There was however, one class that everywhere bore a heavy burden in the process of rapid industrialization - the proletariat. Fearing the Social Democratic Party and its Marxist ideology which preached world revolution, Chancellor Bismarck developed the basis for a social welfare state to woo the workers. While the policy was unsuccessful in undermining the Social Democratic Party, it did convince most workers that improvement of their lot could be accomplished through unions and social legislation rather than requiring revolution. In 1914, when radical Marxists urged that the proletariat turn the imperialist war into a war of the workers of the world against the capitalists, German Social Democrats remained loyal to the conservative empire. In summary, although pockets of backwardness and discontent remained at the turn of the twentieth century, it seems safe to conclude that Germany had survived the initial stresses of modernization. The middle classes that had been revolutionary in the West, were the beneficiaries of a modernization that had been led by the traditional elites. They did not perform a revolutionary function, but rather were accommodated within the traditional society and in the case of the very wealthy they even were able to buy titles and palaces which assured them a grudging degree of social status.