Sewer rebel

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The canal rebels are conservative Prussian politicians and officials who spoke out against the construction of the Mittelland Canal in 1899 and thus triggered a political crisis.

background

The Mittelland Canal was an important infrastructure project with the aim of connecting the Rhine and Elbe . At the same time, it was also an object of prestige that was particularly close to the heart of Wilhelm II , who saw it as a symbol of technical progress. The industrialists in West Germany in particular supported the project and saw it as a strengthening of the German economy. In contrast, the East German grain-producing large landowners feared that cheap American grain could be transported through the canal to the eastern provinces. In particular, the farmers' union organized the agrarian protest.

In 1899, Conservative MPs voted together with those of the center in the Prussian House of Representatives against the approval of the funds for the construction of the Mittelland Canal. The Conservative MPs in the Prussian Parliament shared this opinion. MPs who were full-time district administrators or even regional presidents and thus civil servants also voted against the law.

The emperor was furious about this resistance, especially from conservative circles. For Wilhelm, who wanted to push through the project as part of his “personal regiment” against all odds, approval was a question of loyalty. He and Clovis zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst even thought at times of dissolving the Prussian House of Representatives. The national liberal Prussian finance minister Johannes von Miquel , who did not want a complete break with the conservatives, succeeded in dissuading Wilhelm.

Discipline

However, the latter insisted that the civil servants “sewer rebels” were put up for disposal (ie they were put into temporary retirement). With the final dismissal, however, Wilhelm could not prevail. Nevertheless, this step was constitutionally questionable, as the independence of the parliamentary mandate was undermined with the help of the disciplinary law applicable to civil servants . This affected 18 district administrators and two district presidents. The "rebels" were also excluded from court life. Some time later, most of those affected were rehabilitated. However, they had to resign from their parliamentary seats. Most of them could not return to their district offices, but were employed in areas of state administration in which they did not have to represent the state to the outside world.

consequences

As a result, the civil servant policy in Prussia was tightened. Political officials were instructed again to express only the government's views without regard to their own political views.

The construction of the Mittelland Canal was temporarily blocked by the vote. The same thing happened again in 1901, which led to the fall of Miquel as Prussian finance minister. In the long term, Bernhard von Bülow, as Prussian Prime Minister, had to agree to a compromise in 1905 that expressly excluded the construction of the canal between Hanover and the Elbe and thus the actual goal of the project.

The factual failure of the project meant a further weakening of the personal regiment postulated by Wilhelm II. The process also shows that the emperor could not ultimately risk breaking with the conservatives, even if they were in opposition to him, as otherwise he would have lost his most important support.

The sewer rebels

Arthur BaarthKurd von Berg-SchönfeldJulius von BodenhausenBogislav von BoninEugen von Brockhausen the YoungerAxel von ColmarJohann von DallwitzHermann Karl DumrathHans von KanitzHermann KrethMax Otto LewaldEugen WolffErnst from Bornstedt

literature

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