Siegfried Alfred Rudolf Friedrich von Kardorff (4 February 1873 in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

− 12 October 1945 in Berlin) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

Life

He was born the son of Wilhelm von Kardorff and followed him in adopting a career in politics. Describing himself as a "left-wing Free Conservative", Kardoff was from 1910 to 1918 member of

Prussian House of Representatives The Prussian House of Representatives (german: Preußisches Abgeordnetenhaus) was the lower chamber of the Landtag of Prussia (german: Preußischer Landtag), the parliament of Prussia from 1850 to 1918. Together with the upper house, the House of ...

. Kardorff helped found the

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 ...

. At one of its first public meetings in December 1918, Kardorff was the main speaker. He declared: "Our new party, in which friendly right-wing parties have united, has no past and rejects any responsibility for the past. We have a present and, if God will, a good future". Kardorff said that the party would uphold the monarchy, agriculture, the middle class and the church: "But we are not a party of

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

orthodoxy, rather we find recognition wherever living Christianity is found". Kardorff later joined the

German People's Party The German People's Party (German: , or DVP) was a liberal party during the Weimar Republic that was the successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire. A right-liberal, or conservative-liberal political party, it represented polit ...

and was a member of its "industrial right-wing" according to the historian Stephen G. Fritz. From 1920 tot 1932 he was member of

German Reichstag The Reichstag (, ; officially: – ; en, Parliament) is a historic government building in Berlin which houses the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany's parliament. It was constructed to house the Imperial Diet (german: Reichstag) of t ...

. He also composed political biographies of

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of ...

and his father; the latter was praised by G. P. Gooch,

Carlton J. H. Hayes Carlton Joseph Huntley Hayes (May 16, 1882 – September 2, 1964) was an American historian, educator, diplomat, devout Catholic and academic. A student of European history, he was a leading and pioneering specialist on the study of nationalism. ...

and

Sidney B. Fay Sidney Bradshaw Fay (13 April 1876 in Washington, D.C. – 29 August 1967 in Lexington, Massachusetts) was an American historian, whose examination of the causes of World War I, ''The Origins of the World War '' (1928; revised edition 1930) remains ...

.Sidney B. Fay, 'Reviewed Work: Wilhelm von Kardorff: Ein Nationaler Parliamentarier im Zeitalter Bismarcks und Wilhelms II, 1828-1907 by Siegfried von Kardorff', ''The Journal of Modern History'' Vol. 9, No. 4 (Dec., 1937), pp. 529-530.

Notes

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kardorff, Siegfried von 1873 births 1945 deaths Politicians from Berlin German biographers Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic Members of the Prussian House of Representatives German National People's Party politicians German People's Party politicians Free Conservative Party politicians