“The Future Belongs to Those Who Own the Schools,” Kladderadatsch (December 19, 1875)

In this illustration from the Kulturkampf, or the so-called “cultural struggle,” church and state go head to head in a contest over the control of elementary schooling. The Catholic Church had accused the state of demanding this control as a method of popular manipulation. Here, the state accuses “ultramontane” (i.e. papal interests in the Church) of demanding this control as a method of religious indoctrination. The zero-sum nature of the tussle was clear. The antagonists would only settle for a regime or order of knowledge that served their – and only their – interests. In the long run, religious bodies were bound to lose this fight; the future belonged to the state.