Why Did The Kulturkampf End?

Launched by Chancellor Bismarck in 1871, the KulturKampf was introduced to destroy the political influence of the Catholic Church in Germany and do similar with other small minorities. As a Lutheran and a Prussian he could not understand how German Catholics could divide their loyalty between their country and their religion. 39% of the German population were catholic, mainly in the southern states of the country. These southern states were the most reluctant to unify as a nation as the catholic population did not want to unite with the 61% protestant north population. This was also the same with other smaller minorities which included the growing polish population and the French in the Ruhr and Alsace-Lorraine area. The KulturKampf was therefore introduced to try to restrain the minorities and mainly the catholic influence, especially in parliament, where seats were growing for the Zentrum party.

By May 1872, anti-Catholic and centre party newspapers had published many articles against the catholic population in Germany. Things gradually got worst when the diplomatic relations were broken off from the Vatican, the Jesuits (a religious order pledged to the spread of Catholicism) were forbidden from preaching or entering schools. The Jesuits were then expelled from Prussia and anti-Jesuits campaigns gradually began to spread amongst the country leading to a rise in catholic outrage. It was a series of laws passed in Prussia between 1873 and 1875 that Bismarck intensified this KulturKampf. In 1873 the ‘May’ laws were introduced to put the Catholic Church under closer control by the government. Catholic education came under close state supervision and priests themselves were contradicted in education, only those educated in Germany could become a priest. The laws even led to all Prussian Catholics being deprived of their civil rights.

The church was put under further control from there; marriages, births and deaths in Prussia were removed from the control of