The German People's Party (, DtVP) was a German liberal

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

created in 1868 by the wing of the

German Progress Party The German Progress Party (, DFP) was the first modern political party in Germany, founded by liberal members of the Prussian House of Representatives () in 1861 in opposition to Minister President Otto von Bismarck. History Upon the failed R ...

which during the conflict about whether the

unification of Germany The unification of Germany (, ) was a process of building the first nation-state for Germans with federalism, federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without Habsburgs' multi-ethnic Austria or its German-speaking part). I ...

should be led by the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

supported

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. The party was most popular in Southern Germany. Initially, the South German democrats supported the Greater German solution of the German Question. After the establishment of the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

in 1871 under Prussia, the solution which excluded Austria, it advocated federalist structures and defended the South German states' rights against increasing strengthening of the central government in Berlin. Insistently, the party demanded democratic reforms, in particular strengthening of the position of the parliament, which had no say in the formation of the government and no influence on government policies as the government was appointed and dismissed by the emperor alone. In contrast to the National Liberal Party, the party stood in staunch opposition against the policy of

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...

from the establishment of the German Empire. The party put the liberal notion of liberty above the prospect of a German unification led from above. The party was highly critical of the Prusso-German monarchy and advocated the

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and Jurisprudence, jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the State (polity), state. Conceptually, the term refers to ...

. Still, it rejected Bismarck's Kulturkampf against the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

as well as the Anti-Socialist Laws. The German People's Party was the most

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

among non-

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

parties and closest to the

social democracy Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

. It was the sole liberal party to cooperate with the socialists in the Reichstag. Most of the party's members were craftsmen, small traders, farmers and clerks. However, the leadership consisted of upper-class intellectuals. Leopold Sonnemann (proprietor of the newspaper '' Frankfurter Zeitung'') and the lawyer Friedrich von Payer served as Chairmen. In 1910, the party merged with the Free-minded People's Party and the Free-minded Union to form the Progressive People's Party. A notable member of both the German People's Party, the Progressive People's Party and its successor the

German Democratic Party The German Democratic Party (, DDP) was a liberal political party in the Weimar Republic, considered centrist or centre-left. Along with the right-liberal German People's Party (, DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 19 ...

was Ludwig Quidde, the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

winner in 1927. The most influential among the German People's Party's state organisations was the Democratic People's Party in

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

. After the German People's Party was disbanded, it continued as the regional branch of the Progressive People's Party, the German Democratic Party and is still part of the full name of the liberal Free Democratic Party in the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. In contrast to the South German People's Party of 1868–1910, the German People's Party in the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

(1919–1933) was a monarchist successor to the imperial National Liberal Party.

References

External links

German People's Party 1868–1910
Website of the Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum) (in German). {{Authority control Germany 1868 Defunct political parties in Germany Liberal parties in Germany Political parties established in 1868 Political parties of the German Empire Political parties disestablished in 1910 Radical parties 1868 establishments in the North German Confederation 1910 disestablishments in Germany

See also

References

External links