The German Democratic Party (, DDP) was a liberal political 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 ...

, considered

centrist Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

. Along with the right-liberal German People's Party (, DVP), it represented political

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...

in Germany between 1918 and 1933. It was formed in 1918 from the Progressive People's Party and the liberal wing of the National Liberal Party, both of which had been 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 ...

. After the formation of the first German state to be constituted along pluralist-democratic lines, the DDP took part as a member of varying coalitions in almost all Weimar Republic cabinets from 1919 to 1932. Before the Reichstag elections of 1930, it united with the , which was part of the national liberal Young German Order (). From that point on the party called itself the German State Party (, DStP) and retained the name even after the Reich Association left the party. Because of the connection to the Reich Association, members of the left wing of the DDP broke away from the party and toward the end of the Republic founded the Radical Democratic Party, which was unsuccessful in parliament. Others joined the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

(SPD). After the National Socialists took power, the German State Party was dissolved on 28 June 1933 as part of the process of ''

Gleichschaltung The Nazi term (), meaning "synchronization" or "coordination", was the process of Nazification by which Adolf Hitler—leader of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, Germany—established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all ...

'' (coordination) by means of which the Nazis established totalitarian control over German society.

History

Background

The

had a series of major liberal parties, including the National Liberal Party (NLP). 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 ...

and Liberal Union merged into the German Free-minded Party. Friedrich Naumann's National-Social Association merged into the Free-minded Union in 1903. Theodor Barth and his supporters broke away into the Democratic Union in 1908, and maintained their independence until joining the DDP in 1918. The other liberal parties united into the left-liberal Progressive People's Party (FVP) in 1910. The FVP received 1.5 million votes in the 1912 election, the last one before the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Foundation and rise

A proposal to merge the NLP and FVP was made in the waning days of World War I, but faced opposition from the NLP's right-wing and FVP's left-wing. The formation of the German Democratic Party was announced on 16 November. Among the founding members were , Richard Witting, ,

Hjalmar Schacht Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht (); 22 January 1877 – 3 June 1970) was a German economist, banker, politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank during the ...

, and Kurt von Kleefeld. The group contacted Theodor Wolff, the editor-in-chief of the '' Berliner Tageblatt'', about how to organize the party. It was named the Democratic Party at Wolff's insistence. On 16 November 1918, one week after the November Revolution, an appeal for the founding of a new democratic party was written by Wolff and signed by 60 people. An almost identical statement was published at the same time by the '' Vossische Zeitung'' (Voss's Newspaper). The FVP, NLP's left-wing, and DDP merged together on 20 November. Right-wing members of the NLP formed the German People's Party (DVP). The FVP raised 26,000 RM in 1911, and had 1,054 individual contributors in 1912. The DDP raised millions in the leadup to the 1919 election and had over one million members by January 1919. The party won 75 seats in the election and became the third-largest party in the

Weimar National Assembly The Weimar National Assembly (German: ), officially the German National Constitutional Assembly (), was the popularly elected constitutional convention and de facto parliament of Germany from 6 February 1919 to 21 May 1920. As part of it ...

, but their support halved in the 1920 election and their seat total fell to 39. The DDP was a member of the Scheidemann cabinet, but left in June 1919 in response to the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

before returning to the coalition in October. Friedrich von Payer resigned as chair of the DDP's legislative caucus after voting in favor of the treaty. It was heavily involved with the creation of the

Weimar Constitution The Constitution of the German Reich (), usually known as the Weimar Constitution (), was the constitution that governed Germany during the Weimar Republic era. The constitution created a federal semi-presidential republic with a parliament whose ...

. The document was drafted by Preuß,

Max Weber Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German Sociology, sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economy, political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sc ...

influenced the section covering the presidency, and Erich Koch-Weser wrote the section covering referendums. Naumann served as the first chair of the party until his death in 1919. His faction and ideological allies included Gertrud Bäumer, , ,

Theodor Heuss Theodor Heuss (; 31 January 1884 – 12 December 1963) was a German liberal politician who served as the first president of West Germany from 1949 to 1959. His civil demeanour and his cordial nature – something of a contrast to German nati ...

, Carl Wilhelm Petersen, and Gustav Stolper. This group held positions of high leadership within the party for the entirety of its history. Petersen served as chair until 1924, when he resigned after his election as

mayor of Hamburg The government of Hamburg is divided into Executive (government), executive, Legislature, legislative and judiciary, judicial branches. Hamburg is a city-state and municipality, and thus its governance deals with several details of both state and ...

. The '' Berliner Tageblatt'', '' Frankfurter Zeitung'', and '' Vossische Zeitung'' were among the leading newspapers that supported the party. Rudolf Oeser, an editor at ''FZ'', became a cabinet member. Support for the DDP from these newspapers waned as the party went rightward. The DDP initially voted against joining the First Wirth cabinet, but later joined it. It left the Wirth cabinet after the partition of

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...

Decline

20,000 people attended the first national convention of the Young Democratic Organization, but active membership declined to a few thousand members as the 1920s continued and 2,000 people attended the 1929 convention. The party's membership fell from around 800,000 one year after its foundation to 117,000 by 1927. In spite its steadily dwindling size, the DDP played an important political role in the early years of the Republic. For one, its position between the SPD and the Centre Party helped stabilize the Weimar Coalition nationwide and especially in

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. Wilhelm Abegg, for example, the state secretary in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, reorganized and modernized the Prussian police. In addition, members of the DDP formed an important reservoir of personnel for high positions in public administration. No other party was able to provide to a similar extent civil servants who both possessed the professional training and were loyal to the democratic system of the Weimar Republic, something that was not the case with the mostly monarchist and anti-democratic civil servants inherited from the Empire. In 1920, the DDP had already lost votes, in large measure to the German People's Party, German National People's Party, and to parties focused on single issues. This was due to disagreements within the DDP over how to deal with the Versailles Peace Treaty, of which some deputies approved. The loss of votes was accompanied by a simultaneous loss of members, finances and journalistic support. Important newspapers such as the ''Vossische Zeitung'' and the '' Frankfurter Zeitung'' held views that were close to those of the DDP, but the party was never able to establish an important party paper of its own such as the SPD's '' Vorwärts'' or later the Nazis' '' Völkischer Beobachter''. The prejudice that the DDP was the 'party of big capital' held credence among part of the public, a prejudice that was factually false and charged with anti-Semitism. In later years, the Nazi Party exploited this by defaming the DDP as 'the Jewish party'. Another reason for the decline was their program of 'social capitalism' in which workers and owners mutually recognized "duty, right, performance and profit" and where solidarity was to prevail between employees, workers and owners. This visionary idea was out of touch with the reality of rising unemployment and economic difficulties under the pressure of the Treaty of Versailles.

Renaming to the German State Party

In July 1930, the DDP united with the People's National Reich Association (VNR) to form the German State Party, initially for the upcoming Reichstag elections. This brought fierce conflicts within the party, as the VNR was the political arm of Artur Mahraun's national liberal Young German Order. After the merger, many members of the left wing, including Ludwig Quidde and Hellmut von Gerlach, left the party and founded the Radical Democratic Party in 1930, which was largely unsuccessful politically. The Young German Order broke away from the DDP immediately after the Reichstag elections, but the DDP nevertheless formally reorganized itself the German State Party (DStP) on 8 November 1930. The party received 1.3 million votes and 20 seats in the 1930 election. Its electoral performance continued to decline in the 1930s. Its seat total declined by sixteen in the July 1932 election, where it received 371,000 votes. Hermann Dietrich called for the party to be dissolved after these results. Its seat total fell to two after the November 1932 election. Hermann von Richthofen, Peter Reinhold, and others left the party after failing to convince its leadership to dissolve it. It gained three seats in the March 1933 election, but its share of the vote declined. The DStP obtained these five seats with the help of a combined list with the SPD. The DStP deputies, as opposed to the SPD, voted for the Nazi-sponsored

Enabling Act An enabling act is a piece of legislation by which a legislative body grants an entity which depends on it (for authorization or legitimacy) for the delegation of the legislative body's power to take certain actions. For example, enabling act ...

, which effectively disempowered the Reichstag. Their "yes" to the Enabling Act was justified by the deputy Reinhold Maier. The final sentence of his speech read: "In the interest of the people and the Fatherland and in the expectation of lawful developments, we will put aside our serious misgivings and agree to the Enabling Act." The DStP deputies in the

Landtag of Prussia The Landtag of Prussia () was the representative assembly of the Kingdom of Prussia implemented in 1849, a bicameralism, bicameral legislature consisting of the upper Prussian House of Lords, House of Lords (''Herrenhaus'') and the lower Prussian ...

were removed as they worked with the SDP in their election and was banned from engaging in political activity in Prussia in June. Since the mandates of the DStP’s Reichstag deputies had been won by means of nominations from the Social Democratic Party, they expired in July 1933 based on a provision of the Gleichschaltung Law of 31 March 1933. The self-dissolution of the DStP, forced by the Nazis, took place on 28 June 1933. The law against the formation of new parties enacted on 14 July codified the existence of a single party in the Nazi state and any activity on behalf of other parties was made a punishable offense.

Resistance to National Socialism

Individual members of the DStP participated in the resistance to National Socialism. The only left-liberal resistance group, the Robinsohn-Strassmann group, consisted mainly of former DDP/DStP members. A middle-class resistance circle with about sixty members was the Sperr Circle in Bavaria. It consisted of the diplomat Franz Sperr as well as the former Weimar Reich ministers and DDP members Otto Geßler and Eduard Hamm. Many former members of the DDP and Radical Democratic Party also found themselves forced into exile either because of their stance against the regime or their pacifist attitudes, among them Ludwig Quidde and Wilhelm Abegg. Others were murdered by the National Socialists, including Fritz Elsas.

DDP politicians after World War II

After World War II, former members of the DDP were instrumental in founding both the West German Free Democratic Party (FDP) – for example

, Thomas Dehler and Reinhold Maier – and the East German Liberal Democratic Party (LDPD) – including Wilhelm Külz, Eugen Schiffer and Waldemar Koch – while others such as Ernst Lemmer, Ferdinand Friedensburg and August Bach went to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), or the Social Democratic Party, including

Erich Lüth Erich Lüth (1 February 1902 – 1 April 1989) was a German writer and film director who was born in Hamburg. Career Lüth began his career in 1923 as an intern in the editorial staff of the Hamburger Ullstein Verlag Berlin his education. Subseq ...

. Otto Nuschke became leader of the East German CDU. The youth organization Young Democrats (), which had been close to the DDP, continued to exist until 2018.

Political positions

The program of the DDP was a synthesis of liberal and social ideas. Naumann attempted this fusion in the pre-war period. Supporters and members of the party were recruited primarily from the '' Bildungsbürgertum''. It was also supported by executives and civil servants, industrialists mainly from the chemical and electrical industries and liberal Jews. More Jews voted for the DDP than for any other party. It was therefore dubbed the "party of Jews and professors". The DDP was divided between supporting a centralized or federal system. Weber and Preuß supported a centralized system and breaking up Prussia into multiple states. Otto Fischbeck, Conrad Haußmann, and Payer supported the continued existence of the Prussian state. The party was divided over changing the

flag A flag is a piece of textile, fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and fla ...

. Democrats in the north supported maintaining the imperial flag while those in the south supported changing it. The party's deputies voted 43 to 14 against the new flag. Bernhard Dernburg, Fischbeck, Georg Gothein, Koch-Weser, Naumann, Petersen, and Schiffer opposed changing the flag while , Haussmann, Nuschke, Payer, and Quidde supported changing it. The Bavarian affiliate of the DDP, which the DVP merged into, supported

anti-clericalism Anti-clericalism is opposition to clergy, religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historically, anti-clericalism in Christian traditions has been opposed to the influence of Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secul ...

. The party never accepted the eastern boundaries of Weimar Germany. It supported returning the

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrou ...

to Germany and uniting Germany and Austria into one country. It initially supported the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

, but this waned due to rulings that did not benefit Germany.

Election results

Party chairmen of the DDP and DStP

Membership

40% of the attendees to the party conference in December 1919 had a doctorate. Three recipients of the

Nobel Prize in Chemistry The Nobel Prize in Chemistry () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outst ...

were members of the party.

Noted members of the DDP and DStP

* Gertrud Bäumer (1873–1954), women's rights activist * Thomas Dehler (1897–1967), lawyer * Bernhard Dernburg (1865–1937), banker * Hermann Dietrich (1879–1954), Reich Minister of Agriculture and Finance, Vice Chancellor and party chairman * Hellmut von Gerlach (1866–1935), publisher * Otto Geßler (1875–1955), Reich Minister of Defense * Adolf Grimme (1889–1963), cultural politician * Willy Hellpach (1877–1955), psychologist *

(1884–1963), journalist and university lecturer * Elly Heuss-Knapp (1881–1952), social reformer * Harry Graf Kessler (1868–1937), art collector and diplomat * Erich Koch-Weser (1875–1944), party chairman * Wilhelm Külz (1875–1948), Reich Minister of the Interior and Lord Mayor of Dresden *

Helene Lange Helene Lange was born in 1848 in Oldenburg (city), Oldenburg. Through her determination, she rose above the trials of her early life, including the loss of her parents, to become a leading voice for women's access to higher education and professio ...

(1848–1930), women's rights activist * Ernst Lemmer (1898–1970), trade union leader * Marie-Elisabeth Lüders (1878–1966), women's rights activist *

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

(1875–1955), writer * Reinhold Maier (1889–1971), lawyer * Friedrich Meinecke (1862–1954), historian * Friedrich Naumann (1860–1919), party leader and publisher * Otto Nuschke (1883–1957), journalist * Friedrich von Payer (1847–1931), parliamentary group chairman * Carl Wilhelm Petersen (1868–1933), party chairman * Hugo Preuß (1860–1925), constitutional lawyer and Reich Minister of the Interior * Ludwig Quidde (1858–1941), historian, publisher and pacifist * Walther Rathenau (1867–1922), industrialist and Reich Foreign Minister *

(1877–1970), Reichsbank president * Gerhart von Schulze-Gaevernitz (1864–1943), national economist *

Walther Schücking Walther Adrian Schücking (6 January 1875, Münster, Westphalia – 25 August 1935, The Hague) was a German liberal politician, professor of public international law and the first German judge at the Permanent Court of International Justice in T ...

(1875–1935), pacifist and judge at the

Permanent Court of International Justice The Permanent Court of International Justice, often called the World Court, existed from 1922 to 1946. It was an international court attached to the League of Nations. Created in 1920 (although the idea of an international court was several cent ...

* Wilhelm Solf (1862–1936), diplomat * Ernst Troeltsch (1865–1923), theologian * Alfred Weber (1868–1958), national economist and sociologist *

(1864–1920), sociologist and national economist * Eberhard Wildermuth (1890–1952), director of the German Construction and Land Bank * Theodor Wolff (1868–1943), journalist

Pictures

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-Z1117-502, Berlin, Staatsakt für Walter Rathenau.jpg, Funeral celebration for Walther Rathenau, the murdered DDP minister of foreign affairs, 1922 File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-01209, Berlin, Willy Hellpach spricht im Sportpalast.jpg, Psychologist Willy Hellpach, DDP candidate for Reich Presidency in 1925 File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00147A, Wilhelm Külz und Otto Karl Geßler.jpg, DDP Ministers Wilhelm Külz (left, Interior) and Otto Gessler (Defense), 1926 File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-10015, Robert Hermann Dietrich.jpg, One of the political leaders of the party, Hermann Dietrich, 1926 File:DBP - Nobelpreisträger, Ludwig Quidde - 50 Pfennig - 1975 fixed.jpg, Ludwig Quidde, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize of 1927 File:DDP-Wahlkampf 1929.jpg, Paper flag from the DDP campaign for the Berlin City Council in 1929. File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12088, Bernhard Dernburg.jpg, Former DDP minister Bernhard Dernburg in 1931 File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1984-040-26, Hjalmar Schacht.jpg, Allied prisoner

in 1945 File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1983-098-20a, Heuss.jpg, Federal President

in 1953