The German Reform Party ( German: ''Deutsche Reformpartei'' or DRP) was a far-right 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 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, 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. 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 (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 (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