest”.

Failed revolution in 1848

This section is quite complex but here’s my best summary: there are a range of forces at work that result in demands for political reform. Some are intellectual (e.g. liberalism), some are nationalistic (there is still no German state after 1815), and some are socio-economic (the onset of industrialisation). I found the industrialisation factor most interesting, the author says:

“People flocked to cities, where overcrowding was rapidly leading to […] the disruption of family support networks. […] A sizable semi-skilled underclass began to develop. Being crammed into the city, they were more prone to politicisation than they had been in the countryside”

These come together in protests in 1848 that escalate as far as civilians making barricades and occupying parts of Berlin. Friedrich Wilhelm IV placates the protestors by riding out with them wearing the German tricolour, symbolising the potential for reform. Once the situation calms, the reform movement loses momentum after counter revolutionary measures by the Prussian army. Note, Marx publishes the Communist Manifesto in February of that year.

The rise of Bismarck

Bismarck has an unremarkable start, he’s born into a landed Prussian aristocrat family and spends much of his early years drinking, fighting and womanising. He tries the law, civil service and military but returns to the estate in 1839, aged 24. He spends 8 years bored on the estate but achieves some stability in 1847 when he marries. He takes a seat in parliament in 1847 as a favour for a friend and is immediately enthralled, loving the “intrigue, plotting and oratory battles”. It’s amazing how such a small twist of fate would have such a large effect on the future of Germany and by extension, the world.

He begins his rise in 1851 when Friedrich Wilhelm makes him the Prussian envoy to the parliament of the German Confederation (this was an early but weak union of German states that included Austria). This makes him the voice of Prussia and sets up many clashes with Austria for dominance. A decisive moment comes at the outbreak of the Crimean war in 1853. Austria demands 150,000 troops to threaten Russia’s expansionism into the crumbling Ottoman empire. Bismarck refuses, seeing no advantage, and seeing the largest player in the confederation (after Austria), emphatically reject this call to arms, the smaller states follow suit.

A liberal King, Prince Wilhelm, takes the Prussian throne in 1861. Bismarck detects shifting winds and tries to pivot, but his conservative reputation and Wilhelm’s need to appeal to liberals results in him being sent to Russia and then France as Prussian envoy. This takes him out of the power centre in Berlin but he is called back after the liberals reject an army reform bill in 1862. The crisis so rattles the king that he considers abdication, but Bismarck persuades him against this and shows a way forward. The King, impressed and dependent on someone with a clear plan, appoints him Minister President of Prussia in 1862.

In power

As soon as he is in power he tackles the liberals over the army bill. At issue was the need to reform the army into a professional, loyal fighting force, rather than one made up of so many volunteers, whose loyalty lay with ‘the fatherland’ over the crown and thus couldn’t be relied upon to obey orders. He overrules parliament, giving the “blood and iron speech” as justification:

“It is not by speeches and majority resolutions that the great questions of the time are decided - that was the big mistake of 1848 and 1849 - but by iron and blood”.

Parliament doesn’t approve the spending but Bismarck proceeds anyway and by 1866 they give in and give him retrospective approval¹.

Much of this chapter describes Bismarck’s use of ‘Realpolitik’ to further his aims. One of his central beliefs is that the balance of power should not be upset by Prussian (and later German) unification:

“All the great European powers had to be convinced that here was an ally growing stronger, not an enemy becoming over-powerful”.

With his clout growing in the Bund and amongst European leaders, he responds to a Danish land grab in 1863 with a retaliatory invasion in 1864. The Bund doesn’t approve but he proceeds anyway, successfully reclaiming the stolen lands with a joint Prussian-Austrian army.

This alliance ends when in 1866 the Austrians demand more of the captured territory. Prussia and Austria declare war, with Bismarck undermining wider European support for the Austrians through the network of alliances he built. A quick victory over Austrians Koniggratz in 1866 cements Prussia’s place as the power player in the future German state. Bismarck takes this opportunity to annex the lands between Prussia and the Rhineland, giving it an uninterrupted swathe of northern Europe. He then declares the German Confederation “null and void, ending Austrian hegemony over the German lands once and for all”. A North German Confederation is formed and in 1867, Bismarck is declared its chancellor.

Forming a state

Bismarck sets to work forging this newly formed North German Federation into a ‘economic and political powerhouse’. Some of the measures included:

• universal male suffrage
• freedom of movement between member states
• trade regulations
• introducing a criminal code
• standardising weights and measurements²

Despite this development, the goal of incorporating the Southern German states into one unified Germany was still distant. Bismarck understood that “An external enemy was needed to forge a German crown in the fires of war”.

An opportunity presents itself when the Hohenzollern prince, Leopold, is offered the Spanish throne. Napoleon III did not want France surrounded by Prussian sympathisers, seeing it as upsetting the European balance of power. Bismarck fans the flames behind the scenes and in 1870 the French declare war. Prussia looked the wronged party, the Southern states join to defend their Northern brothers whilst the other European powers looked on. By September 1870 the united German force wins and a “wave of nationalist sentiment swept through the German lands.” Bismarck brings together the leader to create a federal German nation state. The Prussian king becomes ‘Kaiser Wilhelm I’ after some haggling and on 18th January 1871 the German Empire is proclaimed at the Palace of Versailles.

The Reich

The new German Empire becomes a major force overnight, with 41m people to France’s 36m, Britain’s 31m and Austria’s 36m. Bismarck is aware of this change to the balance of power and begins a diplomatic balancing to assure the rest of Europe that this was a peaceful and progressive nation.

Much of this chapter is concerned with the German constitution and the difficulties of transitioning from an old system of monarchical and elite rule to a parliamentary democracy made up of 25 hitherto divided states. The economy and modernisation are unifying forces:

“The railway network doubled from 1871 to 1890, which not only moved goods and raw materials around but also people. Urbanisation, job mobility and even early forms of commuting all meant that people were on the move, intermixing and overcoming their regional differences”.

We hear a bit about Bismarck’s tactics for governing in this time. He uses the ‘anchor’ negotiating technique to agree army spending. He puts forward unrealistically large proposals so the opposition have to meet quite far from their original positions to meet him in the middle. We also see his ‘Realpolitik’ in action as the Social Democrats begin gaining power, he casts around for new allies settling on the conservatives, but first needs to break his old Liberal allies by driving a wedge between them.

During this time it is Bismarck’s show more than the Kaiser’s. His ability to persuade others to his viewpoint is remarkable, the author explains:

”An inherent and unmistakable conviction that he was doing the right thing and would not be deterred from it surrounded Bismarck and had a great effect on parliamentarians, foreign diplomats and even the king. This was the characteristic that made him one of the greatest statesmen of all time“.

Kulturkampf

The north of Germany was broadly Protestant (post reformation), with the South mostly Catholic. Due to Protestant Prussian dominance in the Reich the Catholics felt they needed better representation. They formed the Centre Party to protect against growing secularisation. It was a party with no ties to social class and therefore appealed to a broad swathe of voters. Bismarck saw this as a threat to his union and sought to combat it through bureaucratic reforms. Reforms were enacted that limited church power in schools, births, deaths and marriages. Previously the Church had overseen each of this steps, so this was a huge reform that triggered a conservative backlash. This was a “battle over spiritual and moral authority in Germany”. Bismarck managed to sidestep the worst of the political fallout by joining with the Centre Party and convincing them to fight a common enemy, socialism. Another example of his astute manoeuvring.

Economic growth

The German economy rapidly expands helped by mechanisation, improvements in agriculture and the railway. An agricultural surplus leads to a rapidly expanding population (41m in 1871 to 50m in 1890), as well as a redistribution of labour towards the cities.

The growth experiences a bump during the 1873 great panic, a global panic linked to overexpansion in railways and other infrastructure. This doesn’t have too ruinous an impact on the overall economy but affects the industrial workers who had no welfare cushion. The author notes that “anger at the fat cats in banking swiftly turned into demands for political action to control them”.³ This anger underscored larger troubles with labour exploitation and poor urban living conditions that stoked the socialist movement.

There was some unrest when socialists attempted to assassinate the Kaiser. Bismarck used this to his advantage to push anti-socialist reforms through parliament that had previously been contested by the SPD (socialist party). The author points out that Bismarck is astute enough to recognise the changing tides and passes welfare measures such as workplace sickness, accident coverage and pensions (1883, 1884 and 1889 respectively). This was an example of his Realpolitik stick and carrot leadership style in action.

Despite these setbacks, by 1890 Germany was an industrial powerhouse on equal terms (if not ahead) of France and Britain.

Cultural observations

The 1880’s mark a shift to conservatism. The author links this to the Panic of 1873 and how it dented confidence in liberalism. A snobbery against the bourgeois crept into the middle classes that sought a return to old values - nobility, glorification of the military, etc.

”Those who would have told the elite that their time was up in 1871, now looked to the long pedigree of noble families and envied it.”

On military service:

”Compulsory military service of two years at a formative age had a transformative impact on a very young population. It created a sense of national belonging in men regardless of class, religious affiliation or political views”.

On German character:

”Slowly a society emerged that shared values such as hard work, punctuality, honesty and precision, which became seen as intrinsically German.”

On socialist/communist opposition - they were regarded as ‘transnational’⁴:

”The claim that they had no allegiance to their country and were instead internationalists was particularly powerful in the context of the nationalist undercurrents in mid-nineteenth-century Europe.”

Foreign policy

Bismarck was paranoid about Germany’s position in the centre of Europe and how a ‘nightmare of coalitions’ could unite to destroy it:

”The nightmare of coalitions, and the attendant two-front war, would mean the destruction of the Reich and no expansion of territory was worth that risk.”

He knew there was an unstable relationship with France caused by the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in the Franco-German war and accordingly sought to make a peace in the East with the Russians. The rest of his foreign policy hinges on negotiating a range of public and private peace treaties with the European powers that preserved peace.

Part II, a new Kaiser

Kaiser Wilhelm I dies in 1888. His son, Friedrich, takes the throne (his wife was Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, making Wilhelm II her grandson), but dies after 99 days, leaving Wilhelm II to ascend the throne age 29.

He and Bismarck quickly come to blows over new anti-socialist laws. Wilhelm wanted his subjects to like him and asked the Chancellor to tone them down. Bismarck refused, Wilhelm didn’t back down and Bismarck’s opponents, sensing a shift of power, attacked. Bismarck resigns in 1890, leaving Wilhelm “isolated and inexperienced at the helm of a complex and powerful European nation… With the tides of socialism raging internally, external pressures such as the rapidly deteriorating relationship with Russia also loomed large.”

To be continued