The Democratic Union (, DV) was a German political party in 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 ...
.
The Union was founded in 1908 by former members of the
Freeminded Union (''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 Jurisprudence, jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the State (polity), state. Conceptually, the term refers to ...
.
It was not principled, or "revolutionary" against Wilhelmine Germany though.
Important party members were
Theodor Barth,
Rudolf Breitscheid (first chairman) and
Hellmut von Gerlach.
Carl von Ossietzky
Carl von Ossietzky (; 3 October 1889 – 4 May 1938) was a German journalist and Pacifism, pacifist. He was the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in exposing the clandestine German rearmament.
As editor-in-chief of the magazin ...
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.
Hellmut von Gerlach, and some of his followers, helped found 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 ...
in 1918.
See also
*
Liberalism in Germany
This article aims to give a historical outline of liberalism in Germany (). The liberalism, liberal political party, parties dealt with in the timeline below are, largely, those which received sufficient support at one time or another to have bee ...
References
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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