By and large we can identify three reasons why the younger generation, since the 1870s, has turned away from the old Progressive – now German Radical – Party: because it resisted the establishment of the new national state system instead of contributing to it; because it did not make concessions to the requirements of patriotic military strength with adequate devotion; and lastly, because it opposed the new ideal of legislated social reform. These three negative positions [Negationen] have burdened the party in public opinion with the curse of not being a “national” party. If the last elections have seen the party gain back a bit of ground, the party owes this above all to its advocacy of a positive idea: free trade (besides the liquor tax). An added ingredient, however, is the fact that those three main accusations, from which the party was suffering among the well-to-do and better-educated segments of the population, are beginning to fade. The Reich is completed; in the army question, the party toed the line on the occasion of the last showdown, and it has accepted the February decrees. Thus it is only natural that public opinion is starting to view the party with somewhat different eyes than before. The major difficulty preventing a sound development in this direction has to do with the personality of the Reichstag deputy [Eugen] Richter. The Center Party, too, contains the same negative, demagogic element that makes the German Radical Party so repulsive; however, the discipline of the Catholic Church is quite skilled at both taming and using that element. [Paul] Majunke (or now [Georg Friedrich] Dasbach) from the Center, [Adolf] Stöcker from the Conservatives, and Richter from the German Radical Party are analogous elements; but what a difference exists in the positions they enjoy within their respective caucuses! The kind of statesman who keeps his flock together will enjoy success and power. The German Radical Party not only lacks discipline; the chief representative of purely negative demagoguery, the polar opposite of positive statesmanship, is actually the principal leader of this party. In view of that circumstance, many an observer might consider any hope of accommodation with this caucus illusory. Yet there is no lack of signs that the patriotic and worthy members of the party are aware of their responsibility. And unless I am very much mistaken, soon enough the Social Democrats will see to it that governing becomes difficult for the new chancellor in general but, conversely, also becomes easier specifically with regard to his relations to the other parties.
Thus, with sorrow and indelible gratitude in our hearts for the retiring chancellor, we nonetheless confidently look to the future: full of new struggles, new work, but not without hope for new victories and successes. Every accusation that Prince Bismarck custom-tailored and designed the new Reich and its institutions only to suit his own person – so that one day, when he departed, anarchy would break out – has collapsed in shame. Nothing came of those Cassandra-like warnings: “Will the monarchy of the Hohenzollern continue to exist? Our children will have to provide the answer to that question.” Allegedly the dynasty was going to be confronted with the “rule of the major domos” [Hausmeiertum]; but this specter has turned out to be hollow and empty. Its soul deeply moved, but without political distress; firm and unwavering; bonded together in institutions that are new yet already strong and steadfast – this is how the German people say goodbye to the great Bismarckian age in order to begin a new era.
Source: Hans Delbrück,“Politische Korrespondenz. Der Kanzlerwechsel” [“Political Correspondence: The Change of Chancellor”], in Preußische Jahrbücher [Prussian Yearbooks], vol. 65, April edition, 1890, pp. 461-66.
Original German text reprinted in Hans Fenske, ed. Im Bismarckschen Reich 1871-1890 [In the Bismarckian Reich 1871-1890], Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1978, pp. 466-72.
Translation: Erwin Fink
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