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94-601: HKT may refer to: German Eastern Marches Society , (Hakata or H-K-T), a German organisation 1894–1934 Helsingin Kisa-Toverit , a Finnish sport club Hong Kong Telecom Hong Kong Tramways Hong Kong Time The Hong Kong Times  [ yue ] , a former newspaper Höckmayr KFZ-Technik , Lotus 7 clone manufacturer Phuket International Airport , in Thailand Higher- kinded type Topics referred to by

188-589: A law that would allow forced eviction of Polish owners of land, and succeed in 1908 when the law was eventually passed. However, it remained on paper in the following years, to which the H-K-T responded with large scale propaganda campaign in the press. The campaign proved to be successful and on October 12, 1912, the Prussian government issued a decision allowing eviction of Polish property owners in Greater Poland. Although

282-605: A letter to the German emperor on the very day of his election, followed by a second letter in a similar vein that same year. Bismarck and the Pope entered into direct negotiations without the participation of the Church or the Reichstag , yet initially without much success. It came to pass that Falk, vehemently resented by Catholics, resigned on 14 July 1879, which could be read as a peace offering to

376-512: A major setback for Bismarck although never publicly conceded. Yet, in spite of strong Catholic representation in the Reichstag, the political power and influence of the Church in the public sphere and its political power was greatly reduced. Although Germany and the Vatican were officially at peace after 1878, religious conflicts and tensions continued. At the turn of the century, Pope Pius X announced

470-563: A natural reservoir of workforce and land. Although the actual extent of von Caprivi's concessions towards the Poles was very limited, the German minority of Greater Poland feared that this was a step too far, and that von Caprivi's government would cede the power in Greater Poland to the Polish clergy and nobility. The Hakata slogan was: "You are standing opposite to the most dangerous, fanatic enemy of German existence, German honour and German reputation in

564-452: A society that aimed at preventing newly restored Poland from acquiring the lands that were formerly in Prussia. Many more of its members feared possible Polish reprisals after the take-over of Greater Poland, Pomerania and Silesia, and were among the first to pack their belongings and head westwards after the armistice, while others stayed in the lands that were taken over by Poland, protected by

658-475: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages German Eastern Marches Society Initially formed in Posen , in 1896 its main headquarters was moved to Berlin . In 1901 it had roughly 21,000 members, the number rose to 48,000 in 1913, though some authors claim the membership was as high as 220,000. After Poland was re-established following World War I in 1918,

752-612: Is the question of the Infallibility of the Pope. This pretension once become a dogma, will have a wider scope than the purely spiritual spheres, and will become evidently a political question: for it will raise the power of the Sovereign Pontiff, even in temporal matters, above all the princes and peoples of Christendom." The liberal majorities in the Imperial Diet and the Prussian parliament as well as liberals in general regarded

846-587: The Kulturkampf , suggests that the liberals wanted to do more than prevent Catholicism from becoming a political force. They wanted victory over Catholicism itself, the long-delayed conclusion of the Reformation. At least since 1847 and in line with the Liberals, Bismarck had also been of the professed opinion, that state and church should be completely separated and "the sphere of the state had to be made secure against

940-505: The Concordat of 1855 , and then cancelled the Concordat altogether in 1870. Saxony and Bavaria withheld approval to publish the papal infallibility dogma; Hesse and Baden even denied it any legal validity. France refused to publish the doctrines altogether; Spain forbade publication of Syllabus Errorum in 1864. By the mid-19th century, liberal policies had also come to dominate Germany and

1034-584: The Die Ostmark (Eastern March) was one of the primary sources of information on the Polish Question for the German public and shaped the national-conservative views towards the ethnic conflict in the eastern territories of Germany. The Society also opened a number of libraries in the Polish-dominated areas, where it supported the literary production of books and novels promoting an aggressive stance against

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1128-729: The Jesuits . As in many European countries, Jesuits were being banned or heavily restricted in many of the German states e.g. in Saxony (1831) or Württemberg (1862), and even in Catholic ones such as Bavaria (1851) and Baden (1860). Not to be left out, the German areas to the west of the Rhine had already gone through a process of separation of church and state in line with a radical secularization after annexation by revolutionary and Napoleonic France in 1794. After their return to Germany in 1814, many if not most of

1222-570: The Kingdom of Prussia , led by chancellor Otto von Bismarck . The Prussian church-and-state political conflict was about the Church's direct control over both education and ecclesiastical appointments in the Prussian kingdom as a Roman Catholic nation and country. Moreover, when compared to other church-and-state conflicts about political culture , the German Kulturkampf of Prussia also featured anti-Polish sentiment . In modern political usage,

1316-635: The Liberals and the Conservatives representing orthodox Protestants found the Centre Party 's support of the pope highly provocative. Many Catholics shared these sentiments, especially against the pope's declared infallibility and the majority of Catholic German bishops deemed the definition of the dogma as "'unpropitious' in light of the situation in Germany". While most Catholics eventually reconciled themselves to

1410-702: The Minority Treaty . Even though the Ostmarkenverein had lost its main rationale as Germany had no influence over the lands of the Republic of Poland, it continued to exist in a rump form. Headed from Berlin, it tried to force the government of the Weimar Republic to use the threat of reprisals against the remaining Polish minority in Germany in order to win further concessions for the German minority in Poland. However,

1504-476: The 1837 Kölner Wirren ( 'Cologne Confusion'  [ de ] ) of legal and policy issues regarding the children of mixed Protestant-Catholic marriages, Prussia's final settlement was considered a defeat for the state as it had given in to demands of the Catholic Church. In 1850, Prussia again had a dispute with the church about civil marriage and primary schools and in 1852, it issued decrees against

1598-567: The Age of Reason in the 17th and the 18th centuries, the European Kulturkampf principally occurred in the regional and local politics of a society, especially in cities and towns where the educated populations were politically Liberal and practised the politics of anti-clericalism and of anti-Catholicism . The Catholic Church resisted such intellectual progress, which was portrayed as an attack on religion in an effort to maintain and strengthen

1692-477: The Catholic Church against the socialists, the policies of Germanization did continue in Polish-inhabited parts of the country. However, with the end of von Bismarck's rule and the advent of Leo von Caprivi , the pressure for Germanisation was lessened and many German landowners feared that this would lead to lessening the German control over the Polish areas and in the end deprive Germany of what they saw as

1786-484: The Catholic Church as a powerful force of reaction and anti-modernity, especially after the proclamation of papal infallibility in 1870 and the tightening control of the Vatican over the local bishops. The renewed vitality of Catholicism in Germany with its mass gatherings also attracted Protestants – even the heir to the Prussian throne, with the king's approval, attended one. Anti-liberalism , anti-clericalism , and anti-Catholicism became powerful intellectual forces of

1880-403: The Catholic Church had opposed, produced no democratic reforms and attempts to radically disentangle state-church relationships failed. In the revolutionary parliament , many prominent representatives of political Catholicism took the side of the extreme right-wingers. In the years following the revolution, Catholicism became increasingly politicized due to rising liberal ideologies contrasted with

1974-610: The Catholic Church was to lose its good standing which it had enjoyed for centuries in the Catholic-dominated Holy Roman Empire and which it would have continued to enjoy in a German empire united under Austrian auspices. Thus, in 1870, on the eve of unification, the Center Party was explicitly founded to defend the position of the church in the new empire. Bismarck was highly concerned that many major members and supporters of this new party were not in sympathy with

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2068-509: The Catholic section in the Ministry of Culture was not reintroduced). The respective opposing parties in the Reichstag harshly criticized the concessions made by the Vatican and the Prussian government. Windthorst and the Centre Party were dismayed at being sidelined and not being consulted about the concessions the pope made, e.g. about the ban on Jesuits or the civil registry of clerics. None of

2162-465: The Centre Party and as far as separation of state and church was concerned, he had achieved more than he wanted. In order to garner support for his Anti-Socialist Laws and protective trade tariffs, Bismarck turned his back on the liberals in search of new alliances. The death of Pius IX on 7 February 1878 opened the door for a settlement with the Catholic Church. The new pope, Leo XIII , was pragmatic and conciliatory. He expressed his wish for peace in

2256-455: The Church as backward, a hotbed for reactionaries , enemies of progress and cast monastic life as the epitome of a backward Catholic medievalism. They were alarmed by the dramatic rise in the numbers of monasteries, convents and clerical religious groups in an era of widespread religious revival. The Diocese of Cologne , for example, saw a tenfold increase of monks and nuns between 1850 and 1872. Prussian authorities were particularly suspicious of

2350-581: The Church condemned as false some 80 philosophical and political statements, mainly the foundations of the modern nation-state. It rejected outright such concepts as freedom of religion , separation of church and state , civil marriage , sovereignty of the people , liberalism and socialism , reason as the sole base of human action , and in general condemned the idea of conciliation with progress . The announcements included an index of forbidden books. The Church gradually re-organized and began to use mass media expansively to promote its messages. In addition,

2444-411: The Church's strong political role in the affairs of the state and society. With the growing influence of enlightenment and after having lost much of its wealth, power, and influence in the course of the mediatization and secularization of the early 19th century, the Church had been in a state of decline. The papacy was at a weak point in its history, having lost all its territories to Italy , with

2538-546: The German colonists brought to formerly Polish lands by the Settlement Commission or the German government largely benefited from the cooperation with their Polish neighbours and mostly either ignored the Hakatisten or even actively opposed their ideas. This made the Ostmarkenverein an organization formed mostly by the German bourgeoisie and settlers, that is middle class members of the local administration, and not

2632-486: The German state were growing. The situation was further aggravated by Bismarck's policies of anti-Catholic Church Kulturkampf that in Posen Province took on a much more nationalistic character than in other parts of Germany and included a number of specifically anti-Polish laws that resulted in the Polish and German communities living in a virtual apartheid . Many observers believed these policies only further stoked

2726-516: The German term Kulturkampf describes any conflict (political, ideological, social) between the secular government and the religious authorities of a society. The term also describes the great and small culture wars among political factions who hold deeply opposing values and beliefs within a nation, a community, and a cultural group. The philosophic influences of The Enlightenment , Scientific realism , Positivism , Materialism , nationalism , secularism , and Liberalism impinged upon and ended

2820-465: The Gospel and the Church. The pope's teaching was promoted as absolutely authoritative and binding on all the faithful. Secular politicians wondered whether "Catholicism and allegiance to the modern liberal state were not mutually exclusive". British Prime Minister Gladstone wrote in 1874 that the teaching on papal infallibility compromised the allegiance of faithful English Catholics. For European liberalism,

2914-676: The H-K-T is primarily associated with the Junkers , it was one of the groups to oppose the Society's goals the most. Initially treated with reserve by most of the conservative Prussian aristocracy , with time it became actively opposed by many of them. The Society opposed any immigration of Poles from the Russian Poland to the area, while the Junkers gained large profits from seasonal workers migrating there every year, mostly from other parts of Poland. Also

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3008-467: The Poles living in the German Empire started to organize themselves in order to prevent the plans of Germanisation . In addition, the main opposition centre on the Polish side became the middle class rather than aristocracy, which strengthened the Polish resistance and intensified the national sentiment within the Polish society. Also, the pressure from the German nationalists resulted in strengthening

3102-410: The Poles. The popular Ostmarkenromane (Ostmark novels) depicted Poles as non-white and struggled to portray a two race dichotomy between "black" Poles and "white" Germans However, it did not limit itself to mere cultural struggle for domination but also promoted a physical removal of the Poles from their lands in order to make space for the German colonization. The pressure of the H-K-T indeed made

3196-589: The Polish independence movement. There is also a question regarding possible personal antipathy towards Poles behind Bismarck's motivation in pursuing the Kulturkampf. Unlike in other parts of the German Empire , in Greater Poland—;then known under the German name of Provinz Posen —the Kulturkampf did not cease after the end of the decade. Although Bismarck finally signed an informal alliance with

3290-588: The Polish national-democrats, particularly the Polish National-Democratic Party of Roman Dmowski , and Wojciech Korfanty . For instance, the Settlement Commission throughout the 27 years of its existence managed to plant about 25,000 German families on 1,240 km (479 mi ) of land in Greater Poland and Pomerania. However, at the same time the reaction of Polish societies resulted in about 35,000 new Polish farmers being settled in

3384-465: The Polish people became one of the symbols of oppression, chauvinism, and national discrimination, thus poisoning the Polish-German relations both in the borderland and in entire Germany. On the eve of World War I the nationalisms on both sides ran high and the liberal politicians who were seeking some compromise with the German Empire were seen as traitors, while German politicians trying to tone down

3478-547: The Protestant church, I have to go via Rome." In August 1871, at Bad Ems , Bismarck revealed his intention to fight against the Centre Party, to separate state and church, to transfer school inspection to laymen, to abolish religious instruction from schools and to transfer religious affairs to the minister of justice. On 22 January 1872, liberal Adalbert Falk replaced conservative Heinrich von Mühler as Prussian minister for religion, education and health. In Bismarck's mind, Falk

3572-525: The Prussian Junkers. Other notable group of supporters included the local artisans and businessmen, whose interests were endangered by the organic work , that is the Polish response to the economical competition promoted by the Settlement Commission and other similar organizations. In a sample probe of H-K-T's members, the social classes represented were as follows: By 1913 the Society had roughly 48,000 members. Despite its fierce rhetoric, support from

3666-407: The Prussian state parliament and the federal legislature ( Reichstag ), both with liberal majorities, enacted 22 laws in the context of the Kulturkampf . They were mainly directed against clerics: bishops, priests and religious orders ( anti-clerical ) and enforced the supremacy of the state over the church. While several laws were specific to the Catholic Church (Jesuits, congregations etc.)

3760-423: The Society demanded from the government that Polish be banned even from voluntary classes in schools and universities, that the language be banned from public use, and that Polish-language newspapers be either liquidated or forced to be printed in bilingual versions. With limited local success and support, the Ostmarkenverein functioned primarily as a nationwide propaganda and pressure group . Its press organ,

3854-582: The Vatican. A decisive boost only came in February 1880, when the Vatican unexpectedly agreed to the civic registry of clerics. As the Kulturkampf slowly wound down the talks lead to a number of so-called mitigation and peace laws which were passed until 1887. On 29 September 1885, as another sign of peace, Bismarck proposed the Pope as arbiter in a dispute with Spain about the Caroline Islands and accepted his verdict in favour of Spain. In gratitude but to

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3948-602: The aggressive rhetoric on both sides were under attack from the Hakatisten. This situation proved vital to the failure of German plans of creation of Mitteleuropa during the Great War, as the Polish political scene was taken over mostly by politicians hostile to Germany. The works of the Ostmarkenverein practically ceased during the war. At its end, some of its members joined the Deutsche Vereinigung ( German Association ),

4042-500: The anti-modernist and anti-liberal policies of the Vatican. In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and Franco-Prussian War of 1870 the Catholic Church sided against Prussia and it was an outspoken opponent of German unification under Prussia (as well as of Italy's unification). The Catholic dogmas and doctrines announced in 1854, 1864 and 1870 were perceived in Germany as direct attacks on the modern nation state. Thus, Bismarck,

4136-462: The area of roughly 1,500 km (579 mi ) of land. Similarly, the attempts at banning the teaching of religion in Polish met with a nationwide resistance and several school strikes that sparked a campaign in foreign media. All in all, even though the H-K-T Society was not the most influential and its exact influence on the German governments is disputable, it was among the best-heard and for

4230-505: The changes were kept in place. In the Vormärz period, Catholic publications usually portrayed revolutions as negative and dangerous to the existing order as well as to the interests of the Catholic Church. Most of them considered a viable Catholicism to be necessary for the very health of society and state and to be the only true and effective protection against the scourge of revolution. The unsuccessful German revolutions of 1848–49 , which

4324-442: The church and was of no good to the state is now over". The Mitigation and Peace Laws restored the inner autonomy of the Catholic church while leaving key regulations and the laws concerning separation of church and state in place (civic marriage, civic registry, religious disaffiliation, government school supervision, civic registry of clerics, ban of Jesuits, pulpit law, state supervision of church assets, constitutional amendments and

4418-436: The church's opposition to enlightenment, liberal reforms, and the revolutions of the 18th/19th centuries, these dogmas and the church's expressed insistence on papal primacy angered the liberal-minded across Europe, even among some Catholics. Debates were heated. The dogmas were perceived as threatening the secularized state, as they reaffirmed that the fundamental allegiance of Catholics was not to their nation-state, but to

4512-523: The cities of the region. In accordance with the views of Chancellor von Bismarck himself, the Society saw the language question as a key factor in determining one's loyalty towards the state. Because of this view, it insisted on extending the ban on usage of the Polish in schools, to other instances of everyday life, including public meetings, books, and newspapers. During a 1902 meeting in Danzig (modern Gdańsk),

4606-693: The doctrine, some founded the small breakaway Old Catholic Church . According to the Bavarian head of government, Hohenlohe , the dogma of infallibility compromised the Catholic's loyalty to the state. He sent a circular to all the diplomatic representatives of the Bavarian Kingdom saying, "The only dogmatic thesis which Rome desires to have decided by the Council, and which the Jesuits in Italy and Germany are now agitating,

4700-441: The dogmas were perceived as a declaration of war against the modern state, science, and spiritual freedom. The pope's handling of dissent from the dogmas, e.g. by excommunication of critics or demanding their removal from schools and universities, was considered as the "epitome of papal authoritarianism". In direct response to the Vatican's announcements, Austria passed the so-called May Laws for Cisleithania in 1868, restricting

4794-453: The empire, Catholics were the majority in the states of Bavaria , Baden , and Alsace-Lorraine as well as in the four Prussian Provinces of West Prussia , Posen , Rhineland , Westphalia and in the Prussian region of Upper Silesia . Since the Thirty Years' War the population was generally segregated along religious lines and rural areas or towns were overwhelmingly if not entirely of

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4888-448: The encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis , mounting new attacks on historical criticism of biblical texts and any accommodation of Catholicism to modern philosophy, sociology or literature. As of 1910, clerics had to take an oath against all forms of modernism, a requirement later extended to teachers of Catholic religion at schools and professors of Catholic theology resulting in intense political and public debates and new conflicts with

4982-433: The ethnic and cultural tensions in the region began to rise. This was paired by growing tendencies of nationalism , imperialism , and chauvinism within the German society. The tendencies went in two different directions, but were linked to each other. On one hand, a new world order was demanded with desires of creating a German colonial empire . And on the other, feelings of hostility towards other national groups within

5076-639: The federal states and the leading actor of the Kulturkampf was Prussia , Germany's largest state. However, some of the laws were also passed by the Reichstag and applied to all of Germany. In general, the laws did not affect the press and associations including Catholic ones. The Falk Laws , or 'May Laws' ( Maigesetze ), were a set of laws passed by the Prussian parliament in the years 1873, 1874, and 1875. Four laws passed in 1873 were enacted on 11–14 May that year: The last two laws passed in 1876 were of no practical importance: The political situation in Europe

5170-581: The first steps in secularisation well before unification. Predominantly Catholic Baden was at the forefront of curbing the power of the Catholic Church, as in the Baden Church Dispute (1852–1854) and the Kulturkampf Baden  [ de ] (1864–1876). Other examples are Prussia (1830s, 1850, 1859, and 1969), Württemberg (1859/1862), Bavaria ( Bayerischer Kulturkampf  [ de ] , 1867), Hesse-Nassau or Hesse-Darmstadt . In

5264-440: The former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (namely the regions of Greater Poland and Royal , the later West Prussia ) was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia , the predecessor of the German Empire , which was formed in 1871. Primarily inhabited by Poles, Greater Poland initially was formed into a semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen , granted with a certain level of self-governance. However, under Otto von Bismarck 's government,

5358-455: The general laws affected both Catholic and Protestant churches. In an attempt to overcome increasing resistance by the Catholic Church and its defiance of the laws, new regulations increasingly went beyond state matters referring to the purely internal affairs of the church. Even many liberals saw them as an encroachment on civil liberties, compromising their own credo. Constitutionally, education and regulation of religious affairs were vested in

5452-465: The government of von Caprivi adopt a firmer stance against the Poles. The ban on Polish schools was reintroduced and all teaching was to be done in German . The ban was also used by the German police to harass the Polish trade union movement as they interpreted all public meetings as educational undertakings. An important issue was the colonisation of Polish territory: the organisation actively supported

5546-534: The great horror of Catholics, the Pope awarded Bismarck the Supreme Order of Christ , the highest order of chivalry to be granted by the Holy See. Bismarck was the only Protestant ever to receive this award. After further negotiations between Prussia and the Vatican, the Prussian parliament passed 2 additional laws amending some of the Kulturkampf laws. On 23 May 1887, the Pope declared "The struggle which damaged

5640-434: The hierarchy and the Centre Party and the liberals' demands to curb the power of the churches meshed well with Bismarck's main political objective to crush the Centre Party. According to historian Anthony J. Steinhoff: Bismarck's plan to disarm political Catholicism delighted liberal politicians, who provided the parliamentary backing for the crusade. Yet, the phrase the left-liberal Rudolf Virchow coined for this struggle,

5734-496: The increasing popularity of the socialists or more important such as questions of import duties. In these matters, he could either not rely on the support of the liberals to pursue his goals or they were not sufficient to form a majority. Bismarck had not been comfortable with the increasing ferocity of the Kulturkampf . Concerning the rise of the Centre Party, the laws had proven to be greatly ineffective and even counterproductive. He soon realized that they were of no help battling

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5828-514: The incursions by the church", although his ideas were not as far-reaching as in the United States or in Great Britain. He had in mind the traditional position of the Protestant church in Prussia and provoked considerable resistance from conservative Protestants. This became clear in a heated debate with Prussian culture minister von Mühler in 1871 when Bismarck said: "Since you stopped my plans in

5922-480: The intellectual and political roles of religion and the Catholic Church, which then was the established church of Europe. By way of the legislated separation of church and state , the Age of Reason reduced society's financial debts to the Church and rendered secular the public sphere of society, and established the state's supremacy concerning the content and administration of public education for all of society. During

6016-399: The interpretation of daily events, was promoted through local and national Catholic newspapers that were prominent in all western European nations. In addition, organized missions and groups were dedicated to producing pious literature. In the 19th century, the popes issued a series of encyclicals (such as Mirari vos (1832) by Pope Gregory XVI ) condemning liberalism and freedom of

6110-408: The local administration and certain popularity of its goals, the Society proved to be largely unsuccessful as were the projects it promoted. Much like other similar organizations, the H-K-T not only managed to incite some public awareness to the Polish Question within German public and radicalise the German policies in the area, but also sparked a Polish reaction. As an effect of the external pressure,

6204-451: The monks and nuns had left Prussia, a third of the monasteries and convents were closed. Between 1872 and 1878, numerous Catholic newspapers were confiscated, Catholic associations and assemblies were dissolved, and Catholic civil servants were dismissed merely on the pretence of having Ultramontane sympathies. Thousands of laypeople were imprisoned for assisting priests to evade the punitive new laws. The general ideological enthusiasm among

6298-416: The nationalist policy of Germanisation through removal of Polish population and promoting settlement of ethnic Germans in the eastern regions of the German Empire . It was among the main supporters of creation of the Settlement Commission , an official authority with a fund to buy up the land from the Poles and redistribute it among German settlers. Since 1905 the organisation also proposed and lobbied for

6392-462: The new Centre Party not only as an illegal mixup of politics and religion and the church's "long arm" but also as a unifying force for Catholic Germans and Poles and thus a threat to the consolidation of the empire. He feared that the Centre Party would frustrate his broader political agendas and he accused the Catholic priests of fostering Polish nationalism as had been done openly in the provinces of Posen and Upper Silesia. The Liberals regarded

6486-521: The new empire: the House of Hanover , the ethnic minority of the Poles, the southern German states. In 1871, the predominantly Catholic states of Southern Germany had only reluctantly joined the empire, increasing the overall share of the Catholic population to 36.5%. Among this Catholic share was Germany's largest ethnic minority, well over 2 million Poles in the east of Prussia, who under Prussia and Germany suffered discrimination and oppression. Bismarck regarded

6580-402: The party's major demands were met. Instead, the pope even sided with Bismarck on non-religious issues and pressured the Centre Party to support Bismarck or at least abstain, e.g. in the matter of the hotly debated Septennat 1887 (7-year military budget). Many Liberals, especially Falk, objected to the concessions Bismarck made to the Church. The growth of the Centre Party has been considered

6674-514: The pope a "prisoner" in the Vatican . The Church strove to regain its influence and to hold sway in such matters as marriage, family, and education. It initiated a Catholic revival by founding associations, papers, schools, social establishments and new orders, and encouraging religious practices such as pilgrimages , mass assemblies, devotion to the Virgin Mary or the Sacred Heart of Jesus , and

6768-433: The popes worked to increase their control of the Church. The Church centralized some functions and streamlined its hierarchy, which prompted strong criticism by European governments. The bishops sought direction from the Vatican, and the needs and views of the international church were given priority over the local ones. Opponents of the new hierarchical church organization pejoratively called it ultramontanism . In view of

6862-464: The post-war government of Gustav Stresemann mostly rejected the pleas as there were many more Germans in Poland than Poles in Germany, and such a tit-for-tat tactics would harm the German side more. The Society continued to exist in Berlin, limiting its activities mostly to a press campaign and rhetoric, but its meaning was seriously limited. Finally, after the advent of Adolf Hitler 's rule in Germany, it

6956-518: The press . These generated controversy in some quarters. Under the leadership of Gregory's successor, Pope Pius IX , the church proclaimed Mary's Immaculate Conception in 1854. In 1864, Pius published the encyclical Quanta cura with its appended Syllabus Errorum (" Syllabus of Errors "), and in 1870 convened the First Vatican Council . The Council, in turn, proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility . In Syllabus Errorum ,

7050-470: The representatives of areas of Germany primarily inhabited by Poles were the Junkers , the landed aristocracy, mostly with ancient feudal roots . The rest were all groups of middle class Germans, that is civil servants (30%), teachers (25%), merchants, craftsmen, Protestant priests, and clerks. The official aims of the society was "strengthening and rallying of Germandom in the Eastern Marches through

7144-489: The revival and consolidation of German national feeling and the economic strengthening of the German people" in the area. This was seen as justified due to alleged passivity of Germans in the eastern territories. Officially it was to work for the Germans rather than against the Poles. However, in reality the aims of the society were anti-Polish and aimed at ousting the Polish landowners and peasants from their land at all cost. It

7238-462: The same religion. Education was also separate and usually in the hands of the churches. There was little mutual tolerance, interaction or intermarriage. Protestants in general were deeply distrustful of the Catholic Church. Unification had been achieved through many obstacles with strong opponents. These were the European powers of France and Austria, both Catholic nations, and the Catholic Church itself,

7332-403: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title HKT . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HKT&oldid=1059973853 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

7426-424: The separation of church and state became a prominent issue. The Kulturkampf in Prussia is usually bracketed by the years 1871 and 1878 with the Catholic Church officially announcing its end in 1880 but the struggle in Germany had been an ongoing matter without definite beginning and the years 1871 to 1878 only mark its culmination in Prussia. In the wake of other European countries, most German states had taken

7520-508: The society continued its rump activities in the Weimar Republic until it was closed down by the Nazis in 1934 who created the new organisation with similar activity Bund Deutscher Osten . You are facing the most dangerous, fanatic enemy of German existence, German honour and German reputation in the world: The Poles. Following the Partitions of Poland in late 18th century, a large part of

7614-469: The spread of monastic life among the Polish and French minorities. The Church, in turn, saw the National-Liberals as its worst enemy, accusing them of spearheading the war against Christianity and the Catholic Church. At unification in 1871, the new German Empire included 25.5 million Protestants (62% of the population) and 15 million Catholics (36.5% of the population). Although a minority in

7708-559: The state. The abolition of the Catholic section of the Prussian ministry of ecclesiastical and educational affairs deprived Catholics of their voice at the highest level. The system of strict government supervision of schools was applied only in Catholic areas; the Protestant schools were left alone. The school politics also alienated Protestant conservatives and churchmen. The British ambassador Odo Russell reported to London in October 1872 how Bismarck's plans were backfiring by strengthening

7802-408: The success of his laws and was unhappy with his lack of political tact and sensitivity. The differences in their attitudes concerning the Kulturkampf eventually put the two politicians at odds with each other. With this background and the determination of church and state, the Kulturkampf in Germany acquired an additional edge as it gathered in intensity and bitterness. From 1871 to 1876,

7896-418: The three of which Bismarck perceived as "Coalition of Catholic Revenge". For Bismarck, the empire was very fragile and its consolidation was an important issue. Biographer Otto Pflanze notes that "all of these developments, real and imagined, reinforced Bismarck's belief in the existence of a widespread Catholic conspiracy that posed a threat to both his German and European policies." In a Protestant empire,

7990-426: The time and the antagonism between Liberals and Protestants on one side and the Catholic Church on the other was fought out through mud-slinging in the press. A wave of anti-Catholic, anticlerical and anti-monastic pamphleteering in the liberal press was answered by anti-liberal preaching and propaganda in Catholic newspapers and vice versa. For these reasons, the government sought to wean the Catholic masses away from

8084-413: The ultramontane (pro-papal) position inside German Catholicism: Nearly all German bishops, clergy and laymen rejected the legality of the new laws and were defiantly facing the increasingly heavy penalties, trials and imprisonments. As of 1878, only three of eight Prussian dioceses still had bishops, some 1,125 of 4,600 parishes were vacant, and nearly 1,800 priests ended up in jail or in exile, nearly half

8178-449: The veneration of relics ; the pope himself became an object of devotion. Apart from the growth in religious orders, the 19th century was a time when numerous Catholic associations and organisations were founded, especially in Germany and in France (In the United States, there was a comparable rise in fraternal organizations in the late nineteenth century.). Catholic propaganda , including

8272-588: The world: The Poles." Under such circumstances a number of nationalist organizations and pressure groups was formed, all collectively known as the nationale Verbände . Among them were the Pan-German League , German Navy League , German Colonial Society , German Anti-Semitic Organization , and the Defence League . Many landowners feared that their interests would not be properly represented by those organizations and decided to form their own society. It

8366-437: Was "to re-establish the rights of the state in relation to the church". Yet, unlike Bismarck, whose main motivation for the Kulturkampf was the political power struggle with the Centre Party, Falk, a lawyer, was a strong proponent of state authority having in mind the legal aspects of state-church relationships. Falk became the driving force behind the Kulturkampf laws. Although Bismarck publicly supported Falk, he doubted

8460-486: Was argued that the Poles were an insidious threat to German national and cultural integrity and domination in the east. The propagandistic rationale behind formation of the H-K-T was presented as a national Polish-German struggle to assimilate one group into the other. It was argued that either the Poles would be successfully Germanized, or the Germans living in the east would face the Polonization themselves. This conflict

8554-675: Was disbanded by the Nazis. Some of its former members, now living in Poland, remained members of other German societies and organizations, and formed the core of the German Fifth column during the German Invasion of Poland of 1939. Kulturkampf In the history of Germany, the Kulturkampf (Cultural Struggle) was the seven-year political conflict (1871–1878) between the Catholic Church in Germany , led by Pope Pius IX ; and

8648-530: Was officially launched November 3, 1894, in Poznań , then referred to under its German name of Posen . The opening meeting elected an assembly and a general committee composed of 227 members, among them 104 from the Province of Posen and Province of West Prussia , and additional 113 from other parts of German Empire . The social base of the newly founded society was wide and included a large spectrum of people. Some 60% of

8742-414: Was often portrayed as a constant biological struggle between the "eastern barbarity" and "European culture". To counter the alleged threat, the Society promoted the destruction of Polish national identity in the Polish lands held by Germany, and prevention of polonization of the Eastern Marches, that is the growing national sentiment amongst local Poles paired with migration of Poles from rural areas to

8836-481: Was very volatile. Initially perceived as a possible enemy hostile to German unification under Prussian leadership, Austria and Germany very quickly became friends and formed the Dual Alliance in 1879. The possibility of a war with France or Russia also became more remote. Therefore, social and economic problems moved to the fore and Bismarck's attention gradually turned to other topics he deemed more threatening such as

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