The Silesian estate owner Arthur von Posadowsky-Wehner (1845-1932), a member of the Free Conservative Party [Freikonservative], rose from local politics in Silesia to the Prussian House of Representatives and, in 1897, to State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior and Vice-Chancellor. During his term in office, government policy toward the Social Democrats changed from legal repression and discrimination to social legislation that sought reconciliation with the workers’ movement by implementing some of the SPD’s political demands. In close cooperation with the Catholic Center Party [Zentrumspartei], Posadowsky-Wehner worked out reforms of the pension and accident insurance systems and paved the way for the Child Protection Act [Kinderschutzgesetz] passed in 1903, which sought to curb some of the abuses of child labor in factories as well as in other trades. Posadowsky-Wehner's support for these policies cost him support from Conservatives and National Liberals, however, and after disagreements with Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow, he resigned from his offices in 1907. Still, he remained active in politics and—skeptical of the new Republic—even ran against Friedrich Ebert as the conservative candidate for Reich President in 1919.

In this excerpt from a speech Posadowsky-Wehner gave in the Reichstag in 1905, he calls for the “spiritual and moral renewal” of civil society (namely, of respectable citizens, i.e. the middle class) which should give up its materialistic mindset. Only in this way, he argues, could the propertied classes regain their influence and authority, and thereby overcome the threat posed by social democracy. This short excerpt makes it clear that Posadowsky-Wehner’s social reform policies came not just from moral motives but were also a maneuver to pull voters away from the SPD.