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Documents - Politics I: Forging an Empire
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21.   Law on Freedom of Occupation [Gewerbefreiheit] and Freedom of Coalition [Koalitionsfreiheit] (June 21, 1869)
This law, passed in the Reichstag of the North German Confederation, was adopted for Imperial Germany in 1871 as the Imperial Industrial Code [Reichsgewerbeordnung]. It standardized and simplified....
22.   Law on Freedom of Religion (July 3, 1869)
Apart from introducing direct universal suffrage in the North German Confederation, Bismarck sought to win over his left-wing opponents with many other liberalizing measures. The law concerning equal....
23.   Law on Nationality and Citizenship (June 1, 1870)
This law enacted by the North German Reichstag regulated the process by which inhabitants could gain or lose their citizenship. It was based on the principal of ius sanguinis: one acquired....
24.   Imperial Press Law (May 7, 1874)
The Imperial Press Law of 1874 represented the culmination of liberals’ efforts to shed the fetters of censorship that had been invoked after the revolutions of 1848/49. This law was one of the most....
25.   Max Weber Reflects on Cooperation between the National Liberals and Bismarck during the 1860s and 1870s (May 1918)
Unified liberal hostility to Bismarck’s autocratic policies during the “constitutional conflict” of the early 1860s ended when the National Liberal Party was founded in 1867 as a means to overcome....
26.   German Liberalism Recast: Hermann Baumgarten’s Self-Criticism (Early October 1866)
Hermann Baumgarten (1825-1893) was a historian, political publicist, and, after 1872, Professor of History at the Reich University of Straßburg. He was a champion of German liberalism and from 1859....
27.   August Bebel, Reichstag Speech (November 8, 1871)
In the following Reichstag speech of November 8, 1871, the leading Social Democrat August Bebel (1840-1913) denounces the lack of constitutional and parliamentary rights in Germany and its federal....
28.   Heinrich von Sybel Describes the Structure of the German Empire and the Prospects for Liberty (January 1, 1871)
A student of the famous Leopold von Ranke, Heinrich von Sybel (1817-1895) went on to become one....
29.   Henrik Ibsen’s "Balloon Letter" Expresses Fear of German Militarism (December 1870)
In early December 1870, three months after the French defeat at the Battle of Sedan (September 1-2), Paris was under siege, encircled by German forces determined to bring the Franco-Prussian War....
30.   Heinrich von Sybel to Hermann Baumgarten on the Founding of the Reich (January 27, 1871)
The proclamation of the German Empire on January 18, 1871, fulfilled a goal that German liberals had pursued for decades: national unity. The highly emotional nature of this event comes through in....
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