Why Germany was hard for Kaiser Wilhelm II to rule before 1914

Kaiser Wilhelm the Second had more power than any British king, so why was Germany so hard for him to rule? It's tempting to blame his temper, but the clue is an election. In January nineteen twelve the biggest party in the Reichstag, Germany's parliament, was the SPD, a party that wanted to cut the power of kings and generals. That election was one sign of five pressures that had been building for twenty years.

Start with the power on paper. The Kaiser, Germany's emperor, chose the Chancellor, the head of the government, and he could sack him. He commanded the armed forces and ran foreign policy. He was also King of Prussia, the biggest German state, whose landowners and army officers dominated the Empire. Wilhelm took the throne in eighteen eighty-eight, impulsive, and in love with the army and the navy. This part of Germany's story is on one course only, the one that starts in eighteen ninety. If your course begins at the end of the First World War, the video on how defeat in nineteen eighteen ended the monarchy is your starting point. Now the Reichstag, the German parliament. Every man over twenty-five could vote for it. It could not choose the government, because the Kaiser did that. So what could the Reichstag do that the Kaiser's ministers could not do without? It approved the budget. Every new tax and every year's spending had to pass through it, which meant a Chancellor without its votes could not pay for anything. And its parties were growing more demanding, which meant every budget became a bargain. That is the first pressure, the growth of parliamentary government. The Kaiser could not choose this parliament, but he could not ignore it either. The second pressure was the army. Militarism means putting the army and its values at the centre of a country's life. In Germany the army's officers, most of them from Prussian noble families, answered to the Kaiser alone, never to the Reichstag. One example shows how far that went. In nineteen thirteen, in the town of Zabern in Alsace, a young officer insulted the local people, and soldiers then arrested protesters with no legal right to do it. The Reichstag was furious. It passed a vote of no confidence in the Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, who had led the government since nineteen-oh-nine. Now make a prediction about what came next. What do you think happened to Bethmann Hollweg after that vote? Nothing happened to him. He stayed in office, because only the Kaiser could dismiss a Chancellor, which meant the army had broken the law and the Reichstag could not touch it. That made Germany harder to rule, because millions of voters could see the army standing above their parliament, and it pushed many of them towards parties that wanted change.

The third pressure came out of the factories. Industrialisation means a country's work shifting from farms to mines and factories. Germany's coal, steel, chemical and electrical industries grew so fast that by nineteen fourteen it was one of the leading industrial powers in Europe. The population grew with them, from about forty-nine million in eighteen ninety to about sixty-five million by nineteen ten. Millions moved into towns such as Berlin and the coal and steel cities of the Ruhr. Many lived in crowded housing and worked long hours for low wages. That made a huge new working class in the cities, with plenty to complain about. Now think about one of those people on polling day. What would they want from whoever ran Germany? They would want better pay, shorter hours and decent homes, and a real say in how the country was run. The party promising that was the SPD, the Social Democratic Party, and that is the fourth pressure, the growth of socialism. Socialism is the belief that a country's wealth and industry should be run for working people, not for a small class of owners. The SPD's vote grew at almost every election, until in nineteen twelve it won a hundred and ten seats, more than any other party. The Kaiser's governments tried to win workers back with social reform, meaning laws to improve their lives. Accident and sickness insurance were extended, and child labour was limited. At the same time they distrusted the trade unions and treated the SPD as an enemy of the Empire. The reforms did not stop the SPD growing. Now join that up with the very first pressure. Why did the SPD's growth make Germany harder for the Kaiser to rule? Because every budget had to pass the Reichstag, and the biggest party there wanted less power for the Kaiser and the army. Each Chancellor had to scrape votes together from other parties, which meant every law and every tax became a fight. A longer question puts the third and fourth pressures together. It asks in what ways industrial growth made Germany harder for Kaiser Wilhelm the Second to rule before nineteen fourteen, and it wants the ways explained. A report written after one exam on the Kaiser's problems notes that only rarely did answers show an understanding of the impact of the growth of the population and industries. Most answers never said what the factories and the extra millions did to politics. The habit that fixes it is to follow each change all the way through, from more people, to bigger cities, to more workers, to the Reichstag. That is the whole task, and the plan is yours to make. Try it on paper before I show you the answer. The first way runs through the workers. Industry grew fast, so millions moved into crowded cities to work long hours, and they looked for a party that spoke for them. The SPD's vote grew until it was the largest party in nineteen twelve. That made Germany harder to rule, because the Kaiser's governments needed Reichstag votes, and the biggest party there wanted to limit his power. The second way runs through money and status. Rich industrialists and a new middle class wanted a say in running the country, while the old Prussian landowners and officers around the Kaiser wanted to keep control. They wanted opposite things on taxes and on tariffs, the taxes on goods from abroad. That meant every budget became a fight between them. Each way is a chain: the change, then because, then which meant, ending on ruling Germany. The answer also judges. The first way mattered more, because it produced the SPD, the biggest single challenge to the way the Kaiser ruled.

The fifth pressure was at sea. From eighteen ninety-eight Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the head of the navy, pushed a series of Navy Laws through the Reichstag to build a battle fleet that could rival Britain's. The fleet was popular with nationalists, people who put Germany's power and pride first. The Navy League, a group that campaigned for more battleships, had hundreds of thousands of members. But battleships cost enormous sums, and by nineteen-oh-eight the government was deep in debt and needed new taxes to keep building. Now predict: who did the government have to ask for those taxes? The Reichstag, and that is where it went wrong. In nineteen-oh-nine the Chancellor, Bernhard von Bülow, asked it for a new tax on inheritances. The parties fought over who should pay, the tax was voted down, and Bülow resigned. Now a different sort of question. The fleet was built to face Britain, and that sounds like foreign policy. So why does it count as a problem of ruling Germany at home? Because of what it cost at home. The bills meant new taxes, the taxes needed Reichstag votes, and those votes turned into fights over who should pay, fights that brought down a Chancellor. One examiner's report on a question about the Kaiser's problems says many students focused entirely on foreign policy, without linking it to ruling Germany. They wrote about Germany abroad and never said what it did to governing at home. The fix is a habit for every foreign-policy fact you use: finish the sentence with what it did at home, in taxes, votes or arguments. Put that habit to work on a shorter task. Describe two problems Kaiser Wilhelm the Second had in governing Germany in the years eighteen ninety to nineteen fourteen. Each problem needs one precise fact behind it. Short and precise is what this task rewards. Write your two problems, with a fact for each, then carry on. Problem one, the rise of socialism. The SPD, which wanted to cut the power of the Kaiser and the army, became the largest party in the Reichstag in nineteen twelve, with a hundred and ten seats. That made it harder for the Chancellor to get laws and budgets passed. Problem two, paying for the navy. Tirpitz's Navy Laws from eighteen ninety-eight built a big battle fleet, but the cost forced the government to ask the Reichstag for new taxes. In nineteen-oh-nine the fight over an inheritance tax brought down Chancellor Bülow. Two different problems, both at home, both before nineteen fourteen, and each one made precise by a fact. The fact is what turns a named problem into a described one. The same report says most students did write about the rise of the Social Democrats and the anger over taxes. If those two came to mind first for you, you are ahead of a lot of students, and a precise fact with each finishes the job.

Questions on the Kaiser's problems stop at nineteen fourteen, the year the First World War began, and keeping inside that line is the last skill here. Four problems are coming, and one of them does not belong. The first is that the SPD became the largest party in nineteen twelve. The second is that the Navy Laws needed new taxes. The third is that the army acted above the law at Zabern in nineteen thirteen. The fourth is that Germany lost land under a peace treaty in nineteen nineteen. Which one would you rule out, and why? The fourth. The peace treaty came in nineteen nineteen, after the war and after the Kaiser had gone, so it answers a different question. A report on an earlier paper records that many answers partly or wholly referred to problems after the war, rather than before as the question asked. Those answers took their problems from the wrong side of the war. The habit that prevents it: circle the end date in the question, and test every fact against it before it goes in. Now put the five pressures side by side. The Reichstag held the money. The army's behaviour angered voters. The factories made millions of new workers, and those workers voted SPD. And the navy's bills kept sending the government back to the Reichstag for taxes. Each one made the Kaiser more dependent on a parliament and a public he could not control. If you have to say which mattered most, the SPD's growth has the strongest case, because it turned the Reichstag's grip on money into a real threat.

Time to pull it together. Answer each of these out loud before I do.

What power over money made the Kaiser's governments need the Reichstag?

Its power over money was the budget. It approved the budget and every new tax, so no Chancellor could govern for long without its votes.

Now a second one: how did industrial growth feed the rise of the SPD?

It packed millions of workers into crowded cities on long hours and low pay, which meant they turned to the party that spoke for them.

One more, about a moment this video never showed. In nineteen-oh-six the Reichstag refused extra money for a colonial war in Africa, and the government had to dissolve it and call a new election.

Which of the five pressures does that show at work?

The growth of parliamentary government. The Kaiser's ministers could not even fund a fight abroad without that parliament's approval.

So back to January nineteen twelve. The Kaiser still held every power on paper, but he could not run Germany without the Reichstag's money and the workers' consent, and the biggest party in that Reichstag wanted him weaker.

If you can now describe two of the Kaiser's problems with a precise fact for each, give this video a thumbs-up, because that's in the bag. If it still feels hazy, save it, and come back to it later in the week.

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