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25 JAHR FEIER D. WIEDERBEGR. D. DEUTSCH REICHS
1870 / 71 - 1895 / 96
translated:
25 YEAR CELEBRATION D. REPEAT. D. GERMANY
1870/71 - 1895/96
GERMAN COMMEMORATIVE
honoring
THE KAISERS / EMPEROR / KING
WILHELM I
FRIEDRICH III
and
WILHELM II
MEDAL
EXONUMIA
UNSURE OF COMPOSITION
WHITE METAL or CuNi
MEASURES ABOUT 30mm
SHOWS SOME SURFACE AGE WEAR
FOR OVER 100 YEARS OLD
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FYI
The German Empire (German: Deutsches Kaiserreich) is the common name given to the state officially named the Deutsches Reich (literally: "German Realm"), designating Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.
The German Empire consisted of 27 constituent territories (most of them ruled by royal families). While the Kingdom of Prussia contained most of the population and most of the territory of the Reich, the Prussian leadership became supplanted by German leaders and Prussia itself played a lesser role. As Dwyer (2005) points out, Prussia's "political and cultural influence had diminished considerably" by the 1890s. Its three largest neighbors were rivals Imperial Russia to the east, France to the west and ally Austria-Hungary to the south.
After 1850, Germany industrialized rapidly, with a foundation in coal, iron (and later steel), chemicals and railways. From a population of 41 million people in 1871, it grew to 68 million in 1913. From a heavily rural nation in 1815, it was now predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological and scientific giant, receiving more Nobel Prizes in science than Britain, France, Russia and the United States combined.
It became a great power and its navy went from being negligible to second only behind the Royal Navy in less than a decade. After the removal of the powerful Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1890 following the death of Emperor Wilhelm I, the young Emperor Wilhelm II engaged in increasingly reckless foreign policies that left the Empire isolated. Its network of small colonies in Africa and the Pacific paled in comparison to the British and French empires. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, it had only two weak allies (Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire) left. In World War I its plans to quickly capture Paris in 1914 failed and the Western Front (against Britain and France) became a stalemate. The Allied naval blockade made for increasing shortages of food. However, Germany, as a result of the Communists' determination to end Russian involvement in World War I, carved large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British; it failed because of the use of a trans-Atlantic convoy system. But the declaration - along with the Zimmermann Telegram - did bring the United States into the war, with its large reserves of money, food, and soldiers. The high command under Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff increasingly controlled the Reich as they gambled on one last offensive in spring 1918 (before the Americans could arrive in force). It failed and by October the armies were in retreat, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had collapsed, and the German people had lost faith in the political system. The Empire collapsed overnight in the November 1918 Revolution as all the royals abdicated and a republic took over.
Bismarck's post-1871 foreign policy was conservative and sought to preserve the balance of power in Europe. His biggest concern was France, which was left defeated and resentful after the Franco-Prussian War. As the French lacked the strength to defeat Germany by themselves, they sought an alliance with Russia, which would trap Germany between the two in a war (as would ultimately happen in 1914). Bismarck wanted to prevent this at all costs and maintain friendly relations with the Russians, and thereby formed an alliance with them and Austria-Hungary (which by the 1880s was being slowly reduced to a German satellite), the Dreikaiserbund (League of Three Emperors). During this period, individuals within the German military were advocating a preemptive strike against Russia, but Bismarck knew that such ideas were foolhardy. He once wrote that "the most brilliant victories would not avail against the Russian nation, because of its climate, its desert, and its frugality, and having but one frontier to defend," and because it would leave Germany with another bitter, resentful neighbor. Bismarck once contrasted his nation's foreign policy difficulties with the easy situation of the U.S. (the only strong power in the Western Hemisphere), saying "The Americans are a very lucky people. They're bordered to the north and south by weak neighbors, and to the east and west by fish."
Meanwhile, the chancellor remained wary of any foreign policy developments that looked even remotely warlike. In 1886, he moved to stop an attempted sale of horses to France on the grounds that they might be used for cavalry and also ordered an investigation into large Russian purchases of medicine from a German chemical works. Bismarck stubbornly refused to listen to Georg Herbert zu Munster (ambassador to France), who reported back that the French were not seeking a revanchist war, and in fact were desperate for peace at all costs.
Bismarck and most of his contemporaries were conservative-minded and focused their foreign policy attention on Germany's neighboring states. In 1914, 60% of German foreign investment was in Europe, as opposed to just 5% of British investment. Most of the money went to developing nations such as Russia that lacked the capital or technical knowledge to industrialize on their own. The construction of the Baghdad Railway, financed by German banks, was designed to eventually connect Germany with the Turkish Empire and the Persian Gulf, but it also collided with British and Russian geopolitical interests.
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