What was second reich

Words nearby Second Reich second position , second quantum number , second-rate , Second Reader , second reading , Second Reich , Second Republic , second row , second self , second service , second sex. How to use Second Reich in a sentence Gunshots rang out in Paris this morning on a second day of deadly violence that has stunned the French capital. The Shadowy U.

The Wave Algernon Blackwood. The Giant of the North R. The Kaiser had to contend with a parliament elected by the people in a secret vote. The people were represented in a parliament having limited control over the Kaiser. As had been the tradition in Prussia, the Kaiser controlled foreign policy and the army through his handpicked ministers, who formed the government and prepared legislation. About one-third of its seats were held by Prussians. Conceived as an upper house to the Reichstag, the Bundesrat, like the Reichstag, was required to vote on legislation drawn up by the government before it became law.

The Reichstag had no power to draft legislation. The Second Reich was only semi-democratic, but the progressive half was growing in strength and confidence. It stood every chance to make further progress by building on the concessions it had already forced. By acknowledging that, we begin to look at the question that matters: how did this half-democracy perish?

Now was not the time for internal strife; now was the time for national unity. Even Hugo Haase, a leading socialist with strong pacifist convictions, declared his support by explaining that he would not let the fatherland down in its hour of need. All parties signed an Enabling Act on 4 August that effectively turned Germany into a military dictatorship overnight. But let us not forget that this too was temporary. In and , the German people began to see through the charade of a defensive war, and they wanted peace.

Was the Second Reich a fully functioning democracy? Of course not, but neither was it a military dictatorship with passive subjects who complacently watched on as their kaiser steered Germany onto a warpath.

We need to acknowledge this system as the semi-democracy that it was so that we can hold it up as a mirror and reflect on the dangers that threaten modern democracies.

It is a dangerous narrative that allows us to be complacent with our democracies when it is clear that they face increasing internal and external threats. So rather than assuming that all-German democratic history starts with the fall of the Berlin Wall in and has now reached a state of secure completeness, we should be brave enough to look back at its democratic origins and investigate why they failed.

Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian and bestselling author. She specialises in the history of modern Germany with a focus on the Second Reich. Sign in. Back to Main menu Virtual events Masterclasses. Otto von Bismarck was instrumental in the creation of a unified German state and was among the most influential politicians of late 19th-century Europe. Photo by Getty Images. More on: Europe.