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| successor = All-German Party
| successor = All-German Party
| chairman = [[Heinrich Hellwege]]
| chairman = [[Heinrich Hellwege]]
| ideology = [[Pan-Germanism]]<br>[[National conservatism]]<br />[[German nationalism]]<br>[[Constitutional monarchism]]
| ideology = [[National conservatism]]<br />[[German nationalism]]<br>[[Constitutional monarchism]]
| position = [[Right-wing politics|Right-wing]] to [[Far-right politics|Far-right]]<ref name="KitscheltMcGann1995"/>
| position = [[Right-wing politics|Right-wing]] to [[Far-right politics|Far-right]]<ref name="KitscheltMcGann1995"/>
| colors = {{color box|#808080|border=darkgray}} [[Grey]] (customary)<br />{{color box|#000000|border=darkgray}} [[Black]] {{color box|#FFFFFF|border=darkgray}} [[White]] {{color box|#FF0000|border=darkgray}} [[Red]] ([[Flag of Germany#North German Confederation and the German Empire (1867–1918)|imperial colors]])
| colors = {{color box|#808080|border=darkgray}} [[Grey]] (customary)<br />{{color box|#000000|border=darkgray}} [[Black]] {{color box|#FFFFFF|border=darkgray}} [[White]] {{color box|#FF0000|border=darkgray}} [[Red]] ([[Flag of Germany#North German Confederation and the German Empire (1867–1918)|imperial colors]])
| country = Germany
| country = Germany
}}
}}

The '''German Party''' ({{lang-de|Deutsche Partei}}, DP) was a [[National conservatism|national-conservative]]<ref name="KitscheltMcGann1995">{{cite book|author1=Herbert Kitschelt|author2=Anthony J. McGann|title=The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AZiD0rsmqO4C&pg=PA208|year=1995|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0-472-08441-0|page=208}}</ref> [[List of historical political parties in Germany|political party in West Germany]] active during the post-[[World War II|war]] years. The party's ideology appealed to sentiments of [[German nationalism]] and nostalgia for the [[German Empire]].<ref name="KitscheltMcGann1995"/>
The '''German Party''' ({{lang-de|Deutsche Partei}}, DP) was a [[National conservatism|national-conservative]]<ref name="KitscheltMcGann1995">{{cite book|author1=Herbert Kitschelt|author2=Anthony J. McGann|title=The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AZiD0rsmqO4C&pg=PA208|year=1995|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0-472-08441-0|page=208}}</ref> [[List of historical political parties in Germany|political party in West Germany]] active during the post-[[World War II|war]] years. The party's ideology appealed to sentiments of [[German nationalism]] and nostalgia for the [[German Empire]].<ref name="KitscheltMcGann1995"/>


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===Founding===
===Founding===


In 1945 the [[Lower Saxony National Party]] (''Niedersächsische Landespartei'', NLP) was founded as a re-creation of the [[Regionalism (politics)|regionalist]] [[German-Hanoverian Party]] (or German Party) that had been active in the period between the creation of the [[German Empire]] in 1871 and the [[Nazi Party]]'s seizure of power in 1933. Two groups of people initiated the process: one around Ludwig Alpers and Heinrich Hellwege in Stade, the other around Georg Ludewig, Karl Biester, Wolfgang Kwiecinski, and Arthur Menge in Hanover.<ref>Nathusius, Ingo: ''Am rechten rand der Union. Der Weg der Deutschen Partei bis 1953''. Mainz: Ph.D.dissertation, 1992, pp. 22-24.</ref> On May 23, 1946 [[Heinrich Hellwege]], ''Landrat'' in Stade, was formally elected to serve as chairman of the NLP.<ref>For details see {{cite journal |last=Rode |first= Norbert |title= Zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Niedersächsischen Landespartei/Deutsche Partei (NLP/DP) |journal= Niedersächsisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte |volume= 53 |year= 1981 |pages= 292 |issn= 0078-0561 }}</ref> The NLP aimed principally at the establishment of a Lower Saxon state within a federal Germany as well as representing [[Christian right|Christian conservatism]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Klein |first=Michael |title= Westdeutscher Protestantismus und politische Parteien. Anti-Parteien-Mentalität und parteipollitisches Engagement von 1945 bis 1963 |location=Tübingen |publisher= Mohr Siebeck |year=2005 |pages=292–297 |url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=pr6bSIzJ7wYC |page=292 }} }}</ref>
In 1945 the [[Lower Saxony National Party]] (''Niedersächsische Landespartei'', NLP) was founded as a re-creation of the [[Regionalism (politics)|regionalist]] [[German-Hanoverian Party]] that had been active in the period between the creation of the [[German Empire]] in 1871 and the [[Nazi Party]]'s seizure of power in 1933. Two groups of people initiated the process: one around Ludwig Alpers and Heinrich Hellwege in Stade, the other around Georg Ludewig, Karl Biester, Wolfgang Kwiecinski, and Arthur Menge in Hanover.<ref>Nathusius, Ingo: ''Am rechten rand der Union. Der Weg der Deutschen Partei bis 1953''. Mainz: Ph.D.dissertation, 1992, pp. 22-24.</ref> On May 23, 1946 [[Heinrich Hellwege]], ''Landrat'' in Stade, was formally elected to serve as chairman of the NLP.<ref>For details see {{cite journal |last=Rode |first= Norbert |title= Zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Niedersächsischen Landespartei/Deutsche Partei (NLP/DP) |journal= Niedersächsisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte |volume= 53 |year= 1981 |pages= 292 |issn= 0078-0561 }}</ref> The NLP aimed principally at the establishment of a Lower Saxon state within a federal Germany as well as representing Protestant conservatism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Klein |first=Michael |title= Westdeutscher Protestantismus und politische Parteien. Anti-Parteien-Mentalität und parteipollitisches Engagement von 1945 bis 1963 |location=Tübingen |publisher= Mohr Siebeck |year=2005 |pages=292–297 |url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=pr6bSIzJ7wYC |page=292 }} }}</ref>


In 1947, a year after the establishment of [[Lower Saxony]] as a state, the party reverted to its former name of the German Party. It soon expanded into neighbouring states under the chairmanship of [[Heinrich Hellwege]] and gained 27 seats (18.1 per cent of the total) in the first Lower Saxon ''Landtag'' election in 1947.<ref>Gerhard A. Ritter and Merith Niehuss, ''Wahlen in Deutschland 1946-1991. Ein Handbuch''. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1991, p. 147.</ref> It sent two delegates to Bonn to serve in the constitutional convention (''[[Parlamentarischer Rat]]'') of 1948/49. The German Party was among the parties that supported a market economy in the [[Bizonal Economic Council]], thus laying the groundwork for the "bourgeois coalition" in power in Bonn between 1949 and 1956.
In 1947, a year after the establishment of [[Lower Saxony]] as a state, the party renamed itself the German Party. It soon expanded into neighbouring states under the chairmanship of [[Heinrich Hellwege]] and gained 27 seats (18.1 per cent of the total) in the first Lower Saxon ''Landtag'' election in 1947.<ref>Gerhard A. Ritter and Merith Niehuss, ''Wahlen in Deutschland 1946-1991. Ein Handbuch''. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1991, p. 147.</ref> It sent two delegates to Bonn to serve in the constitutional convention (''[[Parlamentarischer Rat]]'') of 1948/49. The German Party was among the parties that supported a market economy in the [[Bizonal Economic Council]], thus laying the groundwork for the "bourgeois coalition" in power in Bonn between 1949 and 1956.


===Coalition===
===Coalition===
In the [[1949 West German federal election|1949 federal election]] the party received 4% of the national vote and won 18 seats. As a result, it became a coalition partner of the [[Christian Democratic Union (Germany)|Christian Democratic Union]] (CDU), the [[Christian Social Union of Bavaria|Christian Social Union]] (CSU) and the [[Free Democratic Party (Germany)|Free Democratic Party]] (FDP) in the government of [[Konrad Adenauer]]. The DP vote fell to 3.3% with 15 seats in the [[1953 West German federal election|1953 federal election]], although it retained its place in the governing coalition and again in [[1957 West German federal election|1957 federal election]] when the DP garnered 17 seats with 3.4% of the vote. A short-lived [[Free People's Party (Germany)|Free People's Party]] (FVP) had been formed in 1956 by [[Franz Blücher]], [[Fritz Neumayer]] and others who had left the FDP, but the following year the FVP merged into the German Party,<ref>Frank Wende: ''Lexikon zur Geschichte der Parteien in Europa.'' Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1981, pp. 104-5.</ref> possibly contributing to a slight increase in the DP vote in 1957. German Party ministers in these governments were [[Heinrich Hellwege]] (1949–1955), [[Hans-Joachim von Merkatz]] (1955–1960) and [[Hans-Christoph Seebohm]] (1949–1960). In 1955 Hellwege resigned his federal office to become the [[Minister President of Lower Saxony]].
In the [[1949 West German federal election|1949 federal election]] the party received 4% of the national vote and won 18 seats. As a result, it became a coalition partner of the [[Christian Democratic Union (Germany)|Christian Democratic Union]] (CDU), the [[Christian Social Union of Bavaria|Christian Social Union]] (CSU) and the [[Free Democratic Party (Germany)|Free Democratic Party]] (FDP) in the government of [[Konrad Adenauer]]. The DP vote fell to 3.3% with 15 seats in the [[1953 West German federal election|1953 federal election]], although it retained its place in the governing coalition and again in [[1957 West German federal election|1957 federal election]] when the DP garnered 17 seats with 3.4% of the vote. A short-lived [[Free People's Party (Germany)|Free People's Party]] (FVP) had been formed in 1956 by [[Franz Blücher]], [[Fritz Neumayer]] and others who had left the FDP, but the following year the FVP merged into the German Party,<ref>Frank Wende: ''Lexikon zur Geschichte der Parteien in Europa.'' Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1981, pp. 104-5.</ref> possibly contributing to a slight increase in the DP vote in 1957. German Party ministers in these governments were [[Heinrich Hellwege]] (1949–1955), [[Hans-Joachim von Merkatz]] (1955–1960) and [[Hans-Christoph Seebohm]] (1949–1960). In 1955 Hellwege resigned his federal office to become the [[Minister President of Lower Saxony]].


⚫
The party opposed a [[planned economy]], [[land reform]] and [[co-determination]]. The German Party of the 1950s has been characterized as a "party of indigenous <!-- einheimisch--> Lower Saxonian middle class", that empasized states' rights, monarchist and partially also nationalist ([[völkisch]]) positions.<ref>Horst W. Schmollinger: ''Die Deutsche Partei'', in: Richard Stöss (ed.): ''Parteien-Handbuch. Die Parteien in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1945-1980'', 2nd ed., Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1986), vol. 2, pp. 1071–1073, quotes on p. 1073.</ref>
The party opposed a [[planned economy]], [[land reform]] and [[co-determination]] and sought to represent those who had served in the [[Wehrmacht]] and the [[Waffen-SS]].{{citation needed|date=October 2011}}
⚫
The German Party of the 1950s has been characterized as a "party of indigenous <!-- einheimisch--> Lower Saxonian middle class", that featured extremely "states' rights, monarchist and partially also nationalist ([[völkisch]]) positions".<ref>Horst W. Schmollinger: ''Die Deutsche Partei'', in: Richard Stöss (ed.): ''Parteien-Handbuch. Die Parteien in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1945-1980'', 2nd ed., Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1986), vol. 2, pp. 1071–1073, quotes on p. 1073.</ref>


===Decline===
===Decline===

Revision as of 13:26, 12 January 2022

For other uses, see German Party.
German Party
Deutsche Partei
ChairmanHeinrich Hellwege
Founded1947 (1947)
DissolvedApril 15, 1961 (1961-04-15)
Preceded byLower Saxony National Party
Succeeded byAll-German Party
IdeologyNational conservatism
German nationalism
Constitutional monarchism
Political positionRight-wing to Far-right[1]
Colors  Grey (customary)
  Black   White   Red (imperial colors)

The German Party (Template:Lang-de, DP) was a national-conservative[1] political party in West Germany active during the post-war years. The party's ideology appealed to sentiments of German nationalism and nostalgia for the German Empire.[1]

History

Founding

In 1945 the Lower Saxony National Party (Niedersächsische Landespartei, NLP) was founded as a re-creation of the regionalist German-Hanoverian Party that had been active in the period between the creation of the German Empire in 1871 and the Nazi Party's seizure of power in 1933. Two groups of people initiated the process: one around Ludwig Alpers and Heinrich Hellwege in Stade, the other around Georg Ludewig, Karl Biester, Wolfgang Kwiecinski, and Arthur Menge in Hanover.[2] On May 23, 1946 Heinrich Hellwege, Landrat in Stade, was formally elected to serve as chairman of the NLP.[3] The NLP aimed principally at the establishment of a Lower Saxon state within a federal Germany as well as representing Protestant conservatism.[4]

In 1947, a year after the establishment of Lower Saxony as a state, the party renamed itself the German Party. It soon expanded into neighbouring states under the chairmanship of Heinrich Hellwege and gained 27 seats (18.1 per cent of the total) in the first Lower Saxon Landtag election in 1947.[5] It sent two delegates to Bonn to serve in the constitutional convention (Parlamentarischer Rat) of 1948/49. The German Party was among the parties that supported a market economy in the Bizonal Economic Council, thus laying the groundwork for the "bourgeois coalition" in power in Bonn between 1949 and 1956.

Coalition

In the 1949 federal election the party received 4% of the national vote and won 18 seats. As a result, it became a coalition partner of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in the government of Konrad Adenauer. The DP vote fell to 3.3% with 15 seats in the 1953 federal election, although it retained its place in the governing coalition and again in 1957 federal election when the DP garnered 17 seats with 3.4% of the vote. A short-lived Free People's Party (FVP) had been formed in 1956 by Franz Blücher, Fritz Neumayer and others who had left the FDP, but the following year the FVP merged into the German Party,[6] possibly contributing to a slight increase in the DP vote in 1957. German Party ministers in these governments were Heinrich Hellwege (1949–1955), Hans-Joachim von Merkatz (1955–1960) and Hans-Christoph Seebohm (1949–1960). In 1955 Hellwege resigned his federal office to become the Minister President of Lower Saxony.

The party opposed a planned economy, land reform and co-determination. The German Party of the 1950s has been characterized as a "party of indigenous Lower Saxonian middle class", that empasized states' rights, monarchist and partially also nationalist (völkisch) positions.[7]

Decline

The German Party had been instrumental in setting an electoral threshold (either five per cent of the national vote or alternatively three constituency seats) for all parties contesting a federal election and this led to problems when the CDU refused to allow German Party candidates a free run for a reasonable number of constituency seats as it had done in the 1957 election.[8] With the DP facing elimination from the Bundestag, nine of its 17 parliamentary incumbents left the party to join the CDU. As a result, the German Party quit the government in 1960, a year before the next federal election, and merged with the All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights (GB/BHE) to form the All-German Party (Gesamtdeutsche Partei, GDP).

However, 2.8 per cent of the vote in the 1961 federal election did not win the GDP representation in the national parliament (Bundestag).[9] A merger of two parties, which represented opposing voter clienteles (indigenous peasants of Lower Saxony and German expellees and refugees from the eastern territories), had turned into a political disaster unforeseen by the national party elites.[10] The DP last entered a state parliament by winning four deputies in the Bremen state election of 1963. A year later, however, the deputies were involved in the founding of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD).

Electoral history

Bundestag

Election Leader Constituency Party list Seats +/– Government
Votes % Votes %
1949 Heinrich Hellwege 939,934 3.9% (#7)
17 / 402
 CDU/CSU–FDP–DP
1953 1,073,031 3.9% (#6) 896,128 3.3% (#6)
15 / 509
 Decrease 2 CDU/CSU–FDP–DP
1957 1,062,293 3.5% (#6) 1,007,282 3.4% (#6)
17 / 519
 Increase 2 CDU/CSU–DP

References

  1. ^ a b c Herbert Kitschelt; Anthony J. McGann (1995). The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis. University of Michigan Press. p. 208. ISBN 0-472-08441-0.
  2. ^ Nathusius, Ingo: Am rechten rand der Union. Der Weg der Deutschen Partei bis 1953. Mainz: Ph.D.dissertation, 1992, pp. 22-24.
  3. ^ For details see Rode, Norbert (1981). "Zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Niedersächsischen Landespartei/Deutsche Partei (NLP/DP)". Niedersächsisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte. 53: 292. ISSN 0078-0561.
  4. ^ Klein, Michael (2005). Westdeutscher Protestantismus und politische Parteien. Anti-Parteien-Mentalität und parteipollitisches Engagement von 1945 bis 1963. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. pp. 292–297.
  5. ^ Gerhard A. Ritter and Merith Niehuss, Wahlen in Deutschland 1946-1991. Ein Handbuch. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1991, p. 147.
  6. ^ Frank Wende: Lexikon zur Geschichte der Parteien in Europa. Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1981, pp. 104-5.
  7. ^ Horst W. Schmollinger: Die Deutsche Partei, in: Richard Stöss (ed.): Parteien-Handbuch. Die Parteien in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1945-1980, 2nd ed., Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1986), vol. 2, pp. 1071–1073, quotes on p. 1073.
  8. ^ Fritz Sänger and Klaus Liepelt: Wahlhandbuch 1965, Frankfurt: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 1965, section 2.22, pp. 13-14.
  9. ^ Peter Schindler: Datenhandbuch zur Geschichte des Deutschen Bundestages 1949 bis 1982, Bonn: Deutscher Bundestag, 1983, p. 36.
  10. ^ Karl-Heinz Nassmacher et al.: Parteien im Abstieg. Wiederbegründung und Niedergang der Bauern- und Bürgerparteien in Niedersachsen. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1989, pp. 142, 145, 147, 229-30.

Bibliography

  • Rudolph Holzgräber: 'Die Deutsche Partei. Partei eines neuen Konservativismus', in: Max Gustav Lange et al., Parteien in der Bundesrepublik. Studien zur Entwicklung der deutschen Parteien bis zur Bundestagswahl 1953. Stuttgart: Ring-Verlag, 1955, pp. 407–449.
  • Hermann Meyn: Die Deutsche Partei. Entwicklung und Problematik einer national-konservativen Rechtspartei nach 1945. Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1965.
  • Hermann Meyn: 'Die Deutsche Partei. Ursachen des Scheitern einer national-konservativen Rechtspartei im Nachkriegsdeutschland', in: Politische Vierteljahresschrift, vol. 6, 1965, pp. 42–57.
  • Horst W. Schmollinger, 'Die Deutsche Partei', in: Richard Stöss (ed.), Parteien-Handbuch. 2nd ed., Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1986, vol. 2, pp. 1025–1111, ISBN 3-531-11838-2.
  • Karl-Heinz Nassmacher et al.: Parteien im Abstieg. Wiederbegründung und Niedergang der Bauern- und Bürgerparteien in Niedersachsen. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1989, ISBN 3-531-12084-0.
  • Ingo Nathusius: Am rechten Rand der Union. Der Weg der Deutschen Partei bis 1953, phil. Diss., Mainz 1992 (no ISBN available).
  • Michael Kle[in: Westdeutscher Protestantismus und politische Parteien. Anti-Parteien-Mentalität und parteipollitisches Engagement von 1945 bis 1963, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005, ISBN 3-16-148493-2.
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