In these circumstances we need not wonder that a profound and brooding discontent began to occupy the best German minds. A Fatherland which was disunited at home and weak abroad, princely despotisms which fostered servility and raised a barrier to progress, backward methods and institutions which were all the more galling when contrasted with the pre-eminence which Germany had attained in literature and philosophy—how could any patriot be satisfied with such a wretched condition of affairs? Thus it happened that Germany took a leading part in the revolutionary troubles of 1848. Both at Vienna and Berlin the old régime was for a time overturned; and a national Parliament met at Frankfort. But the German reformers were not united; they had no clear aims; and there was little or no material strength behind them. The reaction had been taken by surprise. But it wielded the organised military power, and so was able to act whilst the Liberals talked and proposed. Before the troubled year had come to a close the reaction was triumphant both in Vienna and Berlin.
Then a time of darkness which could be felt, and which apparently was as hopeless as ever, followed in Germany. Parliaments were dispersed. Many who had shared in the struggle were put to death or imprisoned. In 1849 Switzerland counted within her borders as many as 11,000 German refugees, most of whom eventually found a home in America. It appeared as if only one failure the more had been made in the toilsome march of human progress.
But it was not an entire failure. The revolutionary disturbances had at least proved that many of the old institutions were untenable, and must in whole or in part be removed. It was found necessary to make some concessions to Liberalism. Much of the old feudalism was set aside.
Above all, both in the middle and working class there had arisen a new spirit which only awaited the opportunity that was sure to come. The opportunity arrived a few years afterwards, when the forces which have made the Germany of to-day came into action. In the new circumstances it was an interesting question how far the bourgeoisie and the working class could march together. It is a standing charge brought against German Liberalism by the Social Democrats, that it has never led the progressive forces against the reaction with any degree of courage or resolution. They maintain that in the revolutionary struggles of 1848 the German Liberals never trusted the working class, that when the choice came to be made between the reaction and a strenuous democratic policy supported by the proletariat, they preferred to transact with the reaction, and so committed treason on the sacred cause of progress. On this question largely turns the history of recent German politics. It is a wide and complicated question which can be rightly answered only by due consideration of the facts of the historical situation.
The middle class had triumphed both in France and England. But the industrial revolution which naturally brings with it the rule of the middle class, was in Germany much later than in France and England. In 1848 the German middle class was still in its infancy, and had neither the insight nor the material means to lead the democracy against the reaction with any prospect of success; nor was it reasonable to expect that it should.
Further, it may be maintained that the German working class, following the example of their French brethren, has been too ready to enter on revolutionary courses, and by thus exciting the alarm and suspicion of all sober-minded men, has done vital injury to the cause of rational and hopeful progress. There can be no doubt that for those who are bent on revolutionary courses, and those who are content with what is usually comprehended under the name of liberalism, the parting of the ways must come sooner or later. That is no reason why the parting should be premature. If they can with mutual advantage make their way along a common road against their common enemy, feudalism and the reaction, why should they not do so?
Unfortunately for German Liberals and the energetic Democratic party, there was no common way. The parting came at the very outset, and it may be regarded as inevitable. The chief aim of the Democrats was universal suffrage, and for a time at least universal suffrage in Germany, as in France, meant the strengthening of Conservatism. In Germany, as in France, universal suffrage would give the deciding power at the polls to the peasantry and the rural population generally which were under the control of the reaction, and which largely outnumbered the urban population. The German Liberals did not wish universal suffrage, as it was not in their interest. They treated the working men and their leaders with scant courtesy or consideration. They wished to utilise them as subordinates, or, at the best, as dependent allies. If the workmen were not willing to be thus treated, the Liberals were ready to show them the door.
The working men were not willing to be so treated, and they turned to Lassalle, with the result which we have already briefly narrated. As time went on the gulf between Liberals and Democrats widened, and the democratic working men became Social Democrats. It was a breach which may fairly be regarded as extremely hurtful to the sound political development of Germany. On one hand it has led to the result that the German middle class has never with resolution and comprehensiveness of purpose led the democracy along the path on which a really free German State might have been established. Partly from choice, partly from the necessities of its position, the German middle class has followed the policy of making for itself the best terms it could with the reaction; and the socialists say that this meant the sacrifice of democratic ideals to the material interests of the middle class. ‘The treason of the bourgeoisie,’ ‘the abdication by the bourgeoisie’ of its historic place at the head of the democratic movement: these phrases sum up the worst accusations brought by the Social Democrats against the German middle class.
On the other hand, the working men, finding themselves neglected or repudiated by those who, according to the natural laws of historical development, should for a time at least have been their leaders, gave ear, it may be prematurely, to men of revolutionary views and antecedents like Lassalle and Karl Marx; and in this manner was formed a revolutionary party which in many ways has not had a salutary organic relation to the main stream of German life. It is in fact the reaction which has profited by the division between the bourgeoisie and the working class.