In the Shadow of the Kulturkampf

In the Shadow of the Kulturkampf: Perceptions of the Milderungsgesetzen in Dutch Catholic media, from 1880 to 1884 Thomas Kerstens Abstract This is a transnational research on the way Dutch Catholic media perceived the Kulturkampf in Germany from 1880 to 1884. This dissertation examines two Dutch Catholic newspapers and one magazine to explain three things. Firstly, what the main motives of Dutch Catholic media were to report on German social struggles after 1880. Secondly, how the Milder- ungsgesetzen – that were intended to end this social struggle – influenced the content of the reports of Dutch Catholic media. Thirdly, to what extent the German social struggles were put in an international perspective by these media. The conclusion adds to the debate that ques- tions the nineteenth century as the ‘age of the nation state’. In the Shadow of the Kulturkampf: Perceptions of the Milderungsgesetzen in Dutch Catholic media, from 1880 to 1884 Thomas Kerstens 27-06-2014 In the Shadow of the Kulturkampf Thomas Kerstens Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1: The Kulturkampf ............................................................................................ 8 Chapter 1.1. Windthorst Speaks ............................................................................ 8 Chapter 1.2. Social Consequences .......................................................................... 12 Chapter 1.3. A Historical Dimension ..................................................................... 16 Chapter 2: The Milderungsgesetzen ................................................................................. 20 Chapter 2.1. The July Law ...................................................................................... 20 Chapter 2.2. The Mainau Law ................................................................................ 23 Chapter 2.3. The Ultimo Law ................................................................................. 27 Chapter 2.4. The Vatican ........................................................................................ 29 Chapter 3: An International Kulturkampf? .................................................................... 33 Chapter 3.1. The Kulturkampf beyond Germany .................................................. 33 Chapter 3.2. Tout comme chez nous! ...................................................................... 35 Chapter 3.3. The Spirit of the Century .................................................................. 39 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 42 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................... 44 Appendix ............................................................................................................................ 49 2 In the Shadow of the Kulturkampf Thomas Kerstens Introduction Religion has been instrumental to the study of nation states and the shaping of Western-Euro- pean democracies in the nineteenth century. In it the German Kulturkampf stands central. Dur- ing this culture war from 1871 to 1878 the German government passed the May Laws – anti- Catholic laws that raised heavy resistance from Catholic citizens. This struggle spread across multiple Western-European states, suggesting that a crisis of political legitimacy of the Roman Catholic Church was embroiled throughout the entire continent. Helmut Walser Smith stressed that, ‘cultural struggles between modern states and the Catholic Church occurred throughout Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century.’1 Timothy Verhoeven expanded the geo- graphical reach of the Church-state struggle and compared the cases of nineteenth century France and the United States in Transatlantic Anti-Catholicism. Owen Chadwick called this era the ‘last years of Catholic power in Europe’.2 The political struggle of Catholicism grew more apparent at the end of the nineteenth century as Catholic political parties were established in different European countries. Research on the culture wars of the late nineteenth century has tended to focus on case studies confined to national borders, including the Netherlands. However, Henk te Velde, challenged this dominant tradition in an article on political transfer, in which he emphasized how Herman Schaepman, the foremost nineteenth century leader of the Dutch Catholic State Party (DCSP), was largely inspired by German Catholic politician Ludwig Windthorst and his Centre Party.3 The party programme of the DCSP – formulated by Schaepman – was based on a German example and therefore affirmed an international dimension in political development. Pieter de Coninck undertook similar research by focusing on the influence of a foreign political event on 1 Helmut Walser Smith, German Nationalism and Religious Conflict: Culture, Ideology, Politics 1870-1914 (Princeton, 1995), pp. 19-23. 2 Owen Chadwick, A History of the Popes 1830-1914 (Oxford 1998), p. 95. 3 Henk te Velde, ‘Political Transfer: an Introduction’, European Review of History, vol. 12, no. 2, (2005), pp. 205-221. 3 In the Shadow of the Kulturkampf Thomas Kerstens Dutch society. In Een Les uit Pruisen, de Coninck analysed the ways in which the German Kulturkampf was perceived by Dutch media from 1871 to 1880, thereby adding a bottom-up dimension to the concept of political transfer.4 The research of te Velde and De Coninck brought a new originality to the field by emphasizing the transnational aspect of the Kulturkampf. The particular national struggle between Catholics and the German nation state influenced other countries politically and mentally.5 The case of Herman Schaepman showed how the Kulturkampf had a dimension of what Paolo Pombeni called ‘political transfer’: a process in which political experiences from one country are consid- ered valuable in another. This political experience is then imported and inspires development and progress in the other domestic political system. The same accounted for the German Cath- olic political experiences that greatly influenced the Dutch political system.6 De Coninck showed how a German course of events not only had political effect in the Netherlands, it also affected Dutch Catholic mentality. The German Kulturkampf created a sentiment of fear amongst Dutch Catholics, best expressed by the Catholic media. As one paper wrote: ‘one day a similar situation will arise in our country’.7 Transnational methods try to explain how, for example, states, societies and economies were, ‘constructed in the movement between places, sites, and regions’, and according to Pièrre-Yves Saunier, transnational perspectives contribute to the following three aspects of historical research. 8 First, it is focussed on contacts between communities and how these contacts ‘waxed’ and ‘waned’. Second, this type of research acknowledges foreign influence on the domestic features of societies and the projection of domestic features into the foreign. Thirdly, a transnational point of view includes people, groups 4 Pieter de Coninck, Een les uit Pruisen: Nederland en de Kulturkampf 1870-1880 (Hilversum 2005), p. 332. 5 te Velde, ‘Political Transfer’, pp. 205-221. 6 Paolo Pombeni, ‘Political models and Political transfer in the shaping of Europe’, European Review of History, Issue 12, Volume 2 (2005), pp. 223-225. 7 de Coninck, Een les uit Pruisen, p. 332. 8 Ibid. 1444. 4 In the Shadow of the Kulturkampf Thomas Kerstens and organisations that lived through the processes of contact, using them as units of historical research.9 Despite the excellent work being done to place Dutch Catholicism and its interactions with the Kulturkampf in a transnational perspective, there are still important gaps in our history of this phenomenon. De Coninck’s research did focus on the influence of German political effects on Dutch Catholics but did not include the entire period of ‘contact’; his research ends with the year 1880. 10 However, the Kulturkampf was not over yet at that time, its official end was 1887, when the German Government passed the so-called Peace Laws.11 Although de Coninck’s research looks further into Saunier’s emphasis on the ‘waxing’ and ‘waning’ of contacts between communities, it seems to end rather abruptly. The Kulturkampf reached its pinnacle with anti- Catholic laws passed from 1873, called the May Laws, but is was far from over by 1880. In 1880, 1882 and 1883 the German government passed a series of so-called Milderungsgesetzen (Laws of Mitigation) to gradually abolish the May Laws. These laws paved the road for the Peace Laws from 1887.12 Historiography on the Kulturkampf and perceptions of it in other countries has largely left out the role of the Milderungsgesetzen. This dissertation is focussed on the perception of Dutch Catholic media during the end of the Kulturkampf from 1880 to 1884. Although other segments of society stopped reporting on the Kulturkampf after 1875, the Catholics did not. This provides us with a valuable source base for investigating the Dutch Catholic perception of the Milderungsgesetzen. Dutch Catholic media will be central to this dissertation in the form of three sources. The first being Time (de Tijd), a newspaper established in 1845 in order to provide news to Catholics and make them aware of 9 Pièrre-Yves Saunier, Transnational History (New York

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