Imperial Germany and the Struggle for Voting Rights

With its integration into the German Reich in 1871, Hamburg lost some of its independence. But the Reich's colonial policy and global ambition benefited the city’s transmarine traders, so that the concept of the Reich found increasingly broad approval. The Bismarck Monument erected in 1906 reflects that attitude.

The new Town Hall, inaugurated in 1897, was architecturally impressive, but did not bring any change to the way the city was governed. Only men were entitled to vote in City Council elections, and only those 10 percent endowed with citizens rights. The 18 senators were elected by the City Council for life. They were in charge of a sprawling administration comprising many authorities. Though the associations and organizations of the labor movement helped shape political opinion, city policy was made by a select few. The "German Society for Female
Suffrage" was founded in Hamburg in 1902, and in 1911 the city hosted the first International Women's Day.

Hamburg's ruling classes were quite aware of the rapid pace of social change, but they opposed anychange in the political order. That this provoked only limited conflict in the city was no doubt due as much to the administration's popularity as to its firm hand. Despite the restricted franchise, the Social Democrat Otto Stolten was elected to the City Council in 1901, followed three years later by another 12 Social Democratic Party (SPD) councilors. The council's middle class majority responded by restricting voting rights even further. This "vote robbery" led to violent clashes between demonstrators, rioters and the police in January 1906 and to the formation of new political parties to the left of the venerable SPD, which had existed for decades. They played a key role in political polarization during World War I and after the revolution of 1918.


Hamburg in the 20th.century (1)
-    Imperial Germany and the Struggle for Voting Rights
-    Life in Wilhelmine Germany
-    The Mobile City
-    International Port and Economic Center
-    Revolution in Hamburg
-    Democracy and its Enemies
-    A Decade of Economic Crisis
-    Greater Hamburg
-    Life Under the Swastika
-    The Abolition of Democracy
-    Towards a War Economy
-    Persecution and resistance in the National Socialist state
-    Hamburg at war
-    Destruction by Fire Storm

Hamburg in the 20th.century (2)