(3) Bulow and the Problems of Weltpolitik

Bulow was a very competent administrator and handled the Riechstag effectively. Significantly, his main interest was foreign policy and he enjoyed the trust of the Kaiser. He hoped to reduce the conflicting interests on the domestic front by rallying support for Weltpolitik.
1. As he himself said in a private letter to Enlenburg
  1. "I am putting the main emphasis on foreign policy"
2. Not easy to maintain support for the government in the Reichstag
Social reform
1. Bulow try to revive the "new course". The aim was to expand the social welfare provision in order to pacify the working classes to the imperial state
  1. An extension of accident insurance in 1900
  2. A law making industrial courts compulsory in towns with a population above 20,000 people
  3. An extension of the prohibition of child labour
Tariffs
1. Tariff policy had been an ongoing issue in Germany and in 1902 it revived again with controversy. The landowning interest working with the Conservatives and the Agrarian League had opposed commercial treaties. They demanded higher tariffs to protect agriculture
2. In contrast, the social Democrats and Left Liberals called for lower tariffs to reduce the price of bread for the worker
3. In the end the Tariff law of 1902 was comfortably passed which restored tarriffs to pre-1892 levels with the combined support of the Centre, National Liberals and the Free Conservatives
4. Burlow's compromise was endorsed by the Reichstag election result 1903 - Centre maintained dominance. However another one is also reviled:
  1. The Social Democrats, who had opposed the Tariffs, saw their popular vote go up significantly and their number of seats increase from 56 to 81.
  2. The Conservatives, who had demanded even higher tariffs, saw their vote narrowly decline.
Budget
1. Weltpolitik was running in to debt, due to the mounting cost of maintaining the army, expanding the navy and running the empire took effect
2. If the "glories" of Weltpolitik were to continue then substantial tax inceases had to be introduced
  1. In 1905 he suggested a two-pronged attack on the deficit by proposing an increase in indirect taxes and in inheritance tax.
    1. The proposal came to nothing, SD and Centre vote to lower indirect tax's. The Conservatives weakened the inheritance tax so it was financially insignificant. The deficit continued to grow
The "Hottentot" election
1. Bulow's government was being attacked for it policy in the colony of German South West Africa. The local population was crushed in 1904-5 and subsequent revelations of awful brutality and incompetence in the admin of the colony were made public
  1. The gov proposal of compensating the white settlers and of finding extra money for suppressing the rebels and for the new administration was defeat in the Riechstag the Centre voted aginsted them
2. The result was an encouageing one for Bulow, as the number of SD seats was halved and the parties of the right made some good gains. A Conservative coalition was formed dubbed "Bulow bloc", it was however extremely fragile and his triumph was not to last long.
Conclusion of social reforms
1. New political forces were emerging in the country and yet imperial government showed only a limited ability to come to terms with these forces
2. Powerful interest groups, such as the trade unions and the Catholic church wanted their wishes to be taken into account by their political rep in parliament. Moreover, economic forces also exerted new pressures; the dilemma of gov finance and tariff reform reveals clearly the limitations of implementing government policy
3. By 1908 it seemed as if Bulow's gov, far from controlling events, was increasingly at the mercy of them
The Daily Telegraph affair
1. In the inter of 1908-9 the political crises came to a head. The German public had already experience a moral scandal by the revelation that the Kaiser's close friend, Eulenburg, was at the centre of an extensive ring of homosexuals at court, when the Daily Telegraph affair broke.
2. In the interview the Kaiser expressed his wishes for closer relations with Britain. There was much criticism for making such an important statement on foreign policy to the foreign press and there were demand in the Reichstag for constitutional limitations to be placed on the Kaiser
3. Its impact
  1. Bulow sided with Reichstag, he got the kaiser to promise to respected the term of the constitution. It appeared that Bulow (the eel) had slithered his way out of a tight corner. Yet the Kaiser did not trusted him anymore and when Bulow new Budget of 1909 was rejected, the Kaiser took the opportunity to secure the Chancellor's resignation.
  2. The Daily Telegraph affair is an illuminating insight into the power politics of the Wihelmine age. Bulow has survived for over a decade at the very centre of German Politics by flattering the kaiser and turning situations to his advantage.He also gained a degree of broader political support through the nationalistic policy of Weltpolitik
    1. However, his failure to stand by the Kaiser in the affair underlined how vulnerable the chancellor was to the personal whims of the Kaiser. The Chancellor remained accountable to the Kaiser alone, not to the Reichstag. This was in spite of the fact that there was a growing belief that the Kaiser could no loner behave as an authoritarian monarch and had to conform to some constitutional changes
    2. Yet now when the opportunity presented itself for constitutional reform, the reichstag showed a marked reluctance to assert itself and its authority

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(3) Bulow and the Problems of Weltpolitik

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	Created by Marcus Danvers over 10 years ago