A State of this kind tends to become a
closed State.
What then happened? An event of capital importance which everybody
knows, but of which we only now begin to see the consequences. It was
the radical transformation of Germany from an agricultural to an
industrial nation. In its origin this phenomenon dates from before the
nineteenth century. By 1848 it had become perceptible. Since 1866, and
especially since 1871, it has dominated the entire social evolution of
the empire. Here, in fact, is the revolution. It partakes of the
character of a tragedy, it has overturned the conditions of life
throughout the entire German territory.
At the close of the War of Independence, four out of five Germans lived
on the land, two out of three were engaged in agriculture. By 1895 the
agricultural population was only 35.7 per cent. That, supported by
industry and commerce, kept continually increasing. In 1895 it was 50.6
per cent.
This progress of industry and trade indicates the rise of a new class of
the population, that of the capitalists. It seemed at first that their
arrival would result in a dispossession of the nobility. For example,
under the ancien regime the bourgeois could not acquire the property of
the nobles.
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