The Emergence of Civil Society

Industrialization created enormous wealth. And this wealth was very unevenly distributed among Germans. Both wealth and its unequal distribution provided the foundation for the emergence of a flourishing civil society, in which the rich established and funded public institutions such as museums, and hospitals. This philanthropic behavior structured and shaped urban infrastructures and created prominent cityscapes. Private support for museums resulted in the founding of bourgeois museums in cities such as Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig and in the support of royal museums in cities such as Berlin. Royal museums depended on the private support of donors such as James Simon for the acquisition of sensational objects such as the bust of Nefertiti. Philanthropy contributed to the modernization of German society, spearheaded social reform, enriched society through the support of the arts and sciences, and smoothed over social tensions through funding social reform. On the eve of World War I, Germany was a global leader when it came to philanthropy. No other country had mobilized more private money for public purposes than Germany. And Germany provided a model for the creation of privately supported public institutions in countries such as the United States.