当时，令人担心的是南方天主教少数派可能威胁到新成立的德意志帝国的统一，打算面对在一系列流血战争（最近一次是与法国）和刺杀德国皇帝图谋之后崛起的激进社会主义政党建立稳定。
At that time, the fear was that southern Catholic minorities would undermine the unity of the newly founded German empire, intended to bring stability in the face of a rising radical socialist party, after a series of bloody wars (most recently against the French) and assassination attempts on the Kaiser.