So this is a failure. This effort to unite Germany on a liberal basis ends up failing miserably. And what ends up happening here is that this is going to be done through Bismarck. And one of the big turning points for German unification is when Kaiser William I appoints Otto von Bismarck as his prime minister.
So Bismarck is going to serve as the prime minister of Prussia from 1862 to 1873. And during this time, he is going to be engineering this process that's going to lead to unification. And what he wants to do, he's not just some kind of nationalist who wants a German nation, but he wants a German nation that is unified under Prussian dominance. So that's very important that his goal here is nationalism with Prussia ending up on top.
And what you've got to keep in mind about... Bismarck is that at heart, this guy is a conservative. He's from this Junker class, this nobility class, and he's a conservative at heart. Now, then again, sometimes you got to get things done.
And this, whatever, what Bismarck is doing here is he's employing something that he called real politic, all right, that maybe at heart I'm a conservative, but I'm really interested in results. It's kind of like when you're playing rock, paper, scissors. And if I think that you're going to throw a paper, I'm going to throw a rock. Wait, I just lost. Never mind.
Like, yeah, okay, scissors, all right? So the thing is, let's do it right now, okay? All right, one more time, okay? Two out of three.
How did that go? I don't know. You can tell me in the comments if you won or if I won or something like that.
But the thing is, is I was just trying to kind of anticipate what you were going to do. Now, don't you rewind back and play me again or something like that. You're going to win every time.
But, you know, Bismarck, it's like whether I'm throwing rock, paper, scissors is going to depend on what the situation is. So I can do whatever. you know, it's going to take.
I can be like a political chameleon or something like that. And real politics is a politics based on power rather than ideals, all right? So, you know, this is very Machiavellian in tone, where Machiavelli was saying, like, you've got to do whatever you do in order to be effective, an effective political leader. And so Machiavelli definitely would have approved of this.
And this is really throwing out the ism. You know, not thinking of himself as a conservative or a liberal or a nationalist. But in order to accomplish this goal of a unified German state under Prussian dominance, he's willing to do whatever he has to do. Idealistic equals unrealistic. Keep that in mind.
So Bismarck has a many-pronged plan. I would call it a two-pronged plan, foreign and domestic, but I don't think that would do it justice. It's very complex. This is going to start off with domestic policy, okay? So what is he going to do domestically to try to unite Germany?
Now, first of all, socialism is a threat, okay? That's Bismarck has no love for the socialists. These people don't share his goals. And so how do I, you know, keep these socialists from taking over the government or something like that?
Bismarck doesn't like socialists, but then again, if I'm thinking real politic, I can't think on those terms. So what he does is he... out-socializes the Socialists. First of all, he bans the Social Democratic Party and says that the Socialist Party is not able to put out any political propaganda. But then he implements this state socialism.
He sponsors Europe's first social welfare programs. And this is pretty smart on his end because when it comes down to it, a lot of people aren't necessarily Socialists doctrinally, but they kind of like the idea of the redistribution of wealth, getting some help with this and that and the other. So, Bismarck sets up a, you know, kind of small-scale redistribution of wealth.
And this is the first time that we have this happening in any European country. Old age pensions, all right? So, the United States did this during the New Deal in like the 1930s with Social Security. Well, Bismarck's already on this in the 19th century with old age pensions.
Accident insurance, okay, keep in mind that Germany is, you know, Prussia, Germany as a whole is industrializing. And if you get hurt, then you could have a problem. You're not able to work again.
Well, Bismarck says, look, you know, old age, you know, old age pensions, accident insurance, and also health insurance. He's setting up like the first, you know, state-run health insurance program. So the socialists are like, Whoa, like he just kind of cut all our legs from under us. That's exactly what he was doing, because keep in mind, politics based on power. And so he wants people to be happy, and now the socialists don't have a leg to stand on because he got their program and kind of employed it in his own way.
Genius. And then there are the liberals, all right, which the liberals are not very pleased with With Bismarck's, you know, advocacy of autocracy and that sort of thing. I mean, keep in mind that he's not an elected prime minister. He's the literal prime minister of the Prussian monarch.
So, you know, with that, Bismarck's like, look, I can take care of these liberals too. All right. Now, keep in mind, liberals would like, you know, all kinds of like free speech, free press, all of that kind of stuff. But the liberals also are very suspect of German Catholics because they see German Catholics as. is trying to set up a church-state alliance and that sort of thing.
So, Bismarck starts what he called the Kulturkampf, the culture war. We use that in our society today, or the culture struggle. And you see here where Bismarck is playing a game of chess with presumably the Pope.
And Bismarck is doing some things to try to stifle Catholic political power in Germany. And so these anti-Catholic policies are appealing to the liberals who favor a more secular state. And they may be turned off by his conservatism, but it's like, hey, you know, he's keeping the Catholics from taking over the place. And Bismarck is also advocating industrialization. Now keep in mind, liberalism in the 19th century, you've got political liberalism.
where they want limited government and that sort of thing, and, you know, representative government, free speech, and all of that. But Bismarck says, look, liberals, I know that you like industry, and I am going to get behind this, all right? That I'm not going to just cater to the landed nobility.
Let me support you. Now, he's not supporting them, he's supporting Germany, because if Germany is going to be unified, then it has to be an industrial power. Prussia has to be this modern... industrialized military state in order to take over the rest of Germany and become this dominant power.