Fin-de-siècle Germany would have been unrecognizable to Schiller. The kaleidoscope of kingdoms and principalities that he knew had been replaced since 1871 by a unified German Empire which, following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, had become the mightiest industrial and military power in Europe. Rapidly escalating industrialization had radically altered the geographical and sociological landscapes. From the Ruhr to Silesia, coalmines ravaged countrysides formerly devoted to farming, and the proliferating establishment of firms and factories in the cities caused the period to become known in German history as Gründerzeit (“founding period”). In this once totally rural country the number of employees in urban factories now equaled that of agricultural workers. The rapid industrialization had also put vast wealth into the hands of an upper middle class that vied with the land-based aristocracy for political power and, in the process, turned away from its formerly liberal values. Conservative capitalists and aristocracy alike were united in their struggle to maintain their power and influence against the growing strength of the urban proletariat and the lower bourgeoisie. The interests of the working classes—riddled by poverty, disease, and alcoholism—were represented by various political groups, which by 1878 constituted such a threat against the status quo that Bismarck's government issued a notorious Sozialistengesetz (“socialist law”) prohibiting all socialist, social democratic, and communist associations, meetings, and publications.