ABSTRACT
On the occasion of the German Emperor's silver jubilee in 1913, a weighty collection of articles was brought out by a number of German writers, under the title Soziale Kultur und Wolkswohlfahrt während der ersten 25 Regier-ungsjahre Kaiser Wilhelms II [Social Culture and National Welfare in the First 25 Years of the Reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II]. Apart from its general retrospective interest, this work, if I am not mistaken, also had a political purpose. The policies of the German government, which until then had been peaceful and on some occasions had involved making concessions, at least in substance, had aroused increasingly lively opposition in leading circles (sponsored, it was claimed, by the crown prince of Germany); such policies were considered to be incapable of securing for the great German Empire a position in the world commensurate with its population and military power. In opposition to these pessimists', the aim of this volume was (I presume) to demonstrate the exuberant, indeed, unprecedented growth in all fields to which precisely this peaceful era had led Germany.
