ABSTRACT
To historians of the Bielefeld school, who have reinterpreted Bismarck's politics ‘through the lens of economic interest’ (Eley, 1992: 3), 1879 is a more important date than 1871. By securing the Reichstag's assent to the protective tariffs of 1879, Bismarck won the support of a formidable alliance of industrial and agrarian capital and interest groups. This immensely strengthened the Conservative-Prussian German establishment and made any challenges to its power unlikely to succeed. This, they argue, constituted the virtual refounding of the Reich in a more authoritarian form (Wehler, 1985; Böhme, 1966). Lothar Gall, too, sees the years 1878–79 as a Wende or turning point. He argues that Bismarck renounced his role as a mediator of compromise between the Conservatives and Liberals, trade and agriculture and instead threw in his lot with the traditional classes (Gall, 1986, 2: 110).
