Reich Chancellor Leo Graf von Caprivi (1890-1894) - Prelude to a digital edition of the files of the Reich Chancellery 1890-1894

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Bernhard Löffler
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 576609802

How, in fact, was the German Reich governed? This question played a central role in the heated debate about the character of the empire — whether it was an unreformable authoritarian state (E. Conze), a modern but ambivalent political system (C. Nonn), or, from 1900 onwards, a state with a decidedly positive narrative (H. Richter). Until now, however, the study of governmental practice, concrete administrative actions, and the organization of political-administrative day-to-day affairs has lacked a sufficiently broad source base. The planned digital selective edition aims to fill this gap and thus help clarify numerous questions: What influence did the various actors within the institutional network (Reich Chancellor, Imperial Offices, Prussian government, Emperor, Reichstag, Federal Council, Prussian State Parliament, Secret Cabinets) wield? How and by whom were governmental acts prepared and decided? What constants and processes of change can be identified? Did Prussia’s position weaken, while at the same time experts gained influence? Where did the federal structure lead to conflicts, and where to cooperation or interlinking? Did administrative practice develop its own momentum and a civil service as a sui generis entity, accompanied by professionalization but also by the emergence of specific administrative cultures and internal social codes? In a pilot project, these topics will be documented and examined for the chancellorship of Leo von Caprivi (1890–94) and, as examples, for specific spheres of action and thematic areas (army size, trade, tax and colonial policy, the status of women). A one-year feasibility study has already involved extensive archival research, focusing in particular on holdings of the Federal Archives (Berlin, Koblenz, Freiburg) and the Geh. Staatsarchiv Preuß. Kulturbesitz (Berlin). To capture the manifold interdependencies of institutions, the project employs a differentiated, interdisciplinary approach. Among other things, it seeks to apply and combine the categories of "governing” and “living administration” as defined by T. Ellwein—with its emphasis on permanent incremental adjustment logics and informal rules in day-to-day operations—with explanatory models from New Institutional Economics, political cultural history, and multi-level governance theory. This applies specifically to the selection, introduction, commentary, and contextualization of the edited documents, and more fundamentally to placing the research debate on a new footing by combining empirical depth with a broadened analytical perspective. If the digital selective edition proves viable, the HiKo will use its own funds to continue the “Records of the Reich Chancellery” through to 1918, complementing the existing digital editions on the Weimar Republic and, from 2025, also on the Hitler government (1933/34–1939), thereby continuing close cooperation with the Federal Archives.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants