The German Reform Party (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: ''Deutsche Reformpartei'' or DRP) was a

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

political party active 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 ...

. It had

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

as its ideological basis. The initial German Reform Party was established in 1880 by Alexander Pinkert, a

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

-based antisemite, as a strongly antisemitic and palingenetic party, advocating the elimination of the Jews and the rebirth of Germany. However this initiative only lasted until 1891. The later version of the DRP was established in either 1889 or 1890 by

Otto Böckel Otto Böckel (2 July 1859, Free City of Frankfurt – 17 September 1923, Michendorf) was a German populist politician who became one of the first to successfully exploit antisemitism as a political issue in the country. Path to politics A native ...

and Oswald Zimmermann, who had been involved in the original party, under the name Antisemitic People's Party.Richard S. Levy, ''Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution'', ABC-CLIO, 2005, p. 22 It was based in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...

in Saxony. The ''Deutscher Antisemitenbund'', an initiative of Wilhelm Pickenbach, was also included as part of the newly formed party. The new party's main aim was the repeal of Jewish emancipation. The party contested the

1890 German federal election Federal elections were held in Germany on 20 February 1890.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p762 The Centre Party regained its position as the largest party in the Reichstag by winning 107 of th ...

, winning four seats in the Reichstag.Davis, ''Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent in Imperial Germany'', p. 33 It increased its total to eleven in

1893 Events January * January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. * January 6 – The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress; th ...

. The party officially adopted the name of the DRP to fight the latter election. In 1894, the DRP merged with the similarly antisemitic German Social Party to form the German Social Reform Party. The drive for the merger of the two parties had been led by Zimmermann and was unsuccessfully opposed by Böckel. Robert Melson, ''Revolution and Genocide: On the Origins of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust'', University of Chicago Press, 1996, p. 118 Having lost his seat in 1903, Böckel faded from politics after the merger. Following the dissolution of the merged party in 1900 Zimmermann returned to using the DRP moniker and continued to sit in the Reichstag until 1910.

Walther Killy Walther Killy (26 August 191728 December 1995) was a German literary scholar who specialised in poetry, especially that of Friedrich Hölderlin and Georg Trakl. He taught at the Free University of Berlin, the Georg-August-Universität Götting ...

(ed.), ''Dictionary of German Biography: Thibaut - Zycha, Volume 10'', Walter de Gruyter, 2006, p. 705 In March 1914, the DRP merged again with the German Social Party to form the

German Völkisch Party German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ger ...

(DvP).

Election results

References

{{Authority control Antisemitism in Germany Christian political parties in Germany Defunct political parties in Germany Far-right political parties in Germany German nationalist political parties Political parties established in 1889 Political parties of the German Empire Protestant political parties