Kulturkampf and Unification: German Liberalism and the War Against the Jesuits

Abstract

In February 1872, little more than a year after the founding of the new Reich, the National Zeitung , a leading National-Liberal newspaper, argued that Germans could no longer accept suppression at the Catholic Church. The German, the paper explained, will not tolerate a spirit that comes from Rome either among his people or in any of his churches. He does not want clerical rule and Volksverdummung . He wants, rather, enlightemnent, honest conscience [ ehrlidzes Gewissen ], and work.Attaining a new, as yet never achieved level of moral freedom, a morality arising from the people [ eine volkstümliche Sittlichkeit ] that is shared by Germany's churches and confessions, that is the task for this founding period of the new Reich.