he anti-Socialist law, and by the conclusion of
commercial treaties which made great concessions to German industry, the
landed gentry and the Conservative party became alienated from the new
chancellor. In January 1892 the split was completed by the withdrawal by
the government of the Primary Education bill, which had been designed to
place primary instruction on a religious basis. The Conservatives saw
their opportunity of posing as the party of Christianity against the
Liberals and Socialists, who had wrecked the bill, and they began to
look towards Ahlwardt as a possible ally. He had the advantages over
Stocker that he was not a Socialist, and that he was prepared to lead
his apparently large following to assist the agrarian movement and
weaken the Social Democrats. The intrigue gradually came to light.
Towards the end of the year Herr Liebknecht, the Social Democratic
leader, denounced the Conservatives to the Reichstag as being concerned
"in using the anti-Semitic movement as a bastard edition of Socialism
for the use of stupid people." (1st December). Two days later the charge
was confirmed. At a meeting of the party held on the 3rd of December the
following plank was added to the Conservative programme: "We combat the
oppressive and disintegrating Jewish influence on our national life; we
demand for our Christian people a Christian magistracy and Christian
teachers for Christian pupils; we repudiate the excesses of
anti-Semitism." In pursuance of the resolution Ahlwardt was returned to
the Reichstag at a by-election by the Conservative district of
Arnswalde-Friedeberg. The coalition was, however, not yet completed. The
intransigeant Conservatives, led by Baron von Hammerstein, the editor of
the _Kreuz-Zeitung_, justly felt that the concluding sentence of the
resolution of the 3rd of December repudiating "the excesses of
anti-Semitism" was calculated to hinder a full and loyal co-operation
between the two parties. Accordingly on the 9th of December another
meeting of the party was summoned. Twelve hundred members met at the
Tivoli Hall in Berlin, and with only seven dissentients solemnly
expunged the offending sentence from the resolution. The history of
political parties may be searched in vain for a parallel to this
discreditable transaction.

The capture of the Conservative party proved the high-water mark of
German anti-Semitism. From that moment the tide began to recede. All
that was best in German national