Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was sixteen years older than Emperor Friedrich III. Therefore, Bismarck did not expect he would live to see Emperor Wilhelm II ascend to the throne and thus had no strategy to deal with him. All of that changed with the early death of Emperor Friedrich III in June 1888?and the accession of his son Emperor Wilhelm II.
Conflicts between Wilhelm II and Bismarck soon poisoned their relationship. Their final split occurred after Bismarck tried to implement far-reaching anti-socialist laws in early 1890. The Kartell majority in the Reichstag, including the Conservative Party and the National Liberal Party, was willing to make most of the laws permanent.
However, it was split about the law granting the police the power to expel socialist agitators from their homes, a power that had been used excessively at times against political opponents. The National Liberals refused to make this law permanent…
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