How Did Bismarck Meet a Miserable End?

Among the major issues of the modern era, the social security system is a topic that is mentioned repeatedly. Then who was the first person to establish a modern social security system? Surprisingly, it was certainly not a socialist. It was none other than Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of the German Empire, known as the Iron Chancellor. He was a highly conservative figure from the Junker class.

At the time, 19th-century Germany had a weak social foundation, yet using the indemnity extracted from France after the Franco-Prussian War as a base, it succeeded in industrializing relatively later than the other great powers, while also achieving remarkable economic growth under a liberal system.

Meanwhile, in 1875, socialist forces formed a political party and emerged in the German Empire. In response, Chancellor Bismarck did not compromise with the socialists; instead, he enacted the Anti-Socialist Laws (1878), suppressing socialists and other anti-regime forces within Germany.

Before long, however, an economic downturn hit Germany. Chancellor Bismarck and the German government were alarmed by the surge in unemployment. The socialist forces seized the opportunity and gradually expanded their influence within Germany.

In the end, after much deliberation, Chancellor Bismarck devised two contradictory policies: the so-called whip (Peitsche) and sugar bread (Zuckerbrot). For workers who had not joined socialist parties, he implemented the three major social security systems—health insurance, accident insurance, and old-age insurance—through the enactment of the Health Insurance Act (1883), the Industrial Accident Insurance Act (1884), and the Old Age and Disability Insurance Act (1889).

This was the origin of the first modern social security system and had a considerable influence on today’s welfare policies. For this reason, Bismarck’s welfare policy has sometimes been used as grounds for the claim that “welfare policy was first implemented not by the socialist left, but by the conservative right.”

However, Chancellor Bismarck’s intentions at the time were different. Through the welfare policies mentioned above, he sought to weaken the driving force behind socialist struggle. In particular, his famous remark, “Old people are easily persuaded if you give them money,” clearly shows that he had fallen into populism. For this reason, some have defined Bismarck’s welfare policy as “a kind of bribe given to the people by those in power in order to secure a certain level of support.”

Yet Bismarck achieved none of what he intended through these welfare policies. On the contrary, in 1890 the Anti-Socialist Laws were repealed, and the socialist party in Germany officially adopted the Marxist line. Most workers who benefited from welfare fell into the temptation of believing that “under a socialist system, they could enjoy even greater benefits than this.” And Chancellor Bismarck was ultimately dismissed by the newly enthroned Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Bismarck, who in his early years had even aligned himself with liberalism, increasingly came to suppress liberalism in his later years by adopting policies such as protective tariffs, and he even persecuted the Church. In the end, he lost the ideological war against socialism and was rejected by entrepreneurs, the Church, and the mainstream establishment as well. Thereafter, Bismarck’s welfare policy came to be framed not only against criticism as populism but also as a social right. In any case, it is an undeniable fact that Chancellor Bismarck met a miserable end.

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Original title: 비스마르크는 어떻게 비참한 최후를 맞이했나

Author: Seong-woo Jung

Date: 2020-11-13

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=free_opinion&pn=13&idx=23233