Britain in coal production, by 1914 Germany
had almost closed the gap and, after the US and
Britain, was the third industrial power in the
world. Coal, iron and steel, produced in ever
larger quantities, provided the basis for Ger-
many’s leap forward, challenging Britain’s role as
Europe’s leader.
Between 1871 and 1914 the value of Ger-
many’s agricultural output doubled, the value of
its industrial production quadrupled and its over-
seas trade more than tripled. Germany’s progress
aroused anxieties among its neighbours, but there
was also cooperation and a recognition that the
progress of one European nation would, in fact,
enrich the others. Germany was catching up with
Britain, the pioneer of the industrial revolution,
but Britain and Germany were also important
trading partners.
Unlike Britain, the German Empire was trans-
formed in a relatively short time from a well-
ordered, mainly rural country to a modern
industrial nation. In contrast with its industrial
progress, the pace of Germany’s political devel-
opment was slow, deliberately retarded by its
ruling men. The government of the Prussian-
German Monarchy after 1871 was a mixture of
traditional mid-nineteenth-century institutions,
together with an imperial parliament – the
Reichstag – more in harmony with the new
democratic age. But the old traditional Junker
society found allies after 1871 among the big
industrialists in its opposition to the advance of
democracy. The cleavage so created between the
powerful few and the rest of society, in the name
of maintaining the power of the Crown, was
responsible for the continuation of social and
political divisions in Wilhelmine Germany down
to the outbreak of war.
The foundations of the empire were fashioned
by Otto von Bismarck. He was aware of the
dangers facing the recently unified country at
home and abroad and juggled the opposing forces
and contradictions with manipulative brilliance
but ultimately without success. Internal unifica-
tion was successful. Just sufficient autonomy
was left to the twenty-five states, with the illusion
of influence, to satisfy them. Prussia was by far
the most powerful of all; the chancellor of
Germany was usually also the prime minister of
Prussia. The autonomy of the states also limited
the degree of democratic control. The ‘English
system’ of representative government was anath-
ema to Bismarck. Democratic aspirations were sat-
isfied by the elections of the Reichstag on the
most democratic franchise in the world, every
adult male had the vote and Germany was divided
into equal electorates of one hundred thousand
people. The trick was to limit the powers of the
Reichstag by restricting its powers of taxation, and
reserving taxes on income to the undemocratic
state parliaments. Prussia’s was elected by three
classes of electors, the wealthiest few electing as
many representatives as the poorest masses. The
chancellor of the empire, who appointed the min-
isters, was not dependent on the Reichstag but
was appointed by the emperor. He could juggle18 SOCIAL CHANGE AND NATIONAL RIVALRY IN EUROPE, 1900–14
Coal, iron and steel production in Germany and Britain (annual averages)1875–9 1910–13
Germany Britain Germany Britain
Coal and lignite 49.9 135.7 251.5 292.0
(million metric tons)
Pig iron 1,791.0 6,483.0 14,829.0 9,792.0
(thousand metric tons)
Steel 0.97* 1.82 15.34 6.94
(million metric tons)* (1880–4).