Prince Bismarck The German empire Author:Charles Lowe Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER XII. THE " K ULTURK A M PF." 1. With Piu liie Ninth. No man knows his Shakespeare better than Prince Bismarck, and soon after his return to pries... more »t, be- ware your Berlin, with the Treaty of Frankfort in his beard r pocket, we can imagine him muttering with Gloucester : " Priest, beware your beard ; I mean to tug it and to cuff you soundly ; Under my feet I stamp thy cardinal's hat: In spite of Pope and dignities of Church Here, by the cheeks, I'll drag thee up and down." The Empire which had been raised required to be consolidated, to be secured against the assaults of external and internal foes. A strong, re-organised army would keep effectual watch on the Rhine and on the Niemen, but what would prevail against the rancorous powers of the Devil and of Darkness ? Germany had scarcely reached the goal of her political aspirations when these powers began to work their baneful will upon her; Bismarck had not long risen triumphant from his " deadly close " with France, when he became locked First irt of Heury VI., Act I., Scene 3. in mortal combat with Borne—when Prussia and the Papacy plunged into the furious " Kulturkampf." But what is the meaning of " Kulturkampf," it may be asked ? Well, Kultur is the German word for " culture," "civilisation," "progress of the race;" and Kawpf signifies " battle." Kulturkampf. therefore, Meaning of anMm!uyo.fd nust mean " civilisation-battle." Good. But is the battled/or, or against civilisation ? The Protestants take the former view, while the Catholics— forming one-third of the population of Germany—are equally strenuous in affirming the latter. In any case the word, it seems, was first coined in the former sense by Professor Virchow, the hero of the trichina and the cellular system of physiology—a m...« less