It is instructive that an Army doctor quizzed a group of recruits in 1903-04 with the same kind of questions we find today asked of high school students. What are Social Democrats? -- answers included: "they are the ones who don't want a Kaiser," "they don't believe in anything," "they want to get rid of the Church and the Army," "they insult the German Army." The recruits gave the impression of being well-informed of issues that affected their life like social insurance, but could not tell the difference between Kaiser Wilhelm I and Kaiser Wilhelm II. They had heard of Bismarck, 25% read the paper regularly, did not know the name of the current Chancellor, and did not know the difference between state and national parliaments.
This was not just a common group of recruits. They had been designated for a Silesian Cavalry Regiment. Of the 174 recruits 147 had come from agricultural backgrounds and 44% of them were voluntary enlistees. The results may have been significantly different had they come from an urban background. The Social Democrats in urban areas had been focusing on youth clubs for those under 18 as political meetings were forbidden to those under that age.
