BACHEM, JULIUS. — Lawyer, politician, and publicist, born on 2 July 1845 in Mülheim on the Ruhr, died on 22 January 1918 in Cologne. He was one of the principal editors of the Kölnische Blätter, later the Kölnische Volkszeitung. A friend and pupil of Windthorst, B. was one of the leading figures of the Centre Party, of which he himself was one of the representatives in the Prussian Chamber until 1890. The historical significance of B. lies in the effort he made to clarify the political character of the Centre Party. During the so-called Kulturkampf, unleashed by Bismarck, and
after its end, he fought the prevailing opinion that the Centre Party’s purpose was to defend the Church, and specified that this party, like all other genuine political parties, had as its goal the common good of the State understood in its broadest sense, but differed from the others in that, in choosing the means useful for achieving that end, it followed as its supreme norm the Catholic conception of the world and of human beings. Every citizen, even if not Catholic, could therefore join this party, provided that he accepted its programme. On these foundations,
B. devoted all his efforts to developing and disseminating the living force of Catholicism in every sphere of life, seeking to establish fruitful and practical cooperation between Catholics and non-Catholics. Against the introduction of social democracy among the German working masses, he supported the Christian-national trade unions. He defended the Catholic school, promoted the press (Kölnische Volkszeitung, Augustinusverein), and the scholarly activity of Catholics (Staatslexikon, legal and sociological section
of the Görresgesellschaft), and vigorously demanded equality for Catholics and Protestants in all branches of public administration and education.
If one takes into account Germany’s confessional division, one cannot but approve B.’s work and the principles he followed, and defend him also against the accusations levelled at him by Catholic circles professing a radical «integralism» and an excessively zealous anti-modernism, especially after the publication of the article: «We must leave the tower», published in the Historisch-politische Blätter in 1906. It is true that the course followed by B. contributed to making German Catholics less attentive than would have been necessary to the essential defects of the empire founded by Bismarck, just as, on the other hand, it appeared to underestimate the open and cold hostility encountered by the Church and Catholicism in Germany.