In the so-called Kulturkampf ( 1872 – 1878 ), he tried to limit the influence of the Roman Catholic Church and of its political arm, the Catholic Centre Party, through various measures — like the introduction of civil marriage — but without much success.

The concept of a " culture war " has been in use in English since at least its adoption as a calque ( loan translation ) to refer to the German Kulturkampf (" cultural struggle " or " struggle between cultures "; literally, " battle of cultures "), the campaign from 1871 to 1878 under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of the German Empire against the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.

He supported the government in its attempts to subdue by legislation the Socialists, Poles and Catholics ( Kulturkampf ).

The Kulturkampf was not, however, a spontaneous popular occurrence, but “ a campaign against the Catholic Church conducted through the law, with the police and bureaucracy as its principal agents ”, the legality of which gave it its “ sinister character ”:

In the Kulturkampf, mainly Protestant Prussia sought to reduce the Catholic impact on its society.

It was distinguished from the German Conservative Party established in 1876 by its unqualified support of German unification, and was seen as the political party which beside the National Liberals was closest in views to those of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, including his Anti-Socialist Laws and Kulturkampf policies.

The Upper German or Bavarian province, which was under the ban of the Kulturkampf, has recovered some of its lost ground.

In the ecclesiastico-political battles in which Archbishop Hermann Bikari became involved with the Government of Baden for its active adherence to the Kulturkampf policy, Zell was the archbishop's constant adviser and active assistant.

Caprivi also lost the support of the National Liberals and Progressives in a legislative defeat of 1892 on an educational bill providing denominational board schools, a failed attempt to re-integrate the Catholic Centre Party after the Kulturkampf.

The Kulturkampf measures also targeted the Catholic Poles in Silesia, a part of Prussia.

The Catholic Encyclopedia also claims that the Kulturkampf was instigated by Masonic lodges.

The word " Kulturkampf " has also been used to refer to similar cultural conflicts in other times and places.

Following Bismarck's 1878 turn from free trade to protectionism and from the National Liberal party to the Conservative parties, he also abandoned the unsuccessful Kulturkampf.

Poles under Russian and German rule also endured official campaigns against the Roman Catholic Church: the Cultural Struggle ( Kulturkampf ) of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to bring the Roman Catholic Church under state control and the Russian campaign to extend Orthodoxy throughout the empire.

Through the years 1877 – 1887 List was also working on his first book-length ( two-volume ) effort, Carnuntum, an historical novel based on his vision of the Kulturkampf between the Germanic and Roman worlds centred at Carnuntum around the year 375 CE that was published in 1888 by the Wannieck family's organisation and publishing house Verein " Deutsche Haus " (" German House " Association )< ref name =" google. co. uk ">

There is also a question regarding possible personal antipathy towards Poles behind Bismarck's motivation in pursuing the Kulturkampf.

In 1871 – 1878 Bismarck launched the " Kulturkampf " in Prussia to reduce the power of the Catholic Church in public affairs, and keep the Poles under control.

He abandoned the Kulturkampf in 1878 to preserve his remaining political capital ; indeed, he needed the Centre Party votes in his new battle against socialism.

He waged a culture war ( Kulturkampf ) against the Catholic Church until he realized the conservatism of the Catholics made them natural allies against the Socialists.

Under Otto von Bismarck, the anti-Catholic Kulturkampf in Prussia led to massive reprisals against the Church.

After the First Vatican Council, Bismarck launched the Kulturkampf or " cultural struggle " against the Catholic Church.

The Kulturkampf had reinforced the Catholic character of the Centre Party, but even during it Ludwig Windthorst had defended the party against Bismarck's accusation of being a " denominational party " in describing the Centre as " a political party with a comprehensive political programme and open to anyone, who accepts it ".

On the subject of Pat Buchanan's famously combative Culture War Speech at the 1992 Republican Convention, which attracted controversy over Buchanan's aggressive rhetoric against Bill Clinton, liberals, supporters of reproductive and gay rights, and for his comparison of American politics to religious warfare, Ivins famously quipped that the speech had " probably sounded better in the original German ," noting the similarity between the concept of " culture war " and the Kulturkampf of Otto von Bismarck's Germany.

The destruction of Polish landownership combined with the fight against the Polish clergy ( Kulturkampf ) was to achieve the elimination of a Polish national identity.

* Intensified by Bismarck during his Kulturkampf against Catholicism and Polish people

At the end of this time he was jailed for four months for preaching against socialism during the Kulturkampf.

In the Kulturkampf he sided with the government against the attacks of the Clericals, whom he bitterly denounced, and whose implacable enemy he ever showed himself.

In 1872 he was made minister of education, and in connection with Otto von Bismarck's policy of the Kulturkampf he was responsible for the May Laws or Falk Laws against the Catholics.

Specific societal questions addressed by the Polish Positivists included the establishment of equal rights for all members of society, including peasants and women ; the assimilation of Poland's Jewish minority ; the illiteracy rates among ordinary citizens resulting from the closure of Polish schools by the occupying powers, and the defense of Polish population in the German-ruled part of Poland against Kulturkampf and their violent displacement by German government.

According to Cornwell, Hitler was obsessed by a fear of German Catholics who, politically united by the Center Party, had defeated Otto von Bismarck's Kulturkampf, during the " culture struggle " against the Catholic Church in the 1870s.

The Kulturkampf ( 1871 – 1878 ), enacted by the Prime Minister of Prussia Otto von Bismarck against the Catholic Church, closed the houses in Alsace and in several German-speaking states.

" Kulturkampf and Unification: German Liberalism and the War against the Jesuits.

Still, it rejected Bismarck's " Kulturkampf " against the Catholic Church as well as the Anti-Socialist Laws.

German actions like Kulturkampf, the program of Germanization started to unite and mobilize Polish people in Polish inhabited territories held by Germany including Masuria A Polish-oriented party, the Mazurska Partia Ludowa (" Mazur People's Party "), was founded in 1897.

As the Kulturkampf declined, debates about the character of the party emerged culminating in the Centre dispute, in 1906, after Julius Bachem had published the article " We must get out of the tower!

Though predominantly Protestant the party opposed the Kulturkampf, but approached to Bismarck when during the Long Depression the chancellor began to implement protectionist policies by restricting corn imports from Russia and the United States.

From 1870 until his death he stood at the head of the new Centre Party, in both the Reichstag and the Prussian Landtag, that party gaining strength during the Kulturkampf.

At the same time Bismarck tried to reduce the political influence of the emancipated Catholic minority in the Kulturkampf, literally " culture struggle ".

Bismarck saw the Kulturkampf as a means of stopping this trend, which was led by the Catholic clergy in West Prussia, Poznania and Silesia.

The Catholic anti-liberalism was led by Pope Pius IX ; his death in 1878 allowed Bismarck to open negotiations with Pope Leo XIII, and led to the abandonment of the Kulturkampf in stages in the early 1880s.

Bismarck launched an anti-Catholic Kulturkampf (" culture struggle ") in Prussia in 1871.

Bismarck, a devout pietistic Protestant, was alarmed that secularists and socialists were using the Kulturkampf to attack all religion.

* Otto von Bismarck abandons his Kulturkampf and forces through legislation outlawing the Social Democrats.

The Kulturkampf ended about 1880 with a new pope willing to negotiate with Bismarck, and with the departure of the anti-Catholic Liberals from his coalition.

The Kulturkampf launched by Bismarck in 1872 affected Prussia ; although there were similar movements in Baden and Hesse the rest of Germany was not affected.

Bismarck realized his Kulturkampf was a failure when secular and socialist elements began using the opportunity to attack all religion.

*“ Bismarck ’ s Failure: the Kulturkampf ” long description

* Bismarck ’ s Domestic Polices 1871-1890 Kulturkampf in the context of Bismarck's entire domestic policies, by a head of history at Catholic University School in Dublin

* Bismarck on the purpose of the Kulturkampf Speech in the Prussian House of Lords, March 10, 1873

Between 1871 and 1887 Bismarck sought to restrict the power of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, whom he regarded as “ the enemy within ”, through a Kulturkampf ( cultural struggle ) which included the disbanding of Catholic organisations, confiscation of church property, banishment or imprisonment of clergy and an ongoing feud with the Vatican.

The Catholic Church's firm resistance to Bismarck and Kulturkampf, including passive resistance by the Church in general and the excommunication of collaborating priests, has been used as benchmark for assessing the Church's response to the Nazis from the early 1930s through World War II.

In early 1933, Hitler told Herman Rauschning that Bismarck had been stupid in starting a Kulturkampf and outlined his own strategy for dealing with the clergy which would based initially on a policy of toleration:

Otto von Bismarck, during his so-called " Kulturkampf ," assured his countrymen that " We will not go to Canossa – neither in body nor in spirit!

Ethnic tensions were exacerbated by the Germanisation policies of the Berlin government and the anti-Catholic Kulturkampf measures enacted by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.

Under German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck renewed Germanisation policies began, such as an increase of police forces, a colonization commission, and the Kulturkampf.