‘the Political Establishment in Germany Succeeded in Maintaining the Political Status Quo Through a Policy of Moderate Reform.’ How Far Do You Agree?

‘The political establishment in Germany succeeded in maintaining the political status quo through a policy of moderate reform.’ How far do you agree?

At the start of the 20th century, Germany had become a vastly different state from the constituents which had joined together to form it in 1870. It had gone through two industrial revolutions that made it Europe’s leading industrialised nations, overtaking Britain in many industries, like in the production of iron and in light industries such as dye manufacturing and steel production. Such a vast change in the economy of Germany brought with it a vast change in society with a large middle and working class cropping up in German society. These changes brought about challenges to the constitution, which was put in place to preserve the vast powers of the Kaiser and the elite Junkers. This new structure society that had formed from the industrial revolutions brought about conflicting ideas such as socialism, which became a real worry for the elite. The government brought in several reforms in order to preserve the political status quo of the country with varying degrees of effectiveness.

In October 1878, socialists were demanding reform to the social system that was all about preserving the power of the elite. In response to this Bismarck managed to persuade the Reichstag to pass an Anti-Socialist Law in order to prevent the spread of these ideas among the large working class birthed out of the industrial revolution that could become dangerous to the status quo. This law banned the Social Democratic party and drove the movement underground. This was unsuccessful in its attempts to stop the socialist movement with it in fact gaining even more support while banned. Due to the Increase popularity, in 1890, the Reichstag with the Kaisers backing dropped the law and forced succeeding chancellors to implement moderate reform to deal with the rise in popularity of the Social Democrats, ultimately failing in this goal....