Tuesday, June 25, 2013
C3.23 (Oudemanhuispoort)
In the summer of 1878 the German Emperor was attacked twice. Both of his would-be-assassins had connections to Social Democracy, although both denied identifying as Social Democrats. The fear of further violence caused anxiety and the feeling of an inner crisis in the German Empire. In Berlin as well as in other German cities and towns, a surprisingly high number of people denounced their neighbors for being alleged Social Democrats and thus potential conspirators against the Empire. In this situation of perceived crisis, Social Democrats and those who were believed to be Social Democrats faced social and legal marginalization, the latter starting in October 1878 with the anti-Socialist laws. Historiography tends to point to Bismarck as the brilliant mastermind behind this development. Bismarck’s policy to unite the Empire by creating common enemies in fact was one important factor for this path. However, we have to keep in mind how the people got to know about the assassination attempts and their potential nexus with Social Democracy: the developing mass press was the population's main informant. Neither the crisis itself nor Bismarck, but the bourgeois media painted the overall picture of the violent events along with their social and political ramifications or the definition of the new "outsiders." Based on archival research and an analysis of press articles, my paper investigates how much influence Bismarck in fact had on the press coverage and thus on the public perception of Social Democracy. The paper then consults mass media theories in order to draw some careful conclusions from the (at parts sensational) media coverage on its effects on the German population.
