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1 3981 
 
 1 
 
 THE PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMENT IN 
 GERMANY. 
 
 - [A paper read before the American Historical Association, May 23 
 1887, by Kuno Francke, of Harvard University.] 
 
 There is no unconditionally best form of government. A 
 constitution is not, like a mathematical formula, capable of 
 being applied with equal result to different quantities. Its 
 only proper test is its usefulness. It is useful if it represents, 
 with more or less exactness, the political forces which consti- 
 tute a nation's life. 
 
 Which are the forces that constitute the political structure 
 of the German Empire.? 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that in an age of democratic tenden- 
 cies gaining ground all over the civilized world, the Germans 
 should have developed a monarchical system which in unity 
 of conception and broadness of influence is almost unparal- 
 lelled in history. It is all the more remarkable, since the polit- 
 ical views of the great German philosophers tend tow^ards 
 radicalism rather than royalism. But a nation's history is 
 determined by facts, not by theories. And in the case of Ger- 
 many, there is such an overwhelming weight of facts on the 
 side of monarchy, and so strikingly little on the side of deni- 
 ocracy, that it would be strange indeed if the latter had not 
 been found too light in the scale. In the long list of great 
 princes of the Hohenzollern dynasty there is scarcely one 
 whose name would not recall sturdy perseverance, unflinch- 
 
 1) 
 
THE PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMENT IN GERMANY. 
 
 ing patriotism and simple-minded loyalty, and there ^are not a 
 few among them who have left the stamp of their genius and 
 character impressed upon a whole generation. There never 
 was a more intimate union between government and people 
 than that which, since the days of Frederick the Great, has 
 existed between the Prussian crown and the Prussian people. 
 It is a union based upon the principle of public service. 
 Service to the people has always been proclaimed by the 
 Prussian Kings as the fundamental obligation which their 
 inherited dignity laid upon them, and in all decisive moments 
 of its history the Prussian people has been ready to acknowl- 
 edge the sacred mission of its ruling dynasty. It is the princes 
 of the HohenzoUern house who have raised Prussia from an 
 insignificant electorate to the position of uncontested leader- 
 ship among the German states ; who, first among the Con- 
 tinental powers have established a broad and permanent 
 system of local self-government ; who have brought about 
 first the commercial, then the political union of Germany ; 
 who have created the German Parliament. 
 
 Public services of such an extraordinary merit cannot remain 
 without reward. In Germany, the result has been that the 
 ablest and most energetic minds of the nation to-day are drawn 
 into the ranks of monarchy, and that the weight of public 
 opinion lies at present with the numerous class of govern- 
 ment officials. Those who consider democracy as the only 
 rational form of government cannot but deplore this result. 
 But it must be said that the official class in Germany is not 
 a caste in the hateful sense of the word. It has its privileges. 
 But these privileges are open to all ; they may be attained by 
 the son of a cobbler as well as by that of a railroad president. 
 The only pre-requisite is education. And is it altogether an 
 irrational state of society in which the natural selection of the 
 fittest is stimulated by a premium offered to education.'' 
 Whatever may be the merits or demerits of German scholars. 
 
THE PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMENT IN GERMANY. 3 
 
 artists and public men of tlie present day, can it not be said 
 that their remarlcable activity in ahnost every brancli of re- 
 search, production and administration is, at least partly, due 
 to the privileges held out to them by society? 
 
 I have spoken of the services rendered by the monarchy in 
 shaping the political union and greatness of Germany. What 
 has been the role of those who aimed at the same end on the 
 basis of democratic principles? Far be it from me to doubt 
 the sincerity of character or earnestness of purpose in the 
 majority of those who in 1848 assembled at Frankfort on the 
 Main as the chosen representatives of the people to deliberate 
 upon the building up of a new and united Germany. Their 
 aspirations were as noble as only aspirations of doctrinaires 
 can be. They were enthusiasts ; they were filled with an 
 unbounded belief in the justice of their cause, but, unfortu- 
 nately, they had verj' little knowledge of the reality of things. 
 It was a lack of common sense when they expected the gov- 
 ernments of the various German states to submit blindfold 
 to a constitution drafted independently by the national 
 assembly. It was again a lack of common sense when they 
 expected the King of Prussia to accept from the hands of the 
 assembly an imperial dignity which, by sharpening the 
 rivalry between Prussia and Austria, could only tend towards 
 dismemberment of the empire. They failed, nobly, to be 
 sure, but not undeservedly. And, unfortunately, it must be 
 added that their failure has not taught them a lesson. They 
 do not seem to understand the signs of the time. Their 
 whole political wisdom is derived from the war which more 
 than two centuries ago was waged by the English Parliament 
 against the despotic and lawless dynasty of the Stuarts ; and 
 they have done their best to plunge our people into a similar 
 strife with a government which in self-devotion and public 
 spiritedness falls not behind the greatest names in history. 
 In 1862, when the antagonism between the two great German 
 
4 THE PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMENT IN GERMANY. 
 
 powers had become so acute as to make an open rupture 
 appear only a question of time, the democracy, then, forming 
 the majority of the Prussian Diet, refused the government the 
 means required for the needed reorganization of the army, 
 thus provoking a conflict, which but for the firm attitude of 
 the ministry might have proved altogether disastrous to the 
 future of the country. In 1866, when, after the victorious war 
 with Austria, the government in order to settle the intestine 
 struggle asked to be granted indemnity for the illegal meas- 
 ures into which it had been forced by the shortsightedness 
 of the late Diet, the democratic votes were cast in the nega- 
 tive, and when, in the following year, through the constitution 
 of the North German Confederation, the first vigorous attempt 
 was made at establishing a powerful German Empire, it 
 was again the sad distinction of the democratic party to 
 remain in a purely negative policy. Prince Bismark told a 
 bitter truth when, some time ago, in commenting upon the 
 new name of German Liberals, recently adopted by the party, 
 he interpreted it as denoting something neither German nor 
 liberal. 
 
 If the number of parties in the German Parliament were 
 limited to the two prevailing tendencies of political life, the 
 monarchical and the democratic, the question of political pre- 
 dominance would be comparatively easy. But such is not 
 the case. The Monarchists as well as the Democrats are 
 split up into a number of sections which, although usually 
 working in the same line, may at times strongly oppose each 
 other. The monarchist party comprises at present Conser- 
 vatives and Imperialists, the main difference between them 
 lying in a greater or smalle-r readiness to pursue a policy of 
 centralization ; the democratic party consists of the so-called 
 German Liberals and the National Liberals, the latter differ- 
 ing from their German Liberal brethren mainly by a willing- 
 ness to sacrifice party principle to the cause of national 
 
THE PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMENT IN GERMANY. ^ 
 
 consolidation. But in addition to this sectarianism displayed 
 within the limits of the two most prominent political creeds, 
 there are several other parties which, although not sufficiently 
 strong in themselves to play a leading role, yet by granting 
 or refusing assistance to either of the principal disputants 
 may exert a considerable influence. Such is the position of 
 the Socialists, Alsace-Lorrainers, Poles and Clericals. The 
 Socialists, in spite of their working at present under the dis- 
 advantage of coercive legislation, are at every election gaining 
 larger minorities and may, in view of the general drift in 
 Germany toward socialistic institutions, eventually become a 
 power pf the first order. The Alsace-Lorrainers and Poles, 
 on the other hand, guided as they are each by their own 
 national sentiments, will lose ground in the same measure as 
 these sentiments are doomed to give way before the advance 
 of Germanization. It is the Clericals who, since the estab- 
 lishment of the new empire, have been alternating with the 
 National Liberals in holding the balance of power. When- 
 ever there arose political questions of a nature as to endanger 
 the internal safety or the international position of the empire, 
 the tide of public opinion turned towards the National Lib- 
 erals ; and whenever there seemed to be a danger that by 
 overstraining the authority of the central government the 
 liberty of the church might be encroached upon, the elections 
 showed a decided increase of clerical votes. 
 
 Having thus reviewed the main forces of the political life 
 in Germany, we observe that there does not exist a single 
 parliamentary party which, either by virtue of services ren- 
 dered to the national cause or by force of numerical compact- 
 ness, was lifted far enough above the rest to claim the right 
 of shaping the policy of the executive. Two very significant 
 features of our constitution — perhaps the most significant ones 
 — have sprung, as a natural consequence, from this state of 
 things. The first is that the exclusive right of the executive 
 
O THE PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMENT IN GERMANY. 
 
 power is reserved to the crown, as the only permanent and 
 the most effective element of our political organism : the 
 ministers are servants of the crown, not of parliament. The 
 second feature concerns the process of legislation. It is 
 wrong to say — as has been said occasionally — that the Ger- 
 man Parliament had no initiative. Certainly it has, and not 
 unfrequently it has made use of it. The Jesuit law, for 
 instance, proceeded from the initiative of Parliament. But 
 what the Parliament does not possess, is the power of forcing 
 its will upon the executive, just as little as the executive has 
 the power of forcing its will upon Parliament. All legisla- 
 tion, therefore, in Germany is the product of a compromise 
 between the executive and the consultative bodies. 
 
 I do not mean to say that these forms of government and 
 legislation are ideal. It is apparent that in the hands of 
 unscrupulous statesmen they may be misused for either caus- 
 ing prolonged dead-locks or masking usurpation. But I do 
 believe that they are the forms best adapted for a country 
 where there is no natural foundation for party government, 
 and I do believe that their inherent dangers can be avoided 
 by a mutual understanding to employ them in good faith and 
 for the sake of common welfare. 
 
 Let me try to show, in a few words, how the system of 
 continual compromise between government and parliament 
 has influenced the German legislation of the last seventeen 
 years in the three most important questions of the day, the 
 military, ecclesiastical and social. 
 
 The establishment of German unity was brought about, if 
 not caused, by an unprovoked attack upon our national ex- 
 istence. It was nothing short of a duty of self-presei-vation 
 that the first German Parliament, which assembled after the 
 war with France had come to an end, should try to protect 
 the nation, at least in the immediate future, against the repeti- 
 tion of similar provocations. Consequently, a law was passed 
 
THE PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMENT IN GERMANY. y 
 
 providing that until the year 1874 the peace effective of the 
 German army should remain the same as it had been in 1870, 
 that is to say one per cent of the population, as recorded by the 
 census of 1867. In 1874 the political horizon of Europe had 
 become by no means brighter, the attitude of France was as 
 hostile as ever, and the French army was now by 30,000 men 
 superior to the German forces. It was, therefore, a sign of 
 great moderation on the part of the German government, 
 when in the military bill of 1S74 they asked, not for an 
 increase of the army, but simply for securing the present 
 status by making, until further legislation, the drauglit of one 
 per cent of the population a permanent law. If this provi- 
 sion, known as the so-called Eternate, had been adopted we 
 would have but imitated the example of the French, with the 
 only difference that in France the peace effective consists of 
 one and one-thirdinsteadof oneper cent ofthe population. But 
 the German Parliament showed itself more apprehensive of its 
 privileges being curtailed than the French Chamber of Deputies 
 seems to have been. A coalition of Clericals, Liberals and Social- 
 ists opposed the governmental bill by demanding an annual set- 
 tlement of the peace effective. The government found itself 
 confronted by the question: dissolution or compromise.'' It 
 chose the latter, as suggested by the middle party of the Na- 
 tional Liberals : a fixation of the peace effective on the basis 
 of one per cent of the population for a period of seven years. 
 The Septennate was adopted as a diagonal between the Eter- 
 nate and annual fixation. 
 
 You know that this compromise, after having been renewed 
 in 1880 for another term of seven years, some months ago 
 came near ending in a violent conflict. It has been said that 
 this conflict was brought about through the exorbitant de- 
 mands made by the government in its military bill of Novem- 
 ber last. But such is not the case. The government did not 
 ask anything which was not in conformity with the stipulations 
 
8 
 
 THE PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMENT IN GERMANY. 
 
 of previous compromises. It simply asked to establish this 
 compromise for a third term and to carry it out to the full 
 extent of its provisions. By the military law of 1880, the 
 census of 1875, being the last census before that date, had 
 been made the basis of settling the peace effective. Now the 
 government asked to apply the same principle to the pro- 
 posed renewal of the military compromise, that is to sa}', to 
 base it upon the census of 18S5, as the last census taken before 
 the date of the present bill. This implied an increase of the 
 peace effective, to be sure, but only such an increase as was 
 proportionate to the increase of the population which had 
 taken place since the enactment of the last military law ; by 
 no means an increase in the percentage of men subject to 
 military service. And could there be any serious doubt as to 
 the advisability, nay, urgent necessity, of increasing the Ger- 
 man army.' Have the French ever shown the slightest dis- 
 position to accept in good faith the results of a war which 
 they, and they alone, were responsible for? Have they not, 
 during the past seventeen years, incessantly and systematically, 
 prepared for what they call revenge, so that, in spite of the 
 smaller population of France, the French army now outnum- 
 bers the German forces by nearly 100,000 men.' And is 
 there not on our eastern borders that monstrous colossus of 
 the Russian Empire, always threatening to strike down upon 
 us and to annihilate our whole civilization.' These are sad 
 reflections, especially sad for a peaceful people like the Ger- 
 mans, who desire nothing but to manage their own affairs in 
 their own way ; but, not to face this state of things, not to 
 prepare for every emergency, would be simply an act of 
 national self-destruction. 
 
 The majority of the last Reichstag, again a coalition of 
 Clericals, Liberals and some minor parties, committed this 
 attempt at political suicide. To them there seemed to exist 
 no threatening danger ; they made light of Count von Moltke's 
 
THG PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMEMT IN GERMANY. Q 
 
 warning that a refusal of the military bill would make war 
 certain ; what they dreaded most was to loose the chance for 
 picking a quarrel with the government. First they refused 
 point-blank any increase of the army. Then, by an outburst 
 of popular indignation convinced of the hopelessness of this 
 course, they changed front and declared themselves ready to 
 grant the demanded increase on condition of changing the 
 septennate into a triennate, that is to say, of fixing the peace 
 effective for three, instead of seven, years. The unfairness of 
 this condition was apparent. Where, as in England or in 
 this country, the whole body of regular troops is constantly 
 kept under arms, it does not matter much whether the num- 
 ber of these forces is regulated for shorter or longer periods. 
 But in a country where the strength and formation, not only 
 of the active army but at the same time of the reserve and 
 landwehr, depends upon the number of the annual levy, the 
 very organization of the military system would be deranged 
 by encroaching upon the stability of this levy. Besides, the 
 septennate had parliamentary tradition in its favor ; it was 
 the result of a compromise between government and parlia- 
 ment ; it had been in existence for fourteen years ; it had 
 worked well ; nothing but willfulness could clamor for its 
 abolition. 
 
 So it was perfectly evident that the opposition meant to 
 force the government into an open rupture. The government 
 did not hesitate to take up the gauntlet. On the 14th of Jan- 
 uary the Reichstag was dissolved. Seven weeks later the 
 National Liberal Conservative majority of the new assembly 
 passed the septennate bill without amendment. The military 
 compromise had once more received the sanction of the 
 people. 
 
 The second important question, which, through a series of 
 compromises between government and parliament has been 
 brought nearer its solution, is the regulation of the border 
 
lO THE PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMENT IN GERMANY. 
 
 line between the State and the Catholic Church. The declara- 
 tion of papal infallibility in 1870, although in itself a merely 
 ecclesiastical act, was bound to change the relation of the 
 Catholic Church at least to those countries where the priests, 
 being paid by the government, are as well servants of the 
 State as of the Church. These countries could not but feel 
 endangered by the absolute programme of the infallible papacy ; 
 in these countries the line had to be drawn as distinctly as 
 possible between the priest as priest and the priest as govern- 
 ment official. In Prussia this attempt was made through the 
 famous May laws of the year 1873. The May laws confined 
 the disciplinary power of the church authorities to church 
 matters ; they placed the education of the clergy practically in 
 the hands of state authorities ; they obliged the ecclesiastical 
 superiors to inform the government of intended appointments, 
 and reserved to the government the right of vetoing such ap- 
 pointments ; they finally established a ro3'al court of appeal 
 for all ecclesiastical matters. These laws were carried in the 
 Prussian Diet by an overwhelming liberal conservative major- 
 ity ; they were supported b}' a strong no-popery movement 
 throughout Germany. It was the time when the appearance 
 of the so-called Old Catholic party revived the hopes of seeing 
 the work of the Reformation taken up anew ; when Dollinger, 
 the Nestor of Germany's Catholic scholars, denounced the 
 Jesuitic tendencies of the Roman church, and, applauded by 
 Catholic Munich and all Germany, defied papal excommuni- 
 cation ; when in Bismarck there appeared to have arisen 
 another Luther ; when it seemed as though the political union 
 of Germany was to be followed by the establishment of a 
 national church and the extinction of all religious strife. Such 
 hopes have been disappointed since, and perhaps it would be 
 better had they never been entertained. 
 
 From the outset the Catholic bishops declared the May 
 laws a trespass upon the divine rights of the church, nay, 
 
THE PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMENT IN GERMANY. I I 
 
 treated them as non-existent. The two most essential pro- 
 visions of these laws concerned the education and the appoint- 
 ment of priests. They obliged candidates of the ministry to 
 present a certificate of having gone through the curriculum of 
 a German university : not one student of Catholic theology 
 has complied with this provision. They obliged the bishops 
 to inform the State authorities of intended appointments : not 
 one Catholic bishop has submitted to this demand. The con- 
 sequence was that now the State, that is the government sup- 
 ported by a liberal majority in the Prussian Diet- as well as in 
 the German Parliament, proceeded to break the opposition of 
 the clergy by passing a nurnber of coercive laws. The state 
 of things which ensued was deplorable : closing of theological 
 seminaries, refusal of salaries to priests appointed without the 
 consent of the state, conviction and deposition of reluctant 
 bishops and priests, abolition of monasteries and religious 
 orders, prohibition of processions and other ceremonies in 
 which priests not acknowledged by the state might take a 
 part, suppression of all divine service in no less than 1,400 
 .parishes. Such a condition of things could not last, it endan- 
 gered the very roots of social order and Christian civilization. 
 It was absolutely necessary that Church and State should 
 arrive at terms by which they might live together, if not in 
 friendly relations, at least in the attitude of mutual respect- 
 In the meanwhile the clerical party had been continually on 
 the increase, and was continually urging the repeal of the 
 May laws. A part of the conservatives had also become 
 alarmed by the disastrous results of the ecclesiastical legisla- 
 tion. In 1S79 the clerical conservative coalition had practi- 
 cally control of both the Prussian Diet and the German Par- 
 liament. If parliamentary majority ruled in Germany, a com- 
 plete reaction would now have taken place ; the May laws 
 would have been abolished, every supervision of the church 
 by the State would have been suspended. Since, as I said 
 
12 THE PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMENT IN GERMANY. 
 
 before, the priests in Germany are at the same time govern- 
 ment officials, a reaction of this kind would have meant not 
 freedom of the Church from the State, but submission of the 
 State to the Church. Happily, the prerogative of the crown 
 made such a course an impossibility. The only way of ar- 
 riving at a satisfactory settlement lay in the line of a compro- 
 mise between the government and what now appeared as the 
 majority of the legislative bodies, and it is this way which, 
 since 1879, has been entered upon. Persistently as the gov- 
 ernment refused to accede to a wholesale repeal of the May 
 laws, incessantly demanded by the clerical conservative ma- 
 jority, as ready it showed itself, on the other hand, to eliminate 
 from them all provisions of a distinctly aggressive character. 
 Three times, in 1880, 1882, and 1883, discretionary powers in 
 the application of the May laws were granted to the govern- 
 ment by its half-reluctant, half-triumphant opponents, and the 
 use made of these powers went far towards preparing a final 
 reconciliation. Several of the deposed bishops were recalled, 
 the jurisdiction of the royal court for ecclesiastical matters 
 was limited, the nomination of substitutes to vacant parishes 
 was facilitated, the interference of state authorities in theolog- 
 ical education was restricted. All these concessions, how- 
 ever, were made with the understanding that the Church, in 
 return, would definitely recognize a general supervision of its 
 educational institutions by the State, and would submit ecclesi- 
 astical appointments to the governmental veto. And this, in 
 fact, has been the outcome of the long and memorable struggle. 
 In the ecclesiastical bill, finally adopted by the Prussian Diet 
 on the 27th of last April, all other provisions of the May laws 
 were abandoned, but the sovereignty of the state in supervision 
 of clerical education and appointment has been successfully 
 maintained. A compromise has been concluded, which is 
 equally creditable to either of the combatant parties, and from 
 which we may justly hope a sincere and lasting peace. 
 
THE PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMENT IN GERMANY. 
 
 13 
 
 I shall not attempt to enter into any discussion of ecoromic 
 or social questions. Let me only say that on this ground, 
 also, the legislation of the German Empire has been following 
 the line of continual compromises between government and 
 Parliament. Two laws of the highest importance show this 
 most conclusively : the indirect taxation law and the law upon 
 insurance of workingmen against accidents. 
 
 Until the year 1879 the German Empire had no financial 
 independence.- Its own resources, mainly derived from custom 
 duties, the surplus of the telegraph and postal service, and 
 the interests of the imperial invalid fund, were not sufficient to 
 cover its expenses ; the annual deficit had to be made up by 
 contributions from the various States. It was generally ac- 
 knowledged that these contributions, by fostering centrifugal 
 tendencies, were a serious check to the process of national con- 
 solidation, and that they would best be superseded by raising 
 the indirect taxes of the Empire, especially those upon brandy 
 and tobacco. But as to the mode of fixing these taxes, there 
 was a difference of opinion. The government wished to have 
 them fixed, as it is the case in most countries, by a law not 
 limited to time; the parliamentary opposition, as they had 
 been insisting upon annual regulation of the peace effective of 
 the army, so, also, they demanded an annual determination of 
 the indirect taxes. The final outcome was a very curious com- 
 promise, which throws a significant light upon the strength of 
 sectarian feeling even in the representative bodies of our 
 national unity. The determination by permanent law. was 
 adopted, but at the same time it was provided that, whenever 
 the income of the new taxes was to exceed the sum of 130 
 million marks — a sum corresponding approximately to the 
 annual deficit of the Empire — the surplus should not go into 
 the federal treasury, but should be divided among the several 
 States. 
 
 The insurance of workingmen against accidents is a part of 
 
H 
 
 THE PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIMENT IN GERMANY. 
 
 that memorable legislation, initiated by the German govern- 
 ment to attack the problem of reconstructing the social foun- 
 dations of the modern State. The objections raised against 
 this bill came from two sides : the Clericals, being opposed to 
 all measures tending towards centralization, condemned the 
 ^«if/o«a/ character of the bill, and proposed to leave the in- 
 surance legislation to the individual States ; the Liberals re- 
 jected the proposed engagement of the government itself in 
 the insurance by defraying one-third of the premiums. The 
 law, which, as a middle line between these conflicting tenden- 
 cies finally was adopted, maintains the national and abandons 
 the governmental character of the insurance, by placing it 
 upon the basis of trade unions. The unions consist of all em- 
 ployers within the same industry throughout the German 
 Empire. These unions undertake the insurance of all their 
 employees with an income of less than 2000 marks ; the scale of 
 contributions of the different members being determined by 
 the wages of the employed laborers. Committees of working- 
 men, courts of arbitration, and, as a court of appeal, an im- 
 perial board of insurance commissioners, regulate the working 
 of this most remarkable institution. 
 
 In one of his last speeches Prince Bismarck half grimly, half 
 humorously observed, he hoped for a time when he himself 
 and his present opponents had gone. Then the German 
 people would enjoy peace. I hope this millennium will not 
 come too soon. In spite of all party strife and tumult we 
 have made, within the last seventeen years, enormous strides 
 towards a consolidation of our national existence, and, as the 
 history of the legislative compromises shows, the very combat 
 has taught our people to respect political opponents, to sac- 
 rifice party principles to the welfare of the country, and to 
 seek the strength of one's own position, not in the accumula- 
 tion of rights, but in the exercise of duties. 
 
,,^ Comen University Library 
 
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