The Democratic Union (, DV) was a German political party in the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

. The Union was founded in 1908 by former members of the

Freeminded Union The Free-minded Union (german: Freisinnige Vereinigung; FVg) or Radical Union was a liberal party in the German Empire that existed from 1893 to 1910. Emergence Inside its predecessor, the German Free-minded Party, there had always been tension ...

(''Freisinnigen Vereinigung''). The party demanded full equal voting rights for all, and a strict

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...

. It was not principled, or "revolutionary" against Wilhelmine Germany though. Important party members were

Theodor Barth Theodor Barth (16 July 1849, Duderstadt – 3 June 1909, Baden-Baden) was a German liberal politician and publicist. He was a member of the Reichstag between 1881 and 1884, between 1885 and 1898, and between 1901 and 1903. Career Barth start ...

Rudolf Breitscheid Rudolf Breitscheid (2 November 1874 – 28 August 1944) was a German politician and leading member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) during the Weimar Republic. Once leader of the liberal Democratic Union, he joined the SPD in ...

(first chairman) and

Hellmut von Gerlach Hellmut Georg von Gerlach (2 February 1866 – 1 August 1935) was a German journalist and politician. Life Hellmut von Gerlach, the son of landowner Max von Gerlach, was born in Mönchmotschelnitz in Silesia. He studied law at the universiti ...

Carl von Ossietzky Carl von Ossietzky (; 3 October 1889 – 4 May 1938) was a German journalist and pacifist. He was the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in exposing the clandestine German re-armament. As editor-in-chief of the magazine ''Die ...

joined the party in 1908, and from 1911 onwards published the party's weekly ''Das freie Volk''. The First World War brought an end to the party.

, and some of his followers, helped found the

German Democratic Party The German Democratic Party (, or DDP) was a center-left liberal party in the Weimar Republic. Along with the German People's Party (, or DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933. It was formed in 1918 from the ...

in 1918.

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Germany Defunct liberal political parties Political parties established in 1908 Political parties of the German Empire Liberal parties in Germany 1908 establishments in Germany 1910s disestablishments in Germany Political parties disestablished in the 1910s

See also

References