In general, however, the above quotation has proved perfectly true.Beginning from 1850, the small States were in constant retreat, serving only as levers for Prussian and Austrian intrigues.Austria and Prussia were engaged in ever-stronger struggles for supremacy.Finally, the fearful clash of 1866 took place.Austria, retaining all its provinces, subjugated, directly and indirectly, the entire north of Prussia, while leaving the fate of the three southern States in the air.
In all these grand activities of the States, only the following are of particular importance for the German working class:
First, that universal suffrage has given the workers the power to be directly represented in the legislative assemblies.
Second, that Prussia has set a good example by swallowing three crowns by the grace of God.That after this operation her own crown is maintained by the grace of God as pure as she claims it to be, not even the national liberals believe any more.
Third, that there is only one serious enemy of the Revolution in Germany at the present time -- the Prussian govemment.
Fourth, that the Austro-Germans will now be compelled to ask themselves what they wish to be, Germans or Austrians; whom they wish to adhere to, to Germany or her extraordinary transleithanian appendages.It has been obvious for a long time that they will have to give up one or the other.
Still, this has been continually glossed over by the petty-bourgeois democracy.
As to other important controversies concerning 1866 which were threshed out between the "national-liberals" and the people's party ad nauseam, coming years will show that the two standpoints fought so bitterly simply because they were the opposite poles of the same stupidity.
In the social conditions of Germany, the year 1866 has changed almost nothing.A few bourgeois reforms: uniform measures and weights, freedom of movement, freedom of trade, etc.-- all within limits befitting bureaucracy, do not even come up to that of which other western European countries have been in possession for a long while, and leaves the main evil, the system of bureaucratic concessions, unshaken.As to the proletariat, the freedom of movement, and of citizenship, the abolition of passports and other such legislation is made illusory by the current police practice.
What is much more important than the grand manoeuvres of the State in 1866 is the growth of German industry and commerce, of the railways, the telegraph, and ocean steamship navigation since 1848.This progress may be lagging behind that of England or even France, but it is unheard of for Germany, and has done more in twenty years than would have been previously possible in a century.Germany has been drawn, earnestly and irrevocably, into world commerce.Capital invested in industry has multiplied rapidly.The position of the bourgeoisie has improved accordingly.The surest sign of industrial prosperity -- speculation -- has blossomed richly, princes and dukes being chained to its triumphal chariot.German capital is now constructing Russian and Rumanian railways, whereas, only fifteen years ago, the German railways went a-begging to English entrepreneurs.
How, then, is it possible that the bourgeoisie has not conquered political power, that it behaves in so cowardly a manner toward the government?
It is the misfortune of the German bourgeoisie to have come too late -- quite in accordance with the beloved German tradition.The period of its ascendancy coincides with the time when the bourgeoisie of the other western European countries is politically on the downward path.In England, the bourgeoisie could place its real representative, Bright, into the government only by extending the franchise which in the long run is bound to put an end to its very domination.In France, the bourgeoisie, which for two years only, 1849-50, had held power as a class under the republican régime, was able to continue its social existence only by transferring its power to Louis Bonaparte and the army.Under present conditions of enormously increased interdependence of the three most progressive European countries, it is no more possible for the German bourgeoisie extensively to utilize its political power while the same class has outlived itself in England and France.It is a peculiarity of the bourgeoisie, distinguishing it from all other classes, that a point is being reached in its development after which every increase in its power, that is, every enlargement of its capital, only tends to make it more and more incapable of retaining political dominance."Behind the big bourgeoisie stand the proletarians." In the degree as the bourgeoisie develops its industry, its commerce, and its means of communication, it also produces the proletariat.At a certain point, which must not necessarily appear simultaneously and on the same stage of development everywhere, it begins to note that this, its second self, has outgrown it.From then on, it loses the power for exclusive political dominance.
It looks for allies with whom to share its authority, or to whom to cede all power, as circumstances may demand.
In Germany, this turning point came for the bourgeoisie as early as 1848.The bourgeoisie became frightened, not so much by the German, as by the French proletariat.The battle of June, 1848, in Paris, showed the bourgeoisie what could be expected.The German proletariat was restless enough to prove to the bourgeoisie that the seed of revolution had been sown also in German soil.From that day, the edge of bourgeois political action was broken.The bourgeoisie looked around for allies.It sold itself to them regardless of price, and there it remains.
