Philanthropy

===Germany===
The history of modern philanthropy on the European continent is especially important in the case of Germany, which became a model for others, especially regarding the [[welfare state]]. The princes and the various imperial states continued traditional efforts, funding monumental buildings, parks, and art collections. Starting in the early 19th century, the rapidly emerging [[middle class]]es made local philanthropy a way to establish their legitimate role in shaping society, pursuing ends different from the [[aristocracy]] and the military. They concentrated on support for [[social welfare]], [[higher education]], and cultural institutions, as well as working to alleviate the [[Industrial Revolution#Criticisms|hardships]] brought on by rapid [[industrialization]]. The [[bourgeoisie]] (upper-middle class) was defeated in its effort to gain political control in [[1848]], but it still had enough money and organizational skills that could be employed through philanthropic agencies to provide an alternative power base for its worldview.<ref name=Adam>{{cite book|first=Thomas|last=Adam|title=Philanthropy, Civil Society, and the State in German history, 1815–1989|year=2016}}</ref>

Religion was divisive in Germany, as Protestants, Catholics, and Jews used alternative philanthropic strategies. The Catholics, for example, continued their medieval practice of using financial donations in their wills to lighten their punishment in [[purgatory]] after death. The Protestants did not believe in purgatory, but made a strong commitment to improving their communities there and then. Conservative Protestants raised concerns about deviant sexuality, alcoholism, and socialism, as well as illegitimate births. They used philanthropy to try to eradicate what they considered as "social evils" that were seen as utterly sinful.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal | last=Lees | first=Andrew | title=Deviant Sexuality and Other 'Sins': The Views of Protestant Conservatives in Imperial Germany | journal=German Studies Review | publisher=JSTOR | volume=23 | issue=3 | year=2000 | pages=453–476 | issn=0149-7952 | doi=10.2307/1432829 | jstor=1432829 }}
|2={{cite book|first=Andrew|last=Lees|title=Cities, Sin, and Social Reform in Imperial Germany|year=2002|publisher=The University of Michigan Press|location=Ann Arbor}}
}}</ref> All the religious groups used financial endowments, which multiplied in number and wealth as Germany grew richer. Each was devoted to a specific benefit to that religious community, and each had a board of trustees; laymen donated their time to public service.

Chancellor [[Otto von Bismarck]], an upper class [[Junker]], used his state-sponsored philanthropy, in the form of his invention of the modern welfare state, to neutralize the political threat posed by the [[socialistic]] [[labor union]]s.<ref>{{cite book|first=Dimitris N. |last=Chorafas|title=Education and Employment in the European Union: The Social Cost of Business|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fWIWDAAAQBAJ|url-access=limited|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=fWIWDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA255 255]|isbn=9781317145936}}</ref> The middle classes, however, made the most use of the new welfare state, in terms of heavy use of museums, [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]]s (high schools), universities, scholarships, and hospitals. For example, state funding for universities and gymnasiums covered only a fraction of the cost; private philanthropy became essential. 19th-century Germany was even more oriented toward civic improvement than Britain or the United States, when measured in voluntary private funding for public purposes. Indeed, such German institutions as the [[kindergarten]], the [[research university]], and the welfare state became models copied by the Anglo-Saxons.{{r|Adam|pages=1–7}}

The heavy human and economic losses of the [[First World War]], the financial crises of the 1920s, as well as the [[Nazi]] regime and other devastation by 1945, seriously undermined and weakened the opportunities for widespread philanthropy in Germany. The civil society so elaborately built up in the 19th century was dead by 1945. However, by the 1950s, as the "[[economic miracle]]" was restoring German prosperity, the old aristocracy was defunct, and middle-class philanthropy started to return to importance.{{r|Adam|pages=142–73}}