German People's Party

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German People's Party
Deutsche Volkspartei
Founded 1918
Dissolved 1933
Preceded by National Liberal Party
Succeeded by after 1945:
Free Democratic Party,
Christian Democratic Union
(West Germany)
Liberal Democratic Party,
Christian Democratic Union (East Germany)
Newspaper NA; supported by Kölnische Zeitung
Ideology National liberalism[1][2][3]
Conservative liberalism[4]
Constitutional monarchism[5]
Economic liberalism[6][7] Moderate nationalism[7]
Political position Centre-right
Colors Black, white, red
(imperial colors)
Politics of Germany
Political parties
Elections

The German People's Party (German: Deutsche Volkspartei, or DVP) was a national liberal party in Weimar Germany and a successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire. A right-wing liberal[8][9] or conservative-liberal[4][10][11] party, its most famous member was Chancellor and Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, a 1926 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Ideology

It was essentially the main body of the old National Liberal Party (mostly its centre and right factions) combined with some of the more moderate elements of the Free Conservative Party and the Economic Union,[12] and was formed in the early days of the Weimar Republic by Stresemann. During the Weimar Republic, it was one of two large liberal parties in Germany, the other being the left-liberal German Democratic Party.

The party was generally thought to represent the interests of the great German industrialists. Its platform stressed Christian family values, secular education, lower tariffs, opposition to welfare spending and agrarian subsides and hostility to "Marxism" (that is, the Communists, and also the Social Democrats). Due to its lukewarm acceptance of democracy, the party was initially part of the "national opposition" to the Weimar Coalition. However, Stresemann gradually led it into cooperation with the parties of the center and left.

The party wielded an influence on German politics beyond its numbers, as Stresemann was the Weimar Republic's only statesman of international standing. He served as foreign minister continuously from 1923 until his death in 1929 in nine governments (one of which he briefly headed in 1923) ranging from the center-right to the center-left. After Stresemann's death, the DVP gradually moved back towards the right.

History

The party's dispute with the Social Democrats in 1930 over unemployment benefits toppled the Grand Coalition government of Hermann Müller. In the election of September 1930, the DVP was one of the biggest losers, losing 15 of its 45 parliamentary seats. The DVP was browbeaten into abolishing itself in March 1933 after the Nazis came to power in January 1933.

Former elements of the DVP were involved in the creation of the Free Democratic Party after the Second World War.

Notable members

References

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  6. Gerstenberg, Frank: 27.6.1933: DVP und DNVP lösen sich auf, Kalenderblatt, Deutsche Welle
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  12. Vincent E McHale (1983) Political parties of Europe, Greenwood Press, p421 ISBN 0-313-23804-9

See also

Preceded by German liberal parties
1918–1933
Succeeded by
Liberal Democratic Party of Germany
Succeeded by
Free Democratic Party of Germany