kulturkampf

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A conflict between secular and religious authorities, especially the struggle between the Roman Catholic Church and the German government under Bismarck
(German; "culture struggle") Bitter struggle by Otto von Bismarck to subject the Roman Catholic church to state controls. Bismarck, a staunch Protestant, doubted the loyalty of Catholics in his new German Empire and became concerned by the Vatican Council's 1870 proclamation on papal infallibility. In 1872 the state dissolved the Jesuit order in Germany. The May, or Falk, Laws of 1873 (applying only to Prussia) limited church powers, and in 1875 the state mandated civil marriage services. Bismarck retreated in the face of strong Catholic resistance, especially by the Center Party. By 1887, with many anti-Catholic laws repealed, Pope Leo XIII declared the conflict over
Lit
culture war; a name, originating with Virchow (1821 1902), given to a struggle between the the Roman Catholic Church and the German government, chiefly over the latter's efforts to control educational and ecclesiastical appointments in the interest of the political policy of centralization
Opposition eventually compelled the government to change its policy, and from 1880 to 1887 laws virtually nullifying the May laws were enacted
The struggle began with the passage by the Prussian Diet in May, 1873, of the so-called May laws, or Falk laws, aiming at the regulation of the clergy
kulturkampf
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