Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/688

676 from socialism because the class to which it appealed did not exist in great numbers. The economic doctrines of liberalism and laissez faire seemed to conspire with political absolutism to prevent social action favorable to the lower classes.

The Revolution of 1848 which swept Europe did not leave Germany undisturbed. Berlin was for a time under the control of a mob. Riot and rebellion seemed to threaten property and government. The propertied classes were frightened. The uprising was extinguished by military force, and a period of reaction began.

Men who knew the life of the laboring classes in cities like Hamburg and Berlin were well acquainted with the wretchedness, vice, squalor, and despair of their homes. Some of them foretold the revolution and sought to avert it by healing the evil at its source. The one man who, perhaps, saw most clearly the extent and the sources of the misery was one who had been quietly and earnestly working among the fallen and distressed since his graduation from the university—J. H. Wichern, founder and director of the Rauhe Haus.

Theological currents and ecclesiastical conditions.—In the universities philosophy was unfolding the systems of Hegel and his followers, not without some influence on popular life. The organization of the Protestant churches was made more compact by the "Evangelical Union" in Prussia (1817) between Lutherans and Reformed, and this policy was fostered by Frederick William III. In the Rhine provinces, under French influences, the confessions were placed on a more even footing. Dissenters in some districts were persecuted as enemies of the state.

Biblical and historical criticism made it impossible to petrify the spirit in worship of the letter. Men discovered that vital Christianity could be manifested in spite of wide doctrinal differences. Kant and Fichte compelled theologians to become more intensely ethical. DeWette demonstrated the permanent factors in changing faiths. Schleiermacher, steeped in the devotional life of Herrnhut, translator of Plato, scholar, ethical philosopher, and theologian, "served as a bridge over which to