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Conservatives listened to his wild charges in uncomfortthe barbarian movement appeared destined to carry everyable silence, and refused to support him. Stoecker thing before it. ... German politics at this moment were in a very intricate opposed him in a violent speech. The Radicals and state. Prince Bismarck had retired, and Count Caprivi, Socialists, taking an accurate measure of the shallow with a programme of general conciliation based on Liberal vanity of the man, adopted the policy of giving him principles, was in power. Alarmed by the non-renewal of “ enough rope.” Shortly after his election he was conthe anti-Socialist law, and by the conclusion of commercial demned to five months’ imprisonment for libel, and he treaties which made great concessions to German industry, would have been arrested but for the interposition of the the landed gentry and the Conservative party became Socialist party, including five Jews, who claimed for him alienated from the new chancellor. In January 1892 the the immunities of a member of parliament. When he split was completed by the withdrawal by the Government moved for a commission to inquire into his revelations, it of the Primary Education Bill, which had been designed was again the Socialist party which supported him, with to place primary instruction on a religious basis. The the result that all his charges, without exception, were Conservatives saw their opportunity of posing as the party found to be absolutely baseless. Ahlwardt was covered of Christianity against the Liberals and Socialists, who had with ridicule, and when in May the Reichstag was diswrecked the Bill, and they began to look towards Ahlwardt solved, he was marched off to prison to undergo the as a possible ally. He had the advantages over Stoecker sentence for libel from which his parliamentary privilege that he was not a Socialist, and that he was prepared to had up to that moment protected him. His hold on the anti-Semitic populace was, however, lead his apparently large following to assist the agrarian not diminished. On the contrary, the action of the movement and weaken the Social Democrats. The intrigue gradually cams to light. Towards the end of the year Conservatives at the Tivoli Congress could not be at once Herr Liebknecht, the Social Democratic leader, denounced eradicated from the minds of the Conservative voters, and the Conservatives to the Reichstag as being concerned “ in when the electoral campaign began it was found impossible using the anti-Semitic movement as a bastard edition of to explain to them that the party leaders had changed Socialism for the use of stupid people ” (1st December). their minds. The result was that Ahlwardt, although in Two days later the charge was confirmed. At a meeting prison, was elected by two constituencies. At Arnswalde of the party held on 3rd December the following plank Friedeberg he was returned in the teeth of the opposition was added to the Conservative programme : “We combat of the official Conservatives, and at Men - Stettin he the oppressive and disintegrating Jewish influence on our defeated no less a person than his anti-Semitic opponent national life; we demand for our Christian people a Stoecker. Seventeen other anti - Semites, all of the Christian magistracy and Christian teachers for Christian Ahlwardtian school, were elected. This, however, reprepupils; we repudiate the excesses of anti-Semitism.” In sented the extreme strength of the anti-Semitic party in pursuance of this resolution Ahlwardt was returned to the Germany; for henceforth it had to stand alone as one of Reichstag at a by-election by the Conservative district of the many minor factions in the Reichstag, avoided by all Arnswalde-Friedeberg. The coalition was, however, not the great parties, and too weak to exercise any influence yet completed. The intransigeant Conservatives, led by on the main course of affairs. During the subsequent seven years it became more and Baron von Hammerstein, the editor of the Kreuz-Zeitung, justly felt that the concluding sentence of the resolution of more discredited. The financial scandals connected with 3rd December repudiating “ the excesses of anti-Semitism ” Foerster’s attempt to found a Christian Socialist colony in was calculated to hinder a full and loyal co-operation Paraguay, the conviction of Baron von Hammerstein, the between the two parties. Accordingly on 9th December anti-Semitic Conservative leader, of forgery and swindanother meeting of the party was summoned. Twelve ling (1895-96), and several minor scandals pf the same hundred members met at the Tivoli Hall in Berlin, and unsavoury character, covered the party with the very with only seven dissentients solemnly expunged the obloquy which it had attempted to attach to the Jews. offending sentence from the resolution. The history of At the same time the Christian Socialists who had political parties may be searched in vain for a parallel to remained with the Conservative party also suffered. After the elections of 1893, Stoecker was dismissed from this discreditable transaction. The capture of the Conservative party proved the high- his post of Court Preacher, and publicly reprimanded for water mark of German anti-Semitism. From that moment speaking familiarly of the empress. Two years later the the tide began to recede. All that was best in German Christian Socialist Pastor Neumann, observing the national life was scandalized by the cynical tactics of the tendency of the Conservatives to coalesce with the Conservatives. The emperor, strong Christian though he moderate Liberals in antagonism to Social Democracy, was, was shocked at the idea of serving Christianity by declared against the Conservative party. The following a compact with unscrupulous demagogues and ignorant year the emperor publicly condemned Christian Socialism fanatics. Prince Bismarck growled out a stinging sarcasm and the “political pastors,” and Stoecker was expelled from his retreat at Friedrichsruh. Even Stoecker raised from the Conservative party for refusing to modify the his voice in protest against the “ Ahlwardtismus ” and socialistic propaganda of his organ, Das Volk. His fall “ Boeckelianismus,” and called upon his Conservative was completed by a quarrel with the Evangelical Social colleagues to distinguish between “respectable and dis- Union. He left the Union and appealed to the Lutheran reputable anti - Semitism.” As for the Liberals and clergy to found a new Church social organization, but met Socialists, they filled the air with bitter laughter, and with no response. Another blow to anti-Semitism came declared from the housetops that the stupid party had from the Roman Catholics. They had become alarmed by at last been overwhelmed by its own stupidity. The the unbridled violence of the Ahlwardtians, and when in Conservatives began to suspect that they had made a false 1894 Foerster declared in an address to the German antistep, and they were confirmed in this belief by the conduct Semitic Union that anarchical outrages like the murder of of their new ally in the Reichstag. His debut in parlia- president Carnot were as much due to the “ Anarchismus ment was the signal for a succession of disgraceful scenes. von oben ” as the “ Anarchismus von unten,” the UltraHis whole campaign of calumny was transferred to the montane Germania publicly washed its hands of the Jewfloor of the house, and for some weeks the Reichstag dis- baiters (1st July 1894). Thus gradually German anticussed little else than his so-called revelations. The Semitism became stripped of every adventitious alliance;
