4.32 Europe: a.d. 1801 to 1900  (Page 6/27)

Otto von Bismarck-Schonhousen was a remarkable man, fluent in both English and French as well as German. As chancellor he placated England and Russia, obtained colonies in Africa and the Pacific and made many social reforms within Germany, itself. He promoted a good deal of social legislation which included: a health insurance law which gave financial and medical aid to workers off work with illness; an accident insurance law for workers' disability compensation; and an old age and invalidism insurance for all those disabled and/or over 70 years of age. The reader will have no trouble recognizing most of these features in present day American life. In 1890 Wilhelm II, known to the generation of the writer as simply "the Kaiser", dismissed Bismarck and turned to building up the army and navy, developing military industry and making enemies on all sides. He was not prepared for the task which he had inherited in 1888. Always immature, psychologically warped, perhaps in part because of his crippled left arm, sadly susceptible to flattery, he believed in "divine right" monarchy and at the same time loved all things modern - industry and engineering in particular. After he had deposed Bismarck he made Count Georg Leo von Caprivi his chancellor for 4 years, then followed with the once able but then aged Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingf uerst of Bavaria. In this man's senility, Wilhelm could, in truth, "railroad" through most of his own ideas, all of which resulted in extensive world involvement.

Map taken from Reference 97

By the last half of the century all of Germany west of the Elbe, but especially the area along the Rhine, had mechanized industry and eventually outstripped France and England. It had the raw materials and developed a great scientific, educational system and research facilities. After 1871 Germany set the pace for industrial supremacy with a lead in chemicals and electricity, with the latter industry dominated by Werner Siemens and Emil Rathenau. The German phase of the Industrial Revolution embraced a wider variety of materials (electrical, chemical, petroleum and light metals), but coal and iron remained primary. Coal was used for tars and derivatives as diverse as aspirin, dyes and explosives. Iron underwent potable chemical diversification after the invention of the Bessemer converter in 1856. Railroads were necessary to unlock mineral wealth previously cut off from exploration. The German contributions to industrial development included deliberate, planned invention, extensive credit through banks and cartels and human engineering, with the cultivation of an elite in both the military and industry. Even with the Industrial Revolution, Germany maintained an adequate food supply by putting an additional 2,000,000 acres under cultivation.

In the last decade of the l9th century the population of Germany increased 15% to 56,400,000. Forty percent of the people engaged in industry, twelve percent in trade and communication. Friedrich Siemens, with others, developed the open hearth method of making steel directly from ore. In one generation, 1840-1875, these north-central Europeans went from the Middle Ages to Modern Times. (Ref. 213 ) But there was inadequate urban housing, crowding, exorbitant rents and low wages. Germany's troubles and policies eventually resulting in World War I were not entirely the fault of Kaiser Wilhelm, but of Bismarckian government without a Bismarck. One of the important changes under the Kaiser was the rapid expansion of the German navy. New ships were launched and the Kiel Canal dug from the North Sea to the Baltic, bypassing any possible Danish blockade. In 1897 Admiral Tirpitz was put in charge and the naval program accelerated until well into the next century.