German People's Party
The German People's Party (German: Deutsche Volkspartei, DVP) was a conservative-liberal political party during the Weimar Republic that was the successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire. Along with the left-liberal German Democratic Party (DDP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933.
This article is about the German People's Party which existed between 1918 and 1933. For other parties with same name, see German People's Party (disambiguation).
German People's Party Deutsche Volkspartei
15 December 1918
4 July 1933
National Liberal Party
Free Conservative Party (moderate elements)
Free Democratic Party
(not legal successor)
Berlin
800,000[1]
Before 1929:
Centre to centre-right[9]
After 1929:
Centre-right[10] to right-wing[11]
Black White Red (National colors)
The party's best known politician was its founding chairman and later Chancellor and Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann. With the exception of two short-lived cabinets in 1921 and 1922, the DVP was represented in all Weimar governments from 1920 to 1931. In the late 1920s it turned more to the right politically but could not compete with other nationalist parties. By 1932 the DVP's share of the vote had shrunk to barely over one percent, and it disbanded shortly after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933.
History[edit]
Foundation[edit]
Following the end of World War I and the collapse of the German Empire, the party system in Germany remained largely in place because the groups with a common religion, social status, culture, etc. had for the most part survived.[12] In the political center, there were strong efforts in both the Progressive People's Party (FVP) and the National Liberal Party (NLP) to overcome the historical split between "democrats" (more left-liberal, as the FVP) and "liberals" (more to the right, as the NLP) and to form a large middle class democratic party. Economist and banker Hjalmar Schacht, economist and sociologist Alfred Weber and journalist and editor Theodor Wolff were the driving forces.
At the beginning of the 1918 November Revolution that brought down the German Empire, party leaders Gustav Stresemann (National Liberals) and Otto Fischbeck (Progressive Liberals) also discussed such possibilities. Negotiations between the two parties began on 15 November 1918, and on the same day they agreed on a program that required significant concessions from the National Liberals, including a commitment to a republic as the future form of government. On 16 November representatives of both parties issued an Appeal for the Formation of a German Democratic Party. For the first time it seemed possible to unite the middle class non-sectarian forces in Germany. When Stresemann asked Alfred Weber whether he could be admitted to the executive committee of the new party, the latter expressed reservations because during World War I Stresemann had become known as an annexationist, i.e., someone who favored increasing Germany's power by annexing land either in Europe or as overseas colonies. Weber did not, however, object to collaboration with Stresemann or to his candidacy for the Weimar National Assembly.
Further negotiations on the merger on 18 and 19 November ultimately failed because the majority of National Liberal board members were not prepared to lose their political head and most gifted speaker. As a result, on 20 November Stresemann and three other leading National Liberals drew up an appeal for the formation of the German People's Party. It was founded provisionally on 22 November 1918 and permanently on 15 December 1918 by a resolution of the central executive committee of the former National Liberal Party. They stressed the importance of members viewing the action not as the foundation of a new party but rather as a reorganization of the old National Liberal Party. The executive committee's resolution was approved only narrowly, by a vote of 33 to 28.
Most of the National Liberal Party's center and right wing joined the DVP. Between 22 November and 15 December there were additional attempts to reach an agreement with the new German Democratic Party (DDP), which had been formed out of the Progressive People's Party and the more left-leaning members of the National Liberal Party, but these failed. Stresemann remained chairman of the DVP until his death in 1929.
Establishment and consolidation[edit]
Although the DVP initially rejected the Weimar Constitution, it participated in almost all Reich governments from 1920 to 1931. This was primarily due to Stresemann. Although he was at heart a monarchist, he recognized that a return to monarchy could only be achieved through a coup followed by civil war, a path he firmly rejected. At the party congress in Jena on 13 April 1919, he said: "We must not proceed from one bloodbath to another. ... The path to domestic peace can only be on the basis of a republican form of government. That is why we are working for it."[13]
Members and representatives[edit]
The members and representatives of the DVP, who were primarily committed, principled scholars and civil servants, belonged to the middle and upper classes. They represented the wealthy educated middle class which had come together in the National Liberal Party during the Empire. After 1922 there was a party-affiliated student association, the Reich-Committee of University Groups of the German People's Party (Reichsausschuss der Hochschulgruppen der Deutschen Volkspartei), whose influence in the predominantly right-wing student body remained comparatively small.
Voter base[edit]
The DVP had its voter base predominantly in large and mid-sized cities: in the 1920 Reichstag elections, for example, it won an average of 13.2% of the vote in cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, while it received only 7.2% of the vote in small communities with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants.
The DVP was also a predominantly Protestant party. In areas with a very high proportion of Catholic voters, the DVP's share of the vote always fell far short of its Reich average. In contrast, the lower the proportion of Catholics, the greater the percentage of DVP votes.
The DVP's voter structure thus resembled that of the former National Liberal Party in its distribution by denomination and urban versus rural.
Support in the press[edit]
In contrast to the German Democratic Party, which was openly sponsored by the major liberal papers in Berlin (including the Vossische Zeitung and Berliner Tageblatt), the DVP received support only from the Kölnischen Zeitung (Cologne), the Magdeburg Zeitung,[19] the Tägliche Rundschau from Berlin, and the Königsberger Allgemeine Zeitung. The other major parties of the Weimar Republic were also better positioned in terms of the media. The SPD had its own newspapers, the ideas of the Centre Party were promoted by the Catholic papers and the DNVP had Hugenberg's opinion empire behind it.
Involvement in founding parties in 1945[edit]
Politicians from the DVP participated in the founding of the German Party (DP), Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) after World War II.