Tirpitz and the Imperial German Navy

8. On the Verge of Power, 1895–1897

103 The Growth of Germany after 1871 When William II became Emperor in 1888, Germany was in the midst of explosive population and economic growth.1 Between 1871 and 1910 the population of the Empire grew from 41 million to 65 million. Urban dwellers more than doubled and the annual population growth was 1 percent, after emigration slowed down in the early 1880s. Coal production grew sevenfold, and iron and steel production even faster, so that by 1900 German industrial power had caught up to that of Great Britain. Globally Germany was second only to the even faster-growing United States. Foreign trade grew alongside industry. Exports of industrial goods and imports, principally foodstuffs and raw materials, became increasingly important to the economy. Burgeoning growth continued in the German merchant marine, although the vast bulk of foreign trade was with other European countries.2 There was a concomitant growth of an industrial working class. The discriminatory three-class voting system within Prussia muted the number of seats of Social Democrats, but in the Imperial Reichstag the Socialist vote rose from 1.4 million in 1890 to 2.1 million in 1898, 27 percent of the total. The geographic distribution of seats, unchanged since 1871, limited Socialist seats to 56 (of 397) in 1898; but the trend of growing legislative representation seemed clear to contemporaries, as frightening to parties of the right as it was heartening to those of the left. The largest single party, the Center, represented Catholic interests and consistently won about 100 seats. Conservatives worried about how these two parties, 8 On the Verge of Power, 1895–1897 104 Tirpitz and the Imperial German Navy anathematized by Bismarck as “enemies of the Reich,” would function in the post-Bismarck era. In 1884 Germany joined other European powers with the sudden acquisition of a substantial colonial empire. For complicated diplomatic and domestic political reasons, at the Congress of Berlin Bismarck acquired Togoland, the Cameroons, German Southwest Africa, German East Africa, and eventually the Marshall Islands, part of New Guinea, and a number of the Solomon Islands.3 Bismarck saw colonies as a means to occupy his European rivals abroad, and showed little interest in them for their own sake. The accession of William II and his dismissal of Bismarck in 1890 seemed to signal a great shift of attitude, but the exchange of Zanzibar and its environs for Helgoland in July 1890 greatly disappointed colonial enthusiasts.4 Despite fashionable talk of “world policy” (Weltpolitik ) and “world empire” (Weltreich), Germany seemed to be treading water rather than gaining new colonies. Caprivi as Chancellor, 1890–1894 On 17 March 1890, to general surprise, William II appointed Count Leo von Caprivi, formerly Chief of the Admiralty, to be Imperial Chancellor. The expectation had been that the Emperor, once he shed Bismarck, would appoint a compliant puppet. Instead, Caprivi had a reputation as a moderate and as a man of personal integrity, who had resigned from the Admiralty in protest against the Emperor’s meddling.5 Perhaps the erratic William II picked a relatively strong Chancellor in fear of a backlash from the supporters of Bismarck, who was sulking in retirement.6 Caprivi reluctantly undertook the Chancellorship in the spirit of a soldier sacrificing for his king. Innocent of intrigue, he was surrounded by schemers like Friedrich von Holstein, the gray eminence at the Foreign Office, and Johannes von Miquel. Despite the mercurial Emperor and conniving politicians, recent research has suggested that Caprivi had at least a rudimentary idea of a grand strategy for Germany.7 Caprivi saw that the Bismarckian alliance system was untenable in the long term because of its inherent contradictions. He therefore supported William II’s decision to drop the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia, although he recognized that the consequence of this was a rapprochement and, by 1894, a defensive alliance between France and Russia. He also understood that German policy had to take into account domestic On the Verge of Power, 1895–1897 105 changes owing to massive industrialization. In the long run he feared a two-front war with France and Russia8 but, since his aims were purely defensive, he did not favor, as some did, preventive war. One obvious step was to strengthen the army, which he accomplished in the Army Bill of 1893. His naval experience enabled him, unlike his predecessor, to look beyond purely land war. Industrialization had made Germany far more...