ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Pope Pius IX and Germany

Pope Pius IX was a very important leader of the Catholic Church a long time ago. Germany was a big country in Europe that had a lot of different groups of people in it.

Pope Pius IX and Germany had some problems, because the pope wanted the Catholic Church to be the most important thing in people's lives, but some people in Germany didn't agree because they had different ideas about religion.

There was a group of Catholics in Germany who supported the Pope, and they wanted to keep the Church separate from the government. They were called "ultramontanes."

But there were other people in Germany who thought that the government should be in charge of everything, including the Church. They were called "liberals."

The Pope and the ultramontanes didn't like the liberals, because they thought they were taking away their power. They also didn't like that the government was making laws that went against the teachings of the Church.

So, Pope Pius IX and Germany didn't get along very well. In fact, they had a pretty big fight called the "Kulturkampf." This means "culture war" in German.

During the Kulturkampf, the government took control of many things that had been controlled by the Church before. For example, they made laws that required priests to get permission from the government before they could do their job.

This made the ultramontanes very angry, and they fought back by organizing protests and rallies. They also started their own newspapers to spread their ideas.

In the end, the Kulturkampf ended when the government backed down and stopped trying to control the Church so much. But the fight between Pope Pius IX and Germany had a big impact on both the Church and the country, and it is still talked about today.