KULTURKAMPF (= "Struggle for Civilization"). - Under this name was camouflaged a violent legal and police persecution perpetrated by Chancellor Bismarck against the Catholic Church in Germany and especially in Prussia, whose causes cannot be identified except in Bismarck's personal policy, a ferocious assertor of "reason of State," favored by Masonic liberalism, anti-Roman Germanism and Protestantism.
With the Constitution of 1848 the Church enjoyed in Prussia a certain freedom, which allowed it a flourishing development of institutions and works; Catholics asserted themselves in public life, while the hierarchy strengthened its doctrinal and disciplinary ties with Rome in the Vatican Council. Hence the vexation of the enemies of the Church and their reaction. The starting point is given by three events: 1) the victory over France and the constitution of the Empire; 2) the definition of the dogma of papal infallibility; 3) the formation of the Center party.
Bismarck claimed that the Pope should induce the French clergy to yield to German expansion and subsequently influence the Bavarian Catholic deputies, hostile to the constitution of the Empire. The papal refusal of both requests provoked the loss of Prussian support for the Holy See in the Roman Question. Another motive of hostility toward the Church was the attitude of the Catholics of Westphalia and the Rhineland toward France during the Franco-German War, and the opposition of the Bavarians to the war itself. In order to have the support of the National Liberals regarding unification, Bismarck yielded to their program of de-Christianization. On the religious terrain the hostility of the Protestant conservatives was not lacking.
In the face of these maneuvers, the Prussian Catholics organized themselves. At Soest a program of action was fixed which became a banner during the election of the Landtag. The Catholic candidates asserted themselves and shortly afterward formed a party called the "Center." Its principal exponents were Savigny, Windthorst, Mallinckrodt, Peter and August Reichensperger.
Once the Empire was constituted, Msgr. Ketteler asked Bismarck to extend to all of Germany (including Alsace-Lorraine) the constitutional guarantees which the Prussian Catholics enjoyed. This request was renewed by the Catholic deputies in the Reichstag: but the motion was rejected by the liberal-conservative coalition. Bismarck attempted to stifle the nascent party, seeking to provoke its condemnation by the Vatican, but in vain. Meanwhile dissensions broke out between the ecclesiastical and civil authorities over disciplinary and penal measures taken with regard to anti-infallibilist priests and teachers: in Bavaria the Minister of Worship, Lutz, declared that he did not recognize the dogma of papal infallibility and left those struck by the Church in their posts and with their salaries. Similar incidents occurred at Cologne, Bonn and Braunsberg. In Berlin, on the other hand, after thirty years of operation the Catholic Division of the Ministry of Worship was suppressed, because it was directed by Catholics not only faithful to the hierarchy, but moreover of Polish origin, and therefore doubly enemies of the Reich. The founding of a Church of the "Old Catholics" detached, despite the opposition of Döllinger, the anti-infallibilists from Rome and provoked numerous questions, because these people demanded and obtained from the State the assignment of Catholic churches for their worship, and the Catholics were forced to abandon them.
The first law that inaugurates the K. is the one called the "pulpit paragraph": the initiative was taken by Lutz, who invoked the intervention of the Reichstag against the supposed danger represented by the abuse made by priests in preaching, especially in Bavaria. The law passed on 28 Nov. 1871 with 179 votes against 108; in the following five years it was applied twice in Silesia, twice in the Rhineland, twice in Westphalia, once in Bavaria; in itself it was therefore of slight importance, but unfortunately it constituted a precedent of incalculable scope. Indeed a few months later came the turn of the law on "school inspection." Before that time the State, to which inspection belonged, asked the ecclesiastical authorities to appoint inspectors chosen from among the priests or pastors, according to the confessional predominance. Bismarck, suspicious of the influence of the clergy on the school, especially in the Polish territories, imposed a bill whereby school inspectors were to be appointed, commanded and revoked only by the State. The Minister of Worship Müller, a believing Protestant, sought to soften the bill, but the National Liberals demanded and insisted that Bismarck dismiss the minister. In his place was appointed Adalbert Falk, who would be the evil genius of the K. The bill immediately encountered the opposition not only of Catholics, but also of Protestants. In the Reichstag there were formidable clashes between the Center and Bismarck, but the liberal majority approved the bill. In the House of Lords the strong hostility of the Protestant conservatives was defeated following the Westerwelle incident (a former papal Zouave accused of having intended to attack Bismarck); the government press denounced an international plot promoted by Catholics against the integrity of Germany, and the majority allowed itself to be convinced of the necessity of striking the ultramontanes. At first the law was applied moderately, but by now the school was at the arbitrary disposal of the State. Indeed Falk refused to recognize the effects of the excommunication of Wollmann and Michelis, "Old Catholics," by Archbishop Kremenz, and the same happened at Cologne. The Minister of War, Roon, wanted to oblige the military bishop Namszanowski to permit the worship of the "Old Catholics" in the church of St. Pantaleon: the refusal was followed by his removal.
Following the example of Prussia, the other States also adopted measures hostile to Catholics. In the face of this threatening tide, the German bishops assembled at Fulda and on 1 April 1872 sent a collective letter to Falk. Bismarck did not renounce the idea of dragging the Pope over to his side: having dismissed Arnim, he thought of replacing him with Card. Gustav of Hohenlohe, an adversary of the Jesuits, of infallibility, of the ultramontanes and of regalism. But the Vatican replied that it could not accept him: the blame was attributed to the Jesuits, who paid the consequences: proscription, closure of their houses, expulsion and arrests, carried out even during the celebration of Mass or the administration of the Sacraments. Besides the Jesuits, the Lazarists, the Redemptorists, the Fathers of the Holy Spirit and the Ladies of the Sacred Heart were also struck, considered "affiliated" with the Society. Furthermore, Falk excluded all religious from public teaching, causing the closure of 892 houses of nuns. In Posnania lay inspectors replaced the ecclesiastical ones. The protests of Pius IX irritated Bismarck even more, who vented his anger on Archbishop Kremenz, imposing on him an unconditional subordination to the laws of the State and, not having obtained it, had him excluded from the festivities of Marienburg and deprived him of his stipend. Once again the bishops gathered at Fulda (20 Sept. 1873) and addressed a collective letter of protest to their faithful. To the Catholic reaction was joined that of certain Protestants such as Gerlach, a sympathizer and later a member of the Centre, and of the conservatives Kleist Retzow, Bismarck's uncle, and Brüel, while the socialists sought a rapprochement with the Catholics in order to have them as allies in the social question. From the little island of Caprera Garibaldi applauded Bismarck. Among Bismarck's advisers the tendencies for regulating relations between Church and State were various: Abeken, Wagener and Roessler wanted the struggle to the bitter end for scripturization; Meier and Hitzschius were in favor of the separation between Church and State; Schulte, an "Old Catholic", advocated the democratization of the Church under the auspices of the State; Friedberg was the theorist of the enslavement of the Church to the State. Falk leaned toward the adoption of Friedberg's theories, but Bismarck did not want to adapt himself to rigid theories, preferring to adopt a flexible policy. The court was little enthusiastic about the bellicose ideas and Bismarck himself was strangely hostile to an imperial ecclesiastical legislation: the experiment was to begin in Prussia, accompanied by a transformation of the bureaucracy, accused of conservatism. At Varzin Bismarck decided to give up the functions of president of the Prussian government, entrusting them to Roon, a conservative. The projects were temporarily shelved, but following the speech of Pius IX in consistory there was a recrudescence of persecutions and diplomatic relations with the Holy See were interrupted (30 Dec. 1872).
Meanwhile Schulte asked the government for recognition of the "Old Catholic" Church and of one of its bishops: in return he offered his collaboration with the State's ecclesiastical policy.
The projects of Falk and his companions awaited the Emperor's signature: Bismarck's principal task, notwithstanding his resignation as Prussian president, was to convince William I to sign the projects. They tended above all to take away from the Prussian Catholics those privileges that the Constitution of 1848 had given them in relation to the other States. Articles 15, 16 and 18 of the Constitution, which guaranteed the liberty and independence of the Catholic Church, were therefore modified. It was in the session of 17 Jan. 1873 that the celebrated materialist Virchow defined the battle, engaged by the State against the Church, with the name of K. The discussions were extremely violent: on one side brute force, the anticatholic and anti-Roman poison; on the other the defenders of the rights of conscience, of liberty and of the faith. On 9 May 1873 the laws were approved. The first of them contained provisions on the education and placement of ecclesiastics; it required as a condition for holding an ecclesiastical office the having passed a State examination in philosophy, history and German literature, and subordinated to the State's approval any placement of an ecclesiastic. The second established norms concerning the disciplinary power of the Church, reserving it to the German ecclesiastical authorities and thus excluding the Holy See; it instituted a royal tribunal for ecclesiastical affairs, to which one could appeal against disciplinary measures of ecclesiastical authorities and which was recognized the right to depose from their office ecclesiastics in case of transgression of the state laws concerning their office or the spiritual functions of their office. The third law limited the right of bishops to resort to penal and coercive means, to disciplinary laws belonging to the purely religious field, but prohibited punishing those who had submitted to the state laws in ecclesiastical matters. The fourth law facilitated "the exit from the Church". Against the non-observance of the May laws grave penalties were threatened.
The Vatican, previously consulted on the projects by Melchers, had replied by inviting the German bishops to agree on a uniform line of conduct. At Fulda, after having meditated on the consequences of their attitude, the German bishops agreed with Ketteler to reject the laws as a whole and to oppose at least a passive resistance. Regarding the oath of fidelity to the modified Constitution, Catholic officials would take it with mental reservation.
The Catholics continued undauntedly their activities, indeed multiplied them: prayers, congresses, press, propaganda, social questions, elections. Some Silesian Catholic nobles, enemies of the Centre, signed an address of loyalty to the Emperor and of respect for the laws (14 June 1873). But the attempt of the "State Catholics" did not dent the compactness of the episcopate, of the Centre and of the Catholic people. The application of the "May laws" was characterized by intrusions of government commissioners and raids by police into colleges and seminaries, fines on bishops and arrests of priests, not recognized by the State. The first to be struck were the Archbishop of Posen, Ledochowski, and that of Fulda, Kött. The former, a recidivist and insolvent, was deprived of his endowment and subsequently they seized his furniture and his palace and put him in prison for debts toward the State.
In vain Pius IX wrote personally to the Emperor. On the same day on which William replied negatively to the Pope, the government recognized the episcopal jurisdiction of the "Old Catholic" bishop Reinkens, consecrated at Rotterdam by the Jansenist bishop of Deventer. On 4 Nov. 1873 there were the elections for the Landtag: the Centre asserted itself, but unfortunately the national liberals had grown at the expense of the conservatives. To remedy the fact that many of the faithful clandestinely celebrated religious marriage, Falk deemed the moment had come to enact the obligatory nature of civil marriage and in parallel to entrust to lay employees the keeping of the registers of civil status. Roon, unfavorable, resigned and Bismarck resumed his post as Prussian president. At the new Landtag the Centre asked for the adoption of universal, direct, secret suffrage and the payment of parliamentary indemnity, there being by now many workers and peasants among the deputies: but the proposals were postponed by those same national liberals who had nevertheless made them the object of their electoral program. The same fate befell the request to annul the May laws.
By now ideological factors had also entered the struggle, represented by personalities such as Strauss, enemy of all Churches, Hartmann, the anti-Christian philosopher, Virchow, materialist, etc. Jews and Freemasons pontificated, provoking also the resentment of believing Protestants.
Despite the campaign of hatred and lies (the false bull of Pius IX), the Center made gains in the elections for the Reichstag. Unfortunately the law on civil marriage and the keeping of civil status registers was approved and, after some hesitation, signed by the Emperor. Moreover Falk planned to entrust to the government the administration of vacant episcopal mensas and the conferral of ecclesiastical offices. There followed one after another the imprisonments of M. Ledochowski, bishop of Gnesen, M. Eberhard, bishop of Trier, P. Melchers, cardinal of Cologne, K. Martin, bishop of Paderborn, J. B. Brinkmann, bishop of Münster. But the Catholics resisted: the Chapter of Posen refused to appoint a vicar in place of Ledochowski; the parishioners of Grasdorf refused to read the parish priest according to the government's dispositions, and at Xions the faithful deserted the church officiated by a State parish priest. Unfortunately an unpleasant incident, in which Catholics were unjustly involved, namely Kullmann's attempt on Bismarck's life (Kissingen, 13 July 1874), provoked a violent reaction against the Catholic press, associations and personalities.
On 5 February 1875 Pius IX wrote to the German bishops, proclaiming the May laws null (irritae), and on 15 March he conferred the purple on Ledochowski, still in prison. In vain Bismarck attempted to promote an international K. Then an infamous blackmail was put into operation: with the so-called "law of deprivation or of hunger" of 2 April 1875 all contributions owed by the State to the Catholic Church were suspended, while it was declared that the allowance would be further paid to those ecclesiastics who declared in writing that they submitted to the May laws.
Another law of 31 May 1875 suppressed all religious houses, with the exception of those whose members devoted themselves exclusively to the care of the sick, on condition that they were subject to State supervision and could be suppressed at any moment. On 18 June articles 15, 16 and 18 of the Prussian Constitution were definitively abrogated, with which the laws on ecclesiastical matters, issued from 1873 onward, were in contradiction. Immediately afterwards came the law on the administration of ecclesiastical property: this, the creation of Schulte, removed ecclesiastical patrimonies from the direct and exclusive management of the parish priests, conferring it on a church council (Kirchenvorstand), elected by the parishioners and controlled by a committee three times more numerous (Gemeindevertretung) likewise elected; the parish priest was the president, but with a consultative vote! The bishop and the superior president of the province could give suggestions, but the last word belonged to the Minister of Cults. The bishops consulted with Rome and established that, while not accepting the law, it was advisable to tolerate it: in fact the Catholic people elected to the church councils and committees trustworthy men, sincere, collaborators of the hierarchy. The "Old Catholics" obtained the right of use of Catholic churches and benefices, whenever they were in considerable number: despite the complaisance of the civil authorities, however, their conquests were very few. This period is characterized by an interminable series of episodes of heroism and sacrifices. The Catholics resisted, while their adversaries were increasingly worried about the consequences. In the Reichstag elections in January 1877 the Center and the conservatives made gains at the expense of the national liberals. The Catholic von Galen presented a social legislation bill, which was rejected. While the majority of Germans desired the end of the K., Bismarck finally found two foreign allies: Gambetta and Crispi. But the death of Pius IX and the election of Leo XIII marked a decisive turning point in the struggle.
The double attempt by socialists on the Emperor's life, the parliamentary gains of the Center and of the socialists shifted the government's attention to the socialist danger. Meanwhile, both on the occasion of Leo's elevation and on the occasion of the attempts, a cordial exchange of messages had taken place between the Pope and the Emperor. At Kissingen Bismarck had long conversations with the nuncio in Munich, Aloisi-Masella, but there were no immediate results, because the Holy See demanded as a preliminary the abolition of the May laws, while Bismarck demanded the obligation of notification to the government before the conferral of ecclesiastical offices. The first scapegoat of this change of course was Falk, who was replaced by the conservative von Puttkamer. The conversations continued in Vienna between the Prussian ambassador and the nuncio Jacobini. The first law of détente is that of 14 July 1880. It declared exempt from penalty the "spiritual functions of office" of ecclesiastics placed before the May laws in vacant or interdicted parishes and authorized the government to dispense bishops from the oath of observance of the laws of the State, to resume State contributions to the individual dioceses and to permit the founding of new religious houses, devoted to the care of the sick. In 1881 provision was made to fill the bishoprics of Trier and Fulda, in 1882 those of Osnabrück, Breslau and Paderborn. In the same year diplomatic relations between Prussia and the Holy See were resumed. While holding firm on the May laws, on 11 June 1883 a law was issued that allowed bishops to perform episcopal functions in vacant dioceses and to place chaplains and auxiliary priests without obligation of notification in vacant parishes, provided they were dispensed from the prescribed State examination. Leo permitted the bishops to request the dispensation "for the past and for this time only," protesting explicitly that he did not recognize the May laws. The bishop of Limburg, Blum, was "relieved" and Brinkmann was able to return from exile. The State "interdict" was also lifted from the dioceses of Ermland, Kulm, Hildesheim and Cologne.
With the appointment of the nuncio Jacobini as Secretary of State, the conversations continued in Rome, but always sterile of definitive results. In Berlin Windthorst obstinately continued the assault on the May laws, managing to obtain twice a working vote for the suppression of the law on the expulsion of the clergy. An insuperable preliminary was on the Vatican's side that of the freedom of education of the clergy; on the German side that of Ledochowski's renunciation of Posen. The Cologne question was resolved with the appointment of Melchers as cardinal and the promotion of Krements to archbishop of Cologne.
In Sept. 1883 there was a sudden rapprochement between the Pope and Bismarck: Germany was in conflict with Spain over the possession of the Carolines. Umberto I offered himself as arbitrator, but Spain refused and Bismarck turned to Leo XIII. As a sign of benevolence the Pope awarded the chancellor the Supreme Order of Christ. The fruit of this rapprochement was, on the pontifical side, the instruction to the bishops to ascertain, before permanently conferring an ecclesiastical office, whether the government had any objections of a civil and political nature; on the side of the Reich, the law of 21 May 1886 abolished the state cultural examination and authorized theological studies in the already existing episcopal institutes, the royal tribunal for ecclesiastical affairs was suppressed, and the disciplinary authority of the Pope was recognized. Leo XIII and Bismarck were eager to reconcile definitively, and the Vatican preferred to negotiate directly, leaving aside the hierarchy and the Center, which tended to fight intransigently until the return of the status quo ante. The law of 29 Apr. 1887 limited the duty of notification to the definitive provision of parishes, restored to priests and religious the freedom to celebrate Mass and administer the Sacraments, and permitted the founding of institutes dedicated to the care of souls, charitable activity, teaching and the contemplative life. After more than fifteen years of K., there remained in force: the law against the Jesuits, the law on school inspection and the suppression of arts. 15, 16 and 18 of the Constitution. Even these laws were losing their force, and Catholic life began to flourish again after so much devastation.