To what extent was Willhelmine Germany riddled with internal contradictions 1900-1912?

After Germany was unified in 1871 the political structure of the second Reich was adopted as the constitution for the 25 German states. It was written by Bismarck in 1871 and full of contradictions and it favoured the aristocracy and the upper class. The constitution resembled a parliamentary democracy run by publilcly elected bodies such as the Reichstag and the Bundesrat. The political system was fragmented and there were disagreements in economic, social and military matters. This resulted in the internal hierarchy of the country contradicting the promise of a democracy.

Willhelmine Germany was riddled with internal contradictions to quite a large extent as and one of the biggest contradictions in Germany was the constitution itself. Bismarck created the illusion of a parliamentary democracy but kept the power of the elite. The states kept their own government that were in charge of some atters such as suffrage and education. Foreign matters were still controlled by the Kaiser whilst the Bundesrat and the Reichstag had control over the law making process. The Bundesrat, the upper house, is a good example of the illusion of democracy that Bismarck had created; it was made up of 58 members nominated by the states assemblies. It could veto legislation if 14 or more members voted against a bill. Prussia held 17 of the 58 seats which ensured that no legislation was passed without Prussian consent. To elect the members of the Bundesrat they used a "three-class voting system" , this ment that the votes of those who paid more taxes (Junkers, Businessmen, wealthy men) counted for more votes than those who paid less (workers,farmers, and the poor, they made up 92% of the elctorate). This resulted in a conservative domination of the Bundesrat, as the upper classes typically supported them. In the 1908 elections in Prussia 418 000 votes translated into 212 Conservative seats whereas 600 000 votes were only rewarded with 6 Social Democratic seats. This is evidence that despite the outward appearance of a democracy Germany was still an almost entirely autocratic state. Another important factor of the contradictions of the constitution was the Kaisers power. Willheml'' could dissolve the Reichstag whenever he wanted and frequently did so. An example for this is the 1906 "Hottentot election" which came about as a result of the Reichstag refusing to pass legislation about Germanys colonial policies. The Kaiser did not like this and dissolved the Reichstag and called for new elections which became known as the Hottentot election. This suggetst that the Kaiser still had supreme power over the country.
Another example of political contradiction is the Bülow bloc in 1907 when he was able to manipulate seats in the Reichstag to his favour showing how undemocratic it really was. Bülow devised strategies to protect interests of ruling classes against to counter the demand for constitutional reform. The policy of ‘Sammlungspolitik’ was the policy of building an alliance of conservative interests in the Reich which would present a broad front against the threat of socialism. This would be achieved through a policy of protectionism and through the rallying of Germans through the following of a nationalist foreign policy -Weltpolitik. In some ways however the constitution allowed a sharing of power. The Reichstag was elected via universal male suffrage which was a far more advanced than other European countries such as Britain where male suffrage didn't come about until 1918. There were also some clear roles within the constitution that to some extent stopped the Kaiser dominating it entirely. The Reichstag controlled the defence budget so it was highly in his interest to get on with it and allthough the Kaiser could dismiss it, it could not be completely overruled as elections were held soon after dissolution.
Willhelmine Germany was riddled with internal contradictions to quite a certain extent. Germany was becoming on of the biggest economic powers and by 1913 it was importing as much as it was exporting, which is the ultimate dream of any state. The booming economy was largely due to the technological revolution from the 1880s in the new industries of steel, engineering and chemicals that was closely linked to the new sources of energy: electricity and petrol. By 1900 the German chemical industry dominated the world market for synthetic dyes. BASF and Bayer were two of the major companies and together with some smaller ones they produced almost 90% of the world supply. Britain imported around 80% of its chemical dyes, mainly from Germany. Germany also had much fewer strikes than Britain at the time and this suggests less economic unrest which allowed the German industry to grow. The supposedly laissez faire policy over free trading however saw major contradictions with cartels which squeezed out new buisnesses and the new social class of the Mittelsand sqeezing out competition. An example for the cartel dominance over trade was when the two biggest electronic companies Siemens and AEG formed a cartel in 1907 which completely dominated the electronic industry. Another contradictions were the tariffs that were created to restrict trade. The 1902 tariff law kept prices high on foreign imports and the lower class, which made up most of the population, was unable to afford this, this resulted in a decline of living standards. Allthough overall the success of some left the lower class behind which again shows a contradiction as German economy appeared to boom on the outside but there were major internal inconsistencies.

There were major social contradictions in Willhelmine Germany. The developing working class was dominated by a hierarchy which saw the middle classes and the aristocracy dominate power in Germany. Allthough there was Universal male Suffrage above 25 the real political power still layed in the hands of the aristocracy and the wealthy upper class. Bülow had strategicly planned this as he knew that they still had traditional Conservative Prussian values. The increasing numbers of the working class in urban areas turned to more modern and socialist values, there votes however ment very little in terms of representation due to the "three-class voting system". The rapid growth of the industries helped stimulate a population boom and changed the structure of German society. By 1910 60% of the population lived in towns and cities which led to overcrowding of the cities and outbreak of disease. The social division however also had its benefits. The growing class of the Mittelstand allowed small business owners to work their way up. Social reforms brought in by the Liberals during this period show the lack of contradiction and the strength of German society. These reforms affected the young, the sick and the unemployed. This suggests that the government did look after the German population to avoid unrest. Another strength of the German society was the good educational system. There were many technological universities and each of these was producing more engineering graduates than all of Britain combined. The result was a steady flow of highly qualified people which allowed German society to prosper, which matched the external image at the time.

In conlusion, the constitution created a unclear political structure that was dominated by a conservative upper class and favoured Prussian interests. This shows the major contradiction between the outside image of a fair and democratic society and the reality of the internal inconsistencies of power. Another example of these internal contradictions is that the Army layd outside the constitution. Bismarck ensured that the army was "a state within a state" which also had the right to declare mashal law. The army ran itself with no outside interference apart from the Kaiser. This clearly suggests that Willhelmine Germany was riddled with internal contradictions to quite a large extent.