Catholic political action in Germany dates from the period after the Congress of Vienna. Three main questions influenced its growth; the spread of Liberalism; the Austro-Prussian struggle for leadership among the German states; and the Kulturkampf. The question of Austria or Prussia was really settled in 1866 in favour of the latter, but the problem lingered on until recently under the name of Particularism (Rights of Federal States), though it had comparatively little influence upon the thought of the Catholic party. Liberalism and the Kulturkampf had a more determinate effect. Liberalism and, later, its counterpart Socialism resulted in the separation of Catholic political theory from the commonly held political theory of the period; a result of the Kulturkampf was to form this theory into a political party.

It was natural that Catholic politics and thought should be opposed to the Liberal conceptions of society and the State. Were not most of the mcontrary to the Church’s doctrine of natural design? Thus in 1838 the mighty genius of Goerres already foreshadowed the rise of German Catholicism against the current political creed.