Introduction:
On January 18, 1871, a unified German Empire was established at the Palace of Versailles in Paris, France. The birth of this empire was an geopolitical revolution for Europe, and the broken heartland of Central and Europe was integrated into a powerful empire. This new empire must bear pressure from all directions.
is a place for the great powers to compete for? Or become an important center of power that expands its influence around the world?
How should the new German be dealt with?
In the past two hundred years of European history, France has been trying to gain hegemony on the European continent.
Who would have thought that this effort became a silence, and the birth of Germany made France lose hope. In the words of the time,
Europe lost a housewife, but got a master.
(German Emperor crowned in France)
1: The situation facing the rising Germany.
Unification is a symbol of the rise of the German power, and with the unification comes various new pressures and obligations. The Germans find themselves trapped in the normal paradox of the rise of great powers. The more powerful
increases, the more suspicious other major countries are, and the pressure on external security continues to increase.
In order to cope with the risks under this pressure, Germany at the beginning of unification chose to lower its attitude and adopted a route similar to "hiding one's strength and maintaining one's lowliness".
From the perspective of the grand strategy, this is the period of exploration of Germany's national strategy.
1871 The unification of Germany was achieved through the three dynasty wars initiated by Prussia . Germany is essentially an expansion of in the Kingdom of Prussia , but the two are incomparable in strength, so they need to adapt to role changes.
Prussia before the unification could only be considered a military power, but after the unification, Germany was twice as large as Prussia, and its population increased from 19.3 million to 34.6 million. More importantly, the amazing economic development after the unification made Germany more and more terrifying.
But this rapidly rising power is not impeccable. Germany still has a contradictory and fragile side, especially the internal structure issues, which makes it difficult for Germany to form a grand strategy and overall planning. These issues are prominently reflected in three aspects: political structure, social structure and strategic decision-making system.
(from Prussia to Germany)
2. German political structure has deviations from the beginning.
From a political perspective, the founding of the German Empire was the product of compromise and balance.
This compromise is reflected not only between liberalism and monarchy, but also between German nationalist demands and the tradition of separation of states. Therefore, although unified Germany has a constitution, it is not a constitutional state in the true sense. Its political system is a "mixed type", that is, a mixture of monarchy and democratic representative system, and a mixture of federal system and centralized system.
For example, Imperial Congress is like this.
When the German Empire was founded in 1871, the law on universal, equal and direct elections was written into the Constitution.
The law has become a symbol of German unification. The 397 members of the Imperial Congress were also elected by universal suffrage for men over 25 years old in Germany. The main power lies in approving various laws, including military budgets. But this does not mean that Germany has become a modern representative country.
(Germany in the German Empire era)
Compared with Britain and France, the German parliament has much less power.
Although Congress can pass laws and budgets, it does not have legislative power and cannot express distrust of the government. The prime minister, as the head of the government, is nominally responsible to the parliament, but in fact he is responsible to the emperor and appointed and removed by the emperor. For their own rights, the representatives of the monarchs of the states also seized the legislative power by forming the Federal Senate.
, in contrast to the split of Congress and the federal decentralization state, is the German Empire's reservation of monarchy.
Under Constitutional Monarchy , the monarch is the only sovereign representative and has full rule, especially in military, foreign and other fields, and the monarch has arbitrary power. Military, the German emperor followed the Prussian tradition of "soldier king", and the army was only loyal to the emperor but not the government, and the army command belonged to the monarch.In terms of diplomacy, except for trade, transportation, tariffs, etc., international treaties, , , , need to be approved by the parliament, and other treaties such as alliance treaties and peace treaties only require the emperor to approve them.
The most important declares war on , the emperor can declare war only by obtaining the consent of the Federal Senate, without the approval of Congress.
For example, in August 1914, when World War I broke out, William II declared war without the consent of the Federal Senate, and the Federal Senate later agreed to legalize the declaration of war.
In addition to retaining imperial power, the relationship between the empire and the states is also a mixture of federal and centralized power, and is a loose federal system.
Soul wise, the monarchs of each state are the sharers of national sovereignty, and the emperor is the only sovereign representative of Germany in international exchanges.
(William I's Palace)
This can be seen in the determination of the title of emperor.
When the Empire was founded in 1871, William I tried to use the title of "Emperor of Germany", but because it contained sovereignty over other states, it was rejected by the King of Bavaria and Württemberg, and eventually changed to the "German Emperor" with national significance. In terms of army composition, the most important branch of Germany is the army, and the army is brought together by the armies of several major states. It was responsible to the monarchs of all states in normal times, and only in wartime was a unified German army and was commanded by the emperor. Some important military organs also belonged to the Federation.
For example, the famous German General Staff, its real name is: Prussian General Staff.
In short, in such a large empire, only the Congress and the Prime Minister represent the Central Empire.
The empire does not have any department, and the Prime Minister's Office is responsible for administration. It was not until the Prime Minister's Office expanded in 1878 that eight "Imperial Offices" were divided into two parts, responsible for diplomacy, finance, internal affairs, navy, posts and telecommunications, railways, justice and Alsace-Lorraine affairs. The person in charge was called the "Secretary of State".
Therefore, there is no minister in the German Empire, and there is no other imperial minister except the prime minister.
On the other hand, Germany is not a real federal government, because of Prussia's strong position in the empire.
The Kingdom of Prussia has 60% of the territory and population of the empire, and Germany's most important raw material production and industrial base are also in Prussia. The separation of imperial taxes from the states also made Prussian taxes higher than imperial income for a long time.
More importantly, Prussia occupies a special position in political decision-making.
The King of Prussia is the German emperor, and the Prime Minister of the Empire generally also serves as the Prime Minister of Prussia. In the imperial legislature composed of representatives of various states, the seat occupied by Prussia is enough to reject any dissent.
In other words, whoever controls Prussia will control the fate of the German Empire.
(Germany is an amplification of Prussia)
3. The social structural weaknesses of Germany after unification: separationism and religious issues.
The unified German society is a society full of contradictions.
mainly includes two pairs of contradictions!
1: The contradiction between German traditional separatism and unified states
2: The contradiction between the emerging bourgeoisie and the landlords Junker .
When the unification was just completed, the contradiction between traditional separatism and unified state was very prominent.
1871 The unification of Germany was forced to be achieved by Prussia by force. There was a rift between Prussia and the formerly hostile states, so there was a rift between the victor and the loser. This rift is more obvious under the blessing of the separatist tradition of the German states in the Middle Ages.
According to Bismarck's statement in the book " Thinking and Memories ", it is:
Dynasty formed a special nationality on the basis of family rule. Their combination is neither the same of the nation nor the same of historical development, but is based on a controversial fact, that is, the dynasty achieves the right to strengthen and inherit by kinship, common inheritance relations, or obtaining inheritance rights from the royal family when electing the emperor.
means that the seemingly unified Germany still shows the attributes of state, and the original concept of state is still widely present on the land of Germany.
In addition to the German state issue, Poles and other ethnic minorities, which were originally conquered by Prussia, are also problems.
Germany is a country based on national identity, not a country with unified dynasty identity, which has caused cognitive problems for foreigners living in German territory.
For example, the Poles conquered by Prussia were allegiance to the Hohenzollern dynasty of Prussia. In their allegiance, they retained national independence. However, after Germany's unification, the unification of Germany in turn stimulated the nationality of the Poles, making the Poles want to be independent. Even if they were not independent, they were loyal to Prussia rather than Germany.
(Germany region with many nations in the Shenluo era)
Ethnic issues are complex and religious issues are in chaos.
After Martin Luther's Reformation, Germany, located in Central Europe, had the issue of opposition between Catholicism and Protestantism. Germany's unification did not solve the religious problem, but instead made this problem more prominent.
The victory of the Thirty Years' War and the reality of Prussia unifying Germany made Protestantism the Prussians believe in the mainstream religion in most parts of Germany, but Bavaria, Württemberg and other places in southern and western Germany were Catholic areas. Based on religious contradictions, these regions tend to be politically separated.
This puts the German ruling class in a difficult situation. Which religion is the dominant one? Finally, under Prussia's strong advocacy, Germany chose to ensure the dominance of Protestantism.
, but the Catholic issue is still worrying.
The German Prime Minister Bilov in 1906 once said:
If Austria-Hungarian Empire disintegrates, its German region will be merged into Germany, which will cause serious consequences. We will add 15 million Catholics and Protestants will become minorities, which will lead to the fall of Germany.
(religion triggers countless wars)
4. Class contradictions in Germany after unification.
In addition to religious issues, the German class problem is also very serious.
In traditional German society, agriculture occupies a major position, and the Junker landlords who control the land have a prominent position in the country's political life. They are both government officials and army officers.
However, with the process of industrialization in Germany and the development of the economy, the proportion of agriculture in the imperial economy has been declining.
The newly emerging industry and commerce in Germany have made the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie one of the main political forces in Germany. They are eager to obtain political status that matches their economic status.
But the German Empire was an empire dominated by the Prussian Junker nobles.
Juncker landlords class relies on its favorable social status to adhere to the original distribution of political rights. In addition, Germany's reunification time is short and the industrialization process is concentrated, which makes Germany not as long as Britain and France have enough time to eliminate the traditional old elite class or absorb it into a new social structure.
Therefore, Germany, an industrial society country, retained a powerful army composed of feudal military elites.
This is a social phenomenon unique to Germany.
At that time, there were two equal interest groups in Germany, industrial and commercial capitalists and Juncker landlords. Both sides exerted an influence on the government through their respective channels, which became one of the main contradictions in unifying Germany.
Over time, national reunification has been increasingly consolidated, and the contradiction between separatist and religious contradictions in Germany has declined, while the contradiction between Junker aristocrats and industrial and commercial capitalists has further intensified after the working class continues to grow.
(Junke nobles control the army)
5: German issues at the strategic decision-making level.
Germany's strategic decision-making issues should be discussed from both diplomatic and military aspects.
The representative of the German Empire government was the prime minister, who was responsible to the emperor, presided over daily political affairs, and diplomacy was also under the prime minister.
1878, the Office of the Imperial Prime Minister was responsible for the formulation and implementation of foreign policies, and the German embassies, consulates and other diplomatic institutions in various countries were directly responsible to Bismarck.
After the expansion of the Imperial Prime Minister's Office in 1879, the "General of Foreign Affairs" was established, and the chief was the "Secretary of Foreign Affairs", which was equivalent to the foreign ministers of other countries, but his rights were not great. He was an existence to assist the prime minister in handling diplomatic affairs. This made the foreign minister lose his independence and the prime minister became the leader of the imperial foreign policy.
is such a structure, and problems often arise during policy implementation. Because most German diplomats are from nobles and have a close relationship with His Majesty the Emperor. They often use their special relationship with the emperor to report directly to the prime minister.
If you report too much over-level reporting, it is easy to cause conflicts between the prime minister and the diplomat.
For example, the newly unified German ambassador to France Earl Anim, because he did not agree with Bismarck's opposition to the political affairs of the law and Bismarck. Bismarck was furious, and the conflict between the two ended with the dismissal of Count Anime.
Bismarck gained diplomatic dominance with a tough attitude, but in the military field, Bismarck can not do much.
(Bismark's authoritative military termination)
German military system is an extension of the Prussian military system and an embodiment of absolute royal power. The prime minister can make suggestions on national defense budget, military replenishment, equipment, military supplies, etc., but he cannot interfere in military planning, military organization training, mobilization and use. That is the privilege of His Majesty the Emperor.
In addition to the emperor, the Prussian General Staff also has great power. They are responsible for formulating combat plans, implementing tactical orders, and implementing the emperor's decisions.
In addition, there is also a "military cabinet" composed of a small number of generals of the army and navy around the imperial emperor to report to the emperor every day and discuss military issues.
This gave the German military command three main military decision-making agencies besides the imperial arbitrary decision-making. Prussian Army Department, General Staff Department and "Military Cabinet". This made the armed forces in Germany not have a unified command organization and directly obeyed the emperor.
Therefore, the army enjoys a unique position in Germany's strategic decision-making, and the prime minister, as the political leader of the imperial state, has no right to interfere in military decision-making.
When Germany makes strategic decisions, its political system and military system are institutionally separated, and only the emperor acts as a combination between the two systems.
(William II and the German generals)
ending:
Everything above tells us that the new German empire had great problems in the decision-making system, political structure and social structure.
All interest groups and institutions are trying to maximize their power, but they lack perfect mechanisms and regulations and are in a state of fighting each other. This situation is not only unfavorable to the formation of a relatively balanced strategy, but it is also difficult to even make some overall and continuous planning.
It can be said that during Bismarck's reign, Germany's grand strategy was to develop in a way that "dances on the cross" and relied heavily on Bismarck's personal wisdom and means.
This is also the direct reason why Germany was strong after Bismarck, but it kept making mistakes in its grand strategy.
