The New International Encyclopædia/Kulturkampf
KULTURKAMPF, kụl-tōōr'kämpf (Ger.,
culture-war). The name given in Germany to the
conflict between the Roman Catholic Church and
the Prussian and the German Imperial governments,
initiated by Bismarck in 1872, and having
for its chief issue the control by the State of
educational and ecclesiastical appointments. The
term was first used by Virchow in a political
manifesto. Conceiving that the Church stood in
the way of his policy, the Iron Chancellor determined
to put an end to even what shadow of
independence the Church possessed. In pursuance
of his policy of centralization, Bismarck attempted
to vindicate the authority of the State while
aiming at the same time at the overthrow of the
party of the Centre in the Imperial Reichstag,
whose influence had come to be exerted in
opposition to his political programme. Bismarck
urged that the declaration of Papal infallibility
by the Vatican Council in 1870 was an arrogation
of rights “dangerous to the State,” and that the
Church had assumed “an attitude of aggression
dangerous to the laws of the State.” The Roman
Curia was irritated at the support given by the
Government to those members of the Church who
refused to accept the Vatican decrees as binding
(see ), as well as by its denial of
the right of the Church to excommunicate any of
its members without leave from the State. Another
cause of dispute was the refusal of Pope Pius IX.
to receive Cardinal Hohenlohe as German Ambassador,
on the ground that a cardinal, as a member
of the Pope's own council, cannot represent a
foreign government. The ill feeling caused by
these conflicting claims led the Reichstag to pass
a law (1872) expelling the Jesuits from the
Empire. The outbreak of the Kulturkampf,
however,
is dated from the enactment by the Prussian
Diet (May 11-14, 1873) of a series of four
laws aiming at the regulation of the Catholic
and Evangelical clergy. These were introduced
by Falk, Bismarck's Minister of Public Worship,
and, together with certain supplementary legislation,
were known as the Falk or May Laws.
The first of these laws provided that all candidates
for ecclesiastical office should have received
a three years' university training in the liberal
arts, and required them to pass a State examination;
it also placed all theological seminaries
under State control, and gave the provincial
authorities the right to confirm or annul all
ecclesiastical appointments. The second law
subjected the discipline of the churches to the
supreme authority of a specially created ecclesiastical
court. The third law further limited the
exercise of disciplinary authority by the clergy.
The fourth law made it obligatory on converts
to obtain the consent of a magistrate before
changing their confession. The May Laws were
received with a storm of protest, and the Catholic
bishops as a body refused to recognize their validity.
The opposition of the Catholic clergy was
met with more drastic measures by the Government.
In April, 1875, all recusant priests were
deprived of their stipends, and in May all
religious orders and congregations were abolished,
with the exception of those devoted to the care
of the sick. The Reichstag in the same year
passed a law making marriage a civil contract.
The Pope's encyclical of 1875 declaring all the
anti-clerical legislation void was answered by
the Prussian Government with the use of force.
Many of the bishops and the lower clergy were
fined, exiled, or imprisoned, and the Church
organization in Prussia was practically destroyed.
In 1877, 8 out of 15 bishoprics, and more than
1400 out of some 4000 parishes, were vacant. By
this time, however, Bismarck had discovered that
he had gone too far. The people were aroused by
what had ceased to be a State policy and had
become persecution, and in 1877 sent an increased
delegation of Clericals to the Reichstag. New
questions, besides the rise of the Socialist Party
and the need of economic legislation, drew the
Chancellor's attention, and in joining conflict
with the Socialists he found that he had need of
the support of the Clerical Centre. The accession
of Leo XIII. prepared the way for the resumption
of friendly relations. Negotiations were
opened in 1878, and were continued in the following
year. Falk was displaced in the Ministry of
Public Worship, and in a series of five laws,
enacted between 1880 and 1887, the May Laws
were practically nullified. Consult: Hahn,
Geschichte des Kulturkampfs in Preussen (Berlin,
1881); Wiermann, Geschichte des Kulturkampfs
(2d ed. Leipzig, 1886). See ;
; , section
on Germany.