Having defeated Denmark, Austria and France in three wars, having united Germany, having bullied the King of Prussia to accept the imperial crown and having governed the country for 12 years, the “Blood and Iron Chancellor”, Otto von Bismarck, the father of Realpolitik, introduced social legislation in 1883 that made Germany the first welfare state in history.
To achieve this he worked with Big Business. His purpose was to win the support of the workers for the Junkers’ government and to take the wind out of the socialists’ sails. In introducing his bill to the Reichstag, he had used the term “practical Christianity.”
The first step, health insurance, was established on a local basis, with the cost divided between employers and the employed. The employers contributed one third, the workers contributed two thirds. The minimum payments for medical treatment and sick pay for up to 13 weeks were legally fixed. The individual local health bureaus were administered by a committee elected by its members.
It so happened that this arrangement had the unintended consequence of favouring the workers, who now achieved their first legal opportunity to participate in making decisions about their own lives. It, therefore, strengthened the social democrats. This, of course, was the last thing Bismarck wanted though he predicted that after his death “state socialism would ‘push itself through.’” (Der Staatssozialismus paukt sich durch.)
And it also had the effect that the rate of emigration by German workers to the United States went down dramatically.
Twenty years earlier, in 1863, just after becoming Ministerpräsident and foreign minister of Prussia, Bismarck had a number of private conversations with the charismatic, elegant and brilliant leader of the first social democratic party in Europe, Ferdinand Lasalle. (Two years later he was killed in a duel over a woman.) Lasalle viewed the emerging bourgeois parties as more inimical to the working class than the aristocracy, and hence he supported universal manhood suffrage at a time when the liberals preferred a limited, property-based suffrage, which excluded the working class. With that aspect of Lasalle’s program Bismarck was in fundamental agreement.
The conversations with Lasalle undoubtedly left a deep imprint in Bismarck’s mind and it is assumed that the introduction of his social legislation in 1882 was a direct result.
The English novelist George Meredith wrote a novel about the last phase of Lasalle’s life, The Tragic Comedians. When dealing wit his encounters with Bismarck he put these thoughts into Lasalle’s mind:
“We agreed we were on neutral ground for the moment, that he might ultimately have to decapitate me and I to banish him. But temporarily we could compare our plans for governing…. I love him for his love of commonsense, his contempt for mean deceit. He will outwit you, but his dexterity is a giant’s…. He and I proposed, each of us in the mildest manner, contrary schemes – schemes to stiffen the hair of Europe! Enough that we parted with mutual respect. He is fine fellow, but so was my friend Emperor Tiberius, and so was Richelieu….”
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
Bismarck was the first of the so-called “Red Tories” who believed that there were social and economics obligations that come with the rank. The British Conservative Party is in the process of de-Thatcherizing itself thanks to the writings of one Mr. Philip Blond http://www.respublica.org.uk/ who is now touring the US trying to educate Republicans. Will he get on Fox or just on NPR?
Well, Obama was on Fox. Why not Blond?
Although the new US health-care plan is imperfect, it may have been a harder task for Obama than it was for Bismarck. It is reported that, in a lecture, under the auspices of the Fabian Society, on November 25, 1932, in a statement that may be equally applicable to the US Congeress, George Bernard Shaw said, “What is the function of Parliament in this country it was? It is to prevent the Government from governing.”
What a nice quote from Shaw.
I wonder what you will think of tomorrow’s blog.
The quotation should have read: “What is the function of Parliament in this country? It is to prevent the Government from governing.” Might it not apply to the current Canadian Parliament?
Yes, of course. Parliament will naturally perform that role whenever there is a minority government.
Minority governments are not necessarily bad. One of the best governments Canada ever had was under Pearson, when he had a minority government. Austria had many minority governments and they work very well, because they have learned to respect each other, which can not be said about the present Canadian government. In Austria many members of government are ex civil servants which I presume gives them a better understand how government works. Many Canadian members of government are unqualified for any job.