Other contentious points included the Anti-Socialist Laws (Sozialistengesetze),[3] the Kulturkampf against the Catholic Church and the septennial military budget (Septennat).
[2] Other notable members included Ludwig Bamberger, Berlin Mayor Max von Forckenbeck,[2] historian and future Nobel laureate Theodor Mommsen,[3] Friedrich Kapp, Theodor Barth, Heinrich Edwin Rickert[4] and Georg von Siemens.
[3] The Liberal Union was a notables' party (Honoratiorenpartei [de]), having its electorate mainly amongst the North and East German upper classes, wholesale merchants and intellectuals.
Nevertheless, the new grouping was initially successful, gaining 46 seats of the Reichstag in the 1881 federal election—as many as the preceding National liberals.
[5] However, the National Liberals made clear they would not leave the majority loyal to Bismarck, therefore Secessionist representative Franz von Stauffenberg negotiated with Eugen Richter, the leader of the left liberal German Progress Party in early 1884.