it was sufficient if only a few cast ballots. Since tax revenues in Prussia varied greatly from region to region, the cutoffs for voting in the first or second class also varied considerably from province to province and even between the various electoral districts of a larger municipality. In the Prussian state election of 1898, an average of 1,361 marks had to be paid in direct taxes in the city and only 343 marks in the countryside to qualify to vote in the first class. The average tax paid by a Berlin voter in the second class in the 1898 state election was 445 marks, while that of a corresponding voter in the Province of Hohenzollern, a part of Prussia in far southern Germany, was 24 marks. The differences were even more pronounced when comparing different primary election districts. In 29 particularly high-tax Berlin electoral districts, voters were classed in the third class up to a tax revenue of 3,000 marks per year, while in four low-tax districts, a tax revenue of 100 marks per year was sufficient to qualify for the first class. In some cases, even high-ranking Prussian state officials had to vote in the third class. Of ten Prussian state ministers, six, including Prussian Prime Minister Botho zu Eulenburg and Reich Chancellor and Prussian Minister Leo von Caprivi, voted in the third class in the Prussian state election of 1893. Three other ministers voted in the second class while the tenth minister, the Minister of War, was ineligible to vote as an active military man. Reform efforts and abolition While conservative forces rejected changes to Prussia's three-class system, left-wing liberals and especially the SPD regularly demanded that the national Reichstag's voting requirements be adopted by Prussia. Especially by the turn of the century, the Prussian electoral law had come to be considered outdated and was criticized from all sides. Not only Social Democrats took to the streets against the electoral law, but progressive citizens also opposed it in petitions. The National Liberals, for example, called for plural suffrage, under which certain people may vote more than once, on the model of Belgium and Saxony. In addition, the National Liberals along with the Centre Party asked for direct suffrage and a redrawing of constituencies to reflect population changes. In 1910 the government of Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, who was German Chancellor and Minister President of Prussia, introduced a