Prachtvolle Epoche

Prachtvolle Epoche
1862–1913
Wiesstadt in Cislania, Werania in 1900.
Including	Weranian Empire Historicism
Monarch(s)	Adalbert, Leopold IV
Leader(s)	Prince of Oppolzer, Ludwig Gustav von Middendorff, Konrad von Höhnel, Casper von Kléber
← Preceded by Weranian Unification Followed by → Great Collapse

The Prachtvolle Epoche ("Splendid Epoch") was a period in Weranian history lasting from the early 1860s to the Great Collapse in 1913. The period retroactively named following the Great War was famed for its economic prosperity, political liberalism, social stability, imperial expansionism and scientific and cultural innovations. Compared to both the revolutionary violence and regional wars that marked the unification period and the political and social polarisation that dominated Werania from the Great Collapse through to the Kirenian-Weranian War the Prachtvolle Epoche is regarded as a period of optimism and peace both at home and abroad. The period also encompasses the Ruttish national revival.

The Prachtvolle Epoche is roughly analogous to the Long Peace in Estmere, xxx in Gaullica, Oslovite Soravia, the Anni di Serenità in Etruria, xxx in Rizealand and the Xiyong era in Shangea.

Terminology and periodisation

The Prachtvolle Epoche traditionally encompasses the majority of the reign of king Adalbert (who reigned from 1850 to 1913) leading to the period to sometimes be called the Adalbertine period. The period tends to be dated around the end of the Jurgaitytė rebellion in Ruttland from 1861 to the beginning of the Great Collapse in 1913. Some date the period to have begun following the conclusion of the War of the Triple Alliance and the Easter Revolution in 1856 which signalled the end of Weranian Unification, although the economic depression and social polarisation from 1856-1862 is often not generally considered to be in keeping with the perceived optimism of the period.

The Prachtvolle Epoche is an anachronistic term created by historians in the 1930s that sought to contrast the revolutionary violence of the early 19^th century and world war of the early 20^th to the joie de vivre of the late 19th^th century. According to Hugo Weizenbaum the use of the term was meant to invoke a supposed golden age contrasted to the perceived Satrian summer of post-war Werania "invoking a nostalgic image of prosperity, peace and power, of the politics of grandeur". The nostalgia for the supposed social stability and progress of Prachtvolle Epoche is often considered to mask the profound social tensions of the era - historian Casper Hildebrandt remarked that "only with the benefit of hindsight does the Prachtvolle Epoche emerge as a golden age. For those who lived through it there was substantial social instability and the supposed progress of the era was as uneven as it was splendid."

Sometimes the Prachtvolle Epoche is divided into two periods - one of conservatism, aestheticism and imperialism from the 1860s to one of avant-garde and modernity from the 1890s onwards, both interlinked by scientific and economic progress.

Politics

King Adalbert ruled Werania throughout the Prachtvolle Epoche.

The politics of the Prachtvolle Epoche were marked by the development of constitutional parliamentarianism over radical republicanism and absolutism. Over the period centre-right national liberals generally dominated parliamentary politics with rapprochement to the church, economic liberalism and centralisation. Members of the two main parliamentary blocs, the Right and the Left, generally formed large coalitions to block the republicans and later the socialists from holding influence. Many on both the right and the left would move to the political centre to maximise parliamentary majorities, a system known as the eisenring (iron ring) as it supposedly locked both the far-left and the far-right out of power. In practice the eisenring marginalised the left whilst empowering the right.

The end of the period saw the eisenring collapse due to a mixture of popular pressure from below and the growth of organised political parties, particularly the Radical Party and the Weranic Section of the Workers' International (OSAI). From the 1890s onwards a party system emerged with organised political parties displacing the loose parliamentary blocs. By 1906 with the introduction of universal male suffrage the trend had move decisively towards liberal democracy.

Eisenring

Prior to the Prachtvolle Epoche Werania had been governed by the moderate left who had forged an uneasy alliance with the radical republicans to achieve unification. This nationalist coalition fell apart after the War of the Triple Alliance and the Wiesstadt rebellion when the radical republicans tired of the compromises made by the moderate left and increasingly attracted to socialism attempted to overthrow the state and reinstitute the Weranian Republic. The bloody suppression of the Wiesstadt rebellion decimated the radical left whose leaders were thrown into exile or executed during the Butchering of Wiesstadt.

After a period of counter-revolutionary reaction in 1860 the moderate left returned to power under the Prince of Oppolzer. Oppolzer and King Adalbert both believed that to prevent the return of revolutionary violence that had punctuated Weranian politics from 1785 that rapprochement had to be made with more conservative forces in society. Ostensibly to prevent both reactionary absolutists or radical republicans from power Adalbert and Oppolzer created the "eisenring" (Iron Ring) of an alliance between the traditional conservative institutions of the crown, the church and large landowners alongside the rapidly expanding bourgeoise and industrialists. This alliance effectively gave the government a permanent supermajority as differences between the right and the left were downplayed in favour of national unity.

Although on paper this represented a fusion of the left and the right in practice it shifted the moderate left to the right. The moderate and radical left had previously agreed on the necessity of a secular state and philosophies such as realism, positivism, materialism with the post-unification Weranian state having worked hard to extract the church from having public influence, particularly in education. By incorporating the Solarian Catholic Church into the ruling majority had effectively signalled its intent to end the secularising reforms and come to an albeit limited truce with the church.

The eisenring was decried by the left for effectively reversing the liberalism of the 1840s but it did not herald a return to the reactionary politics of pre-unification Werania. Importantly the reconciliation with the church did not result in the recognition of papal infallibility and generally speaking the state did not reverse secularising measures passed in the unification period. Rather the role of the church and of the state in general was effectively frozen under the eisenring system. Historian Samuel Bennett remarked that the period under Oppolzer and his immediate successors politically reflected stagnation and an ossification of the political system rather then a counter-revolution.

Conservative hegemony

The conservative hegemony that emerged from the eisenring did initially led to a period of political stability in the 1870s with cabinets dominated by von Middendorff issuing amnesties to socialist politicians who had fled abroad during the Easter Revolution. Oppolzer and von Middendorff had advocated moderate improvements to the status of the working classes throughout the 1860s and 1870s to downplay radicalism whilst appeasing the church to ensure its compliance. Low tariffs on all but emergent industries and autonomy to large industrial cities helped ensure staple goods, most importantly bread, retained low prices preventing discontent.

Members of the National Guard suppressing the 1883 general strike.

Nevertheless over the 1870s the conservative consensus that had been built up during the prior decade began to break down. The failure of von Middendorf and the moderate left to pursue political reform and the continuation of restrictive labour legislation heightened social discontent. King Adalbert additionally began supporting the notion of royal referenda where the monarch could bring legislation to a national vote and if going in his favour allow him to exercise a veto on such legislation in a manner that the elected government could not override.

In 1875 Adalbert dismissed premier von Middendorf and appointment Count Schwarzenberg in his place with the intention of enshrining royal referenda into law. The legislation was so controversial that when it was presented to the Bundestag in January 1876 the radical-republican deputy Hermann Kopper challenged Count Schwarzenberg to a duel drawing a pistol in the chamber. The legislation would be narrowly defeated leading to Count Schwarzenberg to resign and von Middendorf recalled to office. Von Middendorf's government gave a wide reaching amnesty to the former participants of the Easter Revolution facilitating the return of the socialist and republican left into electoral politics. Although the left attempted to unite under former revolutionary, writer, poet and philosopher Bastian Fischart it soon split between the more reformist possibilists and the more radical impossibilists. Trade unions were tentatively legalised in 1881.

Social and radical discontent would simmer in the 1880s as the conservative cabinet of Xaver von Aehrenthal raised food tariffs to appease farming groups. This angered primarily urban workers' who continued to be denied the vote under the then restrictive voting system and under the urging of socialist and republican leaders organised a general strike in the autumn of 1883 calling for the immediate legalisation of universal male suffrage although many feared the strike had more revolutionary aims such as organising another Easter Revolution. The government deployed the National Guard to break up the strike which they did bloodily, massacring 36 workers' in Innsheim and declaring martial law across the country. In the aftermath of the strike the government passed the anti-socialist laws (sozialistengesetze) that banned trade unions, restricted meetings of socialist groups and imposed censorship of the press.

The passage of the sozialistengesetze represented the zenith of the conservative hegemony but also sowed the seeds of its decline. The sozialistengesetze would be ineffective in ending socialist agitation with socialists often circumventing the laws to continue their activities. Additionally the harsh measures the conservative coalition had imposed on the political left alienated moderates who increasingly saw the government and the monarchy as sectarian and unrepresentative. Additionally the personal conduct of conservative ministers began to be called into question particularly after Bartholomäus von Littrow was forced to resign as premier after a far-reaching financial scandal when his government was found to have benefited from the collapse of an economic bubble surrounding several newly formed investment banks. Calls for political reform began to gain momentum and by the end of the decade the eisenring had shattered as the moderate left and centre began demanding political reform.

Radical reform

Demonstrators during the 1893 general strike

Opposition to the sozialistengesetze had the effect of uniting the previously divided socialist movement as well as moving the Liberal bloc closer to the parliamentary right. The Liberals who had dominated Weranian politics became increasingly split between right-wing "national liberals" and left-wing "free-thinkers". The national liberals generally favoured the idea of the nationalstaat which emphasised the power of the state in asserting liberal goals, including through the use of authoritarian means such as the sozialistengesetze. Conversely the free-thinkers favoured a rechtsstaat that emphasised civil liberties and political pluralism in addition to a modus vivendi with socialism. The unifying forces that sustained the liberals - secularism, economic liberalism and parliamentarianism - held the two camps together.

Following the 1883 strike king Adalbert exclusively appointed conservative governments whilst across Werania attempts at parliamentary or social reform were halted. This led to in 1893 a minor strike by coal miners in the town of Deutenschwarz to snowball into a general strike as workers across the country protested against the sozialistengesetze and other legislation seen as onerous to the working class. Prominent socialists such as exiled Easter Revolutionary Ludwig Vollmar called for a revolution and the government of Adolf Ritter von Kral considered repressing the strikers. The crisis however was resolved when king Adalbert authorised the liberal interior minister, Konrad von Höhnel, to negotiate with moderate socialist leaders such as Joachim Heisenberg. The Von Höhnel-Heisenberg Agreement saw the Weranian government repeal all the sozialistengesetze and commit to the introduction of universal male suffrage. Due to fears that universial suffrage would result in the election of a republican or socialist government the drafter of the law, Conrad Kresinger, introduced a plural voting system with property owners, landlords and taxpayers entitled to more votes. The first election held in 1895 saw the unified liberal bloc under von Höhnel secure a decisive majority. For the first time since the 1850s von Höhnel created a single party cabinet with no members of the Catholic party sitting in government.

Clockwise: Premier Casper von Staffort, Der Tägliche Beobachter editor Bastian Fähnrich, sociologist Oscar Lehmann pacifist and humanitarian activist Louisa von Sussman were among the more prominent public advocates of left-liberalism.

Foreign affairs

Diplomatic relations

A painting of the Weranian maiden (lower) in the embrace of Estmere symbolising the Alte Bruderschaft.

The period of the Prachtvolle Epoche was marked by peace with Werania and its neighbours in contrast to the previous century that had been marked by continual conflict. Diplomacy during the Prachtvolle Epoche was primarily driven by career diplomats and the royal family, although by the end of the period the colonial lobby, pacifist groups and the electorate began to exercise a greater influence on foreign affairs then previously experienced.

Following the War of the Triple Alliance the main trend in Weranian foreign policy became the crystallisation of an alliance with Estmere. The signing of the Rockingham-Bülow Agreement led to much greater economic engagement between Estmere and Werania helping to facilitate political alignment. Nevertheless the Morwall-Westbrücken axis remained highly informal.

Art

Architecture

A photochrom print of the Vorderstein Castle, commissioned by king Adalbert as part of the castle romanticist (burgenromantik) movement.