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The German Party (german: Deutsche Partei, DP) was a
national-conservative National conservatism is a nationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national and cultural identity. National conservatives usually combine nationalism with conservative stances promoting traditional cultural values, ...
political party in West Germany active during the post-
war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
years. The party's ideology appealed to sentiments of
German nationalism German nationalism () is an ideological notion that promotes the unity of Germans and German-speakers into one unified nation state. German nationalism also emphasizes and takes pride in the patriotism and national identity of Germans as one ...
and nostalgia for the German Empire.


History


Founding

In 1945 the
Lower Saxony National Party The Lower Saxony National Party (''Niedersächsische Landespartei'') was a short lived regionalist political party in Germany. It was founded in 1945 as a recreation of the regionalist German-Hanoverian Party that had been active in the period bet ...
(''Niedersächsische Landespartei'', NLP) was founded as a re-creation of the regionalist
German-Hanoverian Party The German-Hanoverian Party (german: Deutsch-Hannoversche Partei, DHP), also known as the Guelph Party (german: Welfenpartei), was a conservative, federalist political party in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. History The party was fo ...
that had been active in the period between the creation of the German Empire in 1871 and the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
'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. On May 23, 1946
Heinrich Hellwege Heinrich Peter Hellwege (born 18 August 1908 in Neuenkirchen; died 4 October 1991 in Neuenkirchen) was a German politician (DHP, DP and CDU). Hellwege was Federal Minister for Affairs of the Federal Council (1949–1955) and Minister President ...
, ''Landrat'' in Stade, was formally elected to serve as chairman of the NLP. The NLP aimed principally at the establishment of a Lower Saxon state within a federal Germany as well as representing Protestant conservatism. In 1947, a year after the establishment of
Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
as a state, the party renamed itself the German Party and merged with conservative groups that were members of
German National People's Party The German National People's Party (german: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) was a national-conservative party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major conservative and nationalist party in ...
. It soon expanded into neighbouring states under the chairmanship of
Heinrich Hellwege Heinrich Peter Hellwege (born 18 August 1908 in Neuenkirchen; died 4 October 1991 in Neuenkirchen) was a German politician (DHP, DP and CDU). Hellwege was Federal Minister for Affairs of the Federal Council (1949–1955) and Minister President ...
and gained 27 seats (18.1 per cent of the total) in the first Lower Saxon ''Landtag'' election in 1947. It sent two delegates to Bonn to serve in the constitutional convention (''
Parlamentarischer Rat The ''Parlamentarischer Rat'' ( German for "Parliamentary Council") was the West German constituent assembly in Bonn that drafted and adopted the constitution of West Germany, the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, promulgated on ...
'') of 1948/49. The German Party was among the parties that supported a market economy in the
Bizonal Economic Council The ''Wirtschaftsrat'' or Economic Council was West Germany's first post-war legislative parliament and progenitor of the German ''Bundestag''. After the American United States Secretary of State, Secretary of State George C. Marshall pushed fo ...
, 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 Free Democratic Party is the name of several political parties around the world. It usually designates a party ideologically based on liberalism. Current parties with that name include: *Free Democratic Party (Germany), a liberal political party in ...
(FDP) in the government of
Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a Germany, German statesman who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the fir ...
. 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 Franz Blücher (24 March 1896 – 26 March 1959) was a German politician and member of the German Parliament ('' Bundestag''). Biography Blücher was born in Essen, Kingdom of Prussia. After the end of World War II, he was one of the f ...
,
Fritz Neumayer Fritz Neumayer (29 July 1884 – 12 April 1973) was a German politician. He was Federal Minister of Building from 1952 to 1953, and Federal Minister of Justice from 1953 to 1956. Early life Neumayer was born at Kaiserslautern, Germany. Both hi ...
and others who had left the FDP, but the following year the FVP merged into the German Party, possibly contributing to a slight increase in the DP vote in 1957. German Party ministers in these governments were
Heinrich Hellwege Heinrich Peter Hellwege (born 18 August 1908 in Neuenkirchen; died 4 October 1991 in Neuenkirchen) was a German politician (DHP, DP and CDU). Hellwege was Federal Minister for Affairs of the Federal Council (1949–1955) and Minister President ...
(1949–1955),
Hans-Joachim von Merkatz Hans-Joachim von Merkatz (7 July 1905 – 25 February 1982) was a German politician. He was Federal Minister of Justice from 1956 to 1957. He was a member of the Bundestag from 1949 to 1961. He was a member of the German Party before joining the ...
(1955–1960) and
Hans-Christoph Seebohm Hans-Christoph Seebohm (4 August 1903 – 17 September 1967) was a German politician of the national conservative German Party (''Deutsche Partei'', DP) and after 1960 the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was the minister of Transport for ...
(1949–1960). In 1955 Hellwege resigned his federal office to become the
Minister President of Lower Saxony The Minister-President of Lower Saxony (german: Ministerpräsident des Landes Niedersachsen), also referred to as Premier or Prime Minister, is the head of government of the German state of Lower Saxony. The position was created in 1946, when the ...
. The party opposed a
planned economy A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, p ...
,
land reform Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultur ...
and
co-determination In corporate governance, codetermination (also "copartnership" or "worker participation") is a practice where workers of an enterprise have the right to vote for representatives on the board of directors in a company. It also refers to staff havin ...
. 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.


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. With the DP facing elimination from the
Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representat ...
, 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 The All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights (german: Gesamtdeutscher Block/Bund der Heimatvertriebenen und Entrechteten or GB/BHE) was a right-wing political party in West Germany, which acted as an advocacy group of the German ...
(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 The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representat ...
''). A merger of two parties, which represented opposing voter clienteles (indigenous peasants of
Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
and German expellees and refugees from the eastern territories), had turned into a political disaster unforeseen by the national party elites.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. 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 The National Democratic Party of Germany (german: Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands or NPD) is a far-right Neo-Nazi and ultranationalist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 1964 as successor to the German Reich Party ...
(NPD).


Electoral history


Bundestag


References


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, . *Karl-Heinz Nassmacher et al.: ''Parteien im Abstieg. Wiederbegründung und Niedergang der Bauern- und Bürgerparteien in Niedersachsen''. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1989, . *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, . {{Authority control 1947 establishments in Germany 1960 disestablishments in West Germany Conservative parties in Germany Defunct regional parties in Germany German nationalist political parties [ ategory:Monarchist parties in Germany National conservative parties Nationalist parties in Germany Political parties disestablished in 1960 Political parties established in 1947 Protestant political parties Right-wing populist parties