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The Kulturkampf and Historical Positivism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Robert W. Lougee
Robert W. Lougee
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut, Storrs
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Extract

The crisis in the relations of the church and state in Prussia in the seventies, the so-called Kulturkampf, became acute with the passage of the May Laws in 1873. These laws climaxed a series of measures which had curtailed clerical freedom of speech (Kanzelparagraph), abolished the Catholic Section of the Ministry of Worship, suppressed the Jesuits, and limited ecclesiastical influence over the schools (Schulaufsichtsgesetz). The primary objective of the May Laws, according to the Minister of Worship (Kultusminister), Adalbert Falk, was “to secure the indispensable rights of the state while rejecting interference in purely ecclesiastical affairs.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , September 1954 , pp. 219 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1954

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References

1. Stenographisehe Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Landtags (November 1872 Janaury 1873), Vol. I (1872–1873), p. 447.

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24. Ibid., p. 33.

25. Ibid., p. 49.

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33. Ibid., pp. 210, 211, 247–255.

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38. Ibid., pp. 62 ff.

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42. Ibid., p. 9.

43. Ibid., pp. 16 ff., 25 ff., 33.

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