TheKulturkampf (German pronunciation:[kʊlˈtuːɐ̯ˌkamp͡f];lit. 'Cultural Struggle') was the seven-year political conflict (1871–1878) between theCatholic Church in Germany led byPope Pius IX and theKingdom of Prussia, led by ChancellorOtto von Bismarck, as well as other German states. The Prussian church-and-state political conflict was about the church's direct control over both education andecclesiastical appointments in the Prussian kingdom. Moreover, when compared to other church-and-state conflicts about political culture, theKulturkampf of Prussia also featuredanti-Polish sentiment.
In modern political usage, the German termKulturkampf describes any conflict (political, ideological, or social) between the secular government and the religious authorities of a society. The term also describes the great and smallculture wars among political factions who hold deeply opposing values and beliefs within a nation, a community, and a cultural group.[1][better source needed]
The philosophic influences ofthe Enlightenment,Scientific realism,Positivism,Materialism,nationalism,secularism, andLiberalism impinged upon and ended the intellectual and political roles of religion and the Catholic Church, which then was the established church of Europe, excludingScandinavia,Russia,the Netherlands,Great Britain, and, crucially,Prussia. By way of the legislatedseparation of church and state, theAge of Reason reduced society's financial debts to the Church and renderedsecular thepublic sphere of society, and established the state's supremacy concerning the content and administration ofpublic education for all of society.[2] During the Age of Reason in the 17th and the 18th centuries, the EuropeanKulturkampf principally occurred in the regional and local politics of a society, especially in cities and towns where the educated populations were politically Liberal and practised the politics ofanti-clericalism and ofanti-Catholicism.[3]
The Catholic Church resisted such intellectual trends, which often were associated with attacks on the religion itself.[4] With the growing influence of enlightenment and after having lost much of its wealth, power, and influence in the course of thesecularization of the early 19th century, the Church had been in a state of decline.[5][6]
The papacy was at a weak point in its history, having in 1870 lost all its territories toItaly, with the pope a "prisoner in the Vatican".[7] The Church strove to regain its influence and to hold sway in such matters as marriage, family, and education. It initiated a Catholic revival by founding associations, papers, schools, social establishments and new orders, and encouraging religious practices such aspilgrimages, mass assemblies,devotion to the Virgin Mary or theSacred Heart of Jesus, and the veneration ofrelics;[8] the pope himself became an object of devotion.[9]
Apart from the growth in religious orders, the 19th century was a time when numerous Catholic associations and organisations were founded, especially in Germany and in France[10] (In the United States, there was a comparable rise in fraternal organizations in the late nineteenth century.). Catholicpropaganda, including the interpretation of daily events, was promoted through local and national Catholic newspapers that were prominent in all western European nations. In addition, organized missions and groups were dedicated to producing pious literature.[11]
In the 19th century, the popes issued a series ofencyclicals (such asMirari vos (1832) by PopeGregory XVI) condemning liberalism andfreedom of the press. These generated controversy in some quarters. Under the leadership of Gregory's successor,Pope Pius IX, the church dogmatized Mary'sImmaculate Conception in 1854. In 1864, Pius published the encyclicalQuanta cura with its appendedSyllabus Errorum ("Syllabus of Errors"), and in 1870 convened theFirst Vatican Council. The Council, in turn, proclaimed thedogma ofpapal infallibility.
InSyllabus Errorum, Pius IX condemned as false some 80 philosophical and political statements. It rejected outright such concepts asfreedom of religion,separation of church and state,civil marriage,sovereignty of the people,liberalism andsocialism,reason as the sole base of human action, and in general condemned the idea ofconciliation with progress. The announcements included an index of forbidden books.[12]
The Church gradually re-organized and began to use mass media expansively to promote its messages. In addition, the popes worked to increase their control of the Church. The Church centralized some functions and streamlined its hierarchy, which prompted strong criticism by European governments. The bishops sought direction from the Holy See, and the needs and views of the international church were given priority over the local ones. Opponents of the new hierarchical church organization pejoratively called itultramontanism.[13][14]
In view of the church's opposition to enlightenment, liberal reforms, and the revolutions of the 18th/19th centuries, these dogmas angered the liberal-minded across Europe, even among some Catholics. Debates were heated.[15][16]
The dogmas were perceived as threatening the secularized state, as they reaffirmed that the fundamental allegiance of Catholics was not to their nation-state, but to the Gospel and the Church. The pope's teaching was promoted as absolutely authoritative and binding on all the faithful. Secular politicians wondered whether "Catholicism and allegiance to the modern liberal state were not mutually exclusive". British Prime MinisterGladstone wrote in 1874 that the teaching on papal infallibility compromised the allegiance of faithful English Catholics. For European liberalism, the dogmas were perceived as a declaration of war against the modern state, science, and spiritual freedom.[17][18]
The pope's handling of dissent from the dogmas, e.g. by excommunication of critics or demanding their removal from schools and universities, was considered as the "epitome of papal authoritarianism".[19]In direct response to papal announcements, Austria passed the so-called May Laws forCisleithania in 1868, restricting theConcordat of 1855, and then cancelled the Concordat altogether in 1870.Saxony and Bavaria withheld approval to publish the papal infallibility dogma; Hesse and Baden even denied it any legal validity. France refused to publish the doctrines altogether; Spain forbade publication ofSyllabus Errorum in 1864.[20]
By the mid-19th century, liberal policies had also come to dominate Germany and the separation of church and state became a prominent issue.[21][22] TheKulturkampf in Prussia is usually bracketed by the years 1871 and 1878, with the Catholic Church officially announcing its end in 1880. However, 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 the first steps in secularisation well before unification. Predominantly CatholicBaden was at the forefront of curbing the power of the Catholic Church, as in the Baden Church Dispute (1852–1854) and theKulturkampf Baden [de] (1864–1876).[3][23] Other examples are Prussia (1830s, 1850, 1859, and 1969),Württemberg (1859/1862),Bavaria (Bayerischer Kulturkampf [de], 1867),Hesse-Nassau orHesse-Darmstadt.
In the 1837Kölner Wirren ('Cologne Confusion' [de]) of legal and policy issues regarding the children of mixed Protestant-Catholic marriages,[24] Prussia's final settlement was considered a defeat for the state as it had given in to demands of the Catholic Church.[25] In 1850, Prussia again had a dispute with the church about civil marriage and primary schools[26] and in 1852, it issued decrees against theJesuits.As in many European countries, Jesuits were being banned or heavily restricted in many of the German states e.g. in Saxony (1831), Baden (1960) or Württemberg (1862), and even in Catholic ones such as Bavaria (1851).[27]
In theVormärz period, 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.[28]The unsuccessfulGerman revolutions of 1848–49, which the Catholic Church had opposed, produced no democratic reforms and attempts to radically disentangle state-church relationships failed. In therevolutionary parliament, many prominent representatives of political Catholicism sat on the right-wing. In the years following the revolution, Catholicism became increasingly politicized due to rising liberal ideologies contrasted with the anti-modernist and anti-liberal policies of the Vatican.
The Catholic dogmas and doctrines promulgated in 1854, 1864 and 1870 were perceived in Germany as direct attacks on the modern nation state.[29] Thus, Bismarck, theLiberals and theConservatives representing orthodox Protestants found theCentre 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 breakawayOld Catholic Church.
According to the Bavarian head of government,Hohenlohe, the dogma of infallibility compromised the Catholics' loyalty to the state.[30] He sent a circular letter 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 evidently a political question: for it will raise the power of the Sovereign Pontiff, even in temporal matters, above all the princes and peoples of Christendom."[31]
The liberal majorities in theImperial Diet and the Prussian parliament as well as liberals in general regarded the Church as backward, a hotbed forreactionaries, enemies of progress and cast monastic life as the epitome of a backward Catholic medievalism. They were alarmed by the dramatic rise in the numbers of monasteries, convents and clerical religious groups in an era of widespread religious revival. TheDiocese of Cologne, for example, saw a tenfold increase of monks and nuns between 1850 and 1872. Prussian authorities were particularly suspicious of the spread of monastic life among the Polish and French minorities.[32]The Church, in turn, saw theNational-Liberals as its worst enemy, accusing them of spearheading the war against Christianity and the Catholic Church.[33]
At unification in 1871, the newGerman Empire included 25.5 million Protestants (62% of the population) and 15 million Catholics (36.5% of the population). Although a minority in the empire, Catholics were the majority in the states ofBavaria andBaden as well as in the four Prussian Provinces ofWest Prussia,Posen,Rhineland,Westphalia and in the Prussianregion ofUpper Silesia, and in the territory ofAlsace-Lorraine. Since theThirty Years' War the population was generally segregated along religious lines and rural areas or towns were overwhelmingly if not entirely of the same religion. Education was also separate and usually in the hands of the churches. There was little mutual tolerance, interaction or intermarriage. Protestants in general were deeply distrustful of the Catholic Church.
Unification had been achieved through many obstacles with strong opponents. These were the European powers of France and Austria, both Catholic nations. For Bismarck, the empire was very fragile and its consolidation was an important issue. BiographerOtto Pflanze notes that "all of these developments, real and imagined, reinforced Bismarck's belief in the existence of a widespread Catholic conspiracy that posed a threat to both his German and European policies."[34]
In a nation state dominated by Protestant Prussia, the Catholic Church was to lose its standing. Thus, in 1870, on the eve of unification, theCenter Party was explicitly founded to defend the position of the church in the new empire.
Bismarck was highly concerned that many major members and supporters of this new party were not in sympathy with the new empire: theHouse of Hanover, the ethnic minority of the Poles, the southern German states. In 1871, the predominantly Catholic states of Southern Germany had only reluctantly joined the empire, increasing the overall share of the Catholic population to 36.5%. Among this Catholic share was Germany's largest ethnic minority, well over 2 million Poles in the east of Prussia, who under Prussia and Germany suffered discrimination and oppression.[35] Bismarck regarded the new Centre Party not only as an illegal mixup of politics and religion and the church's "long arm" but also as a unifying force forCatholic Germans and Poles and thus a threat to the consolidation of the empire. He feared that the Centre Party would frustrate his broader political agendas and he accused the Catholic priests of fostering Polish nationalism as had been done openly in the provinces of Posen and Upper Silesia.[15][36][37][38][39]
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The Liberals regarded the Catholic Church as a powerful force of reaction and anti-modernity, especially after the proclamation of papal infallibility in 1870 and the tightening control of the Vatican over the local bishops.[40] The renewed vitality of Catholicism in Germany with its mass gatherings also attracted Protestants – even the heir to the Prussian throne, with the king's approval, attended one.[41]Anti-liberalism,anti-clericalism, andanti-Catholicism became powerful intellectual forces of the time and the antagonism between Liberals and Protestants on one side and the Catholic Church on the other was fought out through mud-slinging in the press. A wave of anti-Catholic, anticlerical and anti-monastic pamphleteering in the liberal press[41] was answered by anti-liberal preaching and propaganda in Catholic newspapers and vice versa.
For these reasons, the government sought to wean the Catholic masses away from the hierarchy and the Centre Party and the liberals' demands to curb the power of the churches meshed well with Bismarck's main political objective to crush the Centre Party.
According to historian Anthony J. Steinhoff:
Bismarck's plan to disarm political Catholicism delighted liberal politicians, who provided the parliamentary backing for the crusade. Yet, the phrase the left-liberalRudolf Virchow coined for this struggle, theKulturkampf, suggests that the liberals wanted to do more than prevent Catholicism from becoming a political force. They wanted victory over Catholicism itself, the long-delayed conclusion of the Reformation.[42]
At least since 1847 and in line with the Liberals, Bismarck had also been of the professed opinion, that state and church should be completely separated and "the sphere of the state had to be made secure against the incursions by the church",[43] although his ideas were not as far-reaching as in the United States or in Great Britain. He had in mind the traditional position of the Protestant church in Prussia and provoked considerable resistance from conservative Protestants. This became clear in a heated debate with Prussian culture minister von Mühler in 1871 when Bismarck said: "Since you stopped my plans in the Protestant church, I have to go via Rome."[44] In August 1871, atBad Ems, Bismarck revealed his intention to fight against the Centre Party, to separate state and church, to transfer school inspection to laymen, to abolish religious instruction from schools and to transfer religious affairs to the minister of justice.[45]
On 22 January 1872, liberalAdalbert Falk replaced conservative Heinrich von Mühler as Prussian minister for religion, education and health. In Bismarck's mind, Falk was "to re-establish the rights of the state in relation to the church". Yet, unlike Bismarck, whose main motivation for theKulturkampf was the political power struggle with the Centre Party, Falk, a lawyer, was a strong proponent of state authority having in mind the legal aspects of state-church relationships. Falk became the driving force behind theKulturkampf laws. Although Bismarck publicly supported Falk, he doubted the success of his laws and was unhappy with his lack of political tact and sensitivity. The differences in their attitudes concerning theKulturkampf eventually put the two politicians at odds with each other.[46][47]
With this background and the determination of church and state, theKulturkampf in Germany acquired an additional edge as it gathered in intensity and bitterness.
From 1871 to 1876, the Prussian state parliament and thefederal legislature (Reichstag), both with liberal majorities, enacted 22 laws in the context of theKulturkampf. They were mainly directed against clerics: bishops, priests and religious orders (anti-clerical) and enforced the supremacy of the state over the church.[48][49] While several laws were specific to the Catholic Church (Jesuits, congregations etc.) the general laws affected both Catholic and Protestant churches.In an attempt to overcome increasing resistance by the Catholic Church and its defiance of the laws, new regulations increasingly went beyond state matters referring to the purely internal affairs of the church. Even many liberals saw them as an encroachment on civil liberties, compromising their own credo.[50]
Constitutionally, education and regulation of religious affairs were vested in the federal states and the leading actor of theKulturkampf wasPrussia, Germany's largest state. However, some of the laws were also passed by the Reichstag and applied to all of Germany. In general, the laws did not affect the press and associations including Catholic ones.[49]
TheFalk Laws, also called 'May Laws' (Maigesetze), were a set of laws passed by the Prussian parliament in the years 1873, 1874, and 1875. Four laws passed in 1873 were enacted on 11–14 May that year:
The last two laws passed in 1876 were of no practical importance:
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The political situation in Europe was very volatile. Initially perceived as a possible enemy hostile to German unification under Prussian leadership, Austria and Germany very quickly became friends and formed theDual Alliance in 1879. The possibility of a war with France or Russia also became more remote. Therefore, social and economic problems moved to the fore and Bismarck's attention gradually turned to other topics he deemed more threatening such as the increasing popularity of thesocialists or more important such as questions of import duties. In these matters, he could either not rely on the support of the liberals to pursue his goals or they were not sufficient to form a majority.Bismarck had not been comfortable with the increasing ferocity of theKulturkampf. Concerning the rise of the Centre Party, the laws had proven to be greatly ineffective and even counterproductive. He soon realized that they were of no help battling the Centre Party and as far as separation of state and church was concerned, he had achieved more than he wanted.[64]
In order to garner support for hisAnti-Socialist Laws and protective trade tariffs, Bismarck turned his back on the liberals in search of new alliances. The death of Pius IX on 7 February 1878 opened the door for a settlement with the Catholic Church. The new pope,Leo XIII, was pragmatic and conciliatory. He expressed his wish for peace in a letter to the German emperor on the very day of his election, followed by a second letter in a similar vein that same year.
Bismarck and the Pope entered into direct negotiations without the participation of the Church or theReichstag, yet initially without much success. It came to pass that Falk, vehemently resented by Catholics, resigned on 14 July 1879, which could be read as a peace offering to the Vatican. A decisive boost only came in February 1880, when the Vatican unexpectedly agreed to the civic registry of clerics. As theKulturkampf slowly wound down the talks lead to a number of so-called mitigation and peace laws which were passed until 1887.[61]
On 29 September 1885, as another sign of peace, Bismarck proposed the Pope as arbiter in a dispute with Spain about theCaroline Islands and accepted his verdict in favour of Spain. In gratitude but to the great horror of Catholics, the Pope awarded Bismarck theSupreme Order of Christ, the highest order of chivalry to be granted by the Holy See. Bismarck was the only Protestant ever to receive this award.
After further negotiations between Prussia and the Vatican, the Prussian parliament passed 2 additional laws amending some of theKulturkampf laws.
On 23 May 1887, the Pope declared "The struggle which damaged the church and was of no good to the state is now over". The Mitigation and Peace Laws restored the inner autonomy of the Catholic church while leaving key regulations and the laws concerning separation of church and state in place (civic marriage, civic registry, religious disaffiliation, government school supervision, civic registry of clerics, ban of Jesuits, pulpit law, state supervision of church assets, constitutional amendments and the Catholic section in the Ministry of Culture was not reintroduced).
The respective opposing parties in the Reichstag harshly criticized the concessions made by the Vatican and the Prussian government.Windthorst and the Centre Party were dismayed at being sidelined and not being consulted about the concessions the pope made, e.g. about the ban on Jesuits or the civil registry of clerics. None of the party's major demands were met. Instead, the pope even sided with Bismarck on non-religious issues and pressured the Centre Party to support Bismarck or at least abstain, e.g. in the matter of the hotly debatedSeptennat 1887 (7-year military budget).Many Liberals, especially Falk, objected to the concessions Bismarck made to the Church.
The growth of the Centre Party has been considered a major setback for Bismarck although never publicly conceded. Yet, in spite of strong Catholic representation in the Reichstag, the political power and influence of the Church in the public sphere and its political power was greatly reduced.
Although Germany and the Vatican were officially at peace after 1878, religious conflicts and tensions continued. At the turn of the century,Pope Pius X announced the encyclicalPascendi dominici gregis, mounting new attacks on historical criticism of biblical texts and any accommodation of Catholicism to modern philosophy, sociology or literature. As of 1910, clerics had to take an oath against all forms of modernism, a requirement later extended to teachers of Catholic religion at schools and professors of Catholic theology resulting in intense political and public debates and new conflicts with the state.[65]
The abolition of the Catholic section of the Prussian ministry of ecclesiastical and educational affairs deprived Catholics of their voice at the highest level. The system of strict government supervision of schools was applied only in Catholic areas; the Protestant schools were left alone. The school politics also alienated Protestant conservatives and churchmen.[66]
The British ambassadorOdo Russell reported to London in October 1872 how Bismarck's plans were backfiring by strengthening the ultramontane (pro-papal) position inside German Catholicism:
Nearly all German bishops, clergy and laymen rejected the legality of the new laws and were defiantly facing the increasingly heavy penalties, trials and imprisonments. As of 1878, only three of eight Prussian dioceses still had bishops, some 1,125 of 4,600 parishes were vacant, and nearly 1,800 priests ended up in jail or in exile, nearly half the monks and nuns had left Prussia, a third of the monasteries and convents were closed. Between 1872 and 1878, numerous Catholic newspapers were confiscated, Catholic associations and assemblies were dissolved, and Catholic civil servants were dismissed merely on the pretence of having Ultramontane sympathies. Thousands of laypeople were imprisoned for assisting priests to evade the punitive new laws.[68][69]
The general ideological enthusiasm among the liberals for theKulturkampf[70] was in contrast to Bismarck'spragmatic attitude towards the measures[71] and growing disquiet from the Conservatives.[72]
Apart from the outspoken criticism of theKulturkampf Laws by the Catholic Church and the Centre Party, there were also a number of Liberals and Protestants who voiced concern at least at the so-calledKampfgesetze (battle laws). "Unease concerning the effects of his programme continued to spread among all but the most bigoted priest-haters and the most doctrinaire liberals".[73]Such noted critics outside the Catholic camp wereFriedrich Heinrich Geffcken,Emil Albert Friedberg orJulius von Kirchmann. Although they were proponents of state superiority, they regarded some of the laws as either ineffective or as interference in internal church affairs and not consistent with liberal values. Geffcken wrote that "with the intention to emancipate the laity from the hierarchy, the main body of the Catholics was brought in phalanx into the hands of leaders from which it was to be wrested. But the state cannot fight at length against a third of the population, it has no means to break such a passive resistance supported and organized by religious fanaticism. If a statesman desists from the correctness of a measure it only matters that he has the power to enforce it."Even Bismarck – who initially saw a variety of tactical political advantages in these measures, e.g. for his suppressive policies against the Polish population – took pains to distance himself from the rigors of their enforcement."[74]
TheKulturkampf law considered the harshest and with no equivalent in Europe was the Expatriation Law. Passed by a liberal majority in parliament, it stipulated banishment as a punishment that all civilized peoples considered the harshest beyond the death penalty.[75]
As to the Centre Party, these measures did not have the effect that Bismarck had in mind. In the state elections of November 1873, it grew from 50 to 90 seats and in theReichstag elections from 63 to 91. The number of Catholic periodicals also increased; in 1873 there were about 120.[60]
TheKulturkampf gave secularists and socialists an opportunity to attack all religions, an outcome that distressed the Protestant leaders and especially Bismarck himself, who was a devoutpietistic Protestant.[76]
In the face of systematic defiance, the Bismarck government increased the penalties and its attacks, and were challenged in 1875 when a papal encyclical declared that the entire ecclesiastical legislation of Prussia was invalid, and threatened to excommunicate any Catholic who obeyed. There was no violence, but the Catholics mobilized their support, set up numerous civic organizations, raised money to pay fines and rallied behind their church and the Center Party.
To Bismarck's surprise, the Conservative Party — especially the Junkers from his own landowning class in East Prussia — sided with the Catholics. They were Protestants and did not like the Pope, but they had much in common with the Center Party. The Conservatives controlled their local schools and did not want bureaucrats from Berlin to take them over. They were hostile to the liberals, being fearful of free trade that would put them in competition with the United States and other grain exporters, and disliking their secular views. In the Prussian legislature, they sided with the Center Party on the school issue. Bismarck was livid, and he resigned the premiership of Prussia (while remaining Chancellor of the German Empire), telling an ally, "in domestic affairs I have lost the ground that is for me acceptable through the unpatriotic treason of the Conservative Party in the Catholic question." Indeed, many of Bismarck's conservative friends were in opposition. So too wasKaiserWilliam I, who was King of Prussia; he was strongly opposed to the civil marriage component of theKulturkampf.[77]
TheKulturkampf made Catholics more resolute; they responded not with violence but with votes, and as the newly formed Center Party became a major force in the Imperial Parliament, it gained support from non-Catholic minorities who felt threatened by Bismarck's centralization of power.[76]In the long run, the most significant result was the mobilization of the Catholic voters through the Center Party, and their insistence on protecting their church. According to Margaret Anderson,"The effort was perceived, and not only by its opponents, as aiming at nothing less than the forcible assimilation of the Catholic Church and its adherents to the values and norms of the empire's Protestant majority....[it led] Catholics – young and old, male and female, cleric and lay, big men and small – to cleave to their priests and defy the legislation."[78]After the Center party had doubled its popular vote in the elections of 1874, it became the second largest party in the national parliament, and remained a powerful force for the next 60 years. It became difficult for Bismarck to form a government without their support.[76][79]From the decades-long experience in battling against theKulturkampf, the Catholics of Germany learned democracy, according to Margaret Anderson. She states that the clergy:
Studies that analyze the nationalist aspect of Kulturkampf point out itsanti-Polish character and Bismarck's attempt toGermanize Polish provinces in the German Empire.[81][82]The Poles had already suffered from discrimination and numerous oppressive measures in Germany long before unification. These measures were intensified after theGerman Empire was formed[83][better source needed] and Bismarck was known to be particularly hostile towards the Poles.[84][85]Christopher Clark argues that Prussian policy changed radically in the 1870s in the face of highly visible Polish support for France in the Franco-Prussian war.[86] Polish demonstrations made clear the Polish nationalist feeling, and calls were also made for Polish recruits to desert from thePrussian Army – though these went unheeded. Bismarck was outraged, telling the Prussian cabinet in 1871: "From the Russian border to the Adriatic Sea we are confronted with the combined propaganda of Slavs, ultramontanes, and reactionaries, and it is necessary openly to defend our national interests and our language against such hostile actions."[87] Therefore, in theProvince of Posen theKulturkampf took on a much more nationalistic character than in other parts of Germany.[88]
Not an adamant supporter of the Liberals' generalKulturkampf goals, Bismarck did recognize the potential in some of them for subduing Polish national aspirations and readily made use of it. While the Liberals' main objective was the separation of state and church as essential for a democratic and liberal society, Bismarck saw its use in separating the Polish population from the only supporter and guardian of its national identity.Prussian authorities imprisoned 185 priests and forced hundreds of others into exile. Among the imprisoned was thePrimate of Poland ArchbishopMieczysław Ledóchowski. A large part of the remaining Catholic priests had to continue their service in hiding from the authorities. Although most of the 185 imprisoned were finally set free by the end of the decade, those who were released emigrated.[citation needed] The anti-Polish aspects of theKulturkampf remained in place in Polish provinces of the German Empire until the First World War.[82]
TheKulturkampf in Austria has roots dating back to the 18th century. EmperorJoseph II launched a religious policy (later called "Josephinism") that advocated the supremacy of the state in religious matters. This resulted in far-reaching state control over the Catholic Church, including the reorganization of dioceses, the regulation of the number of masses, the transfer of many schools into government hands, state-controlled seminaries, and the limitation of the number of clerics and the dissolution of numerous monasteries. Protests ofPope Pius VI, and even his visit to Vienna in 1782, were to no avail.In theConcordat of 1855, which was the culmination of Catholic influence in Austria, many of the Catholic Church's previous rights that had been taken away under Joseph II were restored (marriage, partial control of censorship, elementary and secondary education, full control of the clergy and religious funds).
In 1868 and 1869, after sanctioning from the December constitution, EmperorFrancis Joseph's newly appointed cabinet undid parts of the Concordat by way of several liberal reforms. These reforms are referred to as theMay Laws. Against strong protests from the Catholic Church, the laws of 25 May 1868 and 14 May 1869 restored civil marriage, passed primary and secondary education into government hands, installed interconfessional schools, and regulated interconfessional relations (for example, mixed marriages and children's rights to choose their faith).[89][90]
In a secret consistory,Pope Pius IX condemned the constitution of 1867 and the May Laws asleges abominabiles. In a pastoral letter dated 7 September 1868, bishopFranz-Josef Rudigier called for resistance to these May Laws. However, the letter was confiscated, and Rudigier had to appear before court on 5 June 1869. This event led to the first-ever public demonstrations by the Catholic population. On 12 July 1869, the bishop was sentenced to a jail term of two weeks, but he was later pardoned by the emperor.
The May Laws provoked a serious conflict between state and church. After the promulgation of papal infallibility in 1870, Austria abrogated the Concordat of 1855 and abolished it entirely in 1874. In May 1874, theReligious Act was officially recognized.[91]
In the late 19th century, cultural wars arose over issues of prohibition and education in the United States.[92] TheBennett Law was a highly controversial state law passed in Wisconsin in 1889 that required the use of English to teach major subjects in all public and private elementary and high schools. Because Wisconsin German Catholics and Lutherans each operated large numbers of parochial schools where German was used in the classroom, it was bitterly resented byGerman-American (and some Norwegian) communities. Although the law was ultimately repealed, there were significant political repercussions, with the Republicans losing the governorship and the legislature, and the election of Democrats to the Senate and House of Representatives.[93][94]
In the United States, the term "culture war(s)" has been used to refer to conflict in the late 20th and early 21st centuries between religioussocial conservatives and secularsocial liberals.[95][96] This theme of "culture war" was the basis ofPatrick Buchanan's keynote speech at the1992 Republican National Convention.[97] It has also been used to refer to neoconservative reaction to the New Left[98] and the ideological battles playing out in the country's public schools.[99]
Throughout the 1980s, there were battles in Congress and the media regarding federal support for theNational Endowment for the Arts and theNational Endowment for the Humanities that amounted to a war over high culture between neoconservatives and paleoconservatives.[100]JusticeAntonin Scalia referenced the term in the Supreme Court caseRomer v. Evans,517 U.S. 620 (1996), saying "the Court has mistaken aKulturkampf for a fit of spite". The case concerned an amendment to theColorado state constitution that prohibited any subdepartment from acting to protect individuals on the basis of sexual orientation. Scalia believed that the amendment was a valid move on the part of citizens who sought "recourse to a more general and hence more difficult level of political decision making than others". The majority disagreed, holding that the amendment violated the Equal Protection clause of theFourteenth Amendment.[citation needed]
The term, translated toHebrew asMilhemet Tarbut (מלחמת תרבות) is also frequently used, with similar connotations, in the political debates ofIsrael—having been introduced by Jews who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s.[101]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Prince Hohenlohe circular to all the diplomatic representatives of the Bavarian Kingdom.
It was the distinguished liberal politician and scientist, Professor Rudolph Virchow, who first called it theKulturkampf, or struggle for civilization.
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